Why Churches Should Adopt Public Schools

Sometimes a good idea takes a while to generate traction. But then a combination of timing, people, and Providence inspire enough hearts and minds to action that it transforms society, in what Malcolm Gladwell calls a “Tipping Point.”

Consider, for example, the idea that churches should love youth in their communities by adopting public schools. The Campus Alliance has been saying this for years, even creating a website to help promote the idea and track its progress (www.EverySchool.com). But a review of the EverySchool database suggests that the cry has fallen on many ears that are unable, or unwilling, to hear. Many schools still wait to be adopted.

Recently, things began to change in NewYork City.

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But first, Bermuda is definitely a keeper. Have to return with Diana, sans kids, for longer fun. As for the cruise, Norwegian Dawn is a great ship. The food isn’t as good as Carnival Valor, but the kids’ pool, spa, and family activities rocked.

Cruising 2010: Horseshoe Bay Beach, Bermuda

Cruising 2010: Exploring Bermuda

Cruising 2010: Onboard NCL Dawn

UYWI LC ’10: Hiking Hook Mountain

July 4th Weekend 2010

Happy Birthday Justin!

Memorial Weekend 2010

Summer 2010 Misc Family Fun

Goliaths fall when adults like Saul get out of David’s way.

For the last twelve months, student leaders from greater New York have proven this truism time and again. Now some are organizing a citywide prayer walk of 1,600 public schools the weekend of Halloween and inviting the city’s 7,100 churches to participate.

Imagine that: students leading congregations as together they intercede for 1.1 million public school students — on a weekend long symbolic of darkness and mayhem.

This second I Am My School effort, spearheaded by student leaders from God Belongs in My City and 20/20 Vision for Schools, expands a May 15 pilot that included ten walks in four boroughs covering twenty-five schools.

The students will pray, “I am my school,” because “I am,” the name God calls Himself, has sent them to love and serve and transform their schools. On the Monday following the walk, students will wear I Am My School t-shirts to school in an effort to identify other Christians on campus. They will also encourage their churches to adopt one school within walking distance for ongoing prayer, advocacy, and service.

This kind of catalytic student leadership is exactly what Latino Pastoral Action Center hoped to inspire on September 12, 2009, when they produced “Kickin’ it Old Skool,” the first student leadership conference in collective memory that was actually led by students. Most “student leadership” events involve adults teaching students, or adults teaching other adults how to lead students. Rarely do adults voluntarily play a supporting role to students leading the event.

LPAC empowered twelve student organizers from four boroughs defy the stereotype and design a leadership event that they and other students would lead, armed with a budget to pull it off. Sixty-eight of their peers gathered for the conference at Washington Irving High School in Manhattan, and 175 enjoyed the evening concert as well.

At Kickin’ It, LPAC’s President Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera called students, “essential to efforts to transform communities.” Then he charged them, “Share your story. Declare your future. Inspire other students. Remember, tomorrow needs you. Prepare for it today.”

Little did he know that less than two months later, three of the Kickin’ It student organizers would rally a dozen or so other students to coordinate God Belongs in My City, the largest student led prayer walk in New York City. Fifteen hundred marchers walked a total of eight miles in Manhattan culminating in a Times Square rally and silent prayer “flash mob” in the main lobby of Grand Central Station.

In May 2010, those same empowered students organized the I Am My School pilot that provides the basis for the upcoming effort.

Another recent manifestation of authentic student leadership occurred at Reload 1.2.3, the groundbreaking multi-state, multi-site youth training event on June 12 that required every adult involved in the program — from musicians and singers to trainers and general session speakers — to integrate a “Plus-1? student protégé into their content delivery. With live music and workshops at all three venues, this strategy created a platform for more than fifty student leaders to provide meaningful leadership at a premiere training event for more than five hundred youth workers. Kickin’ It student leaders presented the “Student Led Student Leadership: Pipe Dream or Possible?” workshop that was simulcast to all three venues.

Dr. Larry Acosta, president of Urban Youth Workers Institute, challenged adult leaders at Reload 1.2.3, “You need to empower youth to lead with real ministry opportunities,” not just “passing the offering plates every fifth Sunday.”

To the Plus-1’s and other student leaders, Larry exhorted: “We need you … to rise up and lead the church into the future. You’re alive at this time in history at such a time as this. We need you to help us complete the Great Commission in the cities, in the … neighborhoods, in the projects, in the parks, in the places where too many from my generation are afraid to go.”

The Biblical character David was an untested teenager, a shepherd boy with no military training, when he simultaneously proved to be the only man among soldiers courageous enough to confront the giant Goliath. For forty days, Goliath’s taunts paralyzed Israel’s army with fear. Then David overheard the mockery, witnessed the cowardice of the adults around him, and was moved to action. The rest, as they say, is history.

Join veteran leaders like Dr. Rivera and Dr. Acosta in creating space for young people to continue making history. For more information on I Am My School, sign up online at 2020schools.net/i-am-my-school.

