Peer to Peer Evangelism

No doubt about it! There is nothing in the world of students that is more powerful and impacting than "peer to peer evangelism." The stories have been multiplying like crazy these past few months in the Student Ministry here at Second Baptist the West Campus. We now have students who have only recently come to know Christ because of one of their friends, who have already begun to reach their friends for Christ. The impact has been incredible. I have seen 17-18 year old young men, who really don't cheer about much, screaming and jumping up and down with excitement as their friends are baptized in the fountain here at church.

I love it, this is how it is supposed to happen. Sometimes even I forget that in our walk with Christ the goal is not that we become super intelligent, over-developed, ultra-spiritual Christians. Instead the goal is to mobilize the workers, who Christ reminds us are few in Matthew 9:37-38. "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field," to do the work of taking the love of Christ to the world. I talk with students week in and week out who believe that is necessary for them to obtain some higher level of spirituality in their walk with Christ before they can begin to be effective in doing his work. It's just not true. Take the woman at the well, she knew Christ for a whopping 30 seconds before she went into the Samartian village and began to tell people about what he had done in her life. There is no time, age, ability, intelligence factor, vocabulary or any other limitation or requirement to be mobilized in the army of Christ.

It is this thought about evangelism that scares me to death about what we have done so many times to make evangelism what it isn't in the church. As hard as we, me included, work to preach the Gospel from the stage, we need to be working even harder to mobilize those workers who God has put right into our laps. Students, adults, and children alike have to begin to understand that the church (the people), are the ones responsible for bringing the lost. Be as creative as you want with your teaching series or your plans for bringing in the lost...if we aren't mobilizing followers of Christ in our ministries, or spheres of influence, we are missing the point.

"True Life: story of Daniel" Teaching Series on HS Sunday Mornings

I'm teaching a series in our High School Ministry called "True Life: the story of Daniel". You can podcast this series here. The series is Sunday, April 6-27!

Check out these Video Introductions to True Life Testimonies, this week Kian will share his true life story about coming to know Christ. Corey & Sydney shared their testimonies in our High School Sunday Mornings these past two Sundays.

5 Keys for Success in Collision Groups!

Here are 5 great thoughts about running Collision Groups! (Collision Groups are the home groups of the 210 High School Ministry of Second Baptist Church the West Campus. They meet every Wednesday (excluding 1st Wed's of each month for "Collide") from 6:30-8:00pm in homes throughout the area.)

1. Your ability to teach is secondary to your ability to LISTEN.
-Often times, we as adults, get “teacher happy”. The reality is that we have more experience than students do, and they can learn a lot from us, BUT, “students don’t care what you know, until they know you care.” You will earn the right to be heard by students when they believe that you will listen to them, then and only then will they listen to you. Collision Groups are not driven by a teaching time, they are driven by the conversation that flows from life experience and God’s Word as it relates to Christian living.

2. You are a FACILITATOR and never an orator.
-Your main function and role in your Collision Group is to “facilitate conversation and discussion.” If you get up to teach at your Collision Group for 20 minutes, you have already lost even the most dedicated student at around 3 minutes or even less. The lessons are long and contain a ton of great information that will have you well prepared to lead a phenomenal discussion about the subject matter. As you walk through the lesson you should be sharing personal experience while asking students to think of and share their own personal experiences. The more you can get students talking about their own experiences and the less you have to talk about the lesson, the more your students and you will get from your Collision Group.

3. Strike a BALANCE between deep conversation and relational time.
-There is nothing worse than going to a seminar on the ‘deity of Christ’ and finding out that you are going to play card games when you thought you were going to get challenging and in-depth teaching. At the same time, there is nothing worse than showing up at a party thinking you are going to play card games and having to sit through a 1 hour sermon the ‘deity of Christ’. You want there to be an ample amount of relational time before and after you Collision Group. You want students talking and chatting with you as well as with one another so that you can all get to know one another much better. After all, the goal of these groups is to foster relationships with students that will ultimately allow all of you to challenge one another to grow in your faith.

