Student-Led Movements

Student leaders are the key at Fort Calhoun High School SV. They have been instrumental in bringing over 50 of their fellow students to SV meetings in the past two years.

Small discussion groups at these SV meetings are led by these student leaders who are passionate about their peers coming to know Christ and grow in Him. Sometimes some of the new students who come are wary of being pressured into something new that they're not sure about. Our student leaders do a great job of giving these new students the freedom to share and discuss where they are coming from without putting them down. Even so, some new students become defensive and argumentative.

This happened recently with several new students the same evening. But our student leaders did such a great job showing them respect and friendship not only at the SV meeting, but also in school over the next week. And these new students have been back every week since, and with a completely different attitude. Now, they are sharing very positively about Christ in the small groups.

In fact, we were surprised and impressed to read the following facebook status of one of these new students recently:

"I love Jesus and you know what 

I'm not afraid to talk to you about Him! 

Anyone want to have a nice talk about Jesus 

and His love for us? 

Today show someone that your a Christian 

and your proud of it!"

What our student leaders are modeling before their peers is exactly what Campus Crusade president, Steve Douglass, recently wrote about in an article to CCC staff:

As I write this, I am flying back from a meeting with many of our global leaders. Some of these leaders are focused on student-led movement. I had the privilege of talking with a number of them informally concerning university students today and how to minister to them. There were some trends we had all observed. One was that students are increasingly interested in knowing if the Christian life really works.

We discussed the importance of building relationships with interested students. Life-to-life connection helps people discover how they can have the kind of relationship with God that we have.

One thing some global campus leaders and I discussed is the change in how students prefer to learn. Today's students seem to absorb more lessons from discussions with their friends than from listening to a lecture or reading a book. This "oral learning" trend has a major impact on how we can best disciple students. Lectures need to be shorter and have fewer points. Teaching sessions need to be frequently interspersed with times of discussion in small groups. We need to allow for "self-discovery".

We thank God for raising up the student leaders at Fort Calhoun High, and praise Him for their peers who are coming to know Jesus. Please pray for these leaders, and for the friends that they are bringing to our Student Venture meetings.