“Teachers, school staff, and students are understandably nervous about going back to school right now,” says Marilyn Lee, Executive Director of Loving Houston. “Let’s pray for God’s protection and provision for all of our Greater Houston schools.”
Whether or not you’re one of the many UBA churches with an existing church-school partnership, you can meet the needs of schools for this particularly challenging year. Right now Loving Houston is making sure that every school in every school district across Greater Houston is prayed for.
Visit https://lovinghouston.net/backtoschool/ for a Back to School Prayer Guide and to sign up to pray over a school. Then join together on August 27 for an online city-wide prayer gathering for all of our local schools.
Why Church-School Partnerships?
Church-school partnerships are an excellent way for your church to make a lasting impact in your surrounding community.
When asked about church-school partnerships, UBA Executive Director Dr. Josh Ellis says it’s a matter of loving our communities well:
For churches to really be about the Great Commission and the mission of making disciples, they have to be about loving their communities. It's not just about proclaiming the Word of God but about earning the trust of their community and earning the right to be heard...
If churches ever come to us and ask, "How do we find out what's going on in our community?" we always start by asking where the nearest school is. Not only do schools know what's going on in the community, but where else are you going to find a better representation of the community in one place?
Especially in the larger schools, you're going to see every economic scale, every racial group, every ethnic group, many languages spoken, so churches can really see what's going on in the community.
What does a partnership look like?
Because church and school communities are all different, each church-school partnership will vary just as much. Through these partnerships, church volunteers show the love of Jesus by mentoring and tutoring students, supporting teachers and administrators, and empowering parents. There is a myriad of ways churches and schools can serve one another, but here are a few examples:
Rev. Gusta Booker and Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church provide reading buddies, classroom helpers, mentors, and meet timely needs that arise. They recently held a food drive with their local school’s principal to serve their community during shutdowns.
This year, Ecclesia Clear Lake stepped up to meet the needs of their local school system by raising funds for needed chrome books to continue schooling during coronavirus shutdowns.
Higher Expectations Church brought snacks for the teacher workroom at Ross Sterling Middle and breakfast tacos for teacher inservice at River Pines Elementary!
Kevin Alvarez, the lead pastor of Long Point Baptist Church, describes how they first started their relationship with Landrum Middle School the week that Hurricane Harvey hit. Eventually, community members were recognizing the many places and ways Long Point Baptist Church was showing up and doing good in their community.
B.J. Ramon, who serves at the Loving Houston district coordinator for Houston ISD, recommends connecting with school wrap-around specialists to see how to serve a school. Churches can help by calling to check in on families or having a prayer parade.
When B.J. and his church went for a simple prayer walk outside of Blackshear Elementary, he was approached by an administrator named Mr. Lee. When Mr. Lee learned why they were there, he quickly suggested they come to pray on the inside and asked if they’d come back and pray for teachers the next week. After that, the administrators asked if they would pray in the courtyard weekly “so students can see you and know you’re praying for them.” What started as a simple prayer walk is now a lasting multi-year partnership.
But these kinds of relationships don’t happen overnight. Loving Houston specializes in building the bridge to advance community transformation. And the beginning of this school year is an opportune time for churches to connect with schools during an especially difficult season.
Why Now?
B.J. Ramon continues:
We have a real opportunity as the church in Houston to be proactive. It’s my researched opinion that one of our main avenues to reaching families in our community is through the public school. If a church wants to make meaningful relationships, there’s no better entry point than the schools.
When an opportunity like this comes up to meet the needs and uncertainties of this specific school year, the possibility of churches making themselves relevant in the community is bigger than it has been in some time.
Churches, would you step up to pray for your community school or other districts around Houston? Would you connect with one of the 50+ schools currently on a waiting list for a church-school partnership?
Whether a long-term partnership or a short-term prayer commitment, we would love to see even more churches stepping up to show and share the love of Christ to their communities.
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Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash
It's National Mentor Month! Marilyn Lee shares a heart-warming story of how one church can impact a community for the better.