On April 16, 2021, following 27 hours without eating anything substantial, about 300 junior high students descended on the North Coast Church campus for an all-night, all-out-fun event called Starving to Serve.
This annual event has been a major fundraiser for Outside the Bowl for over 10 years. Starving to Serve continues to be one of the best ways students can experience what it’s like to go without food and raise money for kids all around the world experiencing hunger on a daily basis.
This year, following a forced virtual event in 2020, students from all the major North Coast Church junior high ministries raised nearly $65,000. Proceeds from the event supported Outside the Bowl as well as the church-wide Serve Your City campaign to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in North County San Diego.
For me, this was the first year I got to experience the event firsthand; I even fasted the entire 27 hours. I’ll be the first to admit that I was hurting most of the day; I didn’t quite have the energy of all those students.
Despite hunger pains, I was pumped up the entire time. These kids worshipped God like I hadn’t seen all year. They knew, without a doubt in their minds, that the brief hunger they experienced wasn’t even close to what kids face in too many countries. And they were so excited that the funds raised were going directly to fight international hunger and malnutrition.
God used these students and I got to see how this event gave them the opportunity to live out their faith in the Lord.
Starving to Serve to Generate New Church Partnerships
Starving to Serve has become a very special event. Junior High students rally together for a fun, experiential night to fight hunger and malnutrition. Youth Pastors see their students get out of their comfort zones to really be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Senior church leaders split profits from the event between Outside the Bowl and a local ministry of their choice. Outside the Bowl gains funds and connections to fuel our efforts to amplify ministry work happening throughout God’s Kingdom.
Starving to Serve is a win-win-win-win. So we want to take Starving to Serve to new churches so they can scale for their own use.
North Coast Church youth pastors have come alongside our team to put together an essential resource kit that other youth leaders can use to scale and run the event. In fact, they believe in this event so much, they’re offering ongoing coaching to other youth leaders.
We could use your help.
We’re looking for Southern CA church contacts, both senior and youth leadership levels, to present Starving to Serve in Summer and Fall 2021. Additionally, we would love the chance to promote in youth ministry networks and conferences.
If we had our choice, every church would have a youth event like this. Starving to Serve is a win for the church, youth leaders, the students, local ministry, and Outside the Bowl.