Lee Rogers

Lee Rogers, a part of Youth Alive, is a missionary to the youth of America with the Assemblies of God. Youth Alive is a program focused on impacting campuses with the Bible. They understand that while some adults are in schools, if the Gospel is going to be advanced there, it has to be through the students. Adults can only be invited to speak in a school in a limited context, such as a Bible club or a world religious class. They can’t, however, label it as truth, only as their personal view. Adults don’t belong in school unless they’re employees of the school, which makes them employees of the government, which makes things tricky for them. On the other hand, a student can say about they want- they can evangelize, preach the Gospel, and wear whatever t-shirts they wants until they start offending other students. It’s up to students to spread the Gospel in public schools!

There were four essential parts of the Youth Alive initiative Mr. Rogers talked about: 

1.     Campus missionaries. These are students who follow Jesus as school. They are given five things to focus on: prayer, live, tell, serve, and give. Youth Alive strongly believes that students can be missionaries now in their school campuses. Mr. Lee told the testimony of a student who accepted Christ, became a missionary on campus, and through his ministry, saw twenty lives transformed by the Gospel. This is discipleship.

2.     Campus clubs. These are groups of students meeting together for school ministry. Youth Alive also believes that students can be church-planters.

3.     The Seven Project. Youth Alive has started the Seven Project, a series of school assemblies service project. They go into school, address their needs, whether it’s bullying, scholastic achievement, sexting, etc. Though they are not allowed to have any mention of God or faith-based material, Mr. Lee compared it to the book of Esther. The Name of God is not mentioned but the Spirit of God is clearly there. After the assembly, they have follow-up events at night, as supporters of the Bible clubs and what they are doing. And though they believe in events, they believe more so in processes. To prepare for the event, The Seven Project comes to communities seven weeks before the assembly and gives churches and Christian students an action plan of what to do. They equip young leaders to know how to share the Gospel in their school community, and give them t-shirts, Books of Hope, and a plan to lead up to the event. If churches, students, and youth group do their work, it gets people excited for the actual event. It’s not just another assembly, but it’s an event that hype has been building up to.

4.     Prayer. They reach out to the local churches and gather people to pray for the church and the communities. They are called “prayer zone partners.” Things that they pray for: the campus, openness to the Gospel, teachers, students, etc.

      Something very interesting talked about what how he compared school events like See You At the Pole to baptism. In the early church, baptism was a public proclamation, a sign of rebirth, and gave them an identity as a Christian. All of these things are accomplished in public school events such as See You At the Pole.

      Another thing that stood out to be what the steps he suggests in planning an outreach in school. One student asked about how to draw people in to bible groups in schools? Well, it has to be engaging. For example, instead of advertising it as a place to grow as a disciple of Christ, you can draw people in by asking the tough questions like “Is God real?” or “Does God care?”

      He gave a few practical questions to think about when planning an outreach at school:

·      Who do you want to serve in your school?

·      What do you want to do for them?

·      Where will it take place?

·      When will it happen?

·      Why are you reaching out to them?

·      How will this all happen?

      I was very grateful Mr. Lee Rogers came to share with us in Mr. Reese's absence. It's obvious that he is very passionate about discipleship, and he opened our eyes to a form of discipleship that we often overlook.