Youth leaders want their teenagers to develop a healthy, missional worldview; and they want to provide experiences that foster that concept in teens' hearts and minds. Often this seems like it is easier said than done, so YouthWorker Journal talked to Dino Rizzo, Dave Workman and Reggie Joiner, three leaders who are speaking powerfully into the ongoing conversation happening in youth ministry regarding the question of how to help students develop a missional worldview.

Author of Servolution (Zondervan, 2009) and the founding pastor of the innovative Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., Dino Rizzo speaks passionately about the revolutionary power of serving others.

Dave Workman is the senior pastor of Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and author of The Outward-Focused Life: Becoming a Servant in a Serve-Me World (Baker Books, 2008). Dave's pioneering voice has provided an ongoing call for Christians to develop an outward-focused, servant-oriented life.

Reggie Joiner's new book, Think Orange: Imagine the Impact When Church and Family Collide (David C. Cook, 2009) is a call for change and a new philosophy of family ministry. Founder and CEO of the reThink group, Reggie's imaginative voice calls churches to Think Orange and unite church and family for maximum impact.

YouthWorker Journal: Many people talk about having a missional mindset, but they're not sure what that means. How do you define missional?

Reggie Joiner: Without being too sarcastic, would it be OK to define missional the way Jesus did? "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit..." It simply involves helping people who are not following Jesus to follow Jesus.

Dave Workman: To me, in its purest form missional is simply an adjective to describe being sent with the message and works of the Kingdom. In many ways, a missionary incarnates Jesus to those who don't know Him.

Dino Rizz For us, being missional means we just believe we are on a mission to be a healing place for a hurting world. It's like Jake and Elwood [Blues Brothers, 1980]. We're on a mission from God, and all we do stems from that.

YWJ: Some youth workers say they want their kids to be missional. Do you think these efforts are working? What's working and what's not?

Dave: Some of it actually may involve redefining what a disciple really is. It certainly isn't just a repository of correct theological information or practicing sin management. We've defined disciple very simply: a surrendered and transformed person who loves God and others. That's best described as moving from an inwardfocused to an outward-focused lifestyle.

Reggie: What doesn't work is a compartmentalized approach, like a one-time mission project in the poor part of town or in another country. We need to trust students to take real leadership—in our churches, in our communities and around the world. We will give a 10th grader the keys to a two-ton piece of steel with a powerful engine and turn them loose on the expressway, but we won't give him or her the keys to ministry. If we don't start talking about it until the last semester of the senior year, we've already lost. We need to be saying, "Leverage your influence. Don't just go to church. Be the church."