Monthly column for youth leaders

A rocket screams across the sky exploding in a cataract of gold, silver, blue and green. "Oooh" sigh the crowd with one voice. A giant display of Catherine Wheels spins into motion almost before the glare from the rocket has died away. "Aaaah" groan the people. My personal experience of lighting fireworks is sparklers that take longer to light than to fizzle out and rockets so badly aimed that the explosion happens in someone's garden, three doors down, and I have to avoid that neighbour for weeks. Sometimes it is more economical to go to a display put on by real experts.

This month's topic is quite unrelated to fireworks, but your approach may be similar to your experience with them. How do you involve your youth group in evangelism? Is it best left to the experts? Do your efforts go off like damp squibs? Is it a case of light the blue touch paper and retire? Christmas with all its opportunities is approaching fast. Now is the time to make some plans with your young people.

As you plan try using the 'target' method. The centre of the target is the bull's-eye; this is the moment of opportunity to ask for a response to the gospel, actually popping the question. The closest ring to the bull's-eye is getting the friends along to the meeting at which the gospel is presented. Outer rings concern preparing the ground for a gospel encounter, dealing with the issues that the friends have before they can listen to the gospel and hear its message. There may be several such rings involving different problems. The outside ring is bringing that friend into the sphere of the youth group's activities for the first time.

The target method raises two types of questions: how to bring friends closer to the centre of the target and how to encourage our young people to think outwardly from the centre. The latter are probably the hardest to answer, since as Christians we are often bad at thinking outwardly. Even as teenagers we prefer to enjoy our holy huddles.

Good Bible teaching will set us on the way. Are you teaching the need to reach out to non-Christian friends? Are you teaching sin and judgement properly, in such a way to cause our young people to wonder about their friends? Do you teach and model Christian love that will go far out of its way to save a friend? Encourage your group to pick one friend each and start praying for them and looking for opportunities to talk. Young people need challenging on this as much as the rest of us do.

One of the reasons young people do not talk with their friends is because they do not feel comfortable answering questions demanding a Christian 'apologetic'. Train your young people to turn conversations onto Christian things. Train them to deal with the questions people raise opposing the gospel. You could spend some sessions talking about suffering, other religions, original sin and so on. You could use 'Two ways to live' as a tool for answering these questions.

Once faces are turned out from the centre the questions begin to become practical. How are you planning to involve the friends in youth group activities? Will if be through an open youth club, a drop in session after school, or an activity or a visit out somewhere? Always consult your group on the events to put on. You can promise to do your best to make things happen (some things are impossible, of course) but only the young people can invite their friends. Your young people must be comfortable with what is planned or you are back into damp squib territory.

Keep your group praying for their chosen friends. Use Sundays or midweek sessions to stay up to date. Plan the opportunity for hearing the gospel carefully. This may be different occasions for different young people. Will the right time be a Christmas service, a youth club night or perhaps a specially planned party? It is important the invitees know what they are coming to. Those coming to special events must know that there will be evangelistic input.

No 'recipe' for evangelism can be guaranteed successful. The 'target' theory will allow you to review with your young people. You can ask whether the programme needs to be changed or whether the friends still have particular questions to answer. Redraw the target and continue praying together. You can and you should return to evangelism once the blue touch paper has been lit.

On target

Roger Fawcett