8,373 students have shared that they began their walk with Christ as a result of them hearing the gospel in a First Priority club in 2013. Here is a story of one club influencing their peers and getting them plugged in to the body of Christ. God works in his ways.
| At one local school’s first Help Week (Helping Students Understand & Present the Gospel), a Student Leader trained fellow students how to use gospel surveys to share their faith. Each student that attended received copies of the surveys and were challenged to use them and come to next week’s meeting ready to share how God worked through them.At the beginning of their Overcome meeting the following week, students were asked if they had used the surveys. Everyone there said no. Surveys were handed out again and students were issued the same challenge. A Student Leader then shared the week’s devotion: Overcoming Your Fear of Rejection When Sharing Your Faith.
As students were leaving the meeting, one of the Campus Coaches encouraged them to survey several students who were sitting around in the hallway. Stepping up the the challenge, Student Leaders began putting into practice what they had learned in First Priority. Here is part of a text message I received from one of the Student Leaders later that afternoon: “I talked to a Muslim. And I asked her the questions and she said she would love to know more about a God who cared about her future. So I told her the gospel and my testimony and invited her to church. I wrote my church hours on a piece of paper for her. It was amazing!” The following week, First Priority met for their third week in the new HOPE Cycle…Prepare Week. As students learned about the details and purpose of a personal testimony, the Muslim girl they had met the previous week entered the room along with two of her friends. She had not been told when or where First Priority met…she had simply come looking on her own, drawn by the Holy Spirit. Seizing the opportunity, Student Leaders began sharing the vision and purpose of First Priority, including the desire that every teenager at the school go to heaven. One of the friends got up and left the room expressing, “I don’t want to hear this.” The other two girls remained throughout the meeting and listened intently. The following Sunday, the Muslim girl and the girl who got up and left the meeting attended the church of one of the Student Leaders. Here’s part of a texting conversation I had with that Student Leader that afternoon: “She really seemed engaged. She said she wanted to come back next week! She also brought her friend (who was the one that walked out of First Priority last week).” “Her friend had her headphones in the entire sermon but she kept typing something and when she finally showed it to her, I caught a glimpse of the note and it said “I want more information about this myself…can I really go to heaven?” And that was the topic that made her leave FP last week!!!” The story continues…… There you have it…what First Priority is all about! Students Engaging their campus with the gospel, sharing the Hope of Christ with other students!! |
