Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Did You Host a Specific Prayer Time on Sunday?
We'd love to hear what you did. Post how you handled "Harvest Sunday" below. We'll send you a free "Harvest Sunday" VFY T-Shirt to the first 10 people who post. Thanks.
Monday, September 27, 2010
YOUR CHURCH CAN PRAY FOR NEW HARVEST WORKERS
I love this time of year. I had the privilege over the past weekend to spend several hours in my car driving through the gorgeous countryside of northeastern Pennsylvania’s Endless Mountains and the Southern Tier of New York State. Although not quite peak “leaf viewing” season, I enthusiastically admit that the spectacular views of the forests ablaze with autumn colors were absolutely amazing. The orange, yellow, and red, blended together with the green, formed breathtaking panoramas of our God’s creative genius. I love this time of year!
My travels also took me past field-after-field of busy farmers who were utilizing the weekend’s beautiful weather to harvest their crops before what soon will be a dark, long, and cold winter. This visual aid reminded me again of the great need for a new generation of “harvest workers” to head into God’s global harvest. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself put it this way, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Luke 10:2)
Truly the harvest is great! If the world’s population was significant back then, it is truly enormous now. Statisticians tell us that the population of the world is growing by a BILLION people in just over 12 years. Look around. People who need the Lord are everywhere. It doesn’t take “rocket science” to see a lost and needy world in desperate need of a Savior.
The laborers are few! It’s also quite obvious to see that the world’s mission fields need new workers. New Christian workers, church planters, and missionaries are needed immediately in every country on every continent – including the United States. For years and years, many Christian leaders have referred to the statistic about the great number of retiring evangelical missionaries. If that particular statistic was true back when the Moody Monthly magazine reported it; it must be exponentially true now. Members of what Tom Brokaw called “the Greatest Generation” are dying. The once-dominant Baby-Boomers are soon to retire in record numbers; while the Gen’X’ers and Millennials are still trying to make their way in vocational ministry.
Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers! The harvest IS great – and the laborers ARE few. God’s solution is to pray!
The Lord Himself gave us His plan for impacting the world’s ever-growing population – we are to pray! Friends, when was the last time your church prayed specifically and intentionally for the Lord to call a new generation of harvest workers in His harvest?
Let me be even more pointed. When was the last time your church sent out a new missionary? Of course, some readers are active in churches that continually equip, train, and send new missionaries and Christian workers into the world’s needy mission fields. But, many are not.
We must be intentional about asking God to call a new generation into His global harvest! He has commanded us to do that.
That’s why Vision For Youth has instituted this international campaign called “Harvest Sunday.” We’re calling all churches everywhere to carve out some time on Sunday, October 10, 2010 (10.10.10) to pray for God to send new workers into His harvest. This won’t cost you any money, and it doesn’t require a huge promotional effort on your part. All we’re asking is for you to schedule some time on Sunday, Oct. 10th to pray specifically for God to call a new generation of people into vocational ministry.
Some churches will take some time during their morning worship service to pray. Other churches will take the entire Sunday School hour to pray, and other churches will schedule an early morning prayer meeting. The ideas are up to you. The important thing is to pray.
Please use whatever influence you have in your church to call people to pray. Send letters. Make phone calls. Send text messages or e-mails. Ask your youth group or Sunday School class to pray. If nothing else, drop to your knees that morning and ask the Lord to call new workers into His harvest. In doing that, you’ll join others, from Asia, Europe, Africa, South America, and even North America, in calling out to God to call new workers into His global harvest.
This is what the Lord Himself asked us to do!
-Mel Walker, Vision For Youth, Inc.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
ABWE Joins "Harvest Sunday" Campaign
We just received word from Dr. Tony Beckett (vice president of church ministries) at ABWE that they will join our international campaign for “Harvest Sunday” on October 10, 2010!! We are very thankful for their networking with us to ask our Lord to call a new generation into His global harvest. Take a look at: www.abwe.org. We'll post more information about this in days ahead.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
STUDENT-LED REVIVAL
I need to tell you about one of my heroes. His name is Art Bowser and he taught church history courses during the years I was in Bible college. Probably because I needed another history course to graduate, I decided to take his The History of the Great Revivals my senior year. Most of the dates and historical names are long gone from my memory, but I’ll never forget Mr. Bower’s desire to learn all he could about great movements of God in the lives of human culture. He loving and longingly taught us about Martin Luther and The Great Reformation, the Wesley Brothers and George Whitfield, and the amazing work of D.L. Moody.
It certainly wasn’t the facts of history that endeared Mr. Bowser to me; it was his enthusiasm for true God-centered, heart-changing revival. He had a great knowledge about the chronological dates and he had learned much about history’s human influencers, but what impacted me most was his great love of genuine revival. His passion was contagious.
Here’s what I remember most from Mr. Bower’s Great Revivals course: most of the great revivals in history began (humanly speaking, of course) with students.
