I have been doing a little planning lately for what I would like to see in a children/youth outreach to my communitry. I am trying to be as deliberate as possible with as much as possible, take for example the name (well maybe the name, I like it) S.W.A.T Students With A Testemony.

Now you might be thinking "so what" every program has a weird name with acronyms but I want to do something than give the program a cool name. I want to put S.W.A.T onto T-Shirts, gym bags, water bottles, stickers, decals, everything. Then I want to give this items away to the kids that attend the program as prizes and also give the kids a chance to buy them if they want.

Now because this is an outreach program the whole thing behind it is equiping these kids to go out into there schools, community sports leagues, etc - with the purpose of seeing there peers won to Christ. I want to teach these kids a very simple way of talking to there friends about Jesus called WDJD (this is taught by Way of the master - www.wayofthemaster.com )

In order for these kids to be able to start God conversations with there friends they need a way to turn everyday ordinary conversations into evangelistic oportunities. Once that is done then WDJD takes over.

This is what I see this looking like (sort of):

Billy (S.W.A.T member)
Frank (Unsaved friend from school)

Frank: Hey Billy that's a cool new shirt, where did you get it?

Billy: I got it from church last night

Frank: What does it say of the back?

Billy: SWAT

Frank: what does that stand for?

Billy: Students with a testemony

Frank: What's a testemony?

Billy: Its my story about why I believe in Jesus


O.K. so at this point WDJD would take over and that would be where Billy asks Frank a series of questions that point out Frank's need for a saviour:

Would you consider yourself to be a good person? Frank would probably answer yes

Do you think you have kept the 10 commandments? This points out to Frank that he has lied, stolen, etc

Judgement - If God where to judge you by the 10 commandments would you be inocent or guilty? This points out the consequence for the breaking of the 10 commandments

Destiny - would you go to heaven or hell? At this point Frank is hopefully feeling convicted of his sin and realizes that he needs Christ in his life (not to make his life better, but to save himself from hell)

Yeah I know it is much more complicated than that but this is my blog - just a starting point. If you want a better look at what WDJD looks like go to www.wayofthemaster.com what these guys do with strangers I would like to apply to children with their friends.

I think that if we can teach kids how to have these none offensive yet convicting conversations with there friends then we can really have an effective ministry to the lost instead of just entertaining church kids.

Another thought would be to have large group WDJD, kids bring there unsaved friends to a S.W.A.T event and the leaders can do a large group presentation to present the message. This can be done maybe through drama or even under the disguise of training: We train kids how to reach there friends at school and while the other kids are watching the training they are being hit with the message.

Just a thought...