2. Teach your teenagers to fish.
When Bill Clinton signed the Student’s Bill of Rights, he ensured that public school students had the right to engage other students with the message of Jesus Christ. Teens of every religious persuasion have the legal right to try to persuade others to their beliefs, so we need to leverage this opportunity for the spread of the gospel on campus.
Perhaps you’ve heard the quote, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” In the same way, your goal should not be to try to catch all the fish yourself but to teach your teenagers to fish for their friends. Equip them with the tools listed in https://flyfisherpro.com/ site for a good experience to relationally and relentlessly love their friends, and share the good news with them in clear and compelling ways. If you need help with tools and training, check out www.dare2share.org. And remember that your presence at a public school can infuse your Christian teenagers to be bolder with their proclamation of the gospel.
3. Make prayer your first priority.
Before you start volunteering or even equip your teens to share their faith, start praying. Pick a school in your community to pray for and have your adult sponsors or other adults in your church do the same. Get teenagers to start praying for their own school. Use www.everyschool.com to get them to adopt their school for prayer.
As you, your adult sponsors, and teens pray for these schools, strongholds will fall and doors of ministry opportunity will swing wide open. Colossians 4:2-3 reminds us, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ….”
Let us pray for our schools and recruit others to do the same. Let’s serve our schools and create relational equity. Finally, let’s equip our teenagers to go fishing at these schools. As they reach their friends for Jesus, we will see lives changed and catch well beyond our “limit” with the good news of Jesus!