I’m sure there’s a level of human logic here that makes sense. Students often possess an idealistic outlook that propels them to seek change. They see things as they are currently and they idealistically want things to be different in the future. Students realistically have their entire futures ahead of them and they have the energy and enthusiasm that drives them toward accomplishment and achievement.
However, Mr. Bowser taught me that there maybe another factor involved in student-led revivals. It just may be that God uses students to change things.
Readers, I honestly believe that this may be the most compelling reason why I love youth ministry. God has given me multiple opportunities over the last 35 years (since I started working with youth in college) to see great works of God in and through the lives of young people. A major part of my ministry career has been a personal involvement in some significant and large-scale youth and youth ministry events. I had the opportunity to have a small role in the beginning of a state-wide youth Bible conference that attracted over a thousand teenagers each year for several years in a row. I led a national youth conference for a fellowship of churches where hundreds of teens participated in worship, ministry, and preaching. I also served on the leadership team at 2 different Bible colleges that gave me the occasion to direct their annual youth conferences. Without any exaggeration these events often resulted in God doing momentous things in and through the lives of students!
Not only did I have the great privilege to see God at work in the lives of teenagers (and, let me tell you, it never ceases to amaze me to see our Lord do incredible things in the lives of students), I also had the unique advantage to hear reports from numerous churches about how God used kids, over and over again, to be a genuine catalyst for revival in their home churches after the event was over.
Art Bowser was right. God does use students to launch great revivals.
At this point it’s important to note that genuine God-centered revivals are never produced via a formula or recipe. If that was the case, man would have undoubtedly put “one-and-one-together” in an all too human attempt to manufacture what only God can truly generate. Authentic revivals are exclusively and entirely of God. However, even a cursory study of the history of revivals reveals that God also used fervent and intentional prayer as an essential ingredient of a true spiritual resurgence.
One of my favorite stories from the annals of historical revivals is that of the Haystack Prayer Meeting in northwestern Massachusetts in 1806. God supernaturally used the passionate prayers of 6 students in an amazing way that led to what is often referred to as the “Student Volunteer Movement”. Up until that time, the United States was usually not considered a sending nation for global missionaries. Yet, historians now credit this “Second Great Awakening” for propelling over 10,000 foreign missionaries into the world’s harvest fields. Some have had lasting influence for Christ generation-after-generation in countries that are now closed to Christian missionaries. God used a simple, but fervent prayer meeting to make a lasting difference for eternity.
There’s another, more familiar, illustration of how God is currently using students to make a significant impact for Him. Most readers probably have some level of awareness about the student-led prayer movement “See You At The Pole”. In the early 1990’s a “small group of teenagers in Burleson, Texas came together” asking the Lord to use them to impact their high schools for Christ. Here’s how the SYATP web site recalls the beginning of this campaign. “Compelled to pray, they drove to three different schools that night. Not knowing exactly what to do, they went to the school flagpoles and prayed for their friends, schools, and leaders.” Another incredible prayer movement was born. Last year over 3 million American high school students met at their school flagpoles in a remarkable demonstration of student-fueled prayer.
I believe with all my heart that students can make history when they band together to cry out to God!
Friends, it’s time for another prayer meeting!
The Lord Himself gave us this strategy in Luke 10:2 for launching a new generation of workers. “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into His harvest.”
We must be obedient to our Lord’s command. It’s time to call a new generation to pray intentionally and fervently for our Lord to send out workers into His harvest!
The need for new “harvest workers” has never been greater. The population of the world is growing by a billion people in less than 12 years – and will reach 7 billion people sometime in the year 2012. At this moment, 1/3 of the world’s population is under the age of 21; and the most telling statistic of all – close to 90% of people accept Christ before they leave their teenage years.
We are asking pastors, missionaries, church leaders, Sunday School teachers, and youth leaders everywhere to schedule and organize an intentional prayer emphasis for Harvest Sunday on October 10, 2010. (Yes, that day is: 10/10/10!) Perhaps through our collective prayers, God may choose to launch another great movement of students heading into the global harvest.
Place this date on your church calendars (10/10/10) and schedule some time that day for fervent prayer for harvest workers. Pray in Sunday School and in church services, schedule an early morning prayer breakfast, organize your church people to pray around the clock, organize small prayer groups, etc. Be creative and intentional. The important thing is to pray for and with students.
Please join together with other churches and youth workers all around the world to pray specifically on October 10, 2010 for God to once again use students in a mighty and world-changing way for His glory! Who knows what He may choose to do.
For more information on Harvest Sunday – or to post ideas of what your church or youth group is planning to do – take a look at: www.harvestsunday.org.
It certainly wasn’t the facts of history that endeared Mr. Bowser to me; it was his enthusiasm for true God-centered, heart-changing revival. He had a great knowledge about the chronological dates and he had learned much about history’s human influencers, but what impacted me most was his great love of genuine revival. His passion was contagious.
