How did your first STORM go

God uses many things to bring glory to Himself. Let me tell you of the most recent thing in our youth group that God chose to use…a Word of Life S.T.O.R.M. meeting. S.T.O.R.M. stands for Sending Teens Out to Reach the Masses. I am a youth pastor at a small church; and, at first, I wasn’t sure how this would work for us. You’ll see that it did! If you’re going to have a S.T.O.R.M. meeting, you need to have a goal. Your goal for the S.T.O.R.M. meeting night is to clearly present the gospel to unsaved students. A S.T.O.R.M meeting is a great way to achieve this objective.

It is also very important that you teach the regularly attending teens the goal of the night so that they know the goal at which they are aiming. Our weeks before the meeting our youth leaders and I began to promote the S.T.O.R.M. event to our teens. In your promotion you need to answer the question that is in your teen’s minds, “Why should I bring my unsaved friends to this event?” In preparation for this event, we had the teens bring a list of unsaved friends they wanted to invite. Then we began praying
during our small groups for those students.

Preparation for this event will include seeking adult volunteers from the church to drive and help transport visitors to the S.T.O.R.M. meeting, bringing the ingredients for the banana split, help make the banana split, crowd control, and most importantly prayer. For us, this was an event with which the entire church helped. Rather than having our regular evening service that night, the entire church body served the teens in our community. This was one of the best things that we’ve ever done. This helped unify our teens and adults in our church. Our normal youth group is fifteen teens and four youth leaders. You can see that your group does not have to be huge to hold this event. The things that we did that night that made it a success included a forty foot banana split, prizes, and the Word of Life ministries team.

Our Area Missionary came and shared the gospel. Having Word of Life there freed up our leaders to focus on getting to know the visitors. We had an outdoor event planned but it rained during the whole event so we moved inside. We average 15 teens in our youth group on Sunday nights and we had forty seven teens for the S.T.O.R.M., of which 31 were visitors. That night after the gospel was shared nine young teens accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The event was the best thing that the Lord has used in our youth group to bring glory to Himself. If you want to grow your group and get the gospel out to more teens in your community, a S.T.O.R.M. meeting is an event that you must do!
[Mike Fritz is the youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Susquehanna, PA.]
Editor’s Note: By planning your S.T.O.R.M. just prior to a Word of Life Super-Bowl you can more than
double the gospel impact on your community.

Prayer Breakfast to focus on the lost

The 2007 Word of Life Superbowl season is coming up! As you promote this important event, prayer should play an important role in the process. A Prayer Breakfast is a great way to help your students focus on the lost and the importance of their salvation. Studentswho spend time praying for their friends could see more of them come to Christ. They could come to value prayer more when an emphasis is placed upon it. We should help our students understand that prayer is vital in reaching others for Christ. A Prayer Breakfast gives students an opportunity to talk to the Lord about their friends. We recommend that you schedule at least one Prayer Breakfast before you attend the Superbowl in your area.

Purpose:

To pray for the salvation of the lost people who have been invited to a special event (like Superbowl) where they will hear the Gospel. This will also make your young people more aware of the lost.

Planning the Prayer Breakfast:

When

Before the event on a Saturday is the best time for the Prayer Breakfast. Have it early on Saturday so you do not take up an entire day.

Where

Have it at a leader’s home.

Time

8 to 9 AM. This allows people to use the rest of their Saturday.

Format

8:00-8:15 Eat

8:15-8:25 Devotion & Sharing (who they have invited etc)

8:25-8:30 Pass out prayer list

8:30-8:55 Pray

8:55-9:00 Share details of the next event, activity or update on both.

Prepare to pray:

• Divide into groups of 2, 3 or 4s. Have someone in each group take notes.
• Use different rooms Collect the names of those who have been invited to the event.
• Visualize the names on a poster or paper.
• By the time the Prayer Breakfast is over, have all the names on a master prayer list and give copies to everyone to take home .

