For the last eight years I have purposely substitute taught in one middle school and one high school. It is my way to be with nonchurched youth (the evangelist in me) at the place where they spend the most time. I have great fun at my school and many, many ministry opportunities. It is from this two “world” perspective that I observe and write.

The school campus is a massive mission field. In one day of subbing in a sports marketing class, I heard students swapping stories about court-ordered community service, stripper experiences, one boy bragging about his bi-sexual girlfriend, and details about the 5-second rule. The 5-second rule is if you drop open candy on the floor, you have 5 seconds to pick it up before it is dirty. This is just in one half day, two class periods. Our schools are definitely a mission field.

It is our approach to this mission field that I question.

I am going to be speaking in generalities. I can not emphasize that enough. I know there are individual effective Bible clubs, influential students, and unique school systems. I admit I have a one school system perspective. But it is a perspective most youth workers don’t have. I invite you who are reading this into my perspective.

While in general there is a lot of wasted time in school (particularly sports marketing classes), it is hard to plan around it. In our school system, we get seven minutes between every class. That seems like a “break” but in that seven minutes you need to get to your next class. That means squeezing through overcrowded hallways with bookbags that extend your width an extra foot. You may need to get across the building and/or up or down stairs. You might have to stop at your locker (which are not near classrooms) to pick up a couple 25 pound books. You can’t carry all the books you need for one day because they are the size of college textbooks now. And you may have to go to the bathroom. If you are lucky and your next classroom is close, you may have a minute or two to socialize. These precious minutes tend to be spent with friends just to catch up. Hardly witnessing opportunities unless there is maybe, maybe a chance to invite someone to the “club.” At least remind someone and get club talked about.

We get the seven minutes between every class because we have just four 90 minutes classes a day. This is supposed to be their break. Schools who run seven classes (and some up to ten) a day have maybe four minutes between bells.

Lunch is 25 minutes and unless you get there first, you need to wait 15 minutes to get your food. Of course, there is time in line for opportunities. Those who bring a bag lunch can be first to their “spot” to wait for everyone else. There are loads of opportunities in that precious time but that is up to the student. A student with the missionary attitude will see the opportunity. A regular student will see a small break for downtime that is cherished.

Then there is class time. Most often talking is not allowed in class. That leaves stolen moments to talk (like when the teacher is passing back papers) or to write notes during the instruction time. Is this right? There may be a few free moments before the bell. That is the

chance to talk to the 25+ in your class about your faith or club.

Another tip, talk to your students about doing homework at home instead of in class. It is very common to do math in English, etc., to avoid having to bring it home. Encourage them to use that time instead to talk or pray.

Some teachers allow talking in class like the aforementioned sports marketing class. Now here is opportunity. If a Christian student would have the know how to take a conversation about strippers (it was a group of 4 to 5 boys, not the entire classroom--can you say sexual harassment?) and turn it into a conversation about faith, you have wide opportunity. We need to be teaching our youth how to do that.

There are also pass opportunities. These are when a student is granted a hallway pass for one of a zillion reasons. There is opportunity to extend minutes on that pass. But is that right? I know campus missionaries who do it though. Or they could take an extra lunch (called skipping). I know campus missionaries who do that also.

After school clubs and teams are completely different. Those are genuine and great opportunities.

When a youth worker asks youth to find some other Christians at your school or youth are brought together at a citywide youth rally and are asked to follow up at school together, the honest question is when? Unless they are in class or some team or club, when?

In generalities, there are basically three types of students who get involved in campus Bible clubs.

Comers-and-Goers - These are the target students but you can’t build a club around them.

Leaders and Achievers - These are your Christian leaders and naturals to spread the vision and build a club around. However they are most-likely already overcommitted in many areas and club just becomes another area of commitment on an already too long list.

Quiet and Secure Christian Students - Club tends to be a social circle for them, particularly because most of their friends are Christian. It is meeting on friendly ground where they spend most of their time.

All three types present obstacles for growth and sustaining a club. The same can be said of our youth groups. It really takes one or two special people to have the club affect the “mission field” who have the vision of the club as the avenue to do it.

Mark Senter, author of Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry, wrote in another article, “The assumption is that high school represents the last tribal experience in American society and as such is the best place to evangelize the whole tribe. Supposedly the only roadblocks to success have been discovering a biblical strategy and the total commitment of the people trying to take a high school for Christ.” Perhaps there are other more practical roadblocks. Something to make you go hmmm...

From my perspective, the students who really “change their schools” are those who are good students. Not only with grades, but their very presence can influence the atmosphere of the classroom, lunchroom and team or club. In doing this, they are also “prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” 1 Peter 3:15. This makes the largest impression on teachers and administrators--who are often the only antagonists to reaching the schools. And when students make such a responsible impression, privileges are given. They really are--whether it is fair or not. It is with those privileges that real opportunities are available.

