So many teens are saying Yes to Jesus this year. Praise God!
How many is “so many”? Well over 400 in the first semester. And that is more decisions to follow Christ than all of last school year.
At Tenaya Campus Life recently, the host teacher called to cancel the club because that week they were having a lock-in drill. But the day before it was supposed to happen an administrator called and said they didn’t want students to lose out on Campus Life so they wanted us to still come anyway.
That week Hunter was sharing his story of how God showed up in a time of desperation when he cried out to Him from a dark place. Courtney came up afterward and simply said “If you want to follow Jesus for the first time, I want you to raise your hand and come up front.” 8 students raised their hands receiving Jesus for the first time, and then most of the club came up front for prayer! That was unexpected, to say the least.
One of the students who raised his hand and came up was someone who the team had been praying for because he’d been going to a local church and giving the youth group grief. The church also had been praying for him to say Yes to Jesus and this was his moment!
You gotta remember that we don’t have smoke machines and there’s no weekly mountain-top experience. We have relationships and opportunities to share stories about God and how he changes lives. It’s literally a weekday, at lunch, at a school campus, and the Holy Spirit is moving.
To be honest, when I first saw the number of youth accepting Christ I was baffled and dug into the numbers thinking, there must be a typo. We even double-backed with staff and did a training on “how to share the gospel” to make sure we’re driving towards follow-up and helping teens clarify first-time decisions. Having crossed the “t’s” and dotted the “i’s” all I can say is this: God is moving.
Another one of our staff members Anna has had a lot of students accepting Christ too. “It’s great! It’s exciting and motivating because I want to see even more life change” she shared. “It was unexpected at first, but now I’m expecting God to move. The Holy Spirit is doing what He does, and I’m just a vessel for him to use.”
Campus Life Egg Hunt!
So what are we doing about all these teens? Our mission, after all, is to raise up lifelong followers of Jesus. Followup and Discipleship are the next steps. Anna already has multiple small groups guiding youth through the basics of faith: Who is God, What’s the Church, How to read the Bible, etc. Alongside a 6 week follow up we are connecting youth to churches near them and some are looking to be baptized. These moments are so exciting for staff and volunteers.
At Youth For Christ we’ve learned something important about evangelism: God calls people to Himself in Christ. He does it and we get to participate in it. We meet youth, we invite them, and we do appointments and activities, clubs, and trips. And all that is important but the real-life-transformation happens when they meet God and respond to Him. In that moment the very dead rise to life.
“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last days” (John 6:40).
Together,
Jameson | Executive Director
P.S. See what kids are saying about Campus Life at yfcnow.org/kids