Bobby Bosler: Okay, this is a little bit different. We have not done this kind of a thing before, And I will tell you, this time is very much unscripted, and I've kind of made it that way on purpose. Now, I have talked to the men some. We have a couple of things that we want to touch on.

But really, the main burden for this time is to take what Pastor Gillmore talked about in his last session and try to make it even more practical for you guys right here in this room. I would say the thing that really prompted me to have what I'm calling a strategy session, a strategy discussion, was an article that I think you forwarded to me. It was one of you two forwarded it to me. This is an article.

I had never seen this news source, but I've since subscribed to them. I want to read you this here. Abraham was far from a model student. As a backslidden pothead, he never imagined he would become the catalyst for one of the most remarkable spiritual revivals at Palmdale High School in California.

But after a life-changing encounter with God, Abraham's bold faith led many of his peers to Christ during the 2023-24 school year. So this is recent. It gives a little bit more background about him. Growing up, Abraham dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player.

But when an injury shattered those hopes, he spiraled into a life of marijuana, parties, and chasing girls. His life seemed to be heading nowhere until his mother gave him an ultimatum. If you want to live in my house, you have to go to church. Reluctantly, he began attending services, sitting in the back row, what he now calls backslider lane.

But even from the back, God was working on his heart, and he surrendered his life to Jesus. As the new school year began, Abraham felt compelled to share his newfound faith. Quote, I just started witnessing to students, teachers, and janitors, he said. By the end of the first semester, 275 students had accepted Christ.

By the end of the school year, that number had grown to 895. You know, again, just this email says, Abraham's story is a powerful reminder of what God can do when we step out in faith. His willingness to share the love of Christ transformed his school and left a lasting impact. You know, as we're gathered here today, I look out here and I think, is that even possible with the students, the young people that are sitting here in this room?

And I would say that if we are to just look at what we're capable and trends and percentages and stuff like that, the answer is pretty obviously no, right? But when you look at the power of the Spirit of God in us, the answer is a resounding what? Yes. For sure.

And so I wanted to take some time because obviously knowing that God can, knowing that God is able to, right, is a little bit different than actually having a plan and a strategy. And Pastor Gillmore laid out an outstanding strategy here in this last session. But one of the thoughts that occurred to me, and maybe it occurred to you as you heard that story, is, oh, this guy, he was in public school, right? And maybe that's what was so different about that.

He was in public school, and he was rubbing shoulders with lost people every day. And so I guess I wanted to just kind of open it up. Let's talk about this story. Let's talk about maybe what in this story was a good thing, what was maybe common with these young people here, what maybe was different.

And I guess I just wanted to have just kind of an open discussion here on creating an actual pathway, a tangible, concrete pathway that the young people here at this Youth Summit could take. So I don't know if anybody wanted to offer any observations here.

Speaker 2: You could ask all the public school students just to stand. Let's start with you, where are you? Just stand to your feet. If you go to a public school, stand to your feet.

Okay. I know we don't have a lot, but we do have some. That's awesome. Okay, great.

You can be seated, give us a little idea. Obviously your application is just obvious.

Bobby Bosler: A few years ago, I was reading the parable of Jesus where he talked about the fact that the gospel, the kingdom is like leaven in a lump of dough. And you may have I know somebody Cambridge had asked me about that podcast recently. And just that concept of, you know, yeast in a lump of dough. And I don't claim to be a baker at all.

My wife could probably explain it to you a whole lot better than me. But like when you put that yeast in the dough, what happens, if I understand it right, is it permeates the whole lump of dough. And I was stirred. several years ago at the possibility of public school students, if they could get a hold of that concept and just take every opportunity that they could in their public school and almost get, like Pastor Gillmore was talking about, somebody else, right, that you lead to Christ that gets the same vision, right, and wants to reach into their opportunities and to almost get this squad of people that is determined to get the gospel to every single person in their public school and to bring every single person confronted with a decision and to call on them to trust Christ as their Savior. I don't know.

I just thought that would be awesome if some public school folks would grab a hold of that idea. But you know, I'm sure, again, those are the public schoolers. How many Christian schoolers? If you're a Christian schooler, go ahead and stand up.

Okay, all right, this is Definitely more than the public schoolers, okay? Okay, go ahead and have a seat. What are the pros and cons of the Christian school side of things when we're talking about just reaching people for Christ?

Speaker 3: How about a question? I'd like another stand-up who we would know of a peer who would be in a public school that you know them by name and You might even call them a friend. They're not in your Christian school or your home school But they're in the public school and you would say I got a friend who would be like that. Could you stand for that?

Let's stand okay. I got a friend Like that Okay, that's a neat entry point right there. Yeah for sure good good good

Bobby Bosler: Obviously the last the last category here Is if you are you're not in a public school you're not in a Christian school, but you're homeschooled if you could stand up if that's you I know this is by and away the larger majority here for sure many homeschoolers here We won't make fun of you here today You can go out and have a seat so again. We've kind of categorized ourselves here on that Okay, what what's when it comes to like even this story just talk to me here folks? What's the difference between those three settings and why might perhaps a Christian schooler or a home schooler feel in their hearts even as they heard that story? I don't even know that that's possible for me.

Speaker 2: – Well I will say with Christian school, particularly those that are bigger Christian schools, there are unsaved kids in there. And I think what happens in a Christian school is you just assume everybody's saved and you just go in your merry way and yet many times there are needy kids in that school that are either saved or away from God and you forget that's your mission field, and it's right there, just like it is for a public school, or it's a little bit more, not as obvious, but it's there. And I get burdened that Christian school kids sometimes even know somebody's lost in their Christian school, but they just assume somebody else will do it. – Sure, yeah.

