Going Back to School Online with Middle School Students

Wow!  Summer is crazy with so many events and activities going on.  We are catching students as they get back from vacation and hosting awesome back to school events.  We are still recovering from Camp, CIY MIX and Missions Trips.  We have tried to have the most productive summer that we could with the students that were not on vacation out of town, but now it is time for back to school.

School is starting, and where does that leave us in junior high/middle school ministry.  Our time is limited with school in session, but this can be one of the most effective ministry times for our students.  We start new programs as our students go back to school.  At our church we start our Wednesday night service back up in a few weeks. This is a great tool to keep students connected during the week.

It is easy for them to get distracted with the ways of the world when they head back to school, but they can also be an incredible influence on their friends if they just try.

Students head back to school and they want to reconnect with friends.  They have friends they haven’t hung out with for a few months, and they want to do things after school and on weekends.  Sometimes this will keep them away from church or youth group at times, so how do we stay connected with them as they head back to school?

Social Media is an incredible tool for us to use to stay connected as the business of school settles in.  We can use social media to give easy reminders to our students, and even better to their parents.  Recently I have been checking to see what kind of responses I can get from students and parents through social media, and I find that parents (some of whom I never talk to or see) are very connected with what I put on social media.  I believe we must take advantage of it.

Whether we are checking on a student we haven’t seen in a while or we are sending out a reminder we need to stay connected.  Social media can devour a lot of our time if we aren’t careful, but if we are deliberate with it we can truly impact our students and their families through social media.  Be a voice to your students that that don’t just hear or see once a week.

It is like a lot of things in life.  We can either embrace this technology and further the Kingdom, or we can avoid it.  I choose to further the Kingdom.

What about you?  Do you have any great ideas to share about staying connected with students going back to school.  We would love to hear about it.  Share in the comments below.