Student Minister Helps

Student Minister Helps are encourgaments and ideas I have found helpful as I seek to lead the prayer mentors at my church to greater prayer effectiveness and more personal involvement in the lives of the kids we're ministering to.

Check back every month for a new offering.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Youth Prayer Focus (Posted 9-1-2010)


Youth Prayer Focus – Praying Scripture Over our Students
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
 

The following prayer guide was used on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 for our adult prayer gathering. Attached to the prayer guide were pictures of our students labeled with their names. We used the picture we took when we set up our Shout 365 space.

Psalm 63:3 – Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

Pray that the words our students use will be uplifting, kind and always glorifying to God. May they use their mouths to tell God how good, loving and powerful he is.

 Psalm 46:10 – be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

Pray that our students will give themselves completely to God, then wait for his will to be done in their lives.
 
1 John 1:9 – If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Pray our youth will confess all their recent sins to God and ask for forgiveness.
 
James 4:7 – Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Pray that our students will be on the watch for the ways Satan is using to try and trip them up in their walk with Jesus. Ask the Holy Spirit to help them to remember to call on God’s power to overcome.

Psalm 100:2 – Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Pray that our students will find delight in their times of worship. Pray they will not be bashful or silly about lifting their voices in praise to the Lord.

Pray for our youth VBS!
Sunday, July 25 through Wednesday, July 28
Grades 7 through college. If you know someone who needs to attend,
please be sure to invite them!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shout Together #3 (Posted 7-1-2010)

I keep beating the Shout Together drum and for a reason. These intergenerational connecting-prayer events are one of the most effective things I do to fan the prayer mentoring flame! Here’s an excerpt of a testimonial from one of our prayer mentors who was deeply touched at our last Shout Together: Bro. Steve, its been a long time since I've been touched by the Lord but man alive he touched me on Shout [Together] night--the way he's using our youth. I believe us adults should try and get a hold of whatever it is their have latched on to.  I believe that Jesus our Lord has visited them. . . .These young people have caught on to something and I believe its the fact that they are experiencing there first love of Jesus. That's where I am. This scripture has been on my mind almost non stop since that night: Revelation 2:2-5  "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love."  Do you remember how it felt when you met Jesus?  How excited you where?  You weren't embarassed to tell others about his love.  Friends, I'm returning to that first love, and I would love to invite you all to join me. If you remember that hunger, that longing to lift "HIM" up no matter what!  Lets open our hearts, and return to our "FIRST LOVE" which is Christ my Lord.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prayer Mentor, Parent and Student Surveys (Posted 5-17-2010)

Nothing will fan the prayer mentoring flame in your church like sharing the prayer mentoring stories that are percolating up from your own people. With that in mind I have developed three sample surveys to use with your students, parents and prayer mentors. These surveys can be sent out as an email reply template or as a written questionnaire.

To send out as an email reply template, simply login as a coordinator or student minister, click on the “Messages” selection on your menu bar, click on “Schedule Message”, then cut and paste the survey into the email message portion.  You’ll want to do a text message teaser like, “Dear Prayer Mentor, Please check your email box for an important message from Steve.”

Since many of your people will be able to reply by answering the questions within the area provided, you may want to ask them to reply in a different color font.  Some will need to cut and paste the questions into their reply.

The replies you receive will furnish you with several stories from your people. I would suggest identifying the stories that need to be told and following through with an interview to get a more full story. I do all of my interviews through the website Chat Room. That way when I’m done with the interview, all I have to do is cut, paste and edit.

Use stories and quotes in your church newsletter, bulletin, announcement loops, emails, as a video testimony, and more as a way to keep your people inspired and growing. By the way if you are a Web-Plus church, you can send your story to us and we’ll insert it for you into the bi-monthly Prayer Mentor Newsletter that goes out to your people!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Holy Hands Prayer Slideshow Activity (Posted 3-27-2010)

Here's another PowerPoint slideshow prayer activity. It's entitled "Holy Hands". I recently used it at the Holston Baptist Association Student Conference to prepare students for worship. It's based upon 1Timothy 2:8  I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.  After using it in my own personal quiet time, it has made me more conscious of how my personal purity impacts my prayer effectiveness.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Student Website Use Agreement (Posted 2-6-2010)

I just saw a report on the news this morning that 75% of American teens use social networking websites.

One of the things we’re trying to do through the Shout 365 site is create a “facebook-like” experience  for youth groups that is controllable by you the student minister—where you can personalize security setting and limit access to user features based upon your group. (I ask my students to sign a covenant, located for download below, and then allow them church-wide access to all the site features. So far we haven’t had any problems.) You’ll need to do what you believe is best for your group.  

