Impacting Your Community’s Schools Through Your Youth Ministry
As a youth worker I know you are passionate about reaching this generation with the love and message of Jesus. Why else would you do what you do? Your camp rocked this summer, you’re getting geared-up to kick off a new year of small groups, and your Wednesday night services are going to blow the kids away this Fall.
But, what about the other students? What do we do about the students who will never come to a church or church sponsored event?
These students are also known as . . . the majority.
On average, 12% of students attend church. Your numbers may spike to 20% if you are in the Bible Belt. Don’t believe me? Talk to the churches in your community and run the numbers. It will shock and motivate you. I did in Birmingham, AL and it was dead on.
Knowing these things, we can all agree that public schools are the largest mission field in the USA. 12% of students attend Church. 95% attend School. Do the math.
What do we do then? What is our role? You and I are not in high schools 8 hours a day. We’re fortunate if we’re even allowed to eat lunch there occasionally, or to do a devotion here and there. How can we make the biggest impact on the schools in our community?
We can reach the schools by raising up Campus Missionaries out of our groups, equipping them with the resources and experience to be successful.
Campus Missionaries are students who care about their friends and others who walk the halls of their campus everyday. Campus Missionaries have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They are interested in seeing Jesus have an impact on their campus and in the people they influence. Campus Missionaries are willing to do whatever they can to see that Jesus is represented in their schools.
As you are preparing to release your Campus Missionaries back into their mission field, use the following talking points to heighten their awareness of their purpose.
To become a Campus Missionary you need to:
- Have a desire to see your campus impacted for Jesus Christ.
- Begin praying daily for the people in your school.
- Be involved in your local church youth ministry.
- Be willing to tell your story and how Jesus has impacted you.
- Tell the Gospel story to those who will listen.
Campus Missionaries have the opportunity to do several things, but none are more important than these:
- Live the life–The example of a strong Christian testimony is a powerful tool in the schools your students attend.
- Pray for their friends and their school–Campus missionaries may be the only one who is praying for many of the students in their schools.
- Tell Jesus’ story–It all comes down to these students presenting Christ at school to those who need to hear the message.
- Get involved–Begin or support an ongoing campus club or ministry on your campus.
We will never be as effective as our students in reaching our local schools. By raising up your students to be salt and light in their schools, you can truly multiply your passion to see teenagers come to know Christ.
Matt Wilson is the Executive Director of First Priority Greater Birmingham. For more info on First Priority in Alabama go to www.gofirstpriority.com. For other locations across the county go to www.fpoa.org. Follow Matt and First Priority on twitter: @mattwilson518 and @firstpriorityal.
Share your thoughts with the youthministry360 community:
- How are you equipping your students to reach their schools for Christ?
- What have you tried as a youth worker that has allowed you to have a greater impact or presence on your high school campus?
This question I don’t think I can even answer; we are still trying to empower the youth that actually come to church. It’s a sad situation because they are afraid to even develop their relationship with Christ because of what they have to give up – which in their minds isn’t great, but it is what it is. They don’t believe that they can have life and have it more abundantly – that just happens to those on the ‘right side of the tracks’. And that is the mentality of that 95%, as well. So I need to know how to combat THAT….
Del, What you’re describing is tough: how do we help students truly grasp the difference Christ can make in their lives? Without knowing any specifics of your situation, I would just encourage you to stay true to the Bible, teach your students the Bible and how to live it out, and to model an active faith. Your life will oftentimes be one of the biggest examples of the difference Christ makes in an individual.
Hang in there! Be encouraged. The work you are doing is making a Kingdom difference.–Andy@ym360
well shortly after i took over the youth group it was coming up on SYATP time. so i start calling schools to find out what the game plan was…the JR high tells me thats something for the high school. I call the HS the HS tells me they can not allow it because its has to do with religion…my goal is for at least 1 publice school youth guided SYTAP this year in our city…we have a church on almost every block (im in LA the bible belt, there is no excuse)…the pastors wife and i just spent about 1 hour talking about having a pre SYATP ralley the night before and inviting multiple churches youth groups…if yall would please pray for us that GOD helps us to help our youth to be bold and take a stand
Susan,
I will be praying for you and your community. It is great that you are trying to hard to have a presence at the local school. Let me speak a minute about your SYATP issue. The school cannot tell the local church that it is not allowed to hold SYATP or other weekly Christian clubs. Here is the catch…it MUST be student led and student initiated. There also must be a teacher who will sponsor the event/ club as a school liaison.
The law that gives the students the rights to do these things is called the “Equal Access Act.” I would encourage you to do a search on it and read more about it.
The two best web sites to read more about students rights and the public schools are:
http://www.aclj.org & http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org
Indeed, for students to do these things they will need to be bold and take a stand. I will be in prayer for them.
We just talked about this last night. It was challenging for my group because they are all fringe kids who really want to be accepted in the more popular groups, but for whatever reason, aren’t.
After looking at the end of Isaiah 62 (sought after people), we talked about the possibility of that happening on campus. What if it were very obvious that they were convinced of what the best life for themselves was and people started seeking them out to find out how to truly live?
@Del, what you are doing is monumental and hard. I would encourage you to help your students see what they are giving up and what they are getting in return. The trade out isn’t comparable when you see that, as faith practicers, we get to unapologetically be the person we were created to be. I spent a lot of time in Eph. 2:10 with my youth to help them see who they are because of their faith. Hope this helps.