Bobby Bosler: Oh, okay, so here's something that I'm thinking of. Okay, we hear the story of this guy, right? This guy who led, who determined, I'm gonna start to give the gospel to every one of my fellow students, and I don't know about you, the thing that entered my mind when I thought of that is, well, of course, he's got access to thousands of lost people every single day, right? Like, he's rubbing shoulders with them.

He's sitting right next to them. He has study halls with them. Maybe he's on sports teams with them. And we might look at that, and I might call it access, right?

It seems like he has better access than maybe everybody else. Okay, you Christian schoolers, you are in the school, And maybe there are some lost people in the school. Most aren't, yeah. Oh, good.

Pastor Van Gelden's here. Good. I was hoping he would get here. And for you homeschoolers, you just never come out of your home, right?

You never step foot out of the door of the house. And so, you know, what kind of access do you have? Okay? So kind of, I guess what I'm setting up here is it seems like the problem, we might look at that story of that young man that in his public school led almost 900 people to Jesus Christ and say, oh, I could never do that because I don't have the same level of access that they have.

So I guess part of my burdens for this time is, okay, whether you're a Christian schooler or a homeschooler, how can we get access? Because the woods is full of them, right? They're out there. What are some ways that we can get access as far as actually engaging these folks with the gospel?

So I want to open it up. Any thoughts here on this?

Speaker 3: I would like to propose that the best answers aren't on this stage. Oh. That the best answers to your question are actually out here. Okay.

In the audience. Sure. These young people have got, you know, incredible ways in which, you know, they can dream things and think things that probably blow most of us away. You know, absolutely.

Given some wings.

Bobby Bosler: Sure. Okay, we've got one over here.

Speaker 4: I would say that being homeschooled, it is more of a challenge to witness because you're not surrounded by that. But if you have that mindset, then it's still very much possible. And if you're not, it's your own fault.

Bobby Bosler: Sure, that's great. Yeah. You know, what are some pros that the homeschoolers might have in this regard? Time.

Time, sure. But we promise we're not going to make fun of you, okay? They don't have to travel to school. They don't have to come back from school.

Oh, yeah. Most homeschoolers that I know, they're done by lunch, right? Or early in the afternoon. They should be.

Okay. Again, this is not a homeschool versus Christian school thing here at all. At all. Okay, we got somebody who wants to say something there.

Speaker 5: As a former homeschooler, there are homeschool co-ops that you can meet up to.

Speaker 6: Uh-huh.

Speaker 5: So you're not just limited to the home, but you're meeting up with other people who are at home. Okay, sure. And honestly, they're not all like-minded, so that's also a good thing.

Bobby Bosler: Yeah, okay. So that's another possibility. We've got a thought over here.

Speaker 6: I used to be homeschooled also, and I would get that around lunch, and then me and my dad would go run errands, and we would always keep some tracks in our car, and then I would just hand them out to people.

Bobby Bosler: Sure, that's awesome. That is great. That is really good. Okay, yeah.

Oh, right over here. We'll go over here. Next. My sister's been always going to walk, and we've always seen people in the summer, so we were walking on the street, and we were always just walking.

Sure, yeah, definitely. For sure, that's great. Santiago?

Speaker 4: I'd say for me, as a former homeschooler, one of my biggest mission books was actually right in the home with my siblings, who still weren't safe. And I realize that maybe some families, at least most of us, all of us,

Bobby Bosler: Yeah, sure. So, okay, maybe just take the opportunities that are, like, right in front of your face already. We can sometimes dream and hope that there's going to be some big opportunity when there are real ones that God has placed right in front of you, right? Maybe in your home, or maybe if you're in a homeschool co-op, There might be something there or otherwise.

Down the street as you're taking a walk. Again, I know there may be… Let's just park here for a second. Any thoughts from you men here on this?

I know you were homeschooled, right? What? And we were not done by news.

Speaker 7: I'll just say that. I just can't help but think that regardless of whether you're homeschooled or public schooled, none of us, it requires intentionality. It doesn't happen by accident. And there is a reality, yeah, well, if I'm homeschooled, I don't get out of the house.

We can easily be surrounded for the majority of our life by people who do know the Lord and all of those things. But the fact is you can go to a public school and have such an insulated mindset that you don't interact with them about the gospel either. So there comes a point where I have to be excited enough about the message that I have. And that's what strikes me about this story is there's just a young man who God changed his life to an extent where he said, I have to share this.

I can't hold this back to myself. I think sometimes we're so calloused to the reality of what we have in the salvation that we've been given. And so we don't have that intentional mindset. And so to me that regardless word is it starts with the decision I I this is something that's worth me actually finding a way to tell and if you have a message That you are excited and know you have to give you'll find a way to give it You'll find people to give it to and we could talk about different, you know different different ways to do that But it's dang that's that's a starting point there.

Yeah, for sure. Bob for sure. I was just thinking piggybacking on what you said

Speaker 8: Intentionality, I went to Christian school all my life, but I, from fourth grade until I graduated from high school, was a part of youth symphonies in the area here, all the kids unsaved except the ones from our church, and got to the end in high school, and there was 160 teenagers in this orchestra. If you're not intentional about it, you're not gonna give the gospel to those people. And for the first few years, when I got into junior high school, I was very scared to do it, you know, And I'm so glad my parents made me be different, look different in there because it gave me opportunities, whether I liked it or not. And by the end, I was given the gospel by my senior year, not by choice, obviously you heard my story yesterday, more by you're different, you're weird, why?

And started with some arguments about creation versus evolution kind of thing. And then it obviously delved into the gospel and some of them. But it took intentional. I mean, I was scared out of my wits.

You have 160 people surrounding you in those break times. They're mocking you. So just because you're in the middle of a public school doesn't mean you're going to be able to lean out and be able to the Lord. You have to make intentional decisions to do it.

So it was very tough for me.

