***BIG ANNOUNCEMENT EPISODE***
What does the future of schools look like? How can we leverage the school campus to create radical change in the culture of this country? In this episode, we discuss some very exciting future plans for the student-led prayer movement, Claim Your Campus, which we believe can usher in that change. Hosts Jeff Eckart and Jayson Brewer also interview Jared Amerine, a former high school math teacher who has become the CYC Growth Strategist to assist in fulfilling God’s dream that was given to Jeff for this generation.
Learn more at claimyourcampus.com/cyc2020
Jared Amerine was a high school math teacher for 8 years, in three schools, in two states, on the West Coast, and in the Midwest, we spoke with him on the Thought Factory Podcast. Here are the highlights of the interview:
Tell us about what you saw students deal with that those of us on the outside wouldn’t know.
“I’ve had some students from Nepal they couldn’t speak any English, so I got out Google Translator and started teaching some math. I had a lot of students that were really broken from broken homes, not just in terms of a divorce or anything but they desired so much relationship and meaningful relationships. I had some students that would come in hungry so I always had granola bars on hand. I had some students that were constantly on their phone, coming to find out they were just trying to find a place to sleep for that night because they were kicked out of their house. I’ve had seventh-grade parents, that’s seventh graders with kids.”
How did that shape your perspective on schools and students?
“I’d say, most of my day was centered toward building relationships with kids and less about teaching the lesson. How are they going to respond to this or in what way should I teach them this?
In the last 20 years, since Columbine, it kind of changes the dynamic of how you feel when you walk into a school. Some days, it’s business as normal because you don’t think about it. You just put it aside but you know, I look at the faces in my classroom and I would think, ‘man I might have to protect them today.'”
Ninety-five percent of students have to go through middle school and high school in America, why do schools matter?
“You look at a school campus, you have every race, you have every religion, and we’re not talking little pockets of cities and towns here. Everybody goes through a school and it’s where we form our society. I mean, we’re teaching them a base knowledge that we want people to have, that we want our society to have, and it’s just mind-boggling to think.
Society’s rules of engagement are formed on campuses. That’s where you learn to interact with each other that’s what we learned societal norms, so teachers really do shape a lot of that.”
Claim Your Campus is one of the solutions that we see that is needed to be implemented into the school campus. Claim Your Campus is about students praying at school campuses.
A brief history of Claim Your Campus:
Started by Jeff and a friend of his in 2003 in Grand Rapids, MI at East Kentwood High School.
Both were youth pastors at the time, living in different cities. They wanted to engage their students to pray.
It started as an annual event that turned into weekly prayer groups.
In 2009, Jeff launched Never The Same, the parent company to Claim Your Campus.
Claim Your Campus is now operated in 42 states, 1500 schools, with at least 25,000 students engaged in weekly prayer for their schools.
The mission is to see 1 million students praying for their schools across America.
The 1 million number comes from 67,000 middle school and high schools in America. If 15 students were meeting for prayer every week in all of those 67,000 schools, there would be 1 million. Three students a day, 5 days a week.
In 2015, Claim Your Campus launched their mobile app, found in the iTunes App Store or Google Play.
Two components to seeing CYC implemented in every 67,000 schools and reach 1 million students are: Technology & Catalytic Event
We feel it is important to be able to unite a generation. We live in a time right now where we think there’s finally an awareness of our need and a growing desperation for God in our society. We believe that students are a really significant and key element to God changing society, to change hearts, to change lives, to see the power of God’s love and redemption at work in people’s hearts in our world.
This catalytic event will bring together students from across the country, in one place, at one time for one event. To mobilize them to reach their campus, to pray for their school, to be able to share God’s love with their friends, and to be able to serve on their campus – three basic simple things that will happen.
That event will happen on July 4th, 2020. Mark that on your calendars right now to join the other 100,000 students/adults that will represent 10,000 schools.
Adult Advocates
It’s not just about students, it’s about us, as adults, supporting these students to bring about change. To bring the awareness and the reality of Christ’s love to campuses. We are looking for teachers, parents, coaches, youth workers, youth pastors, to become an adult advocate. We are officially launching the adult campaign in the fall of 2018.
We’re asking adults to do really three things.
- Pray – Pick a school in your community and pray for it.
- Register – Register that school online
- Invite – Invite other schools and other adults to join to get students and schools represented at this event.
Learn more at claimyourcampus.com/cyc2020.
© 2018, Never The Same