"The Spirit of God has Changed Our School"
|
 For years I've said that one of the solutions for the lack of male student leadership in Christian schools and youth groups if for a trusted male leader to create a close-in mentoring group of influential young men (even if they're rough around the edges) and mentor them in biblical masculinity.
Everyone thinks its a great idea, but very few people have ever actually done it. So you can imagine my delight to hear from Blair
A Bryant, Superintendent of Rainier
Christian Schools sharing his experience of the profound difference this very idea has had in his school.
Here's what Blair wrote:
Jeff,
I
agree strongly with the tentative conclusions that seem to be emerging. I have
worked in Christian education since 1983. I have tried many different methods
of raising up young leaders, but most thing I have tried have not created
effective and sustainable leaders or programs to develop leaders.
In
the last year I have been meeting with a group of 5 young men. I invited them
into the group in September. They were given the opportunity to participate or
walk away, but they had to be all in or all out. We have met each week for
about I hour. The five young men are respected on our school campus, but would
not have been seen as spiritual leaders. When they were invited into the group
they were told that we would be changing the school and that they would become
the spiritual leaders of our school.
We
just had a spiritual retreat for our High School. These five boys took seats in the
front row. They were not asked to do this. They stood and worshiped in front
of the entire student body. At the end of the first day I did a male
only session asking, "Where are the Godly Young Men?" These
young men stood and gave testimonies from the year and what God was doing in
their lives and expressed what they would like to see happen in the school.
After they shared, other young men started to come to the mic and share, dream,
confess sins, ask for help, and offer to help. It was amazing; young men that
have never shared publicly stood and participated.
I
am sorry to say that we have had a Christian school where student were
reluctant to share, they have not enjoyed Chapel or times of worship and pray
only if required. Many time I felt we had so completely inoculated them to
Christ that they could never possibly catch Christianity.
As
we went through the second day of our retreat, students were not only
caught up in worship, but they remained at the altar in tears and prayer even
after being released for lunch. By the last session the students surrounded the
teaching staff, laying hands on them and praying in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The teachers were overwhelmed and stood in shock with tears running down their
faces.
By
the end of the day students were asking for extra chapel and worship times
through the rest of the week. Our speaker and worship band left on Tuesday
afternoon, but the Spirit of God remains and has changed our school.
God
bless,
Blair
Of course, breakthroughs like this are the beginning, not the end, of the process. But I'm mulling over how to apply the lessons Blair has learned to other areas of life--family,
church, etc. Thoughts? I'd love to hear from you at jeff@passingthebaton.org
|
