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Mar 28
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The Call of God on your Life

By Nehemiah

The walls and gates of Jerusalem had been torn down for over seventy years. During those seventy years, there were probably hundreds, maybe even thousands of people who thought to themselves or said to a friend, “We need to fix these walls.”

How many times has it been said in our country that, “We need to reach these schools?” Everyone in the church would agree with the statement and might even go so far as to try to do something about it. However, they get busy with all of their other obligations and it becomes just another great idea. Many churches are doing good things, but nobody is organizing them all to share the hope of Christ with every student. Like in Nehemiah’s example, if there is not a person waking up every day to organize the work, it will not happen.

When Nehemiah inquired about the Jewish remnant and the conditions of the city and was told of the situation, he was moved to tears. Nehemiah 1:4, “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

The difference between all of the thousands who had seen the condition of the walls and Nehemiah was that Nehemiah was burdened. He was burdened to the point that he spent days fasting and praying to God. If you are burdened, fast and pray.

We tell others who are thinking about starting First Priority in their community to pray, familiarize themselves with First Priority, and with the conditions of their community. If they can’t sleep, then it is a good indication that God is calling them to do something about it! We like to call it the “sleep test.”

The call of God to unite your community and reach students is very important. This is no easy task! If it were easy, someone else would have already done it. There will be very hard times and a lot of frustrating moments, but the call God places on your life is what will keep you keeping on.

Mark Roberts
Associate Director
First Priority of America

Mar 20
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5 Ways to serve your school!

By FP Tools, Church Leaders

School Ministry needs to be a well-rounded strategy, not just a box to check off each week. Not only do we need to be ministering to the students, but we need to be ministering to teachers, staff, administrators, and parents. In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus lays out the Great Commission in this way,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

We need to look at the Great Commission in a way that we normally do not. We need to find the different “nations” on our school campus and strategize ways to reach each one. Below are a few different ideas to reach local schools for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

  1. Become a School Chaplin- Sports Teams, District Ceremonies, Praying over a Banquet.
  2. Principal Q&A- Bring the Principals to your church and interview them on
    stage to discover school needs. 
  3. Lunch Duty- Give the teachers a break during lunch, and cover cafeteria duty for them.
  4. Service Projects- Spend your free time serving at your local school, invest in areas that they are limited by time and resources to address.
  5. School Year Kickoff- Have a time where you do something special for the school to launch
    the school year. It can be as simple as walking the halls of the school, taking time to pray over each room. 

The big theme here is to serve the school. You can never go wrong by serving.

God Bless,

Cameron Crow
Area Coordinator
First Priority Premium Basin, TX

Mar 13
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Two growing First Priority movements bring in new leadership!

By Local FP Communities

Justin Theriot is a dad of three, husband to one great lady, and friend to a bunch of us! Justin TheriotTo our benefit, he is also our FPGN Rutherford County Director in the FP Greater Nashville chapter. He has been mostly volunteer up until the turn of the calendar year. Today, Justin is serving part-time, overseeing the 11+ schools with First Priority clubs in Rutherford County and it continues to grow. He has a potential to see 23 schools have a First Priority club in his county. He is passionate about the Hope of Christ in every student and is working tirelessly to get there! We are grateful that he has joined the team in the First Priority Nashville movement!

The turn of the calendar year has seen the intensity of the First Priority movement in Birmingham increase under the leadership of Greg Davis as President.bham leader meeting Greg brought his staff down to Fort Lauderdale at the end of 2018 to see how FP South Florida staffs and structures their growing 234 club chapter. Below you see old and new leadership in the Birmingham chapter getting fed physically and spiritually by Greg.

These are exciting times to be a part of the First Priority family! If it is time to get a club going in your community, start today! If the school down the street is calling, let’s get together and help unite the local churches to see students reach students in all the schools of your community.

Mar 04
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PRAYING FOR OUR STUDENTS AS MISSIONARIES TO THEIR SCHOOL

By Church Leaders, FP Tools

We pray for missionaries all over the world; why not pray for our students? A majority of all who believe in Christ as Savior believe before the age of 18. That makes our middle and high schools the largest mission fields in our country. Our Christian students in our churches are therefore the link, the missionary force if you will, that God will use to see spiritual awakening in the lives of non-believing students. The greatest influence on students today is their peers. Is there a better time in history to see students as missionaries to the teen culture and send them to school to be light in their culture?

