Austin Gutwein: They're doing something now. These kids will grow up and think, "I remember giving something when I was a kid." Giving will become second nature to them as adults.

Dave: They're people who have cultivated prayer as a part of their lifestyle. They're students of Scripture. They know how to love well and how to carry the burdens of others.

YWJ: How do teens' abilities and desire to change the world contribute to their faith formation?

Kara: Kids point to two primary paths to spiritual growth: relationships and service. Service can be a huge catalyst for faith formation. In our College Transition Project, graduating seniors reported that service and mission trips were two of the top experiences they wish they had had more of in their youth ministry.

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Austin: It allows us to really trust God. Every time we do something on our own, it doesn't work out great. Every time we let God handle it, it goes better.

YWJ: What experiences are most useful in helping youth become world changers?

Kara: Some really good research shows that short-term mission trips don't produce the long-term fruit we'd hope for. For many kids, a mission trip takes them three steps forward, but then the pressures of home drag them 2.93 steps back. The net gain of .07 steps falls short of our prayers and dreams. We at the Fuller Youth Institute have created a "Before/During/After" model to service. It captures the reality that service needs to be a process that starts long before kids hop on an airplane. What are we doing to prepare kids for what they'll experience before they leave? What are we doing to discuss what they're seeing and hearing? What do we do after we get home to help them connect what they learned in Tijuana with world history class? Youth workers have to be intentional and schedule multiple meetings with kids to talk about what they learned and make sure it doesn't evaporate after the trip.

Mike: Experiences that put them out of their comfort zone and into difficult situations—those experiences stretch our capacity to understand what it means to be Christian. These experiences don't need to happen internationally. I'd argue for doing them in your own town. It's easy to disconnect from what's going on half-way around the globe when we only go for two weeks. If it's local, it's my town. Then we have to do something about it. Localization prevents us from compartmentalizing and forgetting our neighbors.

Austin: For me, going to Africa was incredible. There was this boy, George, who I met in a church in Zambia. I played soccer with him. When it was time for us to go, I gave him the soccer ball. I saw his mom the next day. She walked 12 miles to give me a letter from George that had a picture of when I gave him the soccer ball and said, "I love you." Right then I knew that what's insignificant to me makes a difference in their lives. Giving isn't about how much you give. Just change the world for one person.