Bobby Bosler: You know, I feel like sometimes we need a good experience under our belt. You know what I'm saying? Like, if you've never done something, like, ever, ever, ever, ever, you're going to be a little bit hesitant to dive in. And, you know, I'm not going to ask, like, how many of you have ever shared the gospel and won somebody to Christ, but that first time is often so key.

Just to see that, like, okay, God can actually use me. I remember, okay, when I came and visited here as a senior in high school, and I had never given the gospel to anybody in my entire life. I'm ashamed to admit it. Never, ever, ever.

And when I came here, the guy in charge of all the food, where is he? Matt Forster. He's probably not in here, which is fine. But he was a freshman here at BCM.

And I was just coming to visit him in college. I actually didn't want to come here at the time. I changed my mind about that. But he took me out soul winning.

And he actually made me talk at a door. And nobody got saved, but actually taking that first step of actually trying. When I went home after that, I decided, you know what, I'm actually going to try to talk to people. This is a novel thought.

Actually talk to people about Jesus? Huh. And I remember a group of children. I was out.

Our church had some outreach, and we would do a lot of literature distribution, but we didn't really engage people and actually have conversations. And I remember talking to these three children, and I don't know, maybe 10, 12, something like that, And I just remember talking to them, and then I got into the gospel, and at the end I asked them if they wanted to pray and receive Christ, and all three of them said they did. And it was like, no way! And honestly, as small as that moment was, it kind of changed my life.

Because I realized it's possible. And so kind of getting into that first conversation is key. I don't know if there's any other thoughts here, thoughts from Pastor's perspective here or anything like that.

Speaker 2: Pastor actually had a lot of, he went to public school and had a lot of gospel opportunity there.

Speaker 9: Yeah, well, it was when I got my life really squirt around my sophomore year of high school, then giving the gospel began to be a big deal. And it's hard in the public school, like he was saying. You're surrounded. But then we started a Bible study and began to stick our neck out.

And it was exciting. But you know, the real soul winning for me came when I went to my youth group at church. And we got burdened and we got out on the streets and we went and found teenagers. It was certainly great.

My senior year, I moved to a different high school. We had 60 kids that had a Bible study. Kids got saved. But it was the week in, week out, getting excited about the gospel.

I get something from one young man every, oh, he's not young now, he's in his 50s, but he was just on a tricycle. I led his mother to the Lord as a senior in high school, and the whole family got saved. And he always writes me, I have a box in my office where there's a tricycle in it, and just always thanks me. Thank you for stopping and leading my mom to Christ.

I was in high school when I did. I went out by myself, which isn't necessarily the wisest thing, but I just determined I was going to do it, and I knew I needed to break the fear. And it really changed my life doing that.

Bobby Bosler: Yeah, that's great. And I'm sure you were part of a church that had a youth group that went out.

Speaker 9: Yes, we did, absolutely. And we would stay up all night praying about it at times. It was a big deal. Yeah, it was great.

I'm so thankful for the youth pastor I had and the fervency, and it just got in my soul, and I'm deeply thankful for that.

Bobby Bosler: You know, obviously I'm not going to ask this at all, but some of these young people out here, they do come from churches where their youth groups do have a soul winning program, and they do go out, right? And there's opportunity. And can I say, young people, if you've got opportunity like that, take it. Don't be the kid that never shows up.

Take those opportunities. But I'll bet there's probably some and maybe many that there is an opportunity like that, there's not opportunity like that. You know? And obviously that's a best case scenario, but it's not always what happens.

Again, growing up, we didn't really do that. I mean, we had some outreach and I'm thankful for that. But I almost had to kind of make my own way. I wasn't joining anybody in that.

In fact, nobody else actively engaged people with the gospel. and I'm not saying that I was great I was not, that's probably like literally like the only time I did that there that summer but but it was definitely a momentous moment like what are some again, what are some other maybe avenues here, again you're right like they're going to have the ideas and the spirit of God by the way is going to lead you and those are the best ideas because he's going to put it on your heart some opportunity that we can never come up with within a thousand years in some discussion like this. But I'm curious, how many of you out there have a job? You have a job, you have a work, a workplace, maybe kind of a thing, okay, all right? There's an opportunity, right?

There's a great opportunity. In fact, I don't know if Ryan, you wanna say anything to that effect here?

Speaker 5: – It was probably 12, 13 years ago, I was here as a high schooler at a E-generation youth summit. And, oh, no, that would have been college days. That's almost college days after the conference. And Dr.

Jim was preaching a message on the fear of man, which we just heard yesterday from Mr. Ewan. Not the same message, I'm sure. That's pretty close.

A similar message. And I was stirred by that and went back to my workplace, which is a warehouse where night shift. And as a 16-year-old, and I just began giving the gospel. And you started with just handing tracts out, because I really had no history in that at all.

While I was here for that conference, actually, it reminded me of this story. Because I was, I'll admit, I was kind of one of those very spiritual, pious teenagers that wanted to show off to the BCM students. So when I heard that there was some soul winning going on, I thought, oh, yeah, let me get on the street preaching. I had never done anything like that before.

So I just, yeah, I jumped in. It was one of the, one of the rings was Paul Urfield. I couldn't tell the part at the time, so I don't know which one it is. But one of them handed me a track, and we're standing outside of a bar or something on the main street.

And there's some people walking past me, and Paul Urfield, and he says, I don't know, just give them that track. And ask them if they know where you're going when they die. So I hand out the track, open my mouth, and nothing comes out. And they just walk by me and beside me.

And not a great first experience. But after that message and just surrendering to be a part of that, just took a bunch of tracks to my workplace. What I didn't know was how this was going to work because I can't give a gospel on the clock. But the Lord had that figured out.

And the company I worked for, a huge company, ran out of trailers to fill that night. It never happened while I've been there. It never happened since. It ran out of trailers, so all these employees sitting around on the clock, nothing to do but read gospel tracks.

