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Student Leaders

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

Oct 13
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Choosing to Lead

By Local FP Communities, Student Leaders

This student leader in FP North Alabama chose to lead despite her circumstances.

A 10th grade girl name Jenna just became a student leader for her first priority club that just started their 1st year at her school. Jenna is one of the student leaders that helped organize SYATP to pray for her faculty, administration, fellow students and community. What people don’t know is that her mom is battling cancer and was having surgery that same day and yet she believed God was on the move in her school. We make so many excuses all of the time of why we can’t show up and lead. But these students, in the middle of their own battles are getting on their knees to pray for people who can’t pray for themselves and to encourage others with the HOPE of Christ. Read more here

We as the body need to support the movement that God is pouring out on this generation, they are our future and our future looks great with First Priority student leaders like Jenna. Her school had 77 in attendance for prayer, multiple teacher sponsors and 5 churches in support. Look at our great God working through young women and men that are willing to say “Here am I send me”

Oct 03
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The Power of a Testimony

By Student Leaders, FP Success Story

You never know who God is going to use to bring people to Him. So many of us think that we could never share something so powerful that it would lead others to Christ. But you don’t know who’s there listening and who needs to hear exactly what you have to share. So thankful for our clubs who have students sharing their life with others so they may come to know Christ. Read this story from a student in Tampa Bay and praise God for the lives changed.

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Sep 20
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Your Story

By Priority Parents, Student Leaders, Church Leaders, Faculty Sponsors, Community Leaders

Have you ever thought about the role that stories play in your everyday life? Stories help us understand things that other forms of communication cannot. Stories sometimes become the way we understand ourselves and the world around us. Did you go to a theater to see any
movies this summer? Obviously, the movie was itself a story, but what other stories were involved in your decision to go and pay money to see that movie? Did you see an advertisement for the movie? That’s a story. Did you go with friends? A personal story probably determined which friends you went with. Did you buy snacks to enjoy during the movie? A story had to be displayed to help you understand that this entertainment experience would be right for you. Some stories are not as obvious as others, but stories generally do four things:

  • Stories make a point
  • Stories make the point memorable
  • Stories make the point meaningful
  • Stories create connections

Screen Shot 2018-09-17 at 11.39.17 AMMany of us think that we have nothing worth sharing. Maybe you think your testimony is nowhere near as powerful as someone else’s. If you follow Jesus, however, you must realize that the true power of your story is in the Gospel, not in your own achievements. No matter what our experience appears to look like on the surface, the truth is that we were lost and now we are found! We were in darkness but now we walk in the light! Once we were alone and without hope, and yet Jesus has brought us into His family!

So I want to encourage you to share your story. You never know how it might help spread the gospel to those who hear the message.

Aug 22
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Training Student Leaders to bring H.O.P.E to their School

By FP Tools, Faculty Sponsors, Priority Parents, Student Leaders

HOPE classroomStudents are on the greatest mission field in America: school. Engaged in the middle of the “game,” students are the players we are here to train, pray for, and support, just as we do for foreign missionaries. First Priority clubs follow a four-week strategy called HOPE.  HOPE is an acronym for Help, Overcome, Prepare, and Engage.  

The H.O.P.E. strategy gives the student missionaries the action steps and direction they need to reach out to their peers at school. It is broken-down into these four actions:

  • HELP: Equipping Christian students with foundational truth to be able to articulate a simple gospel message in thirty seconds or less.
  • OVERCOME: Motivation and inspiration to overcome our fear, worry and doubts we have about sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
  • PREPARE: Giving 1-3 students the opportunity to prepare and share their journey of faith in God (in its entirety or in part).
  • ENGAGE: The opportunity for the believing students to invite their non-believing friends they have been praying for to come and hear about the HOPE of Christ.

Each month, they are provided with a HOPE weekly guide that helps them focus on a group and share the message of Jesus Christ with unbelieving students.

The H.O.P.E weekly guides are a resource we provide for free when you download our app on the app store or google play. They are also available as part of the club kit you can purchase in our online store.

Aug 15
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Why We Do First Priority

By Local FP Communities, Student Leaders, Leadership Development

We do First Priority because it changes lives. Lives of students like Abigail, who was trained to serve as a student leader for her First Priority club at her high school. The opportunity and lessons Abigail learned while serving as a leader, have helped her to follow God’s call in her life as she starts a new chapter and heads to college.

Here is Abigail’s story:

I was just getting serious about my faith when I first started high school and, I was really struggling when it came to being bold in my walk with Jesus, especially on my school campus. First Priority became a place where I felt safe to go and speak about my faith with other believers, invite unbelievers to hear about Jesus, and practice telling others about all God has done in my life.