Being a full-time student minister gives me an advantage. I’m creating a site that I believe will help my adults and me minister better to our kids without, as one of my students has recently said, “having to deal with all the advertisements, inappropriate pictures and comments” on other social networking sites.  I'd  like to see my kids get fuel through through their network of relationships in our church family and then use social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace as outreach tools to share their faith and relationship with Jesus.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slide Show Prayer Activity (Posted 1-27-2010)

Prayer Slideshow Activity

As an example of something creative you can do to help your people pray, download the PowerPoint prayer activity followed by a video worship song. The whole activity lasts about 12 minutes. Begin by praying the words of the first slide together and then follow the PowerPoint prompts.

The background music I played across slides was Stranded Under Endless Sky by Hammock. You’ll be able to purchase online at iTunes--  http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/stranded-under-endless-sky-ep/id292859533

The worship song I used was I Worship MPEG Video Library O-R, Mighty to Save, by Hillsong. http://www.integritydirect.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_47410_10151_-1_10051_668156_19119


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Monthly Prayer Emphasis on Children and Youth (Posted 12-9-09)

Here’s an idea to help you achieve student ministry prayer saturation: A once a month emphasis on prayer for youth and children in your Wednesday adult prayer meeting.  We started this Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at our church. This idea will work well for churches that still have a traditional prayer meeting on Wednesday night. However, I wouldn’t rule out this concept for those who don’t. There are other ways to implement a once a month prayer emphasis for children and youth: A take home prayer guide insert in the church bulletin, a monthly day of prayer (for example the 13th of the month as a reminder of the beginning of the teen years), asking adult small groups to pray once a month for the kids, etc.

Our goal is to do something creative in our Wednesday prayer time with adults each month. We distributed lists of children’s names and pictures of all our students, divided into small prayer groups and asked the people to pray over kids’ names and faces in month one. Last month my pastor and I swapped places. He taught the youth (this is a very good idea for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is it helps the kids get more connected with their senior pastor). I taught on prayer and led our people through a guided prayer time for all the youth who might be considered “hard cases”. Next month I plan on attaching names of students to places all throughout the worship center and asking the adults to roam throughout and pray by placing their hands on a name, moving from one to the next.

As you can see, there are a couple important ingredients for an effective monthly prayer emphasis: 1) Be creative. Don’t let it get stale. You’d be surprised how little effort is needed to come up with fresh ideas. 2) Teach about prayer. Every month is an opportunity to teach a prayer Scripture. Find one, read it, study it and take a few minutes to teach it. As you spend a few minutes studying the prayer verse for yourself, a creative way to apply it will probably come to mind.

The goal in everything we do is to create a culture of prayer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Student Ministry Goal #1: Create a Culture of Prayer by Steve Gervasi (Posted 10-26-09)

Whatever our chosen approach of ministry to students, whether traditional, seeker or emergent, to be infused with the power of God, prayer must play more than a token part.

The early church model of ministry was one in which the church leaders and members naturally, spontaneously, continually and even intentionally prayed. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. (Acts 6:4 NASB)  They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42 NASB)  When a devotion to prayer and the ministry of the Word is left behind for the busyness of service, the culturally transformative power of the early church is left behind as well. One cannot divorce the explosive growth in the numbers of committed Christ-followers in Jerusalem and the surrounding region, from a culture of prayer.

Can the church of today afford to continue to journey into the future void of a Holy Spirit unction that brings true conviction and conversion to its youngest members? Many of us who are in the trenches of student ministry see a great falling away from faith among our nation’s youth, especially our own church youth. The state of affairs is now such that we must return to the early church’s devotion to prayer once again.

I believed this with my head for many years but now I am ordering my student ministry budget and calendar with this number one goal in mind. In my attempt, as one of the pastors of my church, to help create a culture of prayer, below is what I’m intentionally doing. I shared this plan and assessed our progress with the parents in our church at a recent parent-student-youth worker luncheon.

Year One: Get us pointed toward prayer (Mission Accomplished!)

1. Training on the Disconnected Generation (See below for a full explanation)

2. Implement Shout Prayer Mentoring (I did this six months after I came to my new church)

3. Prayer request cards (See below for a full explanation)

4. Intergenerational Connecting Events (Read about the Shout Together events below)

5. Orient people to and get them using the Shout Website (I did this at a Shout Together event)

6. Teaching on prayer (Select Sundays and Wednesdays, books, articles, emails and more)


Year Two: Achieve prayer saturation (In Progress. Continue everything above and add…)

1. Student Prayer Gatherings (I’ve begun these on most Sunday and Wednesday nights before our gatherings.)

2. The 7-Day Prayer Dare (I developed a devotional prayer guide with interactive communication between students and prayer mentors leading up to our Shout Again Sunday on 3/21/10. This 7-Day Prayer Dare was probably the most effective thing I have ever done as a student minister to fan the prayer mentoring flame in my church! The resource will soon be available in the Shout store.)

