God is doing something amazing around the world. He is stirring up men and women who love him and love teenagers to do the hard work of building disciples in youth ministry. Like the United States, most youth ministries around the world are small ministries made up of a youth leader (seldom paid very much if anything at all) and a small group of young people. In a recent study, 102 youth leaders from 27 different countries on six different continents agreed that there are seven things that are essential to youth ministry.

Over the next few weeks, I will share the essential youth ministry objectives identified in the study. These objectives are not in the order in which they were rated, but are presented in the order they make the most sense to me. The youth leaders included in the study were all evangelical Christians.

Essential One: Lead youth to repent and turn to faith in Christ for their salvation.

In small youth groups, we know the kids. We know their parents–even those who don’t have parents in the church. In many cases, we know their grandparents, their aunts and uncles, and their cousins. Many of our kids have siblings who are also in the youth group. Because of our familiarity with our students, we may assume they have a personal relationship with Christ. The Bible is clear. For students to experience salvation, they must turn from their sins and embrace Christ in faith. Our Bible study needs to include a call to a personal faith in Christ. It is just not enough for young people to show up at church every week. It is not enough for them to have a vague positive regard of God. They need to come face to face with the sin that has caused them to be separated from Christ, repent of their sin, and find forgiveness and grace through the full payment of Christ on the cross in the arms of their loving Father. That has to affect the way we teach. It probably needs to affect the fun activities we provide.

Challenging the students who come to our youth ministries to come to faith is not enough. We live among a generation of teenagers who will spend eternity separated from God in hell unless they come to experience the grace of God by faith. I was deeply affected by a prayer I heard Richard Ross (Youth Ministry Professor at Southwestern Seminary) offer up a few years ago. He prayed, “God, we deeply desire for you to bring sweeping revival across our land and to see teenagers by the thousands come to know your grace and your salvation. As we wait for you to bring revival, we commit ourselves to slipping teenagers one by one out of the hands of the enemy and into your kingdom as you give us the wisdom and the ability.”

Amen.