Practice of Prayer - Week 2
HOW Do We Pray?
Last week I gave you a list of what to pray for our children’s ministry. This week you are going to create your own list and categorize it on the proper place under Jesus’ prayer model. See how I have modeled some for you below and color-coded them to where I got the prayer idea from the stories. You will continue to add to these sections as you read stories about our youth group over the years and as you reflect on your own youth experiences.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Praise -- You are OUR father and the Father of our youth, our younger brothers and sister in Christ.
Praise – You have saved former atheists through youth ministry
Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Help our youth and our church to invite other youth to our youth group
Give us this day our daily bread,
Please continue to work in those who once attended youth group and in their families
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Help our students to heal from..
Forgive us for not prioritizing...
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
We are praying as our building is being constructed. Last week we learned that our builders poured the slab for our children’s classrooms and sanctuary. On the second story of that building we will have our youth group rooms. This week we’re going to start with stories because I want to fan the flames before you pray for our youth. As you read, underline anything that helps you understand how you might pray for our students. I got you started with a few underlinings and ideas to model that.
When Steve and I moved to Laredo in 1987, Grace was a small church with five teenagers who were all related. Like most of the church, their parents were fairly young in their faith, and so were they. Having led youth group in our previous church – and being the youngest members of the church -- naturally we were recruited to start “a youth group.” We soon discovered that leading a youth group of 50 students is sooo much easier than leading a group of five. As we plowed through one of the gospels, the cousins and siblings bickered. Jesus had several cousins and siblings among His Twelve, and our sympathies for His experience of making disciples from that crew were stirred. This is where we started.
Later Steve began inviting students from his high school. Some of these students knew God and others were thirsty for Him. (Keep underlining ) We are still in relationship with many of these students; I’ll highlight two. At her first meeting Marianna announced, “I am an atheist, and I’m here to check things out.” The kids took in her black wardrobe, her bat backpack and overall Goth motif and this statement in silence. She came for two years before capitulating to Jesus. Today she’s a single mom, fighting her issues and holding strong to her faith while raising her teen son, who has not capitulated to Jesus...yet. David was raised in a Christian home and came to us solid. But he wanted to know more. So, he and Steve met one to one every week for a year. They worked through books of the Bible and The Footsteps of the Messiah, which covers all the books and verses about the end times. When David went to college, he led Bible studies on his dorm floor. Today he still leads studies in his home.
As Grace grew, we hired Tim as our youth pastor in 2004, and he moved our youth group to a whole other level until he stepped down in 2017. He developed volunteers for both middle and high school for each grade level, established a student led band, and swung the students into the rhythms of weekly worship, Fall Camp, Switch Conference, Challenge and mission trips to keep their faith vibrant. He has A LOT of stories to tell, but since he’s preaching this week on prayer, he told me this one today. Matt Ma, Marcus, and others established the youth band. Then they handed it over to Chris to lead. One day during his senior year, he came to Tim and said “Who’s going to lead the band next year when I’m gone?...Tim, we need to pray.” So, they began praying regularly. Tim said, “My eyes and heart were now attuned to what God would do.” One day another senior in high school stopped by Tim’s office. He wanted to lead a citywide worship service. Tim wondered, “What is God doing in this young man’s life?” They started a relationship which led to an internship which led to a position as our worship leader that Isai fulfills to this day.
God prepared for Tim’s replacement long before 2017 by raising up a student from within his youth group. Steve was Bella’s physics teacher in high school, and he kept inviting her to come to youth group. Her best friend Mel was invited by Alex and then Matt Me, and she says someone gave her Pastor Tom’s business card, and she kept that for a long time. Together Bella and Mel kept debating whether they should come. One day they came. And one day Steve shared the gospel at youth group, and Bella trusted Christ for her salvation. Many different people, both youth and adults discipled her. Her sister Stephanie began coming, and she became a believer, and the God of peace transformed them from sister-rivals to sisters-in-Christ. Her parents saw God do that before their very eyes, and they became believers. In time she started serving as a volunteer in children’s ministry and then in youth group. God provided for her to attend Wheaton College where she met Luke. And when they graduated, they committed two years to serve as our youth pastors, knowing they would eventually pursue more education. Today Bella is studying to be a counselor and Luke is studying to be a pastor. Mel, by the way, also became a believer! She married Matt Ma, referenced in the previous paragraph, and they are expecting their second child soon!
In September 2019, Joey, who came with teaching and counseling experience, accepted the call to pastor our youth. He jumped right in to leading Fall Camp with gusto and then all the established rhythms of leading volunteers and our youth. In spring 2020 Covid hit, and he had to rethink all of it. Students met through Zoom in girl groups and guy groups for almost a year, but not all persisted in their community. Those who did greeewww tremendously. Joey told me this story. One day a young man said to his group, “Pray for me. I’m struggling with sin” and he named it. None judged him. They prayed. This led to other students confessing their sins of struggles and addictions. As they continued to pray, the students bonded together, and they experienced victories over their sin. When students began to meet face to face, both the guys and the girls continued to be vulnerable with one another and to encourage one another to stand firm. This is where we are today.
What is your story of your relationship with God or lack of relationship with God during your middle school and high school years? As some of you share, use the spaces below Jesus’ model prayer on the first page to jot down more ideas about how you might pray for our student ministry at Grace.
Building the Kingdom at Grace Through Prayer
One of the greatest services you can ever engage in for our church is prayer.
See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 18:10
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12
What do you notice about our Father’s attitude toward the youth in the two verses above?
Now go to the first page where you wrote your notes for praying and enjoy bringing our youth, their leaders, our building, and the ministry in general before the Lord. When you finish, come back to this page for some accountability homework .
Homework -- Luke 5:15-17
1. Leaders, text this passage to your group the day after you meet.
But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal.
2. On this day in the group chat, text each other all the things you notice about these verses. Note the who, when, where, what, how, why details. Just notice them.
3. On the next day, text each other all the ways you can apply this verse to your life. Be very specific about the who, when, where, what, how, why applications.
4. On the next next day, text your group one action that you will do every day for the rest of the week that you will do.
5. On the next next next days, do what you said you would do. Then text one another “I did it” each day.
Thank you, church, for your ministry of prayer to our youth and our church and our city!
God’s joy and strength to you,
kpaulson@gracelaredo.org