06.12.10 Great article from a ministry partner, YM360

http://blog.youthministry360.com/reaching-teens-in-public-schools-first-priority-and-the-local-church/184/

06.11.10 June 2010 Business Leaders Update

IT’S WORTH IT!

Fox 6 News' Sheldon Haygood shares the gospel with Bragg Middle School


TV personality, students, a local campus and the gospel all in one, oh my! On April 22, 2010, Fox 6 News Sports Caster Sheldon Haygood visited Bragg Middle School's First Priority campus club. Hannah Haygood, Sheldon's daughter, did not ask her Dad to come to career day but to come and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with her fellow classmates. When asked to come speak for the challenge week of ACTS (Accountability, Challenge, Testimony, Seek), Sheldon said he would be honored to share his faith with the students at Bragg Middle School.

During his visit, Sheldon challenged the students to make an effort to share the love and message of Jesus Christ with every student on their campus. Sheldon encouraged the students to be bold in their efforts both in the classroom and the hallway. He stressed the need for students to be an example to others through their attitude, academics and their faith. We as a society take time every day to watch or listen to the news for the day's events surrounding us, but not too often do we ever think that the personality we are watching or listening to is community-minded or even has a relationship with Jesus Christ.

We at First Priority and the students at Bragg Middle School would like to thank Sheldon for being a "Roaring Lamb" in the media today and for being a huge part of molding our students as campus missionaries.

For more details, visit us at www.fpoa.org

05.29.10 May 2010 Youth Pastor eUpdate

Lord of the Harvest

Luke 10 says the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Do you think God is waiting for us to train workers for the harvest. I believe you will reach what you plan to reach. When I worked with Jay Strack and did the youth work in his area-wide crusades, I began noticing a pattern. If we went to a town that had trained 50 counselors we would have about 150 to 200 come to Christ in 4 nights. If we went to a place where there were 100 trained counselors we would see 400-500 come to Christ. God gives us what we can handle.

Is your church and First Priority club prepared to handle the har- vest with trained workers in the field? Have you spent time training stu- dents, parents, and faculty? You will reap the harvest you prepare for. Go prepare!

Keep fishing, Mark Roberts First Priority of America

Testimony - F.P. of Greater Nashville, TN

“This school year we have had more students come to Christ as new be- lievers and plug into our church for discipleship than ever before in our 17 year history. There is no doubt that the strategy of First Priority at Independence high school played a huge role in that. As a church we will be vested locally with the body of Christ, and cannot wait to see what God does next year on all the campuses our students are at!”

Joel Evrist is part of the staff team of New Song in Franklin, TN. He served as a campus coach this year at Independence High, and will do so at another Nashville school next year.

Newly married Joey Proffitt is overseeing First Priority of Greater Nashville, TN as the City Director. He has an amazing history with First Priority having been a student leader in his middle and high school and spent time on First Priority of America staff. Congrats Joey in life and ministry!

05.01.10 Update from FP Blueridge..

Another local student passed away this week. This time, a 6th grader from Unicoi County was killed in an ATV accident...the second student to die in that school system in the last two weeks.

Another local student was charged this week for murder. This time, a Hawkins teen has been charged in the murder of his grandparents...the second teen charged with murder in Northeast Tennessee in the last month.

Each day, there is more and more evidence that our schools need prayer and our students need the gospel. It is obvious that we, the Church, need to have a sense of urgency about reaching a generation for Christ!

Now is the time to come together, uniting around a common cause...reaching this generation of young people for Christ! They are lost, hurting and suffering through things we couldn't have imagined when we were that age.

Now is the time to come together, uniting around a common strategy to reach this generation! It's time we stopped trying to do it on our own, and started working together, as one body, to take the gospel to our schools. We've been doing our "own thing" for way too long, and our children are suffering the consequences.

If what has happened in our schools over the last few weeks isn't enough to wake up the Church, I fear this generation will go down in history as the "lost" generation.