4. If you don’t CONTACT them, they won’t come.
-I hate to harp on this point, but I mean it! Students might just randomly show up once or twice, but they will not consistently come unless you are extremely intentional about contacting and encouraging them. Want to grow your Collision Group? Try calling your students every week and reminding them about your group, I promise you, I’m 100% sure your group will grow in number, and in consistency. Set up a schedule for contacting your students, for instance, call/facebook/email/text them at the same time every single week. You will find that if you set apart 30 mins one day each week you will consistently contact your students. Also, if you have a co-leader, or host home leaders, ask them if they will help you contact students. Work as a team.

5. Physically get into THEIR WORLD.
-It can be painful to watch some adults around high school students. Often times they will cower in the corner waiting for a student to pull them out of hiding, or make themselves so busy with the food placement that WW3 wouldn’t even interrupt them, or even worse, focus all of their energy on that one student in their Collision Group that they know well and are comfortable talking with. Listen to me friends! Students aren’t stupid (most of the time), they know what they are getting themselves into when they come to your Collision Group, and they want, no, dare I say, they need you to notice them and speak to them, and enter their world. They aren’t there for the cute boys/girls, these groups are gender specific, they are there because they want to be known and to know God. Out of all of the other things they could be doing, they have decided to show up to your group…they need you! Get into their world.

My first Blog ever!

Hello Friends,

This is my very first blog ever! We will just have to see how it goes. I guess I will start with what I am most excited about in these coming weeks. Here is a list of what is coming up in the 210 High School Ministry over the course of the next few weeks:

1. "Unhindered" in concert Sunday, Jan 27th at 11:00am in the High School Room.

Unhindered absolutely rocks. They are playing for Acquire the Fire tonight and then they will be playing for us in the morning here at Second Baptist the West Campus in the High School Ministry.





2. "Collision Groups" Wednesdays from 6:30-8:00pm!

CG's are off to an incredible start in the 210 High School Ministry. They meet in homes all accross the Katy area every Wednesday night (but break for Collide on the 1st Wednesday each month) from 6:30-8:00pm! To locate your Collision Group check out http://www.second.org/, select "West Campus" and then select "Youth" and you will find a listing of all of our Collision Groups and where they meet each week.


3. "Getting Out of the Boat" continues Sunday, Feb 3rd at 11:00am! Pastor Brian Mills will continue in our series Getting Out of the Boat. God does not call us to do the easy, simple, and non-risk oriented things in life. He calls us get risky for Him, there is no comfort zone where God is calling you, but don't worry, He will comfort you b/c He is a God of comfort!



4. "Collide" Wednesday, Feb 6th from 6:30-8:00pm in the High School Room!

You won't want to miss the this...our Collision Groups Collide in an awesome explosion on the 1st Wednesday of every month!

5. "Drew Worsham: Christian Illusionist" Sunday Feb 10th at 11:00am! Drew is a Creative Arts Pastor out of Seattle, WA. He is also a phenomenal illusionist with a heart and passion for God's Word. He will be with us at 11:00am on Sunday morning in the 210 High School Ministry. This guy is amazing, trust me you will be hearing about Drew for a long time after he has been here. This guy is incredible.

6. "Quickly Now" Sunday, Feb 27th at 11:00am in High School Room!

Quickly Now has an incredible heart for worship. God has allowed them to lead worship at churches, camps, and ministries all over the South. You won't want to miss out on their unique and upbeat style of worship. They will rock the house and you will be moved!

Please commit to praying for the 210 Student Ministry here at Second Baptist...we are excitedly praying Habbakkuk 1:5 over this whole ministry and believeing that God will do something "utterly amazing" in our midst!

As you can see, there is no shortage of excitement about what God is doing in the lives of students in the Katy area and then all accross the country. We are not a ministry that "just does", everything we do, we do in hopes that we might become everything to everyone so that buy God's grace some might be saved. I ask that you continue to pray that God will work miracles in the lives of students!