I'm thinking about boycotting SYATP this year.
That's right, not even mentioning it or promoting it to my students.
I'll back up...
I first attended See You at the Pole in the fall of 1992 on my Junior High School Campus. It was completely student led. We made posters, postcards, and invited everyone who we thought might actually attend. 125 students showed up 90 minutes early for prayer and the free breakfast at the Baptist Church across the street. And we celebrated the huge success.
I never missed a year between then and when I graduated.
The thing I have always loved about this movement is that in 1990 a group of student's had a vision and just one year later a million students were coming to school early on a September morning to pray.
No national office
No staff
No budget
No t-shirts
No "pray hard" bracelets
Nothing but a vision that could only come from God.
So why would I not promote the event this year?
Over the past 6 years of full-time youth ministry at my church, I have been getting increasingly uncomfortable with the commercialization of a vision that was placed in the hearts of teenagers.
I have gotten 5 catalogs this summer telling me that I have to order the promo kit for $50- $70. There are shirts, wristbands, lanyards, key tags, promo DVDs, brochures, handbooks, info cards, and much more.
Perhaps the worst thing they are selling is a freaking "Pole Pass." I wish I was being sarcastic.
Notice that in the previous sentence, I wrote "the worst thing "they" are selling."
I got to thinking about it. Who is "they" anyway? Who decided it was a good idea to profit off a movement of God on school campuses around the world. I wondered who was behind this.
As you can see on the website, no organization is listed anywhere. There is a phone number for "call in orders" and an address, but I was unable to find the name of the organization behind the website. So after a little more digging, I found a small note in on the bottom of one of the catalogs I was sent in much smaller font than anything else on the page.
Any guesses?
It was the National Network of Youth Ministers. (Of which I have been a member for years.)
I'm guessing they are the ones printing shirts and pole passes every year.
I don't guess I am mad at them for doing this, just disappointed they are choosing to take this route. The only question I have for them is what gives them the right to take this vision that was placed in the heart of a group of kids in Texas in 1990 and to profit off of that vision. Consider what they are doing.
By selling youth group promo kits (again for $50-$70) they are taking a campus movement and moving it into the church. By me ordering brochures and poll passes and giving them to my students to give to their friends, what ownership of this event do the students have?
I cannot describe how great it was for me to meet with a group of kids, make postcards, phone calls, hang posters all over the school.
We did it because it was our vision, our event. This just turns it into another church thing. Not that church events are bad, but why can't we allow our students to do something on their campus on their own. Their vision, their goals, their event. It really meant a lot to me all of the years I was in school.
So I have not decided for sure, but I an thinking about boycotting SYATP this year.
By the way, the history of SYATP is truly incredible. If you don't know about it, read the short blurb on the website.
Of course, if you want the complete history you'll have to buy the DVD. Yeah, that is for sale too.
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