Dare2Share Gospel Advancing Youth Groups Survey

This is a summary of a survey conducted by Dare2Share, including youth groups in 47 nations, with an average group size of 153. (Bigger than NZ youth groups.) The report can be found HERE

Everything below is from the survey – just a lot shorter.

All comments are likewise summaries of things said in the report – with anything I’ve added in itallics for clarity.  

CONTEXT

There are two stories to tell. The first is negative: Data suggests teenagers are walking away from the faith in record numbers. Youth work is hard work. Youth leaders are burning out and turning over rapidly. Yet there are one billion teens worldwide, and they need Jesus!

• Roughly one third of these say they have no religion.
• A quarter identify with non-Christian religions.
• Amongst the approx 40% who consider themselves Christian, 40% say they never read the Bible, and over 50% say “all religions teach equally valid truths.” (This is to say of the ‘Christian’ youth surveyed that most don’t yet even really understand or alternatively believe the gospel.)

However, there is a positive story to tell too: A 2022 Barna ‘Open Generation’ survey revealed that 59% of all teens and 78% of non-Christian teens across 26 countries were either very motivated to somewhat motivated to learn about Jesus. There is interest – if we will equip youth to reach out!

That equipping is what many youth ministries and youth ministry networks are consistently NOT yet doing.

>> What if that were to change?

WHAT THE SURVEY SET OUT TO PROVE

They wanted to demonstrate that the principles of what they call a ‘Gospel Advancing Youth Ministries’ work.

A ‘Gospel Advancing’ group is defined as one in which students move beyond just a ‘come-and-see’ outreach strategy (programmes plus invitation) to a ‘go-and-tell’ approach that seeks to active them to engage others in relational conversations about Jesus and to clearly share the gospel.

This is a 2000-year-old strategy.

To expand the definition, this is not about only equipping youth to reach their friends; it is about those youth then also equipping their newly Christian friends to grow in and likewise share their faith. I.e. An approach focused on YOUTH themselves becoming ‘disciple-makers’.

This can only be achieved through leadership practices (or habits) – which I’ll sumarise from two sources later.

A SUMMARY OF RESULTS (What the data says)

Groups that embraced ongoing equipping HABITS (thereby enabling youth to share their faith and also pass that same training on to their friends) experienced the following:

• 3 x more students sharing the gospel
• 10 x more youth hearing the gospel as a result
• 40% more effectively (40% more conversions.)
• 3 x more students were then involved in discipling other students (because they knew how.)

The study, however, went further.

To note a distinction: The difference in the below data is NOT between groups with and without equipping. It is instead about the difference between groups with and without ongoing equipping HABITS.

This is a vital point, bringing direction to how we train our continually new youth leaders (which is needed every 2 years or less on average).

The results of one-off outreach training is included in the report – also compared to the difference that having youth leaders who are practitioners in outreach makes. This data confirms, for example, that you will reach more youth if the youth leader models what is taught. However, I haven’t included this data in this summary not only because it isn’t the main point. Outreach equipping and good modelling made very little differences to results in contrast to groups that ALSO embraced equipping HABITS to see their youth conversationally engaged with pre and new Christian friends. The point isn’t therefore that we equip. The point is that we create a CULTURE of INTENTIONAL equipping, achieved via HABITS our leaders are taught to embrace – those habits being purposed to empower the evangelistic and disciple-making abilities of ALL Christian youth.

I suggest this is the key point to pick up from this survey – as evidenced in the data – this same point being central to what Dare2Share as a ministry encourages.

Comparing to ‘control’ groups (who received no encouragement to become ‘Gospel Advancing’),  ‘Gospel Advancing’ groups embracing the habits…

• …saw the liklihood of new believers joining a youth group increase from 52% to 76%.
• …gained 3 x the number of new youth attending per year. (Note: Because youth ‘graduate’ out of youth group at age 18 or 19, groups don’t grow indefinitely – even while adding members because the larger 19 year old group ‘graduates’ to the young adult ministry. A different way of measuring this would be to consider the percentage of a group who became first-generation believers in the 13 to 18 age bracket, in contrast to the number of youth present who came from a church-connected family.

To repeat – as above – they then…

• …saw 3 x as many of their members sharing the gospel
• …then measuring 10 x as many gospel conversations per student.
• (These two numbers equate to 30 x the reach.)
• …resulting in 40% more conversions.
• It goes without saying that there was 3 x the leadership development resulting also.

TWO KEY POINTS

From comments in the report I note these two stand-out points:

• ‘Evangelism is discipleship’. (Many leaders in our churches don’t maybe yet perceive how significantly true this point is. Discipleship isn’t discipleship if it doesn’t include training and prayer for evangelism.)
• Consistency is important. If you want to get youth to grow in their faith, get them to ‘go’ with the gospel!

What are the habits of a ‘Gospel Advancing’ group?

Firstly, we properly embrace the vision and mission Jesus gave us. Gospel outreach is fundamental to our existence and discipleship. Early data we have on a NZ study of youth groups evidences that this isn’t the case in many / most youth groups – just as we know the same to be true of many (not most) churches. Equipping members to be disciple-makers is instead an add-on, and a programme. Outreach-related activities are run by the leaders and supported by the members rather than outreaching activity being the very thing leaders exist to equip members to do.

‘Gospel Advancing’ disciple-making is also about believing youth can reach youth. If we don’t fundamentally believe this, we will always think our own brilliance and effort (speaking and running programmes) more effective than time given to equipping and mobilising our youth.

One example of annual habits:

• ANNUAL catalytic event
• WEEKLY storytelling (testimony) related to outreach
• DAILY time in the Word
• QUARTERLY evangelism training
• MONTHLY activation experience.

For more see dare2share.org/ga-programming-guide

Our ‘Godtalk’ example of annual habits:

• Intentional motivation at the start of each school term
• A month of equipping for conversational outreach via the group annually
• All of those lessons reinforced through small group discussions
• Monthly testimonies – following which key teaching points are ‘reminded’ throughout the year
• Clear gospel preaching – through regular (quarterly?) special events.

For more, see videos #4 and #5 at godtalk.nz/leadership (These leaders training videos are 5mins each, with notes to download under each video)

CLOSING MOTIVATION

I suggest this is worthy of some proper reflection – to digest what is being said. Changing the way we lead is not easy, because current practices reflect a CULTURE we have been en-culturated in. Clear thinking and intentionally alone can break us free from this inherited pattern.

(To conclude with statements summarising the gist of things the survey writers say…) 

Were our youth movements to become INTENTIONAL in the way we equip youth leaders,

…to see those leaders becoming INTENTIONAL in the way they equip their youth to reach out to and train their peers,

…this would make a huge difference to our results.

Youth are the right demographic for this focus:

• Youth are determining who they are and what they believe about the world.
• Young people’s stage of brain development makes them especially open to peer influence.
• Teenagers are more likely to brim with energy, passion and idealism.
• Teens are naturally in contact with their peers through school, activities and social media.

Youth leaders CAN embrace leadership habits!

These CAN equip youth to share their faith.

These CAN equip youth to equip their new friends to read their Bibles and reach their peers.

If we will do this, it WILL deliver results.