High school students have long been integral to International Mission Board strategy, and those who serve as teenagers often follow a career path that leads them to the mission field, IMB missionary Charlie Worthy said.
Worthy saw a need for missions education and discipleship and wanted to develop a pathway within the IMB’s existing structures in Europe to host high school students. He piloted a program called youth labs.
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The five-day labs are an opportunity for high school students entering their junior or senior year of high school to learn about missions alongside a long-term IMB missionary, a Journeyman, a national partner and IMB summer interns. The students put into practice what they learned by going out and sharing the gospel.
‘Ground zero’ approach
In the youth labs, Worthy wanted to take things from ground zero, covering material like, “what does missions mean?” and “what does evangelism mean?” The teaching times take place in a “lab,” where interaction is built into the program.
London and Budapest hosted youth labs this past summer.
In London, a local church lent its facilities for the training, and in Budapest, a church plant’s community center provided space for the lab. Worthy explained he plans for all student teams to partner with and invest in local churches, so the ministry is locally led, continues past the lab and connects with the ministry of the church.
During the 2024 labs, after listening to presentations on missions and evangelism methods, the students saw it modeled and then practiced what they learned amongst themselves before taking what they learned to the streets, where they interacted with people for three to four hours a day.
Having teachers in varying stages of service with the IMB was intentional.
“We wanted them to know that ‘you could be in this seat next year,’” Worthy said.
His hope is that the labs will lead the students to return to serve as summer interns and, after graduation, to serve as Journeymen.
Two seniors from churches in Florida who attended the labs in 2024 are returning as summer interns in 2025. They will be leading labs in Eastern Europe. Summer internships are six to eight weeks. Many summer interns continue their service as IMB Journeyman, and some Journeymen go on to serve long term. This is the pipeline progression Worthy hopes to see.
Students take gospel to streets
Scott Belmore, who hosted the labs in London, said he also wants to use the labs as a time to train high schoolers to develop a pipeline of service to the nations.
“These are opportunities to begin to raise up the next generation of missionaries to continue the work across the globe for the Kingdom,” Belmore said.
The team he hosted in London worked with local church partners to share the gospel in neighborhoods where they wanted to engage people with the gospel.
Belmore said they made tremendous advancements for their partners, who continue to outreach each week in communities where the students spent time.
In Budapest, students learned a method of sharing the gospel and took the knowledge to the streets. Budapest hosted breakdancing and skateboarding during the Paris 2024 Olympics. Students spent time sharing the gospel at the Olympic venues, and the team met the gold and silver medalists in breakdancing.
Through the high school students’ witness, they contacted 900 people, had 350 full gospel presentations, more than 70 people asked for more information and six people committed their lives to Christ.
Modeling faithful evangelism
Lamar Schubert, an IMB leader and missionary in Budapest, said the students advanced their team’s strategy by modeling faithful evangelism for their Hungarian partners. Their Hungarian partners will join the youth labs in 2025.
Worthy said in both cities, every high school student shared their faith at least once.
Lauren Morris, who is the student consultant for South Carolina Woman’s Missionary Union, led a team to serve in Budapest. The students came from seven churches across the state. Morris said the trip was an incredible experience for her students.
“I saw them embrace their faith in new ways as they pushed themselves to start conversations and share the gospel with complete strangers. They learned that once they took the first step of obedience, God made it incredibly easy for them to have gospel conversations,” Morris said.
Several of the teens on her team had the opportunity to sit with a homeless woman. They showed her love and compassion by listening to her story, sharing the gospel and purchasing lunch. While the woman did not accept Christ, they were able to plant a seed and understand just how rewarding obedience to God can be, Morris said.
She said there was a healthy peer pressure to not be the one to say they hadn’t talked to anyone about God that day.
‘All in it together’
“Everyone knew that we were all in it together, all fighting for obedience when the temptation to stay silent arose, and all cheering one another on each step of the way,” Morris said.
The beauty of the program is that what the students learn is not only applicable to ministry in Europe. They are tools they can use at home.
Morris said her students came home more confident in sharing the gospel and have been employing the strategies they learned on the trip within their communities.
Youth labs will take place in eight European cities in 2025. Worthy expects more than 200 students will attend the labs this summer. Plans will made soon for 2026 labs. Interested churches, associations or conventions can email info@imb.org for more information on upcoming labs.
He emphasized that the youth labs are open to everyone — from the rural church with a small group to a state association or WMU group that might gather students.
Some names changes for security.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Tessa Sanchez and originally published by International Mission Board.
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