Cadre's Evangelism Training Experience for High School Students

See these high school students?
You won't read about these kids in the news paper, but that's unfortunate. These students from IL, MN, MI and GA are being equipped to make an eternal difference at Converge, Cadre's evangelism training experience designed especially for high school students.

On Tuesday, June 17, 2008, I, and five other youth workers from the Central IL, area jumped into a van and headed north to see what Converge was all about.
We spent the morning being trained to share the love of Jesus Christ with others.

The morning training was based primarily on Cadre's Evangelism Is Relationships.

In the afternoon, we all headed out to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those on the beach along Lake Michigan. Some people were very open to having a conversation about God... others weren't... all were loved and prayed for. Each student and youth worker saw God as work in and through them... and that was life changing! And when these students go out on the "streets" each day, a few actually trust Jesus Christ as Savior!

On the way home, the Central IL youth workers stopped at Ed Debevics for debriefing, food, and insults from our waitress.

Our day at Converge was great.

If you're looking for something more than just baby sitting high school students... something more than just attending another Bible study... something more than just the next theme park.... something that actually equips students to share the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ with their friends... then YOU really ought to check into doing a Converge evangelism training experience in YOUR area. No joke. This time next summer, you could be training high school students to share the love of Jesus Christ with their friends... and that could literally change the world.

For more in formation about Converge, check out this two page PDF.

If, after reading the above PDF, you have questions and/or would like more information, contact info@cadreministries.com.

If you have bored junior high students and you're not sure what to do with them either, then check out THIS contact info@cadreministries.com for more info.

Comments

Mateo said…
Now those are some good lookin youth workers. And we even met the burger king! Hey man, is there anywhere you are going to post the rest of the ed debevic pics? or some way I can get em? Thanks.
Bill Allison said…
I'll send those directly to you... too scary for the general public... : )
ypjim said…
thanks for your investment in students Bill. Just curious - how would you compare this approach to evangelism training to YFC's Three Story curr or Andrew Root's recent book Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation? I have been trying to think through some of this on my own as well and would be curious as to your thoughts.
Bill Allison said…
ypjim...

GREAT question.... really. Hope I'm reading it correctly. Here's my two cents.

It's such a catch 22. Evangelism training isn't really evangelism training if it's left in a classroom. (See Jesus coaching his disciples in Luke 8:1-2; 9:1-2; 10:1) On the other hand, if we think the epitome of evangelism is preaching on the street to strangers, I'm not sure we're catching the Jesus's heart for loving people over the long haul of a REAL relationship in the Great Commission ("as you go" make disciples). People are worth loving whether or not they ever come to trust Christ as Savior.

So with that said, we're trying to do BOTH—classroom equipping and real life experience of engaging people in a conversation about Jesus Christ. Of course it's not an ideal situation because our training experience is only a week long. That's why our classroom equipping is about sharing Jesus Christ with your neighbor, family, and friends—which in my opinion is so much more daunting... and potentially effective and life changing.

With Converge, we're shooting for...

1. A Jesus-like evangelistic approach to life that people go home with... and will continue to champion (a little help from the youth workers championing the strategy would be nice).

2. Reproduction.... not putting on a production. That is, REGULAR youth leaders (not just paid youth pastors) from REGULAR churches can take this training back to their communities and do their own CONVERGE (or whatever else they want to call it—we're sold on the concept of Jesus-like training.... not a name).

Like YFC's Three Story... part of our training is learning to share your story in the context of a REAL relationship.

Hope that's clear as mud ypjim.

Tell you what... for you and anyone reading this comment... if you'll email me at bill@cadreministries.com I'll be glad to send you a FREE PDF of chapter 7 of Grow, Minister, and Lead Book 2—The Next Level, titled, "When Your Evangelism Events Aren't Working." Just put "ypjim" in the subject line. No pressure at all... just offering to help us all to keep learning and growing.

Blessings...

BA
ypjim said…
I'm really glad to hear your thoughts around Evengelism. I have experienced some very similar growth in my own life. I can relate to your dilema of limited classtime - so I tried something new this past year. We obviously did some "class time" but then instead of "going to the streets" we took more class time to help students think through how this could / should look logistically in thier own life. We went as far as having them identify people / groups they needed to share jesus with - identify the needs of these people - pray reguarly for this needs - look for ways to meet the needs - THEN look for an opportunity to share words that support thier previous actions. In short, we spend specific time helping them think through how it might actually look in thier life and then we talked about it each week including a personal "coach" (another adult leader) to help them along the way.
I have no idea if this will be more effective in the long haul - but I know it was in the short term. The form of "practice" seemed to fit better for our context.
Bill Allison said…
ypjim... we are soooo on the same journey... and what you described is EXACTLY how we train EVANGELISM IS RELATIONSHIPS... however, without coaching... as you are doing... training has minimal impact. So I think your coaching part is genius... and that is what actually try to set up BEFORE we do the training.

Here's an interesting twist I've observed: Adults—especially pastors and youth pastors—don't coach that well because they don't have a single non Christian friend. So the coaches have to be TRYING to live it too. Frankly, I see students doing a much better job than the average church going adult... when it comes to being intentional about praying, loving, and sharing Christ with people who don't have a relationship with God.

My two cents.

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