School Christian Groups: What if there are just a few of us?
Even with just one or two people, you can still make a big impact!
You may have been reading this series thinking ‘all these tips are great Sarah … if there are lots of Christians in your school!’. Maybe you go to a school where there are only 1 or 2 other Christians that you know of. Or maybe it’s only you? Don’t give up on the idea of meeting with other Christians at school! It’s such an important way to be encouraged to keep following Jesus in such a hard place.
One of the best ways to have more Christians in your school is to evangelise. I know that can seem like a very daunting task, especially if you’re on your own. But here are a few ideas for how you can evangelise.
1. Evangelistic Bible Studies
Get a local youth leader to come in and run an evangelistic Bible study at recess or lunch for you (and hopefully a few of your friends who don’t know Jesus).
Two women from my old church used to run ‘Chocolate Tuesdays’ at our local high school. One was a mum with a baby (and she brought him along which all the girls loved) and the other was an older woman who loved to tell people about Jesus and answer their questions. These two women (and baby Sam) would bring a few blocks of chocolate to school on Tuesdays and spend recess talking about Jesus with a group of about 12 to 20 girls - some Christians, some not. This group made the Christians brave to ask their friends to come and gave the non-Christians a place to ask questions and wrestle with God’s Word. This is just one example. Work out what might work for your group of friends and find a faithful Christian who can come in and help out.
2. Serve your school
We’ve already talked a bit about this in our last article but serving your school is one of the best ways you can evangelise. Find something that your school needs and provide it for them. Do something not because you want something in return but just to show the love of Jesus to your school. In a different local school I was involved in, they used to put on ‘Thank God It’s Friday Breakfast’. They knew that lots of kids came to school without having eaten breakfast. So for half an hour on a Friday, they would have free muffins (baked by volunteers from our church) and milkshakes on offer for anyone who wanted some. When people asked why they were doing it, they said it was because they loved Jesus and wanted them to know his love too. Again, this is just one example. You’ll need to work out what will work for your school.
3. Be bold!
Remember that God is the one who saves people, not us! He is powerful and mighty to save so trust him to do his work, pray hard that he would change people’s hearts and be bold in telling others the great news of Jesus!
It’s important to note that even with just two Christians you can do almost all the stuff in the other articles. It might be smaller scale. It might look a little different. You might need to get other people involved (youth leaders, Christian teachers, etc). But almost all of those ideas and principles will still work not matter what size your group is. And Jesus tells us how powerful it is when even just 2 or 3 meet together in his name (Matthew 18:19-20).
Wrapping it all up
I want to end this series in the same place we began.
High school is hard. Being a Christian at high school makes it even harder! Having a Christian group gives you a great opportunity to meet with other Christians, to encourage each other to keep following Jesus and together be a great light for the gospel to your school. However you decide to meet, wherever you decide to meet, whether there are 2 or 200 Christians in your group, keep meeting together in the name of Jesus! It’s my prayer that he will use you powerfully to encourage others and to make his name known in schools across his world.
Stay in the loop