So I just started handing them out, and opportunities came from there. I had someone come to me that had been really antagonistic before and said, I read that and I want to talk to you about it. And so the following night, we were able to go through the gospel with him, and he was saved, and it just went on from there. I think there's a couple of key paradigmships.

First of all, you have to be willing for everybody you know to know that you're a Christian. If you don't get past that and you think this is going to be a little part-time job, it's not going to work. This is your full-time job. Anything you do on the side, that's fine.

But this is who you are. And if this is who you are, you will take the opportunity. And you'll find opportunities. You'll be intentional.

But you have to be willing for everybody to know that. Action step there. How did he get to that point? Part of it's a decision.

Part of it is dying to self. Do we still sell those heaven shirts?

Bobby Bosler: I don't know if you have any left or not.

Speaker 5: I tell you, if you can get a hold of one of those things, that's a good way to die to self in the day. Justin Schultz, who's now my brother-in-law, he and I, for a while, would go to the local mall here, and we would stand outside the Apple Store with a shirt that said, I can tell you how you can go to heaven. You don't have to go to hell. And we'd just stand outside the Apple Store.

That's awesome. Not necessarily because we thought it was the best way to win souls to Christ. But it was for us. We needed to die.

And we wanted everybody to know. And for us to be willing. And we wanted to be known for nothing else. I guarantee you this boy in the story here.

That's what he was known for. Was Jesus Christ. And he didn't care about being known for anything else. And that's what it is.

So you have to be willing to sell out completely. To this is what you're all. And you will take every opportunity. And you will find them.

But the other aspect of it is the intentionality that was mentioned. Because if you don't give the gospel on purpose, you're not going to give it on accident. And many of us just sit around waiting and say, well, I'm going to try to be a good testimony in my workplace. And then eventually people are just going to line up and start asking about Jesus.

Well, it happens occasionally, but that's not the norm. The norm is you should be so stirred about what Jesus has done for you. You can't keep your mouth closed. And then there's people here.

But yeah, you might have some people come to you. But it starts first with intentionality.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's good. How many did you have saved at that IV?

Speaker 5: 26.

Speaker 2: How long are you there?

Speaker 5: Two and a half years. Amen. That is awesome.

Speaker 2: Most of them got saved in the middle of the night, right?

Speaker 5: Yeah, we get off the shift at 2 a.m. and just see who's out with my brother and I and take the netcasters flip charts. A great tool to walk people through the gospel. So a little booklet, and we just scour the parking lot and say there's got to be someone here. I appreciate it.

Pastor Gillmore's session there, especially the point of just don't wait. You're just waiting for someone to come to you or you're waiting for, you know, the perfect bridge. You know, we wait for the perfect bridge to happen. And sometimes it ends up more awkward than just telling them about Jesus, you know, like how's the weather today?

And now I'm wondering whether or not you'd like to be saved. And it does change things so much when you're looking, like you said, you're going out in this parking lot and you're looking for where is the opportunity?

Speaker 7: Oh, there's only one person here and I've been asking God for an opportunity. This must be it. You know, this must be the open door. And there's been times in my life and I don't live this way all the time and I should.

But there's been times when I've made a commitment to the Lord, okay, I'm going to seek to talk to somebody about Jesus, to give them the gospel, not just hand a track, but speak a word about Christ to somebody who I don't know if they're saved or not every single day. And that changes the way you approach that whole day. Because you're looking, where is God working? Where's the opportunity?

Lord, is this the open door? And so when I pull up, I mean, I'm naturally a shy person. I'm reserved. I love self-checkouts, okay?

I love the fact you don't have to go into the gas station to pay for the gas. I love all that stuff. It caters to my reserved nature. But when you're living life saying, Lord, where's the opportunity?

Then all of a sudden the fact that there's a person on the other side of the pump is not just, well, man, okay, let's all just, no, it's okay, Lord, is this the opportunity? And you're seeking and you're looking for the open door. It's not that we have to go make something happen. You're just, if you're asking God for things to happen, then you're looking for where is what he's doing.

And that's what we're trying to step into. Absolutely.

Speaker 5: Asking who that person is instead of just if there is someone.

Speaker 7: Yeah, it's assuming there's a white harvest instead of wondering if there is one.

Speaker 5: Sometimes it's obvious. I remember coming up real quick, coming out of the warehouse one time. It's 2 a.m. And I'm thinking, okay, who is it?

And there's only one guy in the parking lot. And he was a rough character. Rough. And it had already been mean to me in different ways, kind of a bully.

It just was, this was the last guy I would have expected. And if I was asking the question, if there was someone that needed the gospel, then I would have went in my car and went home. But it was the only option, and I just was convinced there was someone. So I went up to him and tried to get in the gospel.

I said, no, man, I'm not talking about it. He'd swagged and said, Jacob, you don't understand. God told me to talk to you tonight. And he said, no, no way.

He gets in his Pontiac Sunbird and closes the door and drives off. and I thought, well that was odd, I just know God wanted me to talk to you well the next night he comes to me and he says, I've got to talk to you after work so we go out after work and he said when I closed the door and drove away he said, I've got this really bad feeling and he said, God told me this is going to be the night you get in a car wreck and in fact he said more specifically this is going to be the night you hit a deer and he said driving on the way home on the highway last night he said the biggest buck I've ever seen jumped out in front of me he said I couldn't do anything about it the body was so big it came through the windshield out of the head the whiplash sent the antlers around the side through his driver's side window the guy's afraid for his life and swerves off the road and he comes back and said whatever you were going to tell me last night wow that's awesome someone there is someone there and if you're asking yourself if there is someone then you might pass up on the best opportunity.