Here’s what I remember most from Mr. Bower’s Great Revivals course: most of the great revivals in history began (humanly speaking, of course) with students.
I’m sure there’s a level of human logic here that makes sense. Students often possess an idealistic outlook that propels them to seek change. They see things as they are currently and they idealistically want things to be different in the future. Students realistically have their entire futures ahead of them and they have the energy and enthusiasm that drives them toward accomplishment and achievement.
However, Mr. Bowser taught me that there maybe another factor involved in student-led revivals. It just may be that God uses students to change things.
Readers, I honestly believe that this may be the most compelling reason why I love youth ministry. God has given me multiple opportunities over the last 35 years (since I started working with youth in college) to see great works of God in and through the lives of young people. A major part of my ministry career has been a personal involvement in some significant and large-scale youth and youth ministry events. I had the opportunity to have a small role in the beginning of a state-wide youth Bible conference that attracted over a thousand teenagers each year for several years in a row. I led a national youth conference for a fellowship of churches where hundreds of teens participated in worship, ministry, and preaching. I also served on the leadership team at 2 different Bible colleges that gave me the occasion to direct their annual youth conferences. Without any exaggeration these events often resulted in God doing momentous things in and through the lives of students!
Not only did I have the great privilege to see God at work in the lives of teenagers (and, let me tell you, it never ceases to amaze me to see our Lord do incredible things in the lives of students), I also had the unique advantage to hear reports from numerous churches about how God used kids, over and over again, to be a genuine catalyst for revival in their home churches after the event was over.
Art Bowser was right. God does use students to launch great revivals.
At this point it’s important to note that genuine God-centered revivals are never produced via a formula or recipe. If that was the case, man would have undoubtedly put “one-and-one-together” in an all too human attempt to manufacture what only God can truly generate. Authentic revivals are exclusively and entirely of God. However, even a cursory study of the history of revivals reveals that God also used fervent and intentional prayer as an essential ingredient of a true spiritual resurgence.
One of my favorite stories from the annals of historical revivals is that of the Haystack Prayer Meeting in northwestern Massachusetts in 1806. God supernaturally used the passionate prayers of 6 students in an amazing way that led to what is often referred to as the “Student Volunteer Movement”. Up until that time, the United States was usually not considered a sending nation for global missionaries. Yet, historians now credit this “Second Great Awakening” for propelling over 10,000 foreign missionaries into the world’s harvest fields. Some have had lasting influence for Christ generation-after-generation in countries that are now closed to Christian missionaries. God used a simple, but fervent prayer meeting to make a lasting difference for eternity.
There’s another, more familiar, illustration of how God is currently using students to make a significant impact for Him. Most readers probably have some level of awareness about the student-led prayer movement “See You At The Pole”. In the early 1990’s a “small group of teenagers in Burleson, Texas came together” asking the Lord to use them to impact their high schools for Christ. Here’s how the SYATP web site recalls the beginning of this campaign. “Compelled to pray, they drove to three different schools that night. Not knowing exactly what to do, they went to the school flagpoles and prayed for their friends, schools, and leaders.” Another incredible prayer movement was born. Last year over 3 million American high school students met at their school flagpoles in a remarkable demonstration of student-fueled prayer.
I believe with all my heart that students can make history when they band together to cry out to God!
Friends, it’s time for another prayer meeting!
The Lord Himself gave us this strategy in Luke 10:2 for launching a new generation of workers. “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into His harvest.”
We must be obedient to our Lord’s command. It’s time to call a new generation to pray intentionally and fervently for our Lord to send out workers into His harvest!
The need for new “harvest workers” has never been greater. The population of the world is growing by a billion people in less than 12 years – and will reach 7 billion people sometime in the year 2012. At this moment, 1/3 of the world’s population is under the age of 21; and the most telling statistic of all – close to 90% of people accept Christ before they leave their teenage years.
We are asking pastors, missionaries, church leaders, Sunday School teachers, and youth leaders everywhere to schedule and organize an intentional prayer emphasis for Harvest Sunday on October 10, 2010. (Yes, that day is: 10/10/10!) Perhaps through our collective prayers, God may choose to launch another great movement of students heading into the global harvest.
Place this date on your church calendars (10/10/10) and schedule some time that day for fervent prayer for harvest workers. Pray in Sunday School and in church services, schedule an early morning prayer breakfast, organize your church people to pray around the clock, organize small prayer groups, etc. Be creative and intentional. The important thing is to pray for and with students.
Please join together with other churches and youth workers all around the world to pray specifically on October 10, 2010 for God to once again use students in a mighty and world-changing way for His glory! Who knows what He may choose to do.
For more information on Harvest Sunday – or to post ideas of what your church or youth group is planning to do – take a look at: www.harvestsunday.org.
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