“What is God stirring in you? How is the Lord asking you to respond?” 

Moments after Mike Hicks invited the evening’s LIFT Gathering attendees to ask themselves these important questions, the room buzzed in response…God was actively revealing His heart for His educators. I heard a swell of table conversations, saw teachers look to each other for support as they shared their hardships, and witnessed several colleagues gather to pray. Some teachers later shared that these connective moments were breathtaking; like a lid of humility had been lifted so they could show up as their authentic selves. Others felt as though they’d been invited to dream larger. And, many recognized the power of connection that evening and yearned for what could come of regularly gathering to build community at their schools. 

That night, I felt as if I could see the door to lasting fellowship opening—a door I had pushed and prodded for some time but hadn’t quite found the right key to unlock it. The “right” key was LIFT America.

For several years prior to this impactful night, I helped organize a city-wide teacher prayer breakfast. The goal of these breakfasts was to show our teachers how much they were appreciated by pampering them with gifts, a beautiful worship set, and a message. While these wonderful events truly ministered to the hearts of these weary educators, I realized that they yearned for something beyond encouragement; they craved connection—a connection that extended beyond one large, annual gathering. They wanted to belong to a community—a community of believers within their schools. 

Then, in the fall of 2023, God divinely connected me with Christian Educators. As soon as I met Mike Hicks, Christian Educators LIFT America Director, I excitedly set up a time to record his story for my Kingdom Educators podcast ("The Story Behind LIFT: Uniting Christian Educators Across the Nation"). As he unfolded his dream of connecting Christian educators through area LIFT Gatherings and Campus Lift Groups, I knew this model was the missing key that would unlock the door to lasting fellowship for educators in my area. 

To my utter joy, Mike’s model was already being replicated and utilized in different cities across the country. I thought, Why re-create the wheel? The strategies we had been using to organize our prayer breakfasts needed an upgrade, and the Christian Educators LIFT model had proven to be efficient and effective. I eagerly embraced this simple, organized plan.

The LIFT model provided me with a detailed six-week preparation timeline. It included tools such as a checklist of what needed to be accomplished each week. The Lift Planning Calendar allowed me to record which tasks needed to be delegated to which volunteers and plan for how I wanted to communicate and partner with each one. This eased a lot of the stress I had experienced while planning in previous years.

Before I used Mike’s easy-to-follow program, I had been grasping at different organizational tools in hopes of finding one that might work and giving deference to other leaders’ often last-minute planning efforts. I felt like giving up at times. However, the Lift Gathering organizational tools eased all this tension by bringing clarity, forethought, and structure to my preparations. 

Mike also helped me understand the power of inviting a lead teacher from each school and charging them to fill a table with colleagues. This would allow educators to enjoy a meal together while catching the vision for regularly connecting on their campuses. 

Prayer also played a major role throughout the planning process, including the night before the event when we set up chairs and tables in the gym. We were not only partnering with Christian Educators, our local churches, and our volunteer committee but, most importantly, we were partnering with God. 

Thanks to the LIFT Gathering organizational tools, we were ready when the evening of our first LIFT Gathering arrived.

The buzz in the room that evening couldn't have been more of a beautiful song to my ears. Community was being cultivated around authentic table conversation as colleagues shared their hearts. And, it was apparent that everyone—from substitutes to paraeducators to teachers to state and local school board members and their spouses—knew they were appointed to be there that night. 

Knowing the ultimate goal of the Lift Gathering was to plant a seed for Lift Groups to form at each of the schools represented here, I relied on God’s faithfulness to form connections among the teachers at each table. And several of those seeds planted that evening have already taken root. Two table hosts from different schools reported that they began meeting regularly for prayer with their Christian colleagues who’d attended that night. A few months after the event, I received a letter from an elementary school teacher who initiated a prayer-walking group with her colleagues, and they are already beginning to see a shift in their school’s atmosphere. 

The impact of our first LIFT Gathering is ongoing. Communities of faith-filled educators from all over our city formed that night. I am thankful that God provided the missing key to open the door to lasting, impactful fellowship for educators in my area as He has done in so many others. I marvel at His goodness.  

WANT TO BRING A LIFT GATHERING TO YOUR AREA?

Christian Educators provides a six-week step-by-step model for planning a Gathering, organizational tools, customized promotional materials, annual themes with theme-related video presentations, and a custom landing page for the event on our CE website. We even handle registration, donations, and reimbursements!
Contact the LIFT America Team.

Jesica Glover is a National Board Certified Teacher, educational coach, author,  podcaster, and CEO of Kingdom Educators. She’s passionate about empowering Christian teachers to grab ahold of Heaven’s hope-filled perspective, so they can activate transformational impact in their classrooms and communities.