Speaker 2: When I got out of high school went to college God stirred my heart we began several youth group got burdened and we just we were Christian school kids we didn't know unsafe kids so this is back when kids were outside but we would just go out and find the hangouts and witness to them and we did it multiple nights a every week, and we had different areas, so there were certain peer groups over in Darien, Woodridge, different places, but it was life changing, because it wasn't like, are we going so long tonight, we're going, we went every night of the summertime. That was absolutely life changing for me, and I guarantee I wouldn't be in youth ministry 40 years later if it was not for those couple summers. The funny part was, back in that day, there was a police show called The Mob Squad, a bunch of young policemen that looked very worldly and they were, you know, whatever, that was the name of it. But they, and those communities, we began to get the nickname, the God Squad.

Oh, here comes the God Squad. And, but those were life-changing moments because whenever we began a conversation, nobody expected us to talk about weather, sports. Everybody expected us. These are the guys that will talk about God.

They'll talk about the gospel. And it was very defining. And I preach the gospel now for 40 years, almost every week of my life to teenagers. And where I learned to preach the gospel was on the streets witnessing to kids.

Because they'd banter back, they'd mock, they'd throw this argument, this argument. And so it allowed me to get it in the head of those kids and I understand how they're thinking. And so it was critical. That was my classroom.

We did that for three summers, I think. And several youth group members would go out, we'd go out every night to different communities. and again, kids would always be out. There was never a night we didn't give the gospel. Every night we did.

But the immersion of that was life changing. Giving the gospel every night, every night, every night. And I'm not sure we did a lot of good at that point other than maybe a little bit of seed planting watering 'cause I didn't understand the prayer aspect and other things that I've come to understand later. But it was still extremely helpful in identifying the gospel and not being ashamed of the gospel and being identified with it and believing that these kids could be saved.

And my favorite group was the 15 to 20, the big, huge groups that you'd speak to. And they'd mock, make fun, and it was just a blast. I don't know how to explain.

Speaker 9: And I gotta say, I was his youth pastor. And he didn't have the personality for it. What I'm saying is, he would have been more shy to himself. This would not have been his natural inclination to do it.

When I saw God put his hand on him and saw the power of God, I couldn't believe it night after night. He's not exaggerating, it's exactly what he did. And it was not a natural tendency, it was a supernatural ability because he yielded to the Lord. And so it was exciting.

Bobby Bosler: – You know, when we're talking about these things, I'm sure what's probably going through some of your heads is you're just thinking, could I have a God Squad? Or should I find out where I can buy a flip book and get a job at a factory, a night shift job at a factory? Like, is that the key? But the key is that intentionality, the willingness, and the power of God, his leadership.

Like we talked about this morning, you listen to the voice of God. If you've placed yourself and presented yourself as a sacrifice to God and your heart is open and you're willing, He'll lead you to your own method. Right, right, your box. Again, you know, it's easy to look and say, oh, it's got to be like that, or oh, it's got to be in an orchestra, or oh, it's got to be that way.

And again, there's some great things here. Maybe God would lead you to some similar methods. But God's counsel and God's methods are perfect. They are the best.

Speaker 3: Here's something that I experienced recently that might be a blessing, and holding it a principle of liberty to speak. I was just in a coffee shop with my daughter, one of my older daughters, and we were just talking, and I noticed this lady come in who really had an anorexic body, just like a walking skeleton, just a really needy person. My heart went out to her, and I want to speak with her, but we were just talking, and I don't know that I would have ended up obeying the Lord at that moment, if something had happened, this is what happened, and this is why I'm telling the story. I began to tell my daughter about what God had told me in my devotions earlier that morning.

And I began just to share some really neat thing that was truth in God's word. And for absolute truth, at the end of sharing that with her, I looked at this lady and I had such liberty to go and speak to her. like my reluctance was changed into readiness. And what changed it was my conversation in the Word with what God had said to me to my daughter. And I thought, you know, how can I overcome that tendency to reluctance?

Young people, share with others what he's doing in your life. You know, meet with him on a daily basis. And, you know, like if the only time you're opening your mouth to talk about Jesus is when you've got to talk to that stranger on the street about Jesus, and you kind of just got to shift into a different gear, the one that you're not normally in. That's hard to do.

You're going to be, you're not going to do it for very long. But if you let Jesus talk about what he's done, come out of your mouth with your peers, with your parents, with your siblings, that'll just let the flow of the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit. Like, that was spirit liberty. and that was not me, that was spirit liberty and it came because I was talking about what God had said to me with my daughter and that was encouraging.

The funny thing is, which leads to a couple things, another principle, my daughter, so I stepped up to that girl, she was 20 something or something and offered, just stepped into friendly conversation and found out she intimated, she was probably in some sort of 10 step group, but didn't sound like she was saved and ended up praying for her. It was really positive contact. Well, I did that as my daughter was watching. She told me, hey, Dad, she said, I saw you a week or so later.

She said, Dad, I saw what you did that day, and I did it today in a coffee shop. And a really neat divine appointment came that way. And I thought, here's another way that you can encourage yourself in these steps. is go with someone who can lead you forward. You know, Jesus said, follow me.

I'll make you fishers. And so before they were ever launched, like we studied in Mark 6, they had watched Jesus. So intentionally, maybe you don't feel like maybe someone's trying to come and ask you to be with them. Go ask to be with your leader.

