FP Orlando FL July Newsletter....

School begins in one month. It is hard to believe that summer has gone and very soon the halls of middle and high schools will be filled with tens of thousands of students trying to find their way, make plans for their future, and for some just merely survive. I have been thinking about this coming fall and a conversation I had with about 50 students last May. I asked a simple question, “What do you think of church?” The overwhelming answer was “They hate homosexuals.” To these students church is a place of judgment. I then asked them what they thought of Jesus? Almost everyone them said he was an amazing man that tried to do a lot of good.

Reaching the largest mission field in our country

This struck me because these students have disconnected Jesus from the church. The idea that students would come to church looking for Jesus is insane to them. They don’t think He is there. The media has done a number on our churches as well as some well meaning Christians. If students will not come to hear the Gospel at church, then we must go to them. This is the heart of First Priority Central Florida. We train our Christian students to be missionaries on campus, share the Gospel, and then bring their friends to church. We have to go where they are at. They are not coming to us.

First Priority’s goal is to present the Gospel to every student and then connect students with local churches to be discipled. It is so simple and it works. We will reconnect Jesus with our churches in the minds of these students by going outside the walls of our buildings and into the halls and classrooms of our schools. Armed with God’s truth and grace our students will reach their friends and we will see a spiritual awakening that none of us could dream about. We have the churches, parents, and students ready and the harvest is ripe.

Tony Hevener - City Director of FP Orlando

07.20.10 working together to reach all - 2nd Peter 3:9

Over the last few years I've had the opportunity to sit with hundreds of local church youth workers and I consistently ask them one question: "What comprehensive strategy does your youth ministry have to reach EVERY student on the campuses in this community?" Out of all the great youth workers I have met with, none could share with me a strategy that reached all of those students; there were always gaps.

These youth workers' inability to develop a strategy to reach every student in a school is not due to a lack of desire, mission or resources. These were all incredible churches reaching and discipling teenagers. It was not them; it was the reality of the situation that has been laid out before them. The vision to reach every student, on every campus, in every community is too big for one local church. It will take many churches in a community working together, in sync, as the Body of Christ to make this vision a reality.

That is why we exist at First Priority. We work in communities, networking local church youth workers together for a common purpose: reaching this generation. The hub where all this activity will take place is the local school campus. Why? Simply put, it's where the students are.

The way we must do this is by equipping students with a strategy and resources to share the revolutionary love and message of Jesus Christ. It's their mission field. They are the missionaries. The students are the ones to champion the name of Jesus on their campus. Our role as youth workers is to set them up for success. We must give them the tools, training and encouragement to take this love and message to their world.

As we think about working together with a common purpose to reach a campus, I challenge you to think about your local church youth ministry.

Do you have an environment that lends itself to infusing the local schools with students passionate for reaching their friends? Do you have a culture of partnering with other churches for ministry? Is having a personal ministry on your students' campus even on their radar?

For campus ministry to be successful, your youth ministry must do these things:

· Value every person coming into a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ;

· Disciple Christians to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus Christ;

· Encourage Christians to give their lives in meaningful service to Jesus Christ;

· Intentionally work together as the body of Christ; and

· Challenge Christians to impact the culture for Jesus Christ.

Are you ready to unite to reach your city? First Priority can help.

Matt Wilson, First Priority Executive Director