It's the beginning of another academic year. And, for children, youth, and certainly their youth and children's workers, this is a big time of change.
There is so much to be thinking about, and I want to offer four pieces of advice, four things that we must seek to remember (yet I often forget) at the beginning of the new school year:
- Facilitate good transitions
For a good number of your youth and children, September means moving up into a different group, which may mean a different time, a different evening and a different place. This is such an easy time to lose people, so throw everything into making sure that those people in the moving boat are really well looked after so it doesn't become a time when they become detached. Some of these transitions might feel really big - like being in church instead of in a group for the first time - so lots of love and care will be required. And some of these transitions won't work very well - that programme that worked for the previous cohort might not work for the new one. Don't panic - that's okay! It's about the young people, not the group (as much as we love it!), so as tiring as it feels, we may need to make some changes! - Let people step down
None of us think that anyone serving on our teams has signed up to a lifetime of service. We may even say that regularly. Yet the thought of our team actually stepping down may well fill us with dread. But if we really mean this (and trust in God to provide the team we need) it is worth having a time when we give explicit opportunity for our team to consider where they serve and make sure they are happy and want to continue. The beginning of the new academic year is perfect for this. Yes, this might lead to more people making that decision to step down from serving in this way but ultimately we don't want people serving who don't want to be and feel like they can't say so. And we do want people serving who have thought and prayed it through and are committed! - You may feel some level of stress even if you're well prepared
Here's what I mean by this... There's lots that needs to happen at the beginning of a new term - rotas, deciding what to teach in groups, and conversations with parents of children moving up. Obviously we want to be as ready as possible for the new term and do as much of this as possible in advance.
We've started doing a holiday club the last week of the summer holidays which always leaves us a bit unprepared for the new year. This can make it rather stressful! I can find myself thinking: "Let's not do the holiday club next year. This has been too stressful." But here's the thing - holiday club was a great thing to do and some stress is okay.
The goal is to follow Jesus and give our all for Him, not to have a stress-free life. So, within reason, some level of stress and busyness are okay at this time of year. - Don't forget to pray
This happens at lots of busy times in the year; there are lots of important things to do, and we can so easily let ourselves get overwhelmed with the stress of it all, and so prayer gets pushed out. It's quite hard to not make this happen, but we want to pray! It might take some thinking in advance to work out how to make sure prayer stays a priority at busy times like the beginning of the year. But, ultimately, we know that we can't do anything without God's help, and so starting the year in a praying posture helps to remind us of this and sets good patterns for the year ahead!
Those are four things that I've learnt over a fair few September starts. What have you taken away from this article?
