It is not a political event! It is a global movement of prayer which is student-initiated, student-organized, and student-led. It is an annual event to encourage students to pray together on the fourth Wednesday in September, usually before school, and usually at the school’s flagpole. Throughout the year, on-going daily student prayer is encouraged by the free Campus Prayer phone app.
SYATP began in early 1990, when a group of students gathered at their flagpole to pray for their school. Several months later, in September 1990, more than 56,000 students on 1,200 campuses, began the tradition. Since then, the movement has grown nationally and internationally. For more of its history and a list of the 100+ national youth organizations that support this effort, go to SYATP.
Many Christian students can get excited about praying together around their flagpole. However, they tend not to think about preparing or publicizing, until it’s too late. Also, they tend to think within their own circle of friends, not realizing the larger number of Christian students who might also want to join them. This can result in a missed opportunity, or confusion, or disappointments on the SYATP Wednesday.
Youth leaders can encourage their students to take responsibility, plan ahead, and work with other Christian students, who attend other local churches, but also attend the same campus.
While veteran youth leaders may consider SYATP old-news, and something from yesterday … it’s new for each new class of high school and middle-schoolers … and it’s their turn to lead.
We’ll never know how many students gathered for prayer on 09/25/24, but reports include:
The 2025 theme & materials are being released now, for local training and promotion during August and September. (The training and planning materials are free downloads. Some of the promotional materials are sold at near cost.)
Greater Houston Area training and contacts? We hope to publicize a list of local SYATP training events for the 61 public school districts in our nine-county area. We’re finding this to be a huge challenge, since we must look for local youth leaders who are interested in working together to plan and host the training in their community.
We have coordinators for Brazoria, Galveston, and Montgomery counties … and are doing our best for our other six counties. If you are interested in helping identify and connect the efforts in your county, or a specific school district, or have your SYATP training recognized, please email John Butler.
