"Prayer is the fire which fuels the doing of the ministry, the winning of students to Christ, the building of them in Christ, and the sending of them to their world for Christ. The hotter the furnace glows, the greater the ministry and impact for the Savior on campuses and around the world becomes."

- Dan Hayes

The purpose of "Something's Happening USA" conference and campus prayer events are to help you gather other students to prayer for your school and friends.

Whenever students gather to pray - in large groups or small - you can call it a prayer happening. The purpose of this workshop is to give you some specific help in pulling together some prayer happenings.

I. The first prayer happening we will discuss is called Campus Prayer.

The Process

Here are the steps we will discuss:

1. Pray.

2. Challenge other students to help provide leadership.

3. Find a place and set a time.

4. Gather students to pray.

5. Implement the strategy.

6. Challenge the students involved to start prayer triplets.

1. Pray.

How can we start a foundation of prayer without first praying? Commit your plans to the Lord. Ask Him to continue to burden your heart for those who need Christ on your campus. Ask Him to lead you to a few other students who share your vision of helping to reach your school. Pray for God to excite students on your campus to pray.

2. Challenge other students to help provide leadership.

God probably has other students on your campus who share your vision of campus outreach and understand the importance of prayer. If your campus is going to be influenced for Christ, God is the One who is responsible to make it happen. One of the ways He chooses to move is in response to our prayers. Therefore, united group prayer is critical to see our campuses reached for Christ. You alone have contact with some Christians, but if you could find a few other committed believers, they also have contact with other Christians. Together, you can multiply your influence to many more people. Your church youth group is a great place to promote your prayer strategy. You and your friends may want to visit a few different churches to share your prayer vision. Make them aware of the days and times that you will be praying and challenge the students to join you.

3. Find a place and set a time.

You will want to find a place and time that is convenient for the most people. Usually, the best place to meet is in a classroom on campus before school. This is how we recommend you proceed: First, think of a Christian teacher who you could approach to ask permission to use his or her room for prayer. Ordinarily, you do not have to approach the principal unless the teacher cannot approve the room use. It is important that you explain to the teacher that this is a student-led meeting and that you will only need the room for 20-30 minutes once or twice a week. (For your encouragement, there is a law called "The Equal Access Act" that prohibits schools from denying use of their facilities to any non-curriculum based group if they allow any other non-curriculum based group to use their facilities. A non-curriculum based group is any group that meets on campus that is not directly associated with a specific class. This would include different clubs, scouts, and Christian groups.) Ask your youth leader for more information concerning this regulation. If prayer before school won't work, try meeting during lunch.

4. Gather students.

Once you have challenged a few other leadership students to help you and have secured a place and time to meet, you are ready to "get the word out" and begin gathering other students to join you in this "Campus Prayer Group." Here are some ideas. have the leadership students place an announcement in the bulletin, hand out fliers, and invite Christian students personally to meet to pray at the designated time and place. Also, as mentioned in point two, this would be the time for you and the students to let youth groups, youth pastors and campus Christian organizations know about this campus prayer time.

5. Implement the strategy.

DO IT!

Prayer is hard work because it is doing battle against the forces of evil. Prayer is not boring! Keep the prayer meeting moving by sharing prayer requests about important and relevant items.

Here are some suggestions for an upbeat prayer meeting:

1. Present (or appoint someone to present) a brief five-minute devotional to begin your prayer time.
2. Allow five minutes for sharing answers to prayer and prayer requests. Keep a record of prayer requests
3. Allow approximately 15-20 minutes for prayer. The meeting should last only 20-30 minutes. Praying for personal needs is important, but be sure you spend a significant part of your time praying for those who do not know Christ. Pray for any outreach events you may be planning. Begin and end on time.
4. Emphasize praise and thanksgiving as well as requests.

6. Challenge the students involved to start prayer triplets.

After enlisting others to pray, you will need to incorporate the simple strategy of prayer triplets. This strategy will allow the students to continue praying throughout the week. Prayer triplets are groups of three students praying together, three times a week for three non-christian friends each, for three groups on campus and for one another. Keep the focus of prayer on spiritual awakening and revival.

II. Something's Happening USA Prayer Events.

As God continues to move in others schools and parts of your community, you may want to expand group prayer to include more than just those at your school. Consider hosting regular (monthly) Something's Happening USA Prayer Gatherings. These large group prayer meetings would include students from other schools, students from nearby towns, and interested adults who share in your vision to pray. The value of a Something's Happening USA Prayer Group is that it expands peoples vision to more than their immediate audience. They can find other people in other areas of the community who are interested in seeing God work. A community united in prayer is likely to see God do some spectacular things in the future. It would be okay to hold this prayer happening in a local church that would open its doors to prayer. Refreshments and entertainment are not necessary because the focus of the night is prayer. Have someone lead the prayer time who has a respected walk with God and is able to give clear, strong direction. Have the people divide into groups of three to five and feel free to have them move to different groups throughout the night. Usually these prayer meetings last   1½ to 2 hours. You may incorporate the Concert of Prayer strategy into these community nights.