Hey, Dad, you're going out. Like, I know sometimes this is what parents do and what spiritual leaders do. They'll try to be looking for someone to go with them, and most of the time they're hitting, oh, I don't want to. you know they got to pull your teeth just to get them to go out switch the script on them like find your pastor going out hey can I go out and just visit with you he'll probably fall over dead first and you have to resuscitate him but look when you get out go out with someone when you got an evangelist come into your church for a week like talk to that hey can I go with you somewhere and he'll be amazed So just attach yourself to others and then go out together, you know in Two by two or something but but go out with someone who can you can observe and that'll hurt you

Bobby Bosler: You know, I think sometimes even what he said made me think of this Oftentimes we have kind of a predictable method of what we're doing Let's say like door-to-door perhaps and maybe that's the method that you would go out and do with your church which is great but sometimes we can get so tunnel vision focused in on like what we're out here doing that we don't see the opportunities that the Lord is bringing right across your path so every time I have team members they come and they travel with me and we teach them how to go recruiting right and recruiting is very intentional I mean you're expecting to get a bunch of recruits when you go out and we even train them don't pass up one person you know talk to every single teenager, but when they get back, they almost have to like shift back into door-to-door mode because they're walking down the street going door-to-door and they see somebody over there and they're just like, okay, let's go over there. And I actually really love that. Like, I mean, I'm just thinking we went out with the Netcasters earlier on. Netcasters is a soul winning training program where you can actually get trained in how to share the gospel in a way that's clear, in a way that's thorough and we were doing door to door and all of a sudden the bus showed up and a bunch of teenagers got off and for somebody like me that's like that's like putting a Wendy's Frosty in front of me oh I probably shouldn't have reminded some of you of the Wendy's Frosty right um but uh I like I saw a couple teens and it's just in my heart it was like yep go to them a couple of young man, again, it was not on our route, but so often we can just get, no, our next door is right over here.

And it's like God saying, yeah, but the opportunity's right over here. So stop what you're doing and do this. But we can so often get just stuck in just doing the next thing and we're not listening. We're not, our eyes aren't open to the opportunities that God is putting in front of us.

Okay, so with the teenagers that we've got right here, we've got a few public schoolers, some amazing opportunities. Oh, man. Dr. Jim and I have talked about potentially at some point doing some sort of a public school student retreat of some sort where we bring them together and just have some focused preaching and some focused equipping and literally train them.

Again, just the training isn't important. It's really the spiritual faith and listening to the voice of God and depending upon Him. But yes, some training. Okay, how can you go back into your school and actually win people to Christ?

And I guess it's some of that burden here except for homeschoolers and Christian schoolers too. You homeschoolers, you get done at lunch or like Joe Mueller, not at lunch, right? Bus stops. Like, honestly, I don't want to be the Holy Spirit for you.

He'll show you, but I'm just thinking, like, man, you figure out where a bus stop is? You could be there when it gets let off with some gospel tracks? You're done before the buses come home, right? I mean, get out of your pajamas before you go out to the bus stop, please.

I'm sorry. I said I wasn't going to make fun of the homeschoolers. I'm sorry. I'm not really, but…

Man, sports practices. ice cream shops I'm thinking of the list of stuff that we do for recruiting right guys who've traveled with me I mean there are plenty of opportunities now you Christian schoolers your day is cram packed right a lot of times you are very very busy well I guess you're exempt from the great commission then right it might actually take a little bit more intentionality from you to carve in some time and plan some time where this has to happen. And it becomes a non-negotiable, like Pastor was talking about a little bit earlier. But man, if we don't go and take these opportunities, you're going to miss out.

Speaker 3: And remember, you have the authority to do it. I'm thinking of that guy in that school. So what did he think about his school? obviously he's operated in Great Commission mode, and he's got to be taking ownership of that school spiritually.

The gospel's taking the territory, but he said, I have the authority of Christ, and I claim this school. I own this spot for Jesus. Let's say you take that bus stop or whatever. Okay, I'm claiming that spot for Jesus.

That's the authority for the gospel to be preached right there. It's coming direct from heaven, and I'm going to go own that spot. Whatever it might be, exercise your involvement from a standpoint of the authority to do. Like God, okay, how many street corners are there?

Do you know that right now every one of them was created by God to be a witnessing point? That's why he's holding this world together. Yeah, it's going to go up in flames one day. It's not going up in flames right now.

Why? So someone can preach the gospel there. And I'm going to go, and that's my spot. Or wherever.

But own it, go in the authority that this is what God made this spot for, this school for. Satan's trying to say he's got the authority, but he doesn't. This is why you can go there.

Bobby Bosler: Maybe the spot that you need to own is your street.

Speaker 4: Neighborhood.

Bobby Bosler: You know, like your street, like the person who lives next door. Some of you live in the country. The next person next door is two miles away, maybe. maybe a few of you that are like that I remember coming home from college Bible college over a Christmas break and just being at home and I don't know for me I could come home sometime and you know so tired you sleep for a week just about and just kind of try but you could get into this mode where you weren't going out and it was like one morning God was like hey remember that kid you used to play with down the street exposed to you a whole bunch exposed you to a whole bunch of stuff he should have never exposed to you, hey, go talk to him. Look, he's outside.

Sat down with this guy, first time I talked to him in 15 years, probably. Shared the gospel. He said, absolutely, I want to trust Christ. He got saved.

And I remember turning around thinking, woohoo, that was awesome. I can go back inside and spend the rest of the day in there. And then it's like, hey, you remember that bully down the street that used to call you Bobby the Booger Baby when you were little? Billy Barnett was his name he didn't even live I need Dr.

Jim's message from last night he needs Jesus too look he's outside too don't stop now went down there talked to Billy Barnett I didn't bring up the booger baby thing at all but I shared the gospel with him and he got saved and I don't know it was like there was this sense of looking around like, this is my area, this is my mission field. You know, there are mission fields all over the world, but there are some right on your street. I remember in college, this wasn't me, this was another group of people, I don't know if anybody else called it this, and if anybody's here that remembers this, the 93rd Street Revival is what we kind of called it, and there was a group of college students that owned that street. You remember that?

They owned that street. And what they were doing is they, I don't know how it started. I don't even remember. I don't even remember.

