I went on a retreat this past weekend with a well-known college organization on campus. I was super excited to go for numerous reasons – worship, fellowship, and some quality time with my wife.
We spent a long time getting thing ready before-hand (ok ok my wife spent a lot of time getting things ready before-hand) for the prayer destination and registration (you got me – my wife did literally all the work. I just lit 50 some candles for the prayer destination). I was stoked after registration – there were a ton of awesome people there and I was ready to have a good time.
I wasn’t so stoked after the weekend kicked off.
My wife and I were so excited to catch up with some of the people we had not seen in a long time…but apparently they weren’t very excited to catch up with us. We got a few “hi’s” and “what’s up’s” but the majority of the weekend was spent alone (with each other, of course). We had never felt so alone and isolated among a group of so many people – Christians none-the-less!
I have to admit – we didn’t try to socialize much. We hoped people would come talk to us. It just didn’t happen.
Are you aware of this in your ministry? Are you making sure you give more than just a “hi” to the people who need it? Can you see the students that need more attention? Here are some things you can do to make sure you’re not leaving students on the outside:
1) Take more than 30 seconds to talk to them. Make them feel like you want them there – like you want to know about their day/week. Take some time to build a relationship.
2) Train adult volunteers to make students feel welcome. This will take some of the pressure off of you on your super busy days.
3) Train your youth leaders to make genuine friendships with all students. Make sure your student leaders are not a part of a clique but are a part of the body of Christ. This is the absolute best way to make people feel wanted – when people their own age want to be their friends!
Being alone sucks. Make sure you make everyone feel like they’re part of your ministry.
tomshriver.com 