Engaging, Equipping, and Encouraging Students During Easter (or any other time of the year)

Easter is coming.

More than likely, you’re already feeling the pressure of that week. You might have a million services you’ll have to be at, or maybe your senior pastor has asked the youth ministry to do a drama during the sunrise service and then serve a breakfast afterwards.  Regardless of our unique settings, Easter is a big deal, and rightfully so because we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. It makes perfect sense as to why we have an “all hands on deck” mentality in the weeks leading up to Easter and the week of Easter.

Because Easter Sunday is one of the highest attended Sundays of the year, the ask of volunteers and leaders in our churches gets upped a couple notches.  We want people who are walking into our churches for the first time to feel welcomed, to be able to find the children’s wing, to find information, or to find the bathroom.  There’s tons of strategies we could talk about, like placing a volunteer every 5 feet to make sure no one falls through the cracks, but maybe one “strategy” we’re missing out on isn’t a strategy but a group of people instead.

What if we as ministry leaders took the week of Easter as an opportunity to engage and equip our students to serve in the church?  What if we encouraged them to play a role in making Easter Sunday one of the best Sundays yet?  Here’s some ways we can engage, equip, and encourage our students to serve in our churches this Easter:

1. Engage Students:  We’ve heard it over and over again the importance of connecting teenagers to the larger church body.  With the platform we’ve been graciously given in students’ lives, use Easter to cast a vision for students to be involved in the larger church body.  Help them understand that they aren’t the “future” church but they are the church and they can play a role on Easter Sunday through serving. 
   
   
2. Equip Students:  Middle Schoolers are a part of the church body, so why not equip them to serve within the body?  Think about the many roles that your church is trying to fill on throughout the Easter week.  Does someone need to dust off the plastic Easter lilies? (It happens).  Ask a few middle schoolers to come after school one day and grab a Swiffer to start dusting).  Do you have an aspiring air traffic controller in your ministry? Pair him/her up with one of your parking lot attendants and have him/her help direct traffic during one of your biggest services.  Did your ministry just get asked to serve breakfast after the sunrise service?  Find that student that loves to bake/cook, connect him/her with one of your church’s hospitality team members and let them bake up a caramel roll and chocolate chip muffin storm.  Middle Schoolers are usually really willing to help and when they find out that they can play a significant role in the church, they are 100% in.
   
   
3. Encourage Students:  Sometimes all it takes is one adult to change a Middle Schooler’s perspective of himself/herself.  By inviting a student to be a part of your church’s volunteer team during the most attended church week, you’re showing that student that he/she matters.  That he/she has something to contribute to the body of Christ.  Encouraging a student might mean helping him/her find their wheelhouse by trial and error.  Maybe the aspiring air traffic controller student doesn’t work out so great in the parking lot, but maybe he/she is really great at greeting people when they walk in the door.
   
   

Does it sound like some extra work?  Like it might require more effort on your part?  Yes. Yes, to all the things. You’re thinking “wait, I thought this was supposed to make my week easier?”  It will take extra work and it will take effort, but it’s worth it.  It’s worth it because you’re creating the space for your students to find their place in the body of Christ, you’re helping them realize that they can serve, and they can make an impact on another person.  Plus, you’re setting them up to continue to serve in those areas.  It doesn’t have to end once Easter week is over.  What if the roles that your church is trying to fill are waiting to be filled by Middle Schoolers? What if your Middle Schoolers are just waiting for someone to come alongside them to engage, equip, and encourage them to step into their Kingdom-building roles?
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1. What would it look like if you were to engage, equip, and encourage Middle Schoolers to serve in the church in your ministry setting?
2. What are some hurdles you would encounter?
3. What do you think hinders Middle Schoolers from serving in the church?

MIDDLE SCHOOL