This became particularly true when one of “my boys,” someone I was discipling, died March 9, 2000. It was a sudden accident that devastated the entire school. During the mourning (with wails and fainting), stories came out about Frank. Teachers were visibly upset because they enjoyed him so much. Other substitutes came to his viewing because he made such an impact in their classes. He was the type to set the tone for a learning environment, even for subs. The students told story after story of Frank’s achievements. Everyone knew him as a Christian. Thirteen hundred people came to the funeral. Twelve hundred made a commitment to pick up where Frank left off.

Frank didn’t preach. He didn’t hand out tracts. He didn’t start a Bible club or attend one. He was a good student. He was polite in class and didn’t push his limits, even if it was a substitute. He worked hard and got good grades (not his strength). He played with that little extra on the football field. He smiled at everyone. He talked to everyone. And he always gave the answer as to the reason why he lived. Twelve hundred students were affected by Frank for the glory of God. (To read the full story of Frank’s life and death, go to www.wildfrontier.org/Godsfamily.)

Besides, what good is a campus missionary who has low grades, tardies and/or bad classroom behavior? My school system is more concerned over tardies than cussing. Campus missionaries don’t have a problem with cussing, but they may with tardies.

Donna Harrington-Lueker wrote in an editorial to USA Today, “It’s that many students, especially seniors, have learned the system we call high school: a certain amount of seat time, a respectable score on the SAT, a successful effort on a state’s 10th grade exit exam, and they’re through. Having figured out precisely what’s expected--the least teachers will accept--they do precisely that and no more. To many students, high school has become a game to be played, a hoop to be jumped through, a stage to be tolerated. It’s a world where academic excellence doesn’t win them recognition. And it doesn’t bring them the satisfaction of a real world job...”

This is so true. What a bright spot a good student is. Imagine what a brighter spot a good student who is a true “light?”

These students could be called “suck-ups” or “brown-nosers” which might not challenge some youth to be that way. Particularly those youth who are not naturally good students. These kind do legitimately exist. Some students just don’t fit into the way the education system is set up with teachers lecturing, students taking notes and not enough hands-on learning.

But if there is respect and any effort, most teachers will go out of their way to help. That often strikes within them why they got into teaching in the first place. (There are also some teachers who won’t do a thing to help students. They exist also.) That student can turn out to be the biggest blessing, even with his/her D, which certainly leads to those wanted opportunities.

Honestly, it is our vision-driven, God-desire and all-out love for teenagers that motivates us to start Bible clubs and raise campus missionaries. We love teenagers and want as many to be saved as possible. Righteous and pure motives.

But that is not the agenda of the school. Their vision is to educate students and they need all the help possible to help them achieve that. We see the “tribe” gathered in one location which gives us easier opportunities. The school sees the “tribe” gathered as their responsibility and they are already fighting losing battles with attitudes, violence, and apathy. Just to name a few. Some schools want help from the church, but it is not in the form of a Bible club.

As Steven McFarland, former executive director of the Christian Legal Society’s Center for Law and Religious Freedom said, “I’ve had a lot of calls about how to get by the schoolhouse gate in order to share their faith, or get kids to come to a Friday night concert, or have an assembly where we sneak the gospel in at the end. But in nine years I have never had a single call from a pastor, a youth minister or a parachurch ministry asking me what the First Amendment will allow them to do to help their local public school.”

I would love to see our Bible clubs take one day a month and do something for the school. That could be one of numerous ideas and all do not involve picking up trash.

Barna Research Group wrote a recent report entitled Third Millennium Teens. They found the top-rated issue for teens these days is educational achievement. This is a different top need from the Busters. For the Mosaics (as Barna refers to them), no other issue comes close. Group Magazine ran a poll among their summer Group Workcamp youth. Their number one concern was school grades.

We have teenagers who are students first, missionaries second. We can focus on switching that around or we can somehow support their number one issue. How can Bible clubs help meet this need since they are on school grounds and students are coming fresh from classes?

From all sides observing, this is a culturally white movement. I’ve been asking all over and the culturally black church has a different approach towards education and the school. They see education as a way up and out. They use youth ministry as another infrastructure to support education. According to George Barna, “Black pastors have a spiritual agenda, to be sure, but in most cases it is impossible to separate that agenda from the political and service responsibilities they embrace.”

Then there are the Hispanic and Asian churches. That is a lot of students who are potential club members or campus missionaries. However, this movement is not a burden to these churches. They have other ministry priorities.

The culturally white church has had an unspoken attitude of “we’ll carry the minority churches because we have the resources.” The only problem is that these churches are not asking to be carried. They have different ideas of youth ministry.

Mark Senter also said, “The concept of campus ministry may become obsolete.” This thought is prefaced with the changes happening in education. Even-though education is a dinosaur in many similarities, technology and the school voucher issue is causing change. This statement from Mark Senter should not be dismissed but pondered.

There are good things happening in our public schools. I hope I have given you many things to think about as you have that desire to reach as many teenagers as possible and build on these good things. I’m not even dismissing the entire “campus missionary” movement. My hope is that at least one or two of these points will help you as you form your mission plan to reach the high school tribe for Christ.