HOW IT WORKS

1. Start in your church: Expand to other churches as the opportunity arises. Contact the pastor, the youth pastor, or the churches in your area. Explain the idea of having their students commissioned in their church as a missionary to the school. Offer to make missionary cards printed for the church to have on hand during the commissioning event. Be sure parents/guardians are aware that the students picture is being taken and will be distributed to fellow church members.

2. Hold a commissioning service or commissioning moment in a church service. After each participating student missionary has their cards printed, commission them in a church service. This could be done as easily as having the students come to the front of the church or youth service and having parents and elders pray over them as they seek to be used by God at their school.

3. Have the pastor encourage the congregation to take a student’s photo missionary card, put it on their refrigerator, and pray for that student missionary throughout the school year.

4. Church members grab a card and sponsor a student. Lay the printed missionary cards on tables where adults who are willing to pray can pick them up after the service. Having multiple cards printed for each student is okay. Why not have 5 people praying for the same student? Make sure you get contact cards on all adults praying and add them to your prayer database.

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Feb 27
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God is moving in North Alabama

By Local FP Communities, Student Leaders
The other day I went and visited a club @Elkmont HS. It was Prepare week for this club and instead of 2-3 students sharing their testimony, they decided to use the “Faith Story”guide in the HOPE manual. They split up into small groups; girls with girls and guys with guys. As I listened, I heard one of the Senior guys who helps lead the club, give an example by sharing his faith story. The majority of his group were underclassmen. When Jacob shared how God helped him in his struggles it moved one of the young men to pull Jacob aside and talk to him. He shared that he was in a similar situation and that he too wanted a faith story of his own. He wanted to know God the way Jacob does. Jacob did not preach to them or condemn them. He simply shared his story with them and then God drew this young man to Himself. In that moment, all of heaven rejoiced! We rejoice too!  Please pray for our students, teachers, parents, administrators and campus coaches across Colbert, Lauderdale, Limestone and Madison public schools. God is alive! He is doing a great work in our region. If you have questions about how to be a part of what God is doing message me.
Casey Jones
FP Director North Alabama
caseyfpnal@gmail.com

 

Feb 21
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Christian adults can’t share Jesus at a public school, but Students can!

By Student Leaders, Church Leaders, Leadership Development
You know this! I have nothing new to tell you. But it is an excellent reminder that our job as youth pastors, leaders, ministers, etc. is to equip the saints. Check out Eph. 4:11-12:

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

As you also well know, the most significant influence on a student is another student. Students reach students. I am convinced that if we as adult leaders teach, show, and give students simple tools to share their faith, they will. I have seen it time and time again, whether it is the Roman road to salvation, the GOSPEL bracelets or whatever tool you choose, that if you teach it, model it, and give students the opportunity to practice it with other students, they will take it and run with it. This generation of students is not afraid to talk about their faith, as a matter of fact, they want too. It is our job to help them do that. It is our job also to help give them a place to practice what we have taught them. Can you think of a better place to try out their new gospel knowledge than at school with their peers?

This is where we can help. You need an outreach strategy for the public schools, you need a way in, and you are tired of the school dictating culture. You can be a catalyst for change in the schools in your area. We can help guide you to organize and train student leaders to start a First Priority club on the campus that will pay spiritual dividends for years to come. The simple training you did with students, just might be the spark that gets a spiritual fire started (sorry I was having a flashback to camp). Ok anyway, you and I are called by God to be equippers of the saints. Let’s be an influencer of culture and pray for revival.

Keep fishing,

Mark

Feb 14
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The Benefit of Being Faithful

By FP Success Story, Local FP Communities, Student Leaders

Do you often wonder if faithfulness really pays off? In a culture built on immediate satisfaction and the pursuit of comfort, it seems to be a value that has fallen by the wayside. But, among God’s people, it is a virtue worth guarding and worth displaying.

Many students come to mind when considering this, but one in particular stands out to me. She wanted to launch a First Priority group at her school last year, but had little support going in. In fact, there were many weeks (and months), when she and one other student were the only ones in the meetings. This did not shake her, though. She continued to pray, to attend the weekly meetings, and to invite friends. There was not a time that she faltered or questioned her calling. Her faith amazed my staff and me.

Then, the group began to grow and last week they had their biggest turnout. As she described it: “this is truly God’s group; a safe place for students to come into and grow in relationship with him.” Wow, what a wonderful example of faithfulness and God’s willingness to provide.

It is my prayer that First Priority will always be a place where students find their purpose, remain steadfast in their faith, and faithfully share the hope of Christ with others.

