Graduation! Your amazing students whom you have loved and cared for the past few years are heading out to the great unknown of college, the work force, their parents’ basement or a strange combination of all three! But because moving away to college is such a big deal, those are the students we are going to focus on this week.
As students leave your ministry, the temptation is to completely set them free—and while this is the typical model in most churches, what would it look like if you extended your influence in their lives to cover this challenging transition? Here are a few practical ideas how.
Help them find a church.
For students who move away, the number one in a new city and starting a new life is finding a church home. Oftentimes, the struggle is, “I just can’t find a church like ours,” which is flattering, but a dangerous position for a student to be in their freshman year. So help! Google the churches within a couple miles of the campus and see which one would feel familiar to them. Visit their website, or give them a call and ask a few questions, and pass the information along to your student.
Here’s an idea: Find out where your seniors are heading for college, and ask a key volunteer to do a little bit of church research for each community and, as a graduation gift, give an “Awesome churches near your school” packet to each graduate!
Give them a resource.
Help them in this transition with a devotional resource or a letter a day from a member of your church with a verse to encourage them. OK, we have never seen that one done either, but how cool would it be! Don’t let students dangle in limbo spiritually; challenge them to continue in the spiritual disciplines and increase their faith in God even when they are in an environment where it will be challenged daily.
Check in periodically.
Being remembered is huge. Too often, students leave for school and leave their mentors, parents and youth workers behind. That is by design, and one of the catalysts that force students to think for themselves as they barrel into adulthood, but it also leaves them vulnerable to attack.
A quick Skype call, a phone call on the weekend, even a weekend trip to see them could be huge. You never know the power of a simple text; it would probably mean the world to your students 400 miles from home.
