Is It Legal for Kids to Preach at School? [Yes!]

Young missionaries

But there are missionaries in the schools today – there legally. Christian kids. Young believers with a burden for their classmates. Christian students nationwide who are rising to the challenge to defy the darkness. It may be illegal for a school employee to pray with a student or share their faith – but if it’s a fellow student, it’s protected speech. Multiple court cases have confirmed that kids do not have to leave their convictions at the schoolhouse door. They can pray with their classmates. They can witness their faith to their friends. They can share what God means to them. It’s “student-initiated speech” and it was not only commanded by Jesus in the Great Commission, but it’s protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Telling others

“Those students had no idea how God would use their obedience,” say youth ministry officials. Soon, other Texas kids were holding similar prayer meetings at their schools, following these examples and meeting at their school flagpoles to pray simultaneously. The challenge was named ‘See You at the Pole’ and shared with 20,000 students in June 1990 at Reunion Arena in Dallas.” As a result, on September 12, 1990, more than 45,000 teenagers met at school flagpoles in four different states to pray before the start of school. Reports came for days after the first event. On September 11, 1991, at 7 a.m., an estimated one million students gathered at school flagpoles all over the country.

Giving away Life

“The Life Book Movement works in collaboration with churches throughout the country to provide the books for free to students to saturate their schools with God’s Word,” says Blunt. “Working with local youth leaders, we help students take God’s Word into public high schools to reach an unreached population. The goal is to ensure that every student in every high school in the United States has an opportunity to receive the gift of The Life Book.”

Are kids actually passing out the books? Yes, according to these emails from participating kids. We’ve not corrected their grammar, punctuation or spelling: “Just about a month ago,” writes a boy in Maine, “my group got the life books … 2 of us handed out 375 books [Our] student church life group grew in 2 weeks of starting it from 2 to 27. God has blessed us and is grabbing a hold of every student in our school! “

A changed outlook

“This book has changed my thinking completely,” wrote Jalissa in New Jersey. “My outlook on other people. I’m a very shy person and when my youth Pastor gave us the challenge to go to school and hand out these books, I was terrified at the thought of someone rejecting me. But it did happen and I got over it, and it was the people who I would never think would want the book, that actually asked me if I had any extra copies. I love this book. It had changed the lives of some people in my city and itssuch a blessing to witness the change.”

A high schooler named Spencer wrote from Florida: “I know this boy who is a devil worshipper. I felt like God was telling me to give him a Life Book, so I did and he took it. I saw him reading it later that day.”

"SUPER amazing"

“So I have about 5 lifebooks left as of today, and it has been SUPER amazing watching God work through them,” wrote Emily in Texas. “The only thing I had to do was bring them into the guard room Monday morning and people started asking questions about them and asking for them all day. One of the people I gave it to is a ‘deist’ or ‘atheist’ and he has been reading through it attempting to find ways to prove that Christianity is horrible, but I'm just glad he's reading it haha! One of the guard girls couldn't put it down all of yesterday and today!! Even my Christian friends want it as a new book for a quiet time, or even to give to people they know who need to hear about the love of God. I honestly can not even explain how much of a blessing it has been simply handing out a small book :D :D :D”