Blessings Abundant,

Amber Johansen
Executive Director, FP Tampa

 

Feb 07
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The Best Day Ever

By Local FP Communities, Student Leaders, FP Success Story

Last week we talked about letting students lead. Sometimes, leading can be something simple. It doesn’t always have to be someone standing up in front speaking. Students can lead by being a good example to those around them or simply sharing something with someone just like this middle school student did in Birmingham, AL. Read this testimony of a middle school student who had the best day ever!

Testimony – “It was 7th period and my science teacher had asked us to take out our books and read for the rest of class. My fellow table partner could be a helpful type but was the kind of person that would slip up from time to time as any human, but I was recognizing a pattern. Homework, incomplete. Words, unkind. Character, unhappy. So as you would have guessed, he didn’t have a book. So he asked me to borrow one from my, “library”. I browsed through and carelessly handed him the book, “The Biggest Story”. I thought he might enjoy it because of all the art in it. He yanked it from my hands and ran his fingers through the pages. By the end of the class he had finished the book and was overjoyed during 8th. He was full of happiness and wouldn’t stop telling me about the book. It made him smile and it made me happy. The next morning, we had a guest speaker in our First Priority club and there was a special person that I had never seen in any Christian club, and he was from my 7th period. Can you guess who it was? Yes! The boy from 7th period! He came up to me later during class and told me that he had become a Christian that morning. It was the best day ever!”- Student, Berry Middle School

Jan 31
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Letting Students Lead

By Nehemiah, Student Leaders

I’m sitting at home on a sunny but very cold January day with my kids who are home from school due to the NO snow we got here. Life in Tennessee for you. I told my kids I had to work still even though they were home for the day and I am battling a bad head cold. My 11 year old daughter was bored before school should have even started. I told her there was a bag of chocolate chips in the cupboard and she could bake some cookies. She immediately got up went and grabbed the chocolate chips and went to work. She has done this before pretty much by herself but I was there to help guide her. Today I couldn’t since I was working and sick. I said a few things from my computer as she was going along. She said, “mom, I know what I’m doing, I don’t need help.”

So often we want to jump in and help our students lead. We think they can’t make it on their own. That they won’t do it quite right or say just the right thing. But we need to learn to let students lead. They are capable and really, more effective in reaching their peers than we would be. They don’t have to be perfect or say just the right thing. They just need to be willing to lead.

First Priority is all about letting students lead. Students reaching students. Students sharing the hope of Christ on their middle and high school campuses. Students can influence their school campuses for Christ if we simply let them. You can train them and equip them with the tools they need to lead, but then you need to give them the reigns to do what they were taught to do.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12 NIV

Jan 24
Love0

The Perfect Job

By Nehemiah, First Priority Of America, Church Leaders

You got into student ministry because you loved students and you wanted to make a difference in their lives. Thoughts of making disciples who you could build into student leaders were at the top of your priority list. If you are anything like me, you thought this was going to be the most awesome job ever! Wow! Hanging out with teenagers, leading them to follow Christ, meeting their friends and having this huge influence on them. Then reality set in. The parents of my students are demanding. The pastor thinks I have a lot of time on my hands, so he gives me every junk job there is.

When I was at my first church, I loved my pastor. He was so good to me. But some of the deacons thought we could save a few bucks by getting rid of the lawn guy and making me mow; because I made the big bucks as you know. The problem was, it was not just mowing a lawn. There was a big cemetery behind the church. Every week this had to be kept up. Because if there is ever something that needed to look nice, it was the grave sites of so many of our church members deceased families. You think I got a hard time about some of the activities our students did? Ha, nope! That was nothing compared to not mowing uncle Jesse’s grave site correctly…

Well, I soon found out that what I had imagined as the perfect job was not. I mean, there were times that it was awesome and God did great things, but man did I have to jump through hoops to get just a few wins. It seemed like every time God was up to something, Satan was there to put a wrench in it. I know now that is exactly how Satan works. His M.O. is to divide, get Christians to argue and to fuss and fight about stupid things. He keeps us busy with things that are temporal. He tells our students they are not good enough to be followers of Christ. We fight the culture, the emphasis on academics, sports teams, colleges applications and requirements to get in. It’s all overwhelming. Our student ministry becomes just another set of activities and programs. We feel like we are unproductive and spinning our wheels. Instead of making disciples of Christ and raising up student leaders, we start defining success by how many students we had at our last event.

Be alert and of sound mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

When we know the devil’s M.O. we can be alert and watch for the things that trip us up. Keep your eyes focused on Jesus and your feet always bringing the gospel of peace.

“How beautiful are the feet of those who [b]preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!” Romans 10:15

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