YWJ: Your new book Greater is all about what we can achieve with Christ in this life by dreaming bigger and starting smaller. What about this message might be most important for youth workers or teenagers to grasp onto?
Furtick: I think the message of Greater works better for students than any other age group. Some of the experiences I share include how God started speaking to me as a teenager, including many of the questions I wrestled with. I relate this to how the prophet Elijah threw a mantle on Elisha’s shoulder, who then went on to do twice as many miracles as Elijah. You can see how that relates closely to student ministry.
The other thing that may resonate with youth workers is how surrendering your life to God looks. Elisha has to burn his plows to follow the Lord, which many of us have wrestled with when it comes to giving our dreams and routine to God. That’s a powerful thing to wrestle with, because it involves a kind of sanctified naiveté that says, “I won’t resign myself to the mediocrity I can see in order to seize something greater I can’t yet see.” I also talk quite a bit about how it looks when God doesn’t act as you want Him to act.
YWJ: What is one Greater thing you think youth workers ought to be doing or dreaming that they may skip?
Furtick: A chapter in the book called “Wasted Faith” is probably the most meaningful one in the book. It tells the story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman, and raises the question of what you do when you invest into someone and who still falls apart. Youth workers often pour into a kid who walks away; when you hit those times, you may feel as if it was all for nothing. The thing is God never wastes your faith, even in relationships you think have failed. Sometimes the Lord is orchestrating something behind the scenes that won’t play out for 10 or 20 years.
Whatever you offer to God, all He needs is all you have. He can multiply that for the kingdom whether you’re a shy youth worker or someone who touches many. It’s not in vain.
YWJ: Talk about the Greater prayers you pray for your own kids each night.
Furtick: I pray they would be the greatest men and woman of God in their generation. That prayer is a little over their heads right now because they’re 7, 5 and 1 1/2. Even if they have a limited understanding of what that means, I don’t and will keep planting seeds of greater expectations. I tell them, “You’re going to do greater things than daddy did, whether you teach, work at Sea World or run a bank.” It’s what Jesus promised us in
Tony Myles is an author (The Miracles Of Jesus: A 30-Day Devotional for Students, with Seth McCoy), speaker, and lead pastor since 2006 of Connection Church in Medina, Ohio.
