A week ago, the annual See You At the Pole Day at schools worldwide made a huge statement about GenZers who are not falling away from Christ, but running to Him. Event coordinators reported that young people are flocking back to God in big numbers, and that kids indeed are “hungry for Jesus.”
Despite sporadic pushback from school administrators, the event as a huge success. And, it paved the way for a second big annual event Thursday, “Bring Your Bible to School Day,” which began in 2014 and was sparked by efforts from global ministry Focus on the Family. The organization started the event to let kids take the lead in sharing the gospel with their peers.
Nine years ago, it began with 8,000 students and grew to nearly 800,000 participants last year. Focus on the Family’s Emerson Collins told CBN News he hopes the numbers reach more than 1 million on Thursday.
But Focus on the Family officials believe the “Bring Your Bible to School Day” will continue to become more than simply a one-day ceremony each year. Focus on the Family encourages families to sign up for its “Live It Challenge,” a monthly initiative that outlines tangible steps to strengthen their children’s faith.
“Our culture is searching and hurting for truth and, perhaps now more than ever, the unchanging truth of Scripture and the healing power of the gospel are exactly what we need,” Collins told CBN News. “My prayer is that this would be a day that students can launch into a faith movement at their schools … That they can gather with other students and bring their Bibles to school to start a club, to start a Bible study, to start a faith activity group where you can begin to advance the gospel consistently throughout the year.”
It is also an opportunity to allow students to understand their First Amendment rights concerning their Christianity. Bring Your Bible to School Day has amassed 122,000 followers on Facebook.
Focus on the Family’s X page (formerly Twitter), which has more than 109,000 followers, wrote a message on Thursday that read, “A Little Reminder: Talking about God or reading the Bible during free time is almost always OK. When students are told that they can’t read the Bible at school or use the Bible in a homework assignment, the reason they are often give is that the school must maintain ‘separation of church and state.'”
“I would hope programs like this would re-enlighten the rights that we have, as citizens of this nation, that we can bring our Bible to school,” Collins says. “The one comment we get on every social post is, ‘You can bring your Bible every day.’ Yes, you can because we are protected under our First Amendment rights.”
Collins says he knows firsthand how the Word of God can change young people.
“It was the Bible that changed my heart and my mind on Jesus. It’s God’s love letter to us and it’s also our weapon against the enemy,” he said. “I began personally carrying my Bible with me, not even knowing about ‘Bring Your Bible To School Day’ towards the end of high school into college.”
“I said, ‘Hey, this is my weapon and I’m a soldier in battle and I would hate to be caught in the middle of a battle, in the middle of this field of war without my weapon,’ and so that was a personal conviction of mine,” he continued. “When I came to Focus on the Family, I was so glad to hear that we had an initiative and a movement for students to be equipped with God’s Word and to go and share it with others.”
Many Christian celebrities have partnered with Focus on the Family to promote Bring Your Bible to School Day, including Skillet frontman John Cooper, Duck Dynasty’s Sadie Robertson Huff, singer Tauren Wells, and the rock band Newsboys.
Last year, Will Witt, a conservative media personality, told young students to see the day as a catalyst for evangelism and standing up for religious freedom.
“The Bible is the ultimate truth,” Witt shared with CBN News “You have the power to share with the other students and the other people the ultimate truth and the testimony of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Our religious liberties are at stake every single day in America with people trying to take them away, and you bringing your Bible to school shows you’re not going to take these people trying to take it away from you.”
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Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.
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