Challenge Your Students
The 2414 Story
Challenging students to go far beyond what they could imagine in their walk with God.
About eight years ago, I remembered very clearly asking one of our students, who had just returned from one of our mission trips, how it went. The answer I got was typical of a student “We had a blast.” No one in the world likes to have fun more than myself. I may like having fun a little too much, and I have the college grades to prove it. :)
But the answer bugged me for a while. I returned later and asked what this student meant by “having a blast.” He listed several activities that did sound like fun. And for the record, I always plan a fun day for each trip I lead. I mean you travel thousands of miles, there should be a day or so of fun to see the country or shop or something.
So what was bugging me so much with what this student saying? It revolved around the idea that he never mentioned any ministry efforts. I mean, what about what God did while you were there? Did He do something among those you were reaching? How about within you? What did God do? But he didn’t mention any of that.
Another struggle I had with all this was that this trip went to a place that has had the gospel for well over a thousand years. They had churches. They had access to Jesus, to Bibles, to the gospel. While Christianity was in decline there, they had the gospel. I kept asking myself, “Why were we sending students to a place much like America with easy access to the gospel? Plenty of places worldwide have far less gospel than where we went. Shouldn’t we be teaching them to go where they are needed most? I felt like we were feeding a well-fed person versus those who were spiritually starving.
While mulling over all this, God gave me one of those ah-ha moments. Why don’t we begin a new program where we challenge and train our High School students to go to places that had little to no access to the gospel? We soon realized that what was needed was a missions program that trained them more like Navy Seals versus preparing them for a trip to Disney World. What evidentially rose to the top of my thinking was “The 2414 Project,” which eventually was shortened to 2414.
The name comes from Matthew 24:14, which states:
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
After a bit of research, I found that very few churches prepare students to be the kind of Christians who take the gospel to places that need the most, even if that is in our own cities. We were starting from scratch. I sometimes felt like I was building the plane as we were flying.
Our goal became to not only teach them about missions but also to disciple students to be able to speak to anyone from any background or religion about Jesus. America is rapidly changing, and the world is coming to us. To be effective in this new world, we needed students who understood mission principles to apply right here at home.
2414 works like this. Each student would spend ten months to a year in training. At the end of the training, we take the students on a mission trip to an Unreached People Group (UPG).
During their training, we concentrate on several areas.
1. What are biblical missions? We cover the mission God gave us from Genesis to Revelation. Our focus is to show that the word for nations in the scripture has always referred to people groups and not geopolitical countries. In the New Testament, the term is ethnos, from which we get the word ethnic. We aim to build a biblical foundation in which taking the gospel to people groups (or “nations”) that do not have the gospel is a priority.
The goal is to undo much of the training churches give students about missions. Many churches’ theology of missions revolves around going to poor, foreign places and helping in a humanitarian project. While that can be good, it is not the end goal of biblical missions. Gospel penetration and Church Planting are our end goals.
2. Strategy Training is the second area of study for the students. Many strategies used in America to reach people have become outdated as the culture has changed. The methods we learn for overseas missions seem to be returning to America to help us reach our people. Therefore we see that these international strategies are now effective overseas and can help us reach our people here in America.
Take, for instance, orality. Many people in the world are oral learners. Some live in oral cultures where reading is not widely spread. Others may live in a culture where people are more accustomed to other learning methods like storytelling. We teach our students to use storytelling and scripture to share the gospel. Considering that in our area of Hampton Roads, according to the 2010 census, 28% of the people are illiterate and 31% are functionally illiterate, orality is a key to our work overseas and at home in America.
This is just one example. Other strategies we cover include dependency, relational engagement, chronological bible storying, and more. We also discuss building a platform and training that allows a person to access a community and bring value to the people group on top of the gospel.
They also learn from some of the world's greatest missiologists. For example, Dr. Nik and Ruth Ripken, the world’s leading authorities on the persecuted church, spend a whole day with our students, pouring into them. I have also had other friends from the International Mission Board come down to train our students in their areas of expertise.
Apologetics
As a vital part of the student's strategy training, we also cover some beginning apologetics. One of our desired outcomes is for our students to be able to evaluate and engage people who hold various belief systems in a gospel conversation. While knowing the scripture is the critical foundational element, knowing a little about the beliefs of others is essential in speaking with them about Jesus. We cover the resurrection, the uniqueness of Jesus, Islam, atheism, Mormonism, and more.
Our end goal is for every student to feel confident that Christianity is true and to be able to stand firm in talking to others about their faith.
3. Mentorship is another critical element of training students. Mentors are better able to challenge students to press forward in their faith. Students can go much further than people think. As this program has developed over the last eight years, we have seen incredible student development. Our leaders aim to lead and encourage students to get out of their comfort zones and speak to people from different cultures to engage them with the gospel. The results have been phenomenal.
An example of the results was when our student ministry conducted a block party at an apartment complex with many immigrants. Approximately eighty students, with about eight of our 2414 students, were in attendance. When I arrived, I noticed something different. There was a cluster of Muslim moms watching the party and watching their kids play. I later discovered that the moms were from a Central Asian country. The best part was to see our 2414 students already over there talking to these Muslim women. They were the only students from the student ministry engaging them. I was so excited to see them, unafraid to speak with ladies from different cultures. I also realized that when adequately trained, students do amazing things.
4. Practical training is our fourth and final step. During our training year, we provide opportunities for our students to put into practice what they are learning. One way we do this is to take a weekend trip to the Washington D.C. area. Washington, D.C., is filled with people from all over the world. On this trip, the students put into practice what they have learned. They get comfortable speaking to those from other cultures. We do various things like touring a Mosque and participating in a scavenger hunt that requires them to approach and speak with someone from a different country. They learn to work together as a team and put into practice their training of sharing the gospel and storytelling.
Another part of their practical training is when they arrive in the country. Over the years, I noticed that everything, as far as buying food, cooking, and cleaning, is done for the students. In 2414 the Students have all the responsibility for the planning or the execution of many parts of the trip.
We do not baby them. They plan and prepare everything for a kid’s camp we do for the local African kids. They do all the food shopping, cooking, and cleaning after meals. They lead prayer and devotion times. The students create social media platforms to share the trip with others. Almost everything is done by the students. Leaders are there to guide them, but they do most of the work. We try to minimize our reliance on missionaries.
The results of this program have gone far beyond what I could have hoped. We currently have one student living in Central Asia, with another serving six months in a former eastern bloc country. Several others have spent summers in an unreached part of the world, and one works with an organization traveling in and out of hot spots worldwide. The others are fantastic church members who understand that every church's goal should be to send the gospel to places with little to no access to the gospel.
The Rest of the Story
We took 2022-2023 off for various reasons to re-evaluate and see where God was taking us. We will begin again in the fall of 2023. This will be the best year yet.
I hope that this story will do several things:
1. To lead our church and students to understand that biblical nations are people groups, not countries.
2. To understand that a major part of biblical missions is taking the gospel to people groups with little to no access to the gospel. (See Romans 15:20-21, Revelation 5:9, 7:9, Matthew 28:19)
3. To train students to be gospel witnesses in a diverse world. They are growing up in a very different world from their parents. To be effective in the future, they need to be trained more like Navy Seals, bold and ready to take on anything. We have seen that students can go far beyond the current challenges many churches are offering.
4. Finally, I want to see other churches join us on this journey.
If you have any questions regarding this program, please get in touch with me, Ken McLemore, at Ken@Theengagingchurch.com
To see a video pictorial of past trips, click here: https://vimeo.com/249007335