See You at the Pole
What is it? Its history?
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 flag pole. On-going student prayer, daily throughout the year, 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. 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 112 national youth organizations that support this effort, go to syatp.com.
Why is it important?
- It helps connect the body of Christ on the campus.
- It helps unify prayer for the campus.
- It helps develop student leaders.
Why do youth leaders need to help train their students for 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 ... for each new class of high school and midle-schoolers, it's new, and it's their turn to lead.
Pre-pole training + Post-pole Celebration + Resources?
- About six weeks before the SYATP Wednesday, several youth leaders from different local churches near their high schools, will meet to pick a date and location for the training event. One church can host the event, another provide the snacks or meal, and a different church-leader coordinate the program. This communicates strongly to the students, that the local body of Christ is working together, to support their efforts on their campus.
- At least two weeks prior to the SYATP Wednesday, student leaders from the different churches, who attend the selected high schools and middle/junior high schools, will gather for a two-hour training session. About thirty minutes are set aside for welcoming, introductions, and light worship. Thirty minutes for the short SYATP video clip, an brief review of past SYATP efforts at the school, and a walk-through of the checklist. The students will then break into groups, gathering around a table for their school. Each table will have a youth leader assigned, who will assist the students in planning the SYATP event for their school.
- Leading up to the Wednesday event, the youth leader assigned to each school, can check with the students, and encourage them in doing the task(s) they committed to accomplishing. On SYATP morning, the youth leaders can themselves gather to pray for their students and their schools.
- If possible, a Celebration can be held that evening, where students from the different schools, rally together and share testimonies from their schools, and pray again for God to work through them, and bless their schools during the next year.
- Free resources for planning, preparing and publicizing SYATP are available for downloading from syatp.com. We have a local-packet of suggestions, that can be downloaded by clicking here.
Greater Houston Area training and contacts?
We have begun a list of the 2024 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 the other six. If you are interested in helping identify and connect the efforts with your county, or a specific school district, or have your SYATP training recognized, please email John Butler ASAP!