Jerry Varner from Southside Church in Chesterfield, VA started an amazing campaign for local schools they call “Cover Your Campus.” We heard about this initiative and wanted to share it with our NYI Connect community because it is a great example of how we can Bless Our Community!
We all know that NYI is for students. Both our focus for resources and events AND our very calling is toward young people—and young people on our region are almost always in school to one capacity or another. (Jerry has some mind-boggling statistics about just how much time, on average, students spend at school below.) Read on for more details about how believers in the community prayed for and beautified schools around them, meeting specific needs. And if you’d like to adopt a school near you, further resources on how to get started are linked below!
Students in middle school and high school are in that educational setting an average of 6 hours a day for 12 years. That’s over 1,000 hours every school year. Six hours a day (and even more for many students) constitutes 25% of their time in the first 18 years of life. That’s HUGE.
So why would we build ministries that neglect this reality? Why would we make the focus of our youth ministries on how many teenagers we can collect in one place (our church buildings) at one time (Sundays, Wednesdays, etc.)? Why would we not focus a large portion of our efforts on helping students impact their campuses? Many ministries do try to do this, but probably not enough. The heart behind Cover Your Campus is for those who love Jesus to not merely gather and pray for the students in our communities but also to intentionally seek strong and lasting partnerships with those schools, colleges, and universities.
Last year, we started a new initiative called “Cover Your Campus,” where we invited anyone who knows, loves, and follows Jesus to gather at local school campuses to walk and pray together. Months before the dates were established for each school, I sent emails to every school principal, informing them of our prayer walk(s) and asking for any prayer needs they may have. It was a great way to
connect with our local school leadership, letting them know we’re praying for them. Many principals responded and shared different needs we could keep in mind as we covered their campus in prayer.
Since we chose evening times for our prayer walks, and because all walks were outside around the school properties, we had no conflicts with any planned school events. I provided all participants with a prayer guide, including suggested prayer prompts based on their location around the school property.
We invited people to sign up to walk and pray for the campus that was nearest to their home or perhaps a school where a loved young person they know attends. We utilized a simple Google form for this purpose which allowed us to easily track who would be where. We promoted specific dates for specific schools so people could gather with others who had also signed up for that school. At the scheduled time, we’d meet at the school, start with a prayer together, and then move about the campus property, praying. Depending on the size of the crowd, it is sometimes beneficial to break up into smaller groups of 2-3 people.
In addition, we invited folks to beautify each campus by picking up any trash they saw. We provided trash bags and rubber gloves, and someone from the church graciously provided several claws/grabbers for picking up trash. In this way, we were leaving a visible mark on each campus. The smaller groups of 2-3 also helped with the beautification efforts since people were more spread out.
Our Cover Your Campus campaign was a great way for parents, adults, and students to realign their hearts to what God wants to do through students’ lives while they are in their educational setting. We will continue this effort at least once a year to keep our schools and universities as a focus of prayer and action.
Some things we learned along the way:
- Be sure to reach out to the principal of any school you’re planning on praying for. This is a great way to communicate care for them as community leaders.
- Keep your timeframe at each location to around an hour if at all possible. This allows people to commit without feeling like it’s going to be an all-evening thing.
- Don’t forget about any local community colleges or universities. Connect with the administration at those locations and invite them to share any prayer needs they have. *Also, keep in mind that these may be on private property, so going to pray there may require special permission.
PDFs of the handouts used for our Cover Your Campus are included. If you plan to hold your own Cover Your Campus, please let me know so I can pray for you! My contact information is included.
- 5 Tips for Processing a Youth Conference - July 28, 2026
- 3 Active Ideas to Engage Students in Faith Over the Holidays - October 28, 2025
- 3 Ways to Minister to Our Students’ Parents - October 8, 2024