At the age of 14, a teenager wrote in the back of his King James Bible, “Contend for a Generation.” Who does such visionary spiritual thinking?

The answer is Sean Dunn, Founder and President of Groundwire, a remarkable ministry outreach focused on Millennials and the Gen Z crowd. Their primary demographic is currently 15-34 years old.

It seems Sean’s passion to reach lost souls has been the story of his life. While at Bible college, Dunn was employed at a church to lead their youth program. He was 18. As he says,

“I’ve been in full-time youth ministry for 38 years.”

A friend of mine in Seattle alerted me to the Groundwire approach. He encouraged me to contact Sean—which I did. The Kingdom influence of their work is somewhat mind-boggling.

As Dunn tells it,

“Heading into 2024, our goal was to see a minimum of one million profess faith in Jesus. We were able to achieve that goal on December 30th.”

In that one calendar year the Groundwire team tracked 1,005,601 people profess faith in Jesus. Keep in mind that target audience: millennials and Gen Z!

How does this happen? Sean’s ministry work moved from being a youth pastor, a speaker, and author to leveraging media, starting in 2003.

This was the strategy: Interrupt, Communicate, Commit, Educate, and create Community. Sean explains,

“Our big pivot came in 2017 when we went away from traditional media and 100% digital in our approach.”

Digital evangelism. That includes media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. Dunn claims,

“Discord is a growing piece of our follow up strategy.”

Groundwire tests what messaging works best.

“‘When Life Hurts, Jesus Cares’ is our primary message,” says Dunn. Adding, “We work to engage with their felt need (anxiety, depression, lonliness, lack of purpose) and then suggest Jesus as the answer…which leads us to being able to share the Gospel and what that means for eternity.”

And it works. Powerfully.

To connect with over one million souls in a single year requires a ton of volunteers. For Groundwire, volunteers “are the backbone of the ministry.” They reach out to young people 24 hours a day in both Spanish and English.

Sean tells me,

“We have a massive team of volunteers vetted, trained, and ready to listen, encourage, pray for, and point people to Jesus. Young people long to be heard…if you listen to them, they will listen to you.”

As an example, a young woman connected to Groundwire and asked “Do I Matter?” The online volunteer engaged and encouraged…

“You absolutely matter. You matter to me, I am sure there are others you matter to, but most importantly you matter to God.”

She then asked,

“Has anyone ever told you what God sees when He looks at you? He says that you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are made in HIs image. You are the crown of His creation and the Apple of His eye…He thinks you matter so much that He wants to spend eternity with you. Has anyone ever told you what He did to make that possible?”

After sharing the Gospel, the young woman wanted to place her trust in Christ. The volunteer prayed with her and then followed up,

“You came online and asked if you mattered. Now that you know what God sees when He looks at you and what Jesus did for you so you could spend eternity in Heaven, I want to ask you. Do you matter?”

The young woman ended in all caps and with three exclamation points.

“I Do Matter!!!”

Of course, Groundwire has many stories like these—including repaired hearts from all over Illinois.

Is there lasting value to this “fruit?” Sean Dunn admits,

“We do the best job we can to get those professing faith to take meaningful and measured steps in their spiritual journey. But truthfully, we rely on 1 Corinthians 3:6, which teaches that some plant and some water but God gives the increase. Our job is to plant and to water relentlessly every day, trusting that His Word won’t return void and He will watch over it to see it grow.”

Interested in learning more—including how to get involved? The best place to connect and learn is to visit www.Groundwire.net.

As Jesus said,

“Listen to what I’m telling you: Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are ready for harvest.” (John 4:35, CSB)