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Is Your Church Involved With Taking The Hope Of Christ To Every Student?

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First Priority Church Partnership

As we approach our 33rd year of First Priority, we believe in investing in the community and mobilizing students to share the Hope of Christ on their school campus. As of this past school year, there are 163,814 students in 270 schools across Greater Birmingham and we want to reach Every Last One with the Gospel. We have active clubs in 113 schools reaching almost 6,000 students weekly. Already, we have had 107 salvation decisions reported since August and trained over 340 student leaders.

I know that right now a lot of churches are looking at their annual budgets and making plans for next year. We ask for you to consider First Priority as part of your local missions giving. We would love to come share about what God is doing in our city through the lives of students. We are available to come and speak with your missions committee or at your missions conference. It takes all of us working together in order to see revival happen in our city. In the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, there is a phrase on the wall that says, “Birmingham, the world is watching.” I believe God wants to do something special here in our city that can impact the world, just like First Priority began in Birmingham 33 years ago and now has spread across America and around the world!
Did you know that suicide is the second leading cause of death among teenagers? Students are depressed, lonely and looking for a safe place to belong. Did you also know that in America 3,300 students drop out of school every day? The majority of students tell us they have little sense of hope or direction. They want to make a difference but feel afraid, overwhelmed and anxious. These statistics are disturbing and frightening. Christ’s love is the answer and First Priority gives students a great outlet to connect with others who may be going through similar situations. Is your church giving to First Priority? Your support will help launch more clubs, reach students with the Gospel, provide needed resources for clubs, develop leaders, build accountability, encourage teamwork, and allow a First Priority staff member to work with the schools in your community. We still have 157 schools and tens of thousands of students to reach, will you help us expand our influence?
We look forward to partnering with you and reaching the nearly 164,000 students across our great city! Contact me today at 205.871.8886 or debi@firstpriorityal.com to get more information or to find out if your local church is giving to First Priority.

Join our Race to 100 Challenge!

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What if I told you that for just $25 per month a student’s life could be changed forever? Yes, you read that right! That’s a large pizza and an order of bread sticks once a month. We would like to inform you about our Race to 100 campaign. We’re racing to find 100 people to give $25 per month for the next 12 months. That’s $300 a year. Your monthly gift will be used immediately to develop campus ministry for students on their local school campuses. Our goal is to reach every school in 22 school systems across central Alabama; that’s nearly 170,000 students. But, we can’t do this alone, we need your help. Will you prayerfully consider joining our race and giving $25 per month for the next 12 months?

The following are 12 important reasons to join the Race to 100:
  1. The largest mission field in the state of Alabama is the public school.
  2. More students will be equipped to share the Gospel with their peers.
  3. New resources will be developed to train students with evangelistic tools to share the Gospel.
  4. New First Priority clubs in middle and high schools will be started across our area.
  5. We will be able to reach a younger generation by starting new FPKids clubs in elementary schools.
  6. We will hear more student testimonies of “I came to know Christ through my First Priority club.” For some students, First Priority is the only youth group they are exposed to.
  7. First Priority’s HOPE Strategy works! Students come to know Christ every month.
  8. First Priority connects local churches as the body of Christ to build the Kingdom of God.
  9. A First Priority volunteer will make a difference in the lives of hopeless students.
  10. You will help students promote See You at the Pole on their local school campuses.
  11. You will help provide doughnuts, biscuits, pizza, drinks and other incentives for more students to attend club meetings and hear the Gospel.
  12. Students who respond to the Gospel will continue to be followed-up with by the local church.

For more than 25 years, First Priority has worked with local churches to raise up a generation of students who will choose to make Jesus Christ their First Priority. For years, church leaders have heard the claim that nearly nine out of 10 Christians accept Jesus as their Savior before the age of 18. If that statistic was accurate in the past, it no longer depicts U.S. society. Now Barna says that, “If Jesus is not already part of their lives by the time they leave junior high school, the chance of them accepting Him as their Lord and Savior is very slim (6% to be exact).” That is why we unite the body of Christ with a plan of action to influence the school with the Gospel.

 
Please prayerfully consider continuing your important partnership with the ministry of First Priority by joining our Race to 100. Thank you for your continuous support!
 

7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens

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On Feb. 13, 2017, a group of seven churches in our Shelby County Network partnered with First Priority to organize school assemblies at Oak Mountain Middle School. The assemblies were held throughout the day during Physical Education classes and taught students about the 7 habits of highly effective teens by Sean Covey. Our goal was to come alongside the school and provide content to help make our teenagers more successful. Students learned about the following 7 habits of highly effective teens: 
 
1.  Be Proactive – Take responsibility for your life and actions – don’t blame others. (Ben Birdsong, Meadow Brook Baptist Church)
2.  Begin with the End in Mind – Define your dreams and goals and strive for them. (Jody Hooven, Christ Church United Methodist)
3. Put First Things First – Schedule your priorities, not prioritize your schedule. Think about what is important and plan for it. (Jason Richardson, Inverness Vineyard Church)
4.  Think Win Win – Have an “everyone can win” attitude. (Josh Knierim, Valleydale Church)
5.  Seek First to Understand Then Be Understood – Listen to people sincerely. (Debi DeBoer, First Priority Greater Birmingham and New Hope Cumberland Presbyterian Church)
6.  Synergize – Work together as a team to achieve more. (Robbie Crawford, Shades Mountain Baptist Church)
7.  Sharpen the Saw – Renew yourself regularly. (Alex Lovorn, North Shelby Baptist Church)
 
We strive to do whatever it takes to reach students and train them to be successful in life. We have also started mentoring 8th graders by doing 5-minute interviews with each of them on their report card. We do this in order to speak life over them and help them set goals to be more successful in the classroom. Students have truly enjoyed the encouragement they have received from this new program.
 
We would like to thank our local churches for partnering with us to inspire teens across our area. We would also like to thank school administration and teachers for allowing us to walk alongside you and your students to help encourage and mentor them.
 
Inverness Vineyard Church’s Jason Richardson talking with students about the importance of scheduling priorities

Nearly 1,700 decisions for Christ at Birmingham Festival of Hope Events

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Festival of HopeThe following is an update from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association on the Birmingham Festival of Hope events. God truly moved and many lives were changed!

To God be the glory, great things He has done!! The Greater Birmingham Festival of Hope with Franklin Graham was an incredible experience of the Church in our city uniting to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed. Praise the Lord with me for His great work:
  • 300 – Church and ministries uniting to participate
  • 1,000 – Volunteers, 800 of whom were trained as counselors
  • 2,000 – Attendees at the Christian Life and Witness Course and FM419
  • 30 – Small groups prepared to follow up with those who made decisions (in addition to hundreds of congregations)
  • 22,694 – Cumulative attendees over the three nights at Bartow Arena. The highest attended evening was Sunday (9,878 attending)
    • 619 – Total number of spiritual decisions, including:
      • 405 – Salvation decisions
      • 50 – Assurance of salvation decisions
      • 135 – Rededication decisions
  • 43,658 – Total number of unique web stream visitors (Every evening gathering was presented live on the internet around the world.)
    • 100 – Countries in which people watched the web stream
    • 934 – Spiritual decisions on the internet stream
  • 1,666 – Grand total of spiritual responses (including in the Arena, at the training events and on the Internet).
PRAISE THE LORD FOR HIS MARVELOUS WORK!
Kevin Moore,
Co Leader, Greater Birmingham Festival of Hope with Franklin Graham
Executive Director, Mission Birmingham