Yes, I did go for the sensational title. Sorry. Please teach them that True Love Waits! But encourage your teenagers to become spiritual parents. Your youth will never have so many rich opportunities to make Christ known as they will while they are attending high school. Don’t let them skip through their school days without giving a moment’s consideration to the spiritual direction of their classmates.How do you get them to share their faith?

First, make sure they understand what it means to be a Christian. You would be surprised how many teenagers claim to be Christians, but don’t really understand what that means. We don’t become Christ-followers by going to church, doing good deeds, or reading the Bible. Salvation is what the Holy Spirit does when we repent of our sins and place our faith in Jesus Christ. Go over it again and again.

Second, help your teenagers to learn to verbalize their faith. Lead them to talk about how they came to know Christ, what it means to follow Christ, and how their faith impacts their lives. A technique I learned from one of my mentors, Clyde Hall, is to ask them to write a one-page statement of how they came to know Christ, then ask them to pair up and tell their story to each other in one minute. After the two minutes, they change partners and share it again. Keep repeating it as long as you have time.

Third, guide your teenagers to understand what eternity without Christ is like. As believers, we acknowledge a real place called hell. It isn’t some place you would want your friends to go. However, don’t just focus on the negative. Help them to grasp what an amazing thing it is that they can know God personally and how sad it is that so many in our world lack a personal relationship with him.

Fourth, pray. Pray for them. Get them to pray for each other. And pray together for their lost friends. Create experiences that they can invite their lost friends to so that they can start the conversation.

Keep talking about being a spiritual parent to other people. The more students grow to walk in Christ, the more it will mean to them to take their friends with them.