WAKE UP, CHURCH! We have work to do, and we must do it together!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Haley Wherry
First Priority Blue Ridge

04.20.10 Campus Coach Testimony...

Being Consistent in First Priority

Be consistent, we hear that term a lot don’t we? But those words ring especially true for First Priority. Some campus clubs have great turnouts every week while others seem to struggle a little, but trust me when I say your consistency pays off.

Case in point, at Cumberland Gap High School, we have a foreign exchange student from Germany, she comes from a Catholic background, although they weren’t real faithful church goers. She began coming to youth worship on Wednesday nights with a new friend from school. Then she started coming to First Priority on Tuesday mornings. Every week she came looking for a place to belong (even though it was all foreign to her). Every week she would have questions about the Christian faith and every week the students would be there to encourage her and answer them. She would be consistent in asking questions and they would be consistent in answering them. Slowly and consistently the Holy Spirit was working on her until one Tuesday morning during a hook week the gospels was presented and guess who accepted Jesus Christ that morning? That’s right, our new friend from Germany!

We didn’t do anything other than being consistently obedient to the Holy Spirit in our efforts to reach every student on campus with the gospel. Because First Priority is a consistent presence on this campus and because the gospel is consistently being presented, the Kingdom of God grew that day.

Many students we meet on campus, even though they may not be from another country may feel like Christianity is foreign. However, being consistent with the love and message of Christ and being consistent with First Priority pays eternal dividends!

Larry Goad, Campus Coach

03.18.10 Birmingham Leadership Training

700+ Students spend the day in FP Leadership Training

On March 11, First Priority of Greater Birmingham held its fifth annual Leader's Summit, an in-depth leadership training event for students, teacher sponsors and campus coaches involved in First Priority local campus ministries. Over 700 students and teachers across the area attended this year's event. Local school boards of education endorsed the program, allowing up to five students to attend from each school and count the event as a field trip. Some boards even provided a substitute teacher so that the teacher sponsor could attend.

Students enjoyed a day of intense training, as well as praise and worship brought by CJ Blount who performed with the sleep design band. Chick-fil-A sponsored the event by providing financial support, materials, entertainment and lunch for everyone in attendance. Southeastern Bible College also sponsored the event by providing the venue for the summit. Leadership trainers included Tiffany Bittner, local T.V. news station anchor, Ryan Bowman, Chick-fil-A Corporate, Outreach Minister David Nasser, and First Priority Greater Birmingham President Greg Davis. These National Leaders provided students with timeless knowledge to propel them as leaders in their school. We would like to give a special thanks to our sponsors and leadership trainers who helped to make this event a huge success. - Ashlee Lambert, First Priority of Greater Birmingham

Here are a few testimonies from students that attended the training...

"I feel like I've been chosen for a reason, and God is going to help me change my school. This is only the beginning, and greater things are yet to come." -Hannah, Bragg Middle School

"Today has really been fun learning. I've learned a lot that I haven't learned before. I'm really glad there is a place that people can come together in this state and learn about God. - Michael, Etowah Middle School

"The Leader's Summit was amazing! I had a great time. The music was excellent, the speakers did a great job and also free food! But, most of all, I learned more about God and became closer to Him. Thanks for the great time. I can't wait until next year." - Philip, Student

03.10.10 California Club Makes the News

First Priority Club collected more than $1,000 for Haitians

ENTERPRISE STAFF REPORT

Los Baños High School's First Priority club came together to raise funds for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Club adviser and history teacher Tommy Jones said he couldn't have been more pleased with the outcome. There was no class competition or award given for the most donated. The fundraiser was organized solely for raising money for those who need it most.

In one class period, the students were able to collect more than $1,000. And that was entirely from the rest of the student body. The fundraiser turned out to be not only student-generated but student-funded.

"I thought the kids did really good," Jones said. "They were enthusiastic and happy to do their part. They want to do it again."

Jones said he was more impressed with the committment the students made to the fundraiser than the amount raised.

"Everyone was eager to help, everyone was eager to participate. And they want to do it even bigger next time," he said. "That's really positive, that our young people are that caring.

"And that was in just one period, not even a whole day," Jones said.

--Samantha Salas

http://www.losbanosenterprise.com/2010/01/29/61643/first-priority-club-collected.html