PRAYER IS FOUNDATIONAL
It is easy to just start “doing” things and feel personally responsible for building a movement on your campus. Action is good, but you want to always maintain a spirit of dependence on God. In the book of Acts, whenever you see great numbers of people coming to believe in Jesus, it was after the disciples spent time in prayer. It has been correctly said, “The early church was built on its knees.”
By scheduling prayer into your efforts, you are reminding everyone that it is God who moves in the hearts of other students, drawing them to himself. And, it is He who works through our lives to help others.
Below are some suggestions of how to incorporate prayer throughout the school year. Remember you can do a lot of these prayer activities virtually too!
Beginning of the semester
- Prayer walk – Something very powerful happens when we walk the campus in twos or threes praying for the university, professors, and our fellow students. It’s simple to organize: just choose a day and time and pray for God to be at work as you walk around the campus. The more we pray for our university the more sensitive we become to what God is doing. You can also do a virtual prayer walk using Google Earth.
- 24/7 Prayer Room– Imagine a prayer room open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Choose a week, preferably before classes start, and invite people to come and pray for your campus in this room. (It might be in a local church, a student’s apartment or a room on campus)
Try to have the room open all the time, and decorate it to be cozy. You can have prayer requests in a notebook that others can also add to. You might set specific times when people will give a devotional during the week. Provide a few art supplies and musical instruments so people can express themselves artistically. 24/7 Prayer is an international movement, and you can learn more about this strategy here.
Throughout the semester
- Weekly prayer meetings on campus, at a specific time and place.
- A special evening Concert of Prayer on campus or off-campus. (You might even want to pray all night long)
End of semester
- Refresh Rooms – The end of the semester when students are stressed with exams, set up a space where they can relax, take a nap, listen to music, read the Bible and pray. It’s a place to enjoy the presence of God, but it is also a great way to connect with non-Christian students who come. They’re stressed too and you open doors for the gospel by praying for them.
English