“I came home from Camp and went straight to the skate park where I helped 3 friends come to know Jesus.”
“I went to an 18th birthday party and talked about Jesus with people. Even though they were a bit drunk, 5 made commitments to Jesus.”
“On the Sunday night after church, I went home and heard my grandmother was sick, so I went over to her house and prayed for her.”
Over the last few months, Youth for Christ in Australia has prayed and asked the Lord how to respond to an unexpected influx of evangelistic young people.
These crazy teenagers are clearly gifted, passionate for the Lord and strongly committed to sharing His love. It appears God is establishing an organic movement of young evangelistic leaders who will radically change Australia.
This Young Evangelist Movement is an exciting expression of the strategic goal to bring ‘no longer at risk youth’ into ministry. It has been surprising, messy, and dynamic, with limitless potential. It paves the way to see hundreds of young people released into a new thrust of ‘peer to peer’ evangelism.
Youth for Christ Australia uses a ‘relational evangelism’ model of ministry and the new Young Evangelist Movement is based on a similar principle:
As we respond from a real and enduring encounter with God the Father,
we will share His love with people, in word and in deed,
we will give ‘prophetic’ encouragement, and
we will provide an environment for people to have an encounter.
THEN God can do the rest.
Although in its infancy, two camps have already been held: one in Victoria and one in New South Wales. Three young people from the first camp participated in the leadership of the second camp. This is a deliberate and exciting feature that is being built into the Young Evangelist Movement. Young evangelists are activating and equipping young evangelists in other locations.
Contact with this rapidly growing network of Young Evangelists is being maintained through local centres and through a Facebook page where the young people are free to post stories of what God has been doing through their evangelistic work.
Six Young Evangelist Camps across Australia are planned for 2013. Expressions of interest are invited from teenagers who are desperate to give other young people an opportunity to be followers of Jesus Christ.