I just remember every testimony chapel, they'd come in and you'd hear something else about what happened in 93rd Street. And there were girls going out all times of the night to share the gospel. And we had to pull that in a little bit for safety's sake, you know. But like, man, every week there was a story of Jarvis Grisby or whatever, one of them.

And you know, and how he brought over a bunch of his friends over to the house for the Bible study. And man, they just preached the gospel. And several more people got saved. And it led from this house to that house and to that house.

And there had to have been 40, 50, 60 people saved.

Speaker 8: I was after that. And I was a bus captain on that bus. And we filled the bus with the results of that time.

Speaker 9: You know, I wanted to mention another thing is God has already gifted every one of these young people that are saved. and they've got perspectives. You just see yourself as a ninth grader or a tenth grader. But I can tell you, every pastor represented by you all or every youth director would listen very closely if God starts putting something on your heart for some kind of evangelistic outreach that you and your friends could own. I've seen that happen.

It happened when I was a youth pastor and some tremendous things happened. Dr. Jim and some of his friends owned going out in the neighborhood. And it just, I always look for when God does that kind of thing.

And God begins to put, I remember, this was not when I was, I was just barely into college. And God put on my heart to go and claim a town south of where I went to college. And I went down there and won a basketball player to Christ. Went to his home, started a Bible study.

It's long story short, we got to know the coach of the basketball team and began to be able to be the chaplain of the basketball team. And as a result of that, the entire football team got to see the karate team from the college where I was at. And at least 20, 30 young guys got saved. What I'm saying is God leads.

Just like you had said, there's individual. But I'll guarantee you, young people, if you get a desire, not only can you make it happen yourself individually, but I promise you, there are some things that could happen in your town. – Right. – There are, I'm telling you as a pastor, I'll back up anybody that's got a burden. If God's obviously in it, even if it's, you know, the kind that are, the risk I love, you know, we're gonna stick our neck out. You remember back the Marquette University outreach?

Oh, those guys were crazy. But it was great. I mean, and right now we've got a UWM emphasis going and seeing God work there. And so don't sell yourself short.

You just limit yourself right now as an eighth grader, as a 10th grader. Pray, Lord, what can we do? Where can we go? How can, you know, and if God puts something in your heart, share it with your leadership.

I'll guarantee you they're going to listen. So I just want to encourage that don't wait till later. God can do it when you're younger.

Bobby Bosler: What I'm hoping and what I'm honestly praying about, young people, is as we're talking and just sharing some of the things that God's putting some ideas in your heart. He's putting some burdens on your soul. We can't see your town. We can't see the streets, the opportunities.

But maybe as we've been talking, there's been this burden in your heart for, I don't know, whatever it might be, the market, that corner, that spot where you see people playing basketball, same kids, like every single week or whatever. Don't dismiss that. And yet at the same time, we need to be intentional about it, right? We need to stick our necks out there.

Communicate, please communicate with your pastors and your parents. Talk to them about these things because they might be able to give you some wisdom and a perspective maybe you wouldn't have otherwise, but at the same time, go for it. Go for it. Oh man, I'm just thinking, I'm hoping that I will hear after this week of gospel opportunity after gospel opportunity after gospel opportunity that has taken place from God stirring your hearts here today.

Speaker 8: Make an observation. Pastor Jim, I'm with Ryan and others. in what they said today, that the unbelievable opportunities and what God using them didn't come until there was a surrender moment.

Speaker 6: And obviously, I'm just thinking,

Speaker 8: you know, my life, a lot of years were wasted in high school because I didn't let those things go in my heart. I sat in these types like this, being at the old team conferences back in the day, and was stirred and got the ideas, but they went nowhere past the conference. Nowhere. I mean, I was burdened for it, but I couldn't get the gumption up to do it because I had the sin in my life, and I was like, well, they're going to make fun of me, and you start connecting, you can't do it.

But you start surrendering, and you just give yourself to the Lord, the sin's out of the way. So everything that's been talked about, you know, young person, this is, I think, I guess what I've just stirred with is don't waste the years. Don't sit in eighth grade, ninth grade, tenth grade, eleventh grade, and all those people that you could have talked to go down. I could have probably seen 160 people saved in those youth orchestras.

It was the opportunities where literally the White Harvest was right in front of me. I was too scared. I was not scared because I didn't know the gospel. I knew the gospel worked.

I was too scared because I knew I wasn't able to be a vessel at that point. I remember I give this illustration. I remember one time I was preaching on the road ensemble with our college ensemble. My wife just asked me one time.

She said, why don't you preach this particular message? I said, well, I'm not living it right now. A particular thing. I just don't feel like I'm, so it was like a, whatever, like a big sowing thing, I don't know what it was.

I said, I don't feel like I can. And she goes, well, why don't you start living it so you can preach it? And if you're sitting here going, I don't think I can give the gospel, I don't think I have the power, then why don't you just get the power to give the gospel? You know, if you're sitting here, you're one step away from getting right with God, and so you can have that.

You say, I can't ever lead 26 people to the Lord at Hy-Vee at a place. Yeah, you could, because it wasn't him anyways. He got right with God, you couldn't, I and see my uncle's personality, see what they've been doing all their entire life, it's not them, it's God. It's amazing what God's done through their lives.

But God did it, I mean, and there's moments of surrender, and it happened in their high school years. So I'm just challenging you, I guess it's just hitting me. I wish I would have done it earlier in my life and give myself the Lord, but it's right here. I mean, this is the army.

I mean, if one guy could see a 900 kid saved, what could you do?

Speaker 9: – By the way, just one quick example. years ago dr shetler preached on what's in your hand in other words what you have is an opportunity and a couple of our teenagers said why can't we use our musical training to start reaching the lost which was something we were burdened about but they started they took it on themselves to do it i would say there's at least 80 people in our church today reached through that outreach alone that was started by teenagers amen it does make your life can make a difference because it's not you, it's God. And why don't you just, why don't you just let, why don't you test what God can do?

