“What are you doing to keep in contact with your students over Christmas Break, Steven?”
Well, mysterious voice, I’m doing a few things. None of them are difficult or terribly time-consuming, but they all show your students that you’re not just the guy that shows up once a week and then disappears.
- Texts every day. I will usually send a generic text to all my guys every day to start a conversation. Yesterday I sent out a typical, “Hey! How was your Christmas?” I had 6 guys text me back right away and start a conversation.
- One-on-ones. Breaks are a great opportunity to spend some intentional time with individual students. They’re more available and often get bored sitting at home, so they want to get out of the house.
- Impromptu group stuff. I haven’t done a ton of this in the past, but it has some good potential. It would be something like texting all your students, “Hey, I’m going to be at Chick fil A at 6:00. Come on over if you want to hang out!” This would probably be easier with high school students than junior high because of the freedom of driving.
These 3 things are simple, but encourage solid relational ministry over a usually static time in the year.
Question: What do you do to keep in contact with your students over a short break? Tell us here.
