In my community, a student prayer movement began in January of 1998 at one suburban high school - but it didn't stop there.
Two student leaders and about twenty other students at Maize High School began praying for a spiritual awakening on their campus, for the salvation of specific students, and opportunities to share Christ with them. In February 1998, over half of these students began fasting and praying for three weeks. As a result of their prayers one student yielded her life to Christ, in her room, by herself during spring break. And the prayers continued to be answered. Even after these prayer leaders graduated there were more students for whom this group had prayed that yielded their lives to Christ.
In this prayer journey, we learned some things that might help you in your community as well.
Encourage
As director of Campus Ministry Network (CMN) in my community of Wichita, Kansas, I encouraged the student leaders at Maize. I also gave them a platform to share their vision and experiences of leading a prayer group with other students, youth pastors, parents and adults at a citywide CMN Banquet, Student Leadership Conference and through our print newsletter (pre-digital age). Students from across metro Wichita - an area of nearly 625,000 people today - caught the vision and soon there were many new student prayer groups.
Equip
Along the way we learned how to equip student leaders to pray. We realized that Student prayer leaders need adults in their lives to:
- Champion their God-given dreams, and
- Equip them with practical tips and creative ideas on leading a student prayer groups while embracing the vision that God has given them.
We also learned that Experienced student prayer leaders can also be used to equip students. The student prayer leaders at Maize High School didn't just cast vision for prayer to students from other campuses. They also helped to equip them in how to lead a student prayer group at our annual Student Leadership Conference.
Pray and Listen
Be a consistent role model of prayer for your students. My experience has been that key student prayer leaders usually come from churches, youth ministries or families that have modeled and taught the importance of prayer. Even with good adult and student role models, a once thriving student prayer movement in a community can begin to diminish. This happened at the schools in our community. But I kept praying and encouraging adults to pray. I even promoted a national prayer event near our community, praying that God would rise up from this event a new generation of student prayer leaders.
God did answer my prayer, but not as I expected. Just weeks after the big prayer event I got a call from a student who had a vision so big for student prayer that she almost talked herself out of sharing it out loud with others. I listened as she shared her calling to pray for a spiritual awakening in our community. I encouraged her vision for prayer and connected her with another student with a similar heart for prayer.
These two met with other students during the summer to pray for a spiritual awakening in our area and for the Christian student leaders on the campuses. When the school year started, I gave them a platform to share their heart for prayer and spiritual awakening at our community-wide See You After The Pole event.
One week later, these student leaders asked to meet with me. They shared their desire to do monthly campus prayer walks in our community. We saw students catching a vision for prayer as they were inspired by the See You After The Pole event and participated in campus prayer walks. Soon there were more campus prayer groups in our community.
So how can you see something like this happen where you live? The "interactive" below offers some very practical suggestions.
Building a Student Prayer Movement
A student prayer movement in your community will probably look different than what happened in my community. Here are some action points to guide you as you pray for God to work in and through your students:
- Pray for your students. Ask parents, grandparents, youth pastors and any interested adult in your community to pray for youth, campuses and for student prayer leaders in your community. Find adults who will commit to pray consistently (weekly or daily).
- Listen to what God is saying. He may be speaking through one of your students. Listen to their dreams and prayerfully guide and direct them.
- Encourage your students by sharing your vision and passion for prayer. Give experienced student prayer leaders a platform to share at See You After The Pole, student leadership conferences, retreats, and youth meetings. Use Twitter, Facebook, blogs and websites as platforms to share students' stories.
- Equip students interested in starting prayer groups or those who are already leading them, with practical tips and creative ideas on how to lead a campus prayer group. Use experienced student prayer leaders with good communication skills to equip other students. Student leadership conferences and retreats are great venues for workshop sessions on how to lead a campus prayer group.