Community Evangelism

As a youth worker I am always thinking about how to reach as many youth as possible to win them for Christ. There are a few different ways that different youth groups go about reaching the lost and I am not satisified with them!

1) Entertainment - This is the type of youth group I was brought up in. We would gather as a group to have fun, to be entertained. There would be little to no mention of Jesus, the gospel or an opportunity for people to be saved. The aim is to have fun and invite them to the next program that is more gospel friendly. This form of youth group is very common especially amongst small youth groups. Community is forged through fun and with relationships one day someone might talk to them about the gospel.

2) Worship - This type of youth group revolves around a worship meeting where you simply go to a meeting to worship God and hear someone preach. You are to bring your friends to worship and the aim is that the power of God would touch them during an often emotional appeal. The gospel is preached and opportunity is given to be saved. In this method people are asked to come into a new community then stay in that community then leave it to bring more friends back. The focus of these is to get an individual saved. This method is quite common in larger groups.

The problem I have with these is that they both focus on getting the individual saved. They focus on a one person at a time theory. They both work to some extent but they have hurdles of having to change communty to be a Christian. They are both focussed on getting people into new community.

I hate that. I see in the gospels and in Acts, in the early church, early salvos, and Chineese church, not just one or two people getting saved but communities. I hate that we rip people out of one community and try to make a new community. I only understand that if we are dealing with people with absolutely no community at all. But for the majority people are in some form of community. I would much rather get communities saved than just one person at a time.

So, Im looking for ways of reaching communities and not just individuals. What do you guys reckon?