Keeping Seniors Engaged

Tonight at Mag, we celebrated our class of 2012.  It’s always crazy to me how fast the 4 years of someone’s time in our high school ministry go.  In our ministry we definitely lose some engagement from our upperclassmen as time goes on (maybe yours does too….at least I’m hoping I’m not the only one).   Here are some thoughts I’m thinking through of how to keep your high school seniors engaged:

Start Early – The key time to keeping seniors engaged is when they are freshmen and sophomores.  Students typically come into our high school ministries excited at SOME level.  That is the time to connect with and invest in students – when they are just getting started.

Give Ownership – Moving students from consumers to contributors is critical, but it REALLY needs to happen by about Junior year.  Once students are making a contribution to the ministry by investing in others through service it will be more difficult for them to drift away.

Ask Them – Sometimes we forget to just ask students what would help them be engaged and plugged in to our ministries.  Maybe we’re scratching where they’re not itching.  Maybe we’re answering questions they’re not asking.  In any case, we need to get feedback for setting direction both short- and long-term.

How do you keep seniors engaged in your ministry?

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