I've been taking high schoolers to Steubenville conferences for the last 6 years I've been in ministry. It's an amazing experience and really a huge surge of evangelistic momentum for any group of high school students. The problem a lot of us youth ministers have is following up intentionally on this event and using the momentum to bring youth into a deeper understanding of what it means to follow Jesus as His disciple.
So my co-captain Tim and I came up with a plan to hack this evangelistic momentum. The intention is two-fold: to capitalize on teens committing/recommitting to a decision to follow Jesus and make changes in their life, and to continue to foster the Christian community created in our Steubenville conference small groups.
Our plan is to use commitment cards and a Discipleship 101 series as followup. Below is an explanation of our strategy as well as the files we're using. Feel free to download and use the resources we created! If you try something like this, let me know your thoughts.
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[audio http://catholicyouthminister.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/ignitexlt-edmundmitchell10-6-2013.mp3]
I'm blessed to be part of a new ministry starting up in Toledo called Ignite XLT. It's a Sunday evening gathering of all the local Catholic youth ministries for a time of fellowship, prayer, a talk, Adoration, and praise and worship. Last night we had our first night of XLT and God showed up big time. I gave a talk on identity and purpose and how these necessary components of a fulfilled life are only found in new life in Jesus Christ.
[audio http://catholicyouthminister.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/exg-1-final.mp3]
[audio http://catholicyouthminister.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/4-intolerance.mp3]