H7 Story: Students Leading Students

by Meredith Shrader (180 Small Group Leader)

You could hear a pin drop at the 180 student meeting 3 weeks ago as Student Leaders Jonathan Bowlin and Jackson Radank made their way to the stage. It was the first week of the “This is Our Sex Talk” series where students are focusing on the truth of God’s word surrounding the topic of sex and purity. Close to 100 students listened intently as these leaders read and discussed 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” This would be the memory verse for this series, and also the beginning of a new focus on scripture memorization in student ministry.

Next Gen/Student Director Travis Chapman explained that while sitting in a student leadership meeting one week, the student leaders brought up the idea of having a memory passage for each series. This emphasis would include videos that would be shown at the beginning of each 180 service that would talk about the scripture memory passage and explain how it applies to students’ lives. Chapman explains, “Jackson Radank took the reins and put the first video together and did a great job.” 

Scripture memory has not only been emphasized through video but also through this face-to-face encounter described above where Jonathan and Jackson sat on stools on stage and took turns talking through the passage and how it can be applied to their lives.

Travis Chapman has been encouraged by this new emphasis on scripture memory each week and the leadership the students are taking with it. “The other students’ attention has been locked in each time and many of them have expressed how they’ve been encouraged to hear from fellow students”, he says. Jackson Radank said of his own experience with this new emphasis on scripture memory that, “This has challenged my walk with the Lord, because I am not only leading in the verses, but I am also learning from them, and it is showing me places in my life that I need to fix.” When asked how it has grown his faith and walk with the Lord he says, “Because it has shown me the need to read the Bible and learn from it and try to understand what it is God is trying to tell us through these passages.” How encouraging that our students are helping each other find and follow Jesus by telling the story of God’s word, and how the Word is impacting their lives as they not only read and study it, but memorize it. May we all be challenged along with these students to incorporate scripture memory into our regular spiritual life.