This club has provided ample amounts of opportunity for me to pray over people who are struggling in their walk with Jesus and celebrate with those who experienced God’s grace for the first time! I have been able to experience all of these things because of your support, whether that be financially or prayerfully.Abigail

Once a month, we were able to provide pizza for our club, all thanks to your giving, which encouraged over two classrooms full of students to come and hear the great news of Jesus Christ, some for the first time. The impact you have had on C.E. Byrd High School has had incredible eternal value and, as a, now former, First Priority leader, I am incredibly grateful for the sacrifices you have made to help us win the lost for Jesus!

In Luke 10:2 Jesus tells us that “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” and then calls us to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” You are living this out by supporting First Priority. You guys have given over and beyond which has allowed First Priority to give away the scholarship I have been honored to receive.

You are equipping students to share the gospel middle and high school campuses and then sending them off to do the same things on their college campuses through your giving.

As a four year member of First Priority and now a recipient of the First Priority Scholarship, I would like to personally thank you for the sacrifices you have made so that I can do all Jesus has called me to do. I will be eternally grateful for First Priority and all it’s equipped me to do.

Thank you!

Abigail

Aug 02
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Summer Prayer Challenge: Week 9 – SELF-CONTROL

By Local FP Communities, Priority Parents, Student Leaders

The act of saying “yes” to Jesus causes the “fruit of the Spirit” to come through us! The ninth fruit we are focusing on is SELF-CONTROL. It is difficult in the world we live in to not give in to those things around us that pull us in many different directions away from who we are called to be as Christians. The Bible “teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age”- Titus 2:12. 

Self-Control

Challenge: Pray this week that God would give you the strength to turn from the worldly wants and desires around us and to seek Him. Showing others what it means to live with self-control so that they may also be encourage to live in the same way.

// Thus you will walk in the ways of the good and keep to the paths of the righteous. – Proverbs 2:20 //

Jul 26
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Summer Prayer Challenge: Week 8 – GENTLENESS

By Student Leaders, Community Leaders, Local FP Communities, Priority Parents

The act of saying “yes” to Jesus causes the “fruit of the Spirit” to come through us! The eighth fruit we are focusing on is GENTLENESS. We serve a loving God and He has many ways of gently leading us forward. Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

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Challenge: Pray this week that God would gently lead you toward Him and help you lead others to Him. Specifically, how can you be more gentle in situations to the people around you?
Let’s also pray for the students who will be sharing about GENTLENESS In their schools during the month eight HOPE cycle. 


//let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person- Colossians 4:6//

Jul 10
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Thank you for your Partnership

By Priority Parents, Student Leaders, Church Leaders, Faculty Sponsors, Community Leaders

Thank you for your partnership in the ministry of First Priority!  We are always encouraged by people who are passionate about reaching students, our future generations. We see the despair of middle and high school students brought on by abuse, addiction, depression, and suicide. Our goal is to bring the HOPE of Christ to every student in America. This past school year, we trained 3,608 Christian students to lead a First Priority club on 820 schools around the country and we saw 10,022 students come to know Christ!  This all happened inside public school buildings this school year! Thank you for being a part of that!

Henry Ford-2We are on our way to helping the 325,000 local churches in our country to influence all 41,000 public middle and high schools. We believe the body of Christ is alive and well in every community in America. What would happen if we got churches in your community to work together to influence their schools with the gospel? After all, Christian churches outnumber public schools four to one! This wouldn’t happen without you working in your community! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Keep praying for the lost to hear the gospel in your schools. Continue helping train and equip the Christian students to share their faith with them. And most importantly, talk about First Priority with family and friends in and out of your community. If nobody is sharing Jesus with the lost students in your school, nobody is sharing Jesus with lost students in your school! We are always one generation away from missing them entirely.

Jun 27
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Summer Prayer Challenge: Week 4- PATIENCE

By Local FP Communities, First Priority Of America, Student Leaders

The act of saying “yes” to Jesus causes the “fruit of the Spirit” to come through us! The fourth fruit we are focusing on is PATIENCE. It’s easy to not practice patience. We live in a very fast paced world where the latest thing can be had at an instant on our phones. But often the best things in life are “worth the wait.”Patience
Challenge: Is there anyone or anything in your life that you need more patience with? Or are you tired of waiting for an answer to something you’ve been praying for? Let’s pray that we would trust in the Lord’s timing and that He would give us the strength to be patient.
Let’s also pray for the students who will be sharing about PATIENCE and perseverance while sharing their faith in their schools during the week four HOPE cycle.
// Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer – Romans 12:12 //