Christian Chat Network

This version of the message boards has closed.
Please click below to go to the new Christian BBS website.

New Message Boards - Click Here

You can still search for the old message here.

Christian Message Boards


Post New Topic  New Poll  Post A Reply
| | search | faq | forum home
  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Christian Message Boards   » Bible Studies   » The Christian News   » Putting Prayer Back in Schools: The 30-Second Kneel Down

   
Author Topic: Putting Prayer Back in Schools: The 30-Second Kneel Down
listener
Advanced Member
Member # 338

Icon 1 posted      Profile for listener         Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
this is a great idea!
it would be even better if the nations parents stood up and demanded a reversal of the law that makes this movement necessary.

Posts: 119 | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Kindgo
Advanced Member
Member # 2

Icon 21 posted      Profile for Kindgo     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
http://cbn.com/CBNNews/News/020919a.asp

By Wendy Griffith
CBN News Reporter

September 19, 2002

In Baltimore, a group of teens is willing to pay the price to bring prayer back to school.

CBN.com – BALTIMORE, MD — A new prayer movement is sweeping through the hallways of America's public schools. It is called the "30-Second Kneel Down," and kids from coast to coast are hitting their knees and risking their reputations to bring revival to their high school campuses.
Pennsylvania youth pastor and evangelist Tom Sipling founded the 30-Second Kneel Down. At a prayer rally, Sipling tells the teens, "Guys, listen to me, I promise when you stand up for Jesus, Jesus is offensive, there will be persecution. I doubt though that you'll ever have to drop to your knees like Stephen while they stone you to death, but they might make fun of you. In fact, I promise if you really live boldly for Christ, they will make fun of you."

Welcome to the "No Reputation Weekend," a weekend that promises to turn students from ordinary Christian teens into revolutionaries for Christ. Based on the Philippians 2 scripture that says Jesus made himself a man of no reputation, these young people are being challenged to make a public stand for Christ by kneeling and praying at their lockers for 30 seconds every school day.

Sipling explained, "It's like Daniel 6 when Daniel knelt and prayed three times a day and he was thrown into the lion's den. And I tell the young people, you know, when you kneel and pray, you're going to feel like you're in a lion's den, just know that God will be with you in that lion's den."

Imagine you are 15, and you go to public high school. It is a time when what your peers think of you really matters, perhaps more than any other time in your life. Now you are being challenged to pray at your lockers in front of your peers. It could mean risking your reputation, for the rest of your high school career.

In Baltimore, a group of teens is willing to pay that price to bring prayer back to school.

On the third floor of Loch Raven High School in Baltimore, Maryland, a number of kids are already doing the Kneel Down, including 15-year-old Lauren Stewart and 16-year-old Dave Snee.

Lauren has been doing the Kneel Down for a year and a half and often gets curious looks and comments.

She recalled one time when her prayer became a witnessing tool. "One of the guys came up to me and said, ‘What are you doing?’ And I said, ‘I'm praying.’ And he was like, ‘Oh, are you a Christian?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, yeah I am.’ So he just started sharing with me his life story and all the struggles he went through and I was able to talk with him about Jesus," she said.

Dave, a football player, has been doing the 30-Second Kneel Down despite physical and verbal harassment from some of his classmates. "We actually got locked in our lockers during football and there was laughing and mocking," he said.

And Dave says some kids actually mimic his praying, just to make fun. "They'll actually just get down and do it out of a mocking way. God won't be mocked, they're doing it because they're insecure, but it's getting a reaction so I know it's working," he said.

The No Reputation Weekend in Baltimore included a concert with Christian music artist Rebecca St. James. She says, during her travels, she has noticed a growing passion not only for worship, but for prayer among teens.

"I love seeing young people be radical and unashamed in their like, just on-fire commitment to God. I mean, I love it. I think ‘See You At The Poll’ was evidence of young people really having a passion to stand up in front of their peers and say, ‘Lord, here I am, I love you and I'm not ashamed to let people know that.’ And I think the 30-Second Kneel Down has that same kind of power," St. James said.

During intermission, concert-goers who did the 30-Second Kneel Down that morning told the crowd what it was like.

One boy said, "I was really nervous at first, but I think the Holy Spirit really worked through those of us who were praying and it was just awesome, and it was one of the best experiences that I've ever had." Then the youth pastor on stage asked him, "So Monday, when you go back, are you going to do it?" And the boy replied, "Yes sir."

Jessy Griswold is a 13-year-old at Towson High School. She said, "Why do it? Because my generation needs God more than anything. You can tell it, and you can see it in some people's eyes. They're definitely looking for just an answer, and when I see that in people's eyes and I realize that I have the answer that they're looking for, I want to show that to them so that people go, ‘What are you doing?’ And I'm like, ‘I'm praying to a living God that loves you.’"

Sipling said he tells young people, "You mark yourselves in this generation, tattooing and piercing obviously prevalent among this generation. And I say, you know what, it's time to righteously mark ourselves with Christ. If the world can do it, certainly we can come up with a way to mark ourselves with Jesus, and so certainly, the Kneel Down is a way for them to identify with Christ."

In 1962, organized prayer was taken out of public schools. In fact, one of the lawsuits that actually helped remove prayer was filed in Baltimore county by atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who did not want her son to take part in Bible reading and prayer exercises. Sipling says 40-years is long enough, and it is time to bring prayer back to school.

From the stage he says, "How many of you know, we've lived through one generation without organized prayer in our schools? But I'd like to start this year, the first year of the 2nd generation, with a prayer movement to sweep the hallways of our high schools. How many will join us in that prayer movement?"

Later, Sipling told CBN News, "I'm not sure how many there'll be. But I do know this, the ones that are really going to get a hold of this thing, I believe we're just going to see unbelievable supernatural events begin to take place through this generation."

Jessy says, she knows God sees when she is on her knees, praying in the hallway, and that is what matters most. "I think that He just has a smile. And I'm waiting for the day when I go up to heaven and He'll look me in the eye, Jesus Christ will look me in the eye and say, ‘Well done, my child.’ That's all I'm waiting for. And if when I kneel down at my locker, that's when He's thinking, ‘Well-done, well-done, you've lived what I've called you to do,’ that's what I'm living for."

Sipling says the goal is to have 1,051,200 youth praying at their lockers for 30 seconds each day. He says that equals a year's worth of daily prayer on school campuses. Schools from Alaska to Florida are doing the Kneel Down, and many students are writing their testimonies on the group's website. Click here to check out the 30-Second Kneel Down website.

http://www.30kd.org/what.htm

--------------------
God bless,
Kindgo

Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.

Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator


 
Post New Topic  New Poll  Post A Reply Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:

Contact Us | Christian Message Board | Privacy Statement



Powered by Infopop Corporation
UBB.classicTM 6.5.0

Christian Chat Network

New Message Boards - Click Here