How to Pray:

• Pray that the lies they have been told will not be believed.
• Pray that the hypocrites they are using for an excuse will be removed from their sight.
• Pray that God will break down the walls that are keeping them from Christ.
• Pray for boldness & wisdom to speak the Word of God to them.
• Pray that they will hear the truth of your words and the Word of God & believe it.
• Claim the salvation of each person in Jesus name.

[Steve Gledhill is the Word of Life missionary for northern California. Questions and comments may be  sent to Steve Gledhill at sgledhill@wol.org.]

A STORM Is Coming

Would you like to reach teens that have never been in church before? Would you like to share Jesus with students who have never heard about Jesus as Savior? Would you like to increase your Student Ministry attendance for one night by double or triple? Would you like to increase your average attendance by 10% or more? Would you like to take more unsaved students to Superbowl to hear the Gospel? “STORM” IS THE ANSWER!!!

STORM (Sending Teens Out Reaching the Masses) is not just an event, but a process of getting the students and adults of your church excited about evangelism. If you follow the evangelistic STORM event with follow-up, it becomes a process for discipleship and long term growth. The discipleship process is easier with the right tools. The first tool that we recommend is a powerful little book by our LCM director, Mike Calhoun. It is called First Steps – The Adventure Begins (See the Product Catalog, page 19). Order several of these booklets ahead of time so you can give them as free gifts after each person has made a decision at the STORM. Following the STORM two other discipleship tools should be used: Biblical Beliefs and Growing Biblically in Your Faith. These booklets appear and are also described in the Product Catalog also on page 19.

In your planning meetings, you need to do the following:

• You should schedule a date (during STORM month). My favorite time to conduct a STORM is on a normal Student Ministries meeting night. However, you must realize that your STORM will need to start about two hours before your normal meeting time.

• You should engage a speaker. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Your speaker needs to be able to do three things.

1. Communicate the gospel in a clear way.

2. Share or preach with excitement.

3. Give a clear invitation for the students to receive Christ. (I would encourage you to have your Area Missionary speak for you; especially if you never had a STORM before.)

• You should schedule a room/place that will hold up to three times your normal attendance.

• You should choose a “hook”. This is usually food, since students like to fellowship over food. Oh yeah—so do I! Two of the favorites are pizza and ice cream.

• You should choose who is going to do the orientation with your drivers and students. Not sure what to do? We have the answer with a STORM DVD. The orientation DVD will be with two crazy, awesome guys: Aaron and Kyle. They will make your orientation fun, informative and motivating.

• You should find people who will help (from your church—not just from your leadership team). Remember if you are a small church each person can double up on responsibilities. Below are some areas to think about:

1. Supplying and serving food for teens and workers before the orientation.

2. Supplying and serving food after the Student meeting.

3. One driver for every two students of your average attendance. The drivers need to be at the orientation with the students two hours before the normal meeting.

4. Hospitality People will greet and sign in the students. They will also have extra activities for those who are brought in early—like Volleyball.

A STORM Manual is also available to help you. The STORM Manual will help you with the detailed planning. The manual will also go over follow-up ideas to continue the impact of your ministry in each visitor’s life. The DVD has three video clips. The first is a promotion skit. The second is the actual orientation that you can use on the night of the STORM. And the third is for counselor training. DVD and the STORM Manual are available from your Area Missionary. Gospels of John, Decision Cards, Misty tracts and beautiful STORM T-Shirts are available in the Word of Life Product Catalog. This article is not intended to help with all the detailed planning; but, its intent is to give you the big picture from which you can plan an awesome fall event that can dovetail with Superbowl and start a process of ongoing outreach through new teens introduced to your Student Ministry. Whether you see 1 or 51 teens trust Christ as Savior, your efforts will impact your Student Ministry for God’s glory.

Plan now to be a part of National STORM outreach September – October 17

[Ken Dady is the Word of Life Missionary in western Ohio and northern Kentucky. He has run dozens of STORM meetings and seen hundreds of students trust Christ. His heart beats for evangelism. Ken and his wife Pam make their home in Bellefontaine, OH. Questions and comments about STORM may be addressed to Ken at kdady@wol.org.]