Before we know it, summer will be here, school will be out, and our students will be sleeping in until noon. They’ll also start disconnecting from “normal life.”
We were all there at some point. After spring break, school becomes a struggle. I’m sure it’s even worse for the teachers dealing with students that care even less than normal!
What I see, more often than not, is that numbers drop during the summer. We see our students less and less. Instead of getting down in dumps about the reality of the summer rhythm, take advantage of it and change the way you “meet” with you few. Between family vacations, lake weekends, and sports, we all have students that we don’t see after Memorial Day weekend until after Labor Day weekend. This is a unique time that you can leverage for good. Push for some other more organic hang outs to happen.
Don’t become invisible.
You know what I mean. I’m not talking about an invisibility cloak. I mean don’t let your relationship with your few become non-existent during the summer months. These are actually the months that could drastically grow your relationships if you are intentional about it.
I have two easy ways to make sure you don’t become invisible to your few this summer.
- Don’t let your relationship with your few depend on your youth pastor. Schedule some out of the ordinary hangouts. Get coffee with one of your students. Send a couple texts, and get a group together to hang out at the local pool. Corral a couple students to go watch another student play softball. Bottom line: do things. Whatever you choose to do, commit and do it.
- Stay connected to your few on social media. Retweet something funny they tweeted. Comment on their Instagram post. Clue them into things going on in your life like a funny story or a crazy pic. It’ll make them feel as though they’re “in the know.” Or send them a text in the morning to let them know you are praying for them. *Pro tip: Actually be praying for them as well.
During the summer, it’s easy to lose touch with the people we aren’t required to see every day. Don’t let that happen with your small group. Stay in touch with them. Hang out with them outside of youth group. Kick back and have some fun, but whatever you do, don’t become invisible.
Johnathan Baldwin
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As a middle school girls sgl with a HUGE influx of young female students this past year,I feel the extra push and urgency to connect with my girls. I’m trying to find time to do these little things, to go and just hang out with my girls, but it is often difficult as a full time commuting college student while also working part time. But i’m slowly but surely connecting with my girls and trying to expand the realm in which I do so. I had the inspiring and exhausting experience to be a dorm mom at the church camp my church goes to every summer, and this showed me just how impactful I can be to these girls. But I oftentimes feel unprepared for this position, especially since all our other leaders are much older than I. They almost all have kids, some even in my small group,and then there’s me. Not even in my twenties yet. I haven’t had a solid connection with any of the other leaders except one, and shes stepped down recently due to her hectic personal life. It’s a confusing road, and this website has helped alot,thanks to my youth pastor who references lead small in his emails alot.