Sitting in our pews is the next generation of soul winners. They go to Bible classes twice each week, attend youth events, Bible camps, and devotionals. Many do this for eighteen or more years. Thousands of dollars are spent by the local congregation to provide them the best teaching possible. Yet, when they graduate, most of them have not been trained how to evangelize.

I am not faulting our youth, for they are a product of a generation who “knows not” personal Bible study. We provide them with lessons in basic Bible knowledge, sin, salvation, church, morality, and apologetics, but we do not train them to win souls. If we are going to raise an army of soul winners to confront sin, we must train them now. Here are a few things you can do.

  • Incorporate evangelism training into middle and high school classes.
  • Teach every student how to use a Bible study method such as Back to the Bible/Does It Matter/Believe the Bible or OBS or Visualized Bible Study (Jule Miller).
  • Conduct mock Bible studies in class.
  • Encourage them to practice evangelism with their friends/schoolmates/team members.
  • Designate some of those youth events as evangelistic training opportunities.
  • Make evangelism the theme of camp and train them to teach Bible studies.

I grew up in the church of Christ. I was never encouraged or trained how to evangelize until my late teen years by Brothers Anthony and Wade. I am thankful for their encouragement as it enabled me to convert some of my friends. Your youth have incredible potential now and in the future. We must be intentional in our training so this generation will be able to teach the lost.