Speaker 7: Let him show himself strong. I think there's two. It's just beautiful to remember that God knows your situation. So he knows you're homeschooled or he knows you're in a public, he knows your neighborhood, he knows where you're at.

And so he knows how to lead you to, if you come and say, Lord, where is the way that my life can intersect with lost people? How is it, where is the world that I'm supposed to own? You know, we talk about being, you know, that you can be a world changer. Well, being a world changer starts with being a world changer of your world, the one that God has put you in right here.

You know, we can think so big sometimes that we miss the actual right here. And the Lord knows those situations. He knows where you are. And so he can lead you to right now in this spot where I am, where I feel like, how am I going to find a, he knows, ask him.

He wants to answer that prayer because he wants to use you. And he's put you in this situation. And so trust him to lead you. Ask him.

And then as he begins to lead you, step out, take those steps. Yeah, for sure.

Bobby Bosler: God will confirm it too. He will confirm it. He will bless. There will be just clear. again don't get like weird about confirmation I remember as a teenager sometimes being like I'll get right with God if that stoplight changes to green in the next three seconds I'm just going to put this very theologically that's dumb but God does have a way of just confirming this is the right thing this is the right way this is the right path and I concur here.

Young people, you know what's standing in the way of this. So don't let it stand in the way. I look back at my teenage years and I just wish I could have spent them, wish I could have spent them better. Spent most of my teenage years on video games, honestly.

Most of my teenage years looking at things I shouldn't look at on the internet. Spent most of my teenage years completely and entirely wasting them. And having seen when I finally got right with God, when I finally cleared the deck, nothing really, for me at least, and again, nothing happened before then. But after that point, oh, man, could have never dreamed the things that God could have done.

Well, this has been a good discussion. This has been good. Anybody have any thoughts for me to just kind of tie things together at all? Any further observations here?

Speaker 5: I think there's probably well over 100 different ideas in people's minds that aren't just ideas out of nowhere. That's the Holy Spirit saying, this is actually a step of obedience you need to take. And as Pastor Gillmore said in his session, every day that goes by that you wait, you're in disobedience. And some of those ideas are time-sensitive.

And you don't know how long that opportunity is going to be open. But you mentioned that we'd love to be hearing souls that are saved and things that are starting to move. And it's like, if we're going to hear about that, it's going to be next week. Right, sir.

Because this is a commandment for right now, not next year. Whatever God's putting on your mind right now is not for next year. It's for right now. You've got to have that in your mind.

Some of you are looking at another step of obedience that God has given you of sin in your life and things that need to be dealt with. You think, well, I've got to cure this up first, and I need to have a six-month track record of being cured. I've got to have all these things. No, this is a step of obedience.

This isn't something you can get there and earn this. This is as you have come into harmony and union with who God wants you to be and have seen now a vision for your life. Then you know you can go home and take steps at the same time. I'm going to stop looking at things I shouldn't look at.

I'm going to get right about bitterness in my life. And I'm going to start leading people to Jesus. There's no reason to separate those.

Speaker 8: Amen. The longer you wait, the harder it is. I was thinking about even just giving the gospel. people stood who knows who knows people that are in public school. The longer you wait the harder it's going to be.

The longer you know them your neighbors the longer the more years you know them the hard it's going to be to give them the gospel. To have that courage so just go do it next week. Go do it tomorrow.

Speaker 5: And tell somebody today what you're going to do what God told you.

Speaker 9: Well I'm just going to say young people anyone up here would say the earlier you can get on fire for God the better it's going to be for what God can do. And whatever the testimony is, don't think I can wait till later. Because when you know to do good and don't do it, you've then gone against the Lord. Hudson Taylor started as a teenager.

James Stewart started as a teenager. Goforth started as a teenager. You start looking at the men of God that you read about today, many of them who were on fire for God as teenagers. And we're missing that today.

And we would love to see a group like this, and I believe this group could, begin to see great things happen when you're a 10th grader, not when you hit college. You're going to have things you've got to undo in college if you wait until you're in college. And everybody here would agree, now's the time. I'm telling you, there's nothing better than to see the Lord work as a teenager.

Speaker 3: Acts 2 says, It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh. And that's what God's doing. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see vision, and your old men dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, even the lowest of whatever classification a believer would be, Even on the handmaiden, I'm going to pour out of my spirit in those days.

And so that means that God's pouring out a spirit on you right now. And some of these dreams and visions, some of these things that come, they're from God. And he's given you a burden and direction. And just recognize that it's not you, it's him.

And you've got this privilege from the youngest to the oldest to participate.

Speaker 8: Look at the faces right now. I can see some debilitating fear in some of the eyes. I understand from high school and as I don't know if it was what Brian just said go tell somebody and pray with them if you're scared out of your wits well go ask the Lord for courage but I'm just seeing, I'm looking around and I'm seeing people going I know this is the right thing to do but yikes but God can give you the strength Amen

Bobby Bosler: Step out of the boat, right? Zero 100 Amen Well let's go ahead and pray, this has been a great time And let's go seek the Lord. Lord, we are so thankful that you are able to lead us individually, that you, the Lord of the harvest, know exactly how you've gifted us, where to place us, and what can be done through us. And Lord, I want to ask for these young men and young ladies right now, as no doubt ideas have come into their minds, I pray, Lord, would you give them courage?

Would you give them clear, even clear guidance? Would you give them power? Would you give them opportunity? And I pray you'd end up giving them a story that makes you look good.

Lord, I know that perhaps even as a result of some of these ideas, you will start ministries, churches, lives that bring much honor and glory to you. And I just want to say, may it be so. Lord we love you we're thankful just for how you stirred our hearts here today would you cause our hearts to continue to burn far beyond this particular session in Jesus name Amen