I've always been a student of revival.

Since I was a teenager I have studied revivals and spiritual awakenings with a voracious appetite. I have scoured books about them and have listened to sermons on them, looking for the keys to revival, longing to be a part of the next great move of God on earth.

 The Coronavirus is a hot topic among teenagers. Many are afraid. Most have never been exposed to the idea of a virus spreading and killing outside of the world of Zombie apocalypse movies and video games.

But the Coronavirus is real...and dangerous. Although it has not killed as nearly as many as the current H1N1 Flu epidemic, many epidemiologists agree that, sooner or later, a sweeping flu virus could kill hundreds of millions of people.

In 1918 the Spanish Flu killed between 50-100 million people worldwide. With today's population literally 6x's bigger, if a similar flu bug spread globally today it could potentially kill hundreds upon hundreds of millions of people. The question with every new outbreak, like the Coronavirus epidemic in China, is, "Could this be the big one?"

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In this month's episode of Gospelize, Greg is starting the fifth part of a seven-part series on how you can build a Gospel Advancing Ministry. In this part, we are focusing on how as leaders, we have to lead with a bold vision for our students, to focus on the overall mission of our ministry and the Gospel.

My close friend and ministry partner Zane Black along with his amazing team at Lovin Life just unleashed a new resource into the youth ministry world that you need to start using right away!

It's called Life Series. These powerful, short and amazingly well done videos are specifically designed to help new believers to grow in their new LIFE in Christ.

Starting this Friday I'm going to be on tour with Winter Jam and I can't wait! This year's lineup is shockingly good: Crowder, Hillsong Young & Free, Passion Band, Red, Andy Mineo, Building 429, New Song and so many others. I think this is the strongest top to bottom lineup Winter Jam has had in years!

I have a vision for the church in 2020, actually for the entire decade. A growing number of believers (including me) are nicknaming the next ten years, "The Roaring Twenties." Because we believe the Lion of Judah will roar like never before through his primary voice to the world, the Church.

With that in mind, here's my 2020 vision:

...I see believers uniting together in the Name of Christ and the power of the Spirit for the glory of the Father to advance God's Name and Fame to a world steeped in darkness.

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In this month's episode of Gospelize, Greg is starting going over the fourth part of a seven-part series on how you can build a Gospel Advancing Ministry. In this part, we are focusing on value 4, what discipline multiplication looks like and how as leaders we should do it.

Before I get any flack for concept stealing, I want to let you know that I got permission from my friend Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for Christmas and, The Case for....just about everything dealing with the subject of Jesus, to spin his "Case for" theme toward youth ministry. 

Lee wholeheartedly agreed that this is a message I should tackle. He, too, is convinced that this next generation needs reached and that it's going to take youth leaders, parents and pastors fully aligned with the right kind of philosophy to reach them.

I hesitate to even use the term "right kind of youth ministry" because I'm actually not referring to any particular youth ministry model or program. Models and programs are fine and necessary, but what makes or break them is, not the program itself but the philosophy behind them.

The old business adage, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast" is also true for youth  ministry. When the right kind of culture is present in a youth ministry almost any model or program will work. And when the right kind of culture is not present then it doesn't matter what program or model you have in place, because it's doomed to fail.

But, before I make a case for the right kind (philosophy/mindset) of youth ministry, allow me to make a case for youth ministry in general. Why is youth ministry  strategically important for the church?

Firstly, and this is something we all intuitively know, the VAST majority of people who put their faith in Jesus do so by the age of 18. I'm sure that you, like me, have read the statistics that the younger a person is the more likely they are to come to Christ. 

I'll never forget when a teenage girl came up to me after a Dare 2 Share conference and asked me two hard questions:

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In this month's episode of Gospelize, Greg is starting the third part of a seven-part series on how you can build a Gospel Advancing Ministry. In this part, we are focusing on how as leaders, we have to embrace and model a Gospel Advancing Ministry.