3. Specially called Adult Prayer Gatherings for Students (I stay spontaneous on these.)

4. A Once a Month Emphasis on Prayer for Youth and Children in our Wednesday Adult Prayer Meeting (We started this Wednesday, October 28th, 2009)

5. More Teaching on Prayer (Every chance I get)

6. Special Prayer Strategies to Cover Major Youth Events

7. A 24-7 Prayer Room Weekend (I’m planning on doing this next Fall. Check out www.24-7prayer.com )

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shout Together #2 (Posted 8-31-09)

Here's another Shout Together Plan that went over amazingly well with our students, prayer mentors and church family. We did this intergenrational connecting prayer event on a Wednesday evening. Contrary to what many may think, getting your adults and students together for relationship building, prayer and worship is not student ministry suicide! In fact, it will infuse your student ministry with more adult prayer, understanding of the younger genration, involvement and financial contributions! More importantly, if you do it well your students will love it!

Click on the link below to download the whole plan!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prayer Request Cards (Posted 7-24-09)

One of the FAQs I receive from Shout PMI local church leaders is “How do I get student prayer requests into the hands of prayer mentors who can’t connect through the shout website?”

That’s a great question. I’m a student minister in a small town that is 30 miles from everything! When I first came to Centerville, I was surprised to learn that most all of my adults have email but hardly any of my students do. My students are communicating through text messaging. Nearly every adult these days has a cell phone and a growing number of adults are texting. So, Shout PMI has built in an opportunity for students to share prayer requests with their mentors through email or texting or both. All a student has to do is text or email a prayer request to prayer@shoutpmi.org and it automatically adds the prayer request to the student’s dashboard prayer request log and then sends it on to the prayer mentor. The prayer mentor receives the prayer request by email, text or both.

Another way we connect student’s prayer requests with prayer mentors is through a simple prayer request card. Click on the link below to download a sample. The card is folded so that what the student writes is private.

Here’s what we do with the card: Every 4-5 weeks, we take 20 minutes at the end of our Wednesday youth service to have students fill out the card. (This could be done during Sunday school as well.) We have tables already set up with plenty of cards and pens. Students write their names on the front outside of the card first. Then they write a thank you note on the top half of the card’s inside and put some thought into a good prayer request to write on the bottom half of the card’s inside.

When the card is complete, the student hands it to a worker who checks it for legibility and thoughtfulness. As an incentive to do a good job, once a student has finished his or her card satisfactorily, they get to go to a “fix-it-the-way-you-like-it” ice cream Sunday bar!

Our prayer mentor coordinator then distributes the cards to as many prayer mentors as possible in person and the rest she seals up and mails out. A coordinator could just as easily arrange a place for prayer mentors to pick up prayer request cards at a Shout table in the church’s foyer.

The first time we did the prayer request cards, I cheated and peeked at what the kids wrote. To my delight the vast majority actually put some thought into both their thank you and prayer request.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Disconnected Generation Video Series by Josh McDowell (Posted 6/26/09)

Hey everyone, I'm excited about how well this series went over in my church. I received numerous emails and words of thanks from the participants. My pastor was one of it's biggest fans! The series is compsed of 5 one hour sessions featuring a 20 minute or so video of Josh McDowell sharing thoughts from his research in writing The Disconnected Generation: Saving Our Kids From Self-destruction. The book was prompted by the Columbine massacre of April, 1999. Though the videos are a little dated in style, the research and application to parenting and local church student ministry is just as relavant today. You'll probably have to google The Disconnected Generation Video Seiries to find it. And I'm afraid you'll have to put up with VHS tapes but the content and presentation by Josh McDowell is well worth it. When I was watching the videos in preparation, I thought Josh went a little over the top in his passion but it didn't come across that way in the group setting. His passion for our kids spread to my people.

Here's what I did: The video series led up to our church's inaugural Shout Sunday. We did it on Sunday evenings in our Fellowship Hall. I gave a copy of the Disconnected Generation to each participant. In preparation for each session, I read through the appropriate book chapters, made notes and watched the video at least twice.

During each session I set the video up as the leader's guide suggested and then after the video I opened it up for comments from the floor. I didn't have to do much coaxing. There's was a lot on the the people's minds. Then we always closed each session with some kind of interactive prayer time for our kids.

We actually did the 5 video series over 6 weeks. On the 6th week we did a Shout Together event in which we brought our students and adults together in a fun, interactive and spiritually meaningful environment with the goal of erasing stereo types and bridging the two generations. The Shout Together event was a huge success. I plan on doing one about 3 times a year as a part of my overall student ministry strategy.  Click on the link below to download the whole Shout Together Plan.
Here's what one of my students texted me after our latest Shout Together:
You don't know how much that meant to me. Thank you so much for a super encouraging night!

A parent email:
Thank you for leading us in such a powerful meeting on Wednesday. Hearing all the others whispered prayers as we were praying gave me goose bumps. It was something I have not experienced before.  I love the Shout program.  What a blessing it is to our youth and to us as a congregation. I asked Alex and Adam what they thought about it and they felt the blessings too. Thank you again for bringing that to Fairfield.

[Printer Friendly]