- Jeremy Del Rio was 13 when his youth pastor invited him to preach, 19 when his senior pastor asked him to start a youth group, and today directs 20/20 Vision for Schools, a movement to transform public education within one generation of students. www.JeremyDelRio.com

Related

• Watch the Reload 1.2.3 General Sessions for free online.
• Watch the Reload 1.2.3 Workshops for free online.

Sometimes taking a moment to exhale fresh air requires the intentionality of Bruthas. Thanks, Larry Acosta, for catalyzing a learning community of friends, colleagues, and leaders who are journeying life together — especially when it means scaling a 700 foot peak via a six mile hike surrounded by deer, hawks, and granite cliffs.

If you’ve never been to Hook Mountain (Nyack, NY), go. Phenomenal vistas and the serenity that only nature brings, a mere 20 minutes from the George Washington Bridge.

More photos to come.

Links

+ 160 firefighters at scene as Bronx church is gutted by fire that spread to homeless shelter (NY Daily News, July 25, 2010)

+ Historic church burns down in Brooklyn (ABC News, July 8, 2010)

+ “Bronx church reopens after arson,” (ABC News, July 11, 2010)

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Journalism Stars Party

Misc Spring 2010

“I believe in justice: but I am not a preacher of the gospel of justice, but the Gospel of Christ who calls us to justice. I believe in love, but I am not a preacher of the gospel of love, but the Gospel of Christ who calls us to love. I am committed to peace, but I am not a preacher of the gospel of peace, but the Gospel of Christ who calls us to peace. I believe in the value of the simple life, but I am not the preacher of the simple life, but of the Gospel of Christ that calls us to the simple life. Let us beware of the ultimate plagiarism of borrowing some great concepts from Jesus then running off proclaiming these concepts and not sharing the Christ that empowers these concepts.” ~ Myron Augsburger, Former President of Eastern Mennonite Seminary, 1983.

And this reflection:

“The only thing I’d change is the last line. I’d change it to ‘and not sharing the Christ who embodies these concepts. The truth is, Jesus Christ doesn’t just empower us to live out these spiritual virtues, Christ IS justice, love, peace, holiness, etc. That’s a life-changing revelation that’s little known today.’” – Frank Viola

For more information on Reload 1.2.3, the first multi-state, multi-site urban youth ministry training event in the country that featured adult youth workers and more than sixty “plus-1 proteges” that occurred in New York and New Jersey on June 12, 2010, visit the Reload 1.2.3 homepage.

Featured Workshop 1: “Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible?”

It’s trendy for youth ministers to say, “Youth ministry is not about ministering to youth, but about empowering youth to minister,” but what does youth-led youth ministry actually look like? Experience youth ministry by young people as NYC students discuss recent student-led ministry models including God Belongs in My City, Kickin’ It Old Skool, Generation Xcel, and World Vision’s Youth Empowerment Project.

Facilitated by Enid Almanzar (Avenue of Hope Fellowship, Manhattan) and featuring student leaders: Eden Martinez (Abounding Grace Ministries, Manhattan), Johnny Navarro (No Limits International Church, Staten Island), Vanessa Medina (God Belongs in My City, Brooklyn), and Christopher Cortes (World Vision Youth Empowerment Project, Bronx)

Student-Led Student Ministry: Pipe Dream or Possible? from UYWI on Vimeo.

Featured Workshop 2: “Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls: Overcoming Injustices and Rebuilding Communities”

“I the Lord love justice” (Isaiah 61:8). How then can youth ministries lead the struggle to overcome injustices such as poverty, crime, institutionalization, and educational inequity that conspire everyday against urban youth and erode urban communities? What role can youth ministries play in restoring the shalom of our cities by advocating for and manifesting Biblical justice in the communities beyond our church walls?

Featuring Ruben Austria and Rachel Carrion, Community Connections for Youth

Youth Ministry Beyond the Walls: Overcoming Injustices and Rebuilding Communities” from UYWI on Vimeo.

General Session 1: “Homegrown: The Leader”

Featuring: Jeremy Del Rio and Ryan Schlachter, 20/20 Vision for Schools; Mitchell Torres and Esmeralda Castellon, Harvest Fields Community Church; Efrain Figueroa and Reginald Renier, Glad Tidings Assembly of God; Larry Acosta, Urban Youth Workers Institute

RELOAD123 General Session 1 from UYWI on Vimeo.

General Session 2: “Hand-Off: The Legacy”

Featuring: Efrain “Brother E” Alicea, Elements Church; Joseph Henry Cortese, Crossroads Tabernacle; David Ham, Evangel Church; Andy “C-Lite” Mineo, Sin is Wack; Jay Cabassa, Elements Church; and the Reload 1.2.3 Worship Team

RELOAD123 General Session 2 from UYWI on Vimeo.