Last week, our amazing team at Dare 2 Share Ministries wrapped up our first-ever national Energize Youth Ministry Conference.
The atmosphere was electric, as 400-plus youth leaders and 12 key global leaders descended on Arvada, Colorado, for three days to get inspired and equipped to lead Gospel Advancing, disciple-multiplying ministries.
As I reflect on the experience, here are five insights from the conference that stand out to me.
1. There’s a hunger.
Youth leaders are craving a model that’s more than games and surface-level faith. Like the psalmist in Psalm 42:1-2, these leaders are thirsting for God. They want a Gospel vision worth giving their lives for and calling their teens to.
As I told several youth leaders at the conference, “We’re gonna have fun, but we ain’t playing games.” We’re on a mission to mobilize—and so were the leaders who came to Energize.
2. There’s a need.
The hundreds of leaders who gathered for those three days were looking for clarity, focus, and direction that leads to action. And by God’s grace, they found it. Youth ministry is about mobilizing students for a mission. And these leaders left with an even stronger conviction that God can use young people to grow His Kingdom. But for God to use them, they have to know Him. And youth leaders are on the front lines of guiding teens to Christ.
3. There’s a tribe.
From NYC to California, these leaders found their people. We were united by one heartbeat: reaching the next generation through the next generation.
And it wasn’t just the youth leaders. Every general session speaker, power-talk trainer, worship band member, and ministry leader who worked a booth had that same heartbeat. It was both powerful and palpable. These are the faithful individuals mentioned in 2 Timothy 2:2—able and eager to teach others and ready to turn the world upside down for Christ (Acts 17:6).
4. There’s a strategy.
Leaders came to be inspired, but they also needed a plan they can implement right away. Vision plus strategy leads to lasting impact. Strategy and faith are not mutually exclusive.
As Proverbs 21:5 says:
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance.
Christ modeled strategy for us when He sent His disciples out in towns ahead of Him (Luke 10:1-16) with intentional instructions for where they should stay and what they should say. The apostle Paul used the hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus as a hub for reaching all of Asia with the Gospel (Acts 19:8-10).
In as similar way, each of the leaders left Energize with their own strategic plan for mobilizing their youth group.
5. There’s a movement.
God is stirring something bigger than an event. He has launched a movement! Pray for these leaders as they head back home to lead it. They won’t stop until every teen, everywhere, hears the Gospel from a friend.
Of course this isn’t new. It’s the movement Jesus initiated when He told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel (Matthew 28:18-20). It’s a movement that each of us is called to join. So we hope to see you all next year at Energize!
He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
If you want this energy, excitement, and strategy for yourself and your ministry, join us next year at the upcoming Energize Youth Ministry Conference in Chicago, Illinois.
