Welcome to ACSI

By Josh Worden 

One of the first chapels of the year was wrapping up at Northlake Christian School (NCS) in Covington, La., but the students were not ready to leave.  

After rousing testimonials from several members of the senior class and fervent prayer for revival in their school, students stayed an extra 40 minutes to continue worshiping and praying. Afterwards, 50 students reported that they had prayed to receive salvation during the chapel. 

“We couldn’t stop the worship,” said Dr. Sean Englert, the Director of Spiritual Life at NCS. “It was such a beautiful moment.” 

According to Englert, this was the result of momentum built up from the previous school year. 

“Every year, at the end of April, we do a junior retreat,” Englert said. “It’s a rite of passage moment because the seniors are about to graduate, so the juniors are marking the beginning of their senior year.”  

One student stood up and challenged his peers to be a class known for caring for one another and pointing people to Jesus. 

"He did a great job sharing his heart,” Englert said. “The kids said, ‘We don’t want to go home. Can we stay and pray and worship?’ We hung around for another hour. They were in student-led huddles, praying specifically for friends. It was a really sweet moment.”  

The students kept it up over the summer, meeting in homes for Bible study and prayer.  

“They came into the school year believing that a movement of God was going to happen,” Englert said. 

NCS is an evangelistic school; Englert says 85 percent of its students say they go to church at least once a month, while 35 percent report they attend church almost every week. 

Before the chapel on Aug. 27, a handful of seniors asked NCS administrators if they could share what God was doing in their class. 

"Any time a student has a mic, the students listen 10 times more than if I was speaking or anyone else,” Englert said.  

After that chapel, the school sent out a form to students to see how they could follow up and partner with them. In that form, 50 students reported that they had prayed to receive salvation.  

The day after the chapel, Englert received a text from a pastor saying they had 100 students more than normal at youth group the night before, all from NCS. 

"Students from other schools saw what was happening and they were crying out and praying that something like this would happen in their schools, as well,” Englert said. 

Even before the chapel, NCS students had been gathering on Monday and Friday mornings before school to pray and worship. When the group became too large for the classroom they met in, they started gathering on the front porch of one of the school buildings. 

“As you’re driving on campus to drop students off, parents can’t miss it,” Englert said. “It was a massive crowd of teenagers praying and worshiping.” 

About a week after the chapel, Englert made a discussion post on ACSI Community sharing how God was moving at NCS.

“What prompted me to post was to encourage school leaders who are doing the same thing I’m doing,” Englert said. “Sometimes it feels like we’re toiling away. What we’re seeing on our campus is the result of a lot of people who have come before me and labor with me, and God’s faithfulness to honor that.” 

Looking ahead, Englert aims to not only keep a sense of momentum going, but to broaden the students’ horizons for what could be next. 

“They asked God for some very specific things and God answered their prayers and rather quickly,” Englert said. “They’re enjoying the moment but they’re also asking what’s next. They’re already talking about hosting worship nights on our campus, community-wide, for their friends and youth groups. There’s been a lot of internal revival happening, and the message I’m trying to get them to think about is how this can pour beyond our walls.”