The Morning After…SYATP

The flags are flying alone today.  The left-over doughnuts are stale or donated.  And students are wondering ‘what just happened here’?

What just happened, youth workers, is a chance for you to seize the day – yesterday, specifically – and capitalize on your little pole-prayers.

Don’t let yesterday be a one-time, drive-by prayer event.  (Especially if you had a heavy hand in organizing or executing it!)  Sending a subtle message to your students that prayer is a random, one-time event that requires a T-shirt, a slap bracelet, and all-you-can-eat Krispy Kremes is NOT the intention of SYATP or youth ministries anywhere…

Rather, the opportunity exists to help students see prayer as a daily, hourly, continual event that SPARKS a movement, doesn’t complete one.

1.  Remind your students TODAY, via text, tweet, post, smoke-signal – use whatcha got – to pray.

2.  Give your students a specific moment to pray each day.  Have them set a reminder on their phone.  Publicize it judiciously in your student area.

3.  Encourage your students to become involved in weekly campus meetings at their school.  Besides the weekly dose of doughnuts, they’ll also get encouragement, accountability, and spiritual challenge on a regular basis.  It also communicates that events like SYATP can be a life-style launch, which is what all youth pastors hope for.  It may also spark a passion and vision for their campus…which should always be a not-so-subtle hope & by-product of SYATP.

4.  YOU pray.  Walk the campus.  List out the schools in an area over your desk or on your screen saver.  Get a list of educators in your area.  YOU pray.  SYATP is not intended as your prayer closet – find yours and get in it!

Whatever you do….do not let SYATP feel like the morning after a regrettable event.  ‘Man – that was stupid and it didn’t really make any difference in my life over the long haul….definitely NOT doing that again….’

Where Are They Now?

Meet Jake and Nicole…two grown ups I had the privilege of knowing as teenagers.  These high school sweethearts are now raising kids of their own, navigating the challenges of marriage, parenthood, careers, and all the things that smell so sweet as students…but really just stink of sweat, blood, and tears once you get there.

This week, Jake and Nicole passed through Corpus Christi (well, sort of….they actually detoured through Corpus) so we could have lunch together.  It’s always such an honor to spend a few minutes wading through the adult lives of teenagers who kept the faith and are walking it well.  And though their faithfulness to Him has everything to do with who they are and the investment made by their parents, there are a few things youth workers can do to help develop students who remain committed to Christ into their adulthood.

1.  Give them space to ask questions….and wrestle out their own answers.  (Even if those answers don’t always run parallel to your own.)

2.  Create room for REAL friendships that thrive on accountability and challenge.  (That means more than pizza, basketball, and Bible study.)

3,  Affirm and bless what you see.  (Your influence MUST go beyond a fist bump and stupid joke.)

4.  Make opportunities to serve.  (Both inside and outside your church – and then ask them about those opportunities.)

5.  Underestimate your influence.  (It’s always the work of the Holy Spirit that draws students into relationship with Himself!)

As we finished up our much-too-short visit, I thanked Jake for buying lunch.  (They rarely do that when they’re teenagers!)  He said something like “You paid for that meal years ago.”‘

No, Jake, those days were just redeemed by God – and I am beyond grateful that I just got to see God do His thing….