Expand Your Students' Circle of Caring
by fostering their church friendships
Here is an encouraging blog posting from Lifeway: Fostering Friendships at Church (and why it matters). I think nurturing friendships is not only important in caring for our students but also for encouraging families to return to church.
The author talks about how some of her best friendships were formed at churches, where children came from a variety of schools in the area. That has been my experience too, with friendships formed in Sunday school and potlucks, and children becoming friends with the children of their parents' church friends. She includes several good suggestions of ways to encourage relationships:
- You as a ministry leader who knows "your" kids can make sure those with similar interests meet and have a chance to talk about those mutual interests (soccer, ballet, reading mysteries, ....).
- Give parents a chance to connect -- parenting classes, family fun events, potluck picnics after church.
- Make sure your programming allows the students to connect during classroom discussions and activities as well as on the playground. Workshop Rotation Model lessons are designed to be creative group activities and include thoughtful conversation starters that allow kids to connect.
Use your technology to connect kids with each other through online Zoom meetups, sending and sharing videos showing recent lesson activities, and inviting kids to create and share their own fun videos promoting upcoming get-togethers.
Kids who want to be at church with their friends will be more likely to wake their parents up on Sunday mornings and push them to get them to church on time for Sunday school. It also helps to have a great lesson awaiting the kids and their friends!
As part of our "expanding the circle of caring" we need to teach kids how to be good Christian friends to each other.
There are many "teaching friendship" resources online. One of them is at https://kidsactivitiesblog.com/24345/teaching-kids-2/
Define friendship from Jesus' perspective
Role play situations to give kids practice and tools!
Train them to listen to their friends and discover their needs, hurts, and concerns
Practice how we should talk to one another
What's your responsibility to a kid who is lonely or whom others don't like?
When do you tell a parent or teacher about your own concerns, and those you have for a friend?
