Life After High School
This past Sunday night, we celebrated a great group of 2024 seniors that have made a large impact on our church and youth ministry. We had a slideshow of pictures from birth to their senior year as well as meaningful stories, encouragement, and challenges from parents to their “kids.” These “kids” will soon start the next chapter in their journeys through life as adults. We reminded them that the roads ahead of them are often not flat or straight; rather, filled with ups and downs and major and minor curves, including setbacks and successes. They take with them a newfound freedom filled with choices and a much needed reminder of the importance of surrounding themselves with good friends, time in God’s Word, and getting connected to a local church. While not all of our graduates could attend the senior celebration, this graduating class will leave a void in our church in some big ways. We are going to miss them!
We have relied on a project called Sticky Faith through Fuller Seminary throughout the years to try to help parents and our youth ministry develop Jesus followers that won’t “leave the faith” after graduation. As parents, grandparents, and our church consider what we can do after graduation, I found this article helpful from Kara Powell, who oversees the Sticky Faith Project at Fuller Seminary.
Connecting with Your Graduate When They Leave for College by Kara Powell
The two credit card applications, I expected. The handwritten letter was a surprise.
It was my first day on campus as a college freshman, and I decided to check my PO box. I immediately discarded the two credit card brochures. My mom had warned me about those.
While I chucked the applications, I was surprised to also find a handwritten note. It was from Pamela, one of the high school small group leaders in my home church. The week before I headed to college, Pamela asked my mom for the address to my PO box. She wasn’t even my small group leader, but she knew enough about life at college that she wanted a cheerful greeting from home to be waiting for me.
I walked back to my dorm room and taped that note from Pamela to the right of my mirror. Her note stayed there until Christmas, a daily reminder that my home church was thinking about me and praying for me. I had not been forgotten.
In the twenty-five years since I opened my PO box, technology has expanded the quantity and quality of pipes we can use to shower high school graduates with our care and concern. Our team at the Fuller Youth Institute recently heard from Sheila, a mom who asked a number of her church friends to write her son as he headed to a college fifteen hundred miles from home. A week later, her son Matthew posted on Facebook:
“I’ve only been at college for a week, and I have already received countless letters, texts, and posts from my home church. Thank you all so much! Every letter has encouraged me to keep my faith strong. With all the ‘options’ out there at college, it’s comforting to know that I have a church family back home supporting me and my beliefs. If you haven’t written to a college student yet, I encourage you to do so. It will make their day! “
Pamela’s note to me and Sheila’s mail bombardment for her son are more than just fun ideas; they are actually faith-building. Some parents—so wary of being helicopter parents and hovering over their maturing child—tend to go to the other extreme and go “radio silent.” According to our Sticky Faith research, that’s a mistake. Our study of over 500 youth group graduates indicates that contact from at least one adult from the congregation outside of the youth ministry during the first semester of college is linked to graduates’ faith maturity. Whether it’s newer technology like texting or something you’ve perhaps heard of called “the US Postal Service,” parents and other adults who keep in touch with your emerging adult child send faith-building messages that can still reverberate three years later.
If you want some creative ways to show your child you are still thinking of them after they graduate, consider . . .
Following Sheila’s example and asking 3-10 friends to write your graduate a letter. Texting is a decent “plan B” but it’s not nearly as meaningful or lasting.
Sending them a handwritten note on any type of paper you can find – tissues (unused please), toilet seat covers, airplane vomit bags – the more creative and outlandish, the more memorable it will be for your graduate.
Mailing them a favorite food item every week for a month, or even a semester.
Texting them pictures of items, scenes, or experiences that remind you of them. You can sprinkle photos already on your phone that feature your graduate into the mix.
Sending them an item from home that’s meaningful to them—like a blanket they love, or a sweatshirt of yours that they used to borrow all the time.
Through our Grad to Growth focus in the past year (a ministry we started to have a couple touch points throughout the school year with H.S. graduates from the past 2 years), Joe and Carrie Simon and Lisa Kanagy have really made some strides to encourage our college students in their faith. I hear parents doing some of the things in this article as well, which is awesome. But there is always more ways to reach out and encourage our graduates in their faith. Even after graduation, let’s be sure to encourage this great group of students, to the best of our ability, to Encourage them to continue to Follow Jesus…Further!
Clara Below * Peyton Benson * Jaedrek Bowles * Carver Brown * Noah Clikeman
Jonathan Coelho *Kierra Dodd * Bella Keaveny * Carter Kies * Karis Lippert * Josh Lozano
Lane Luiken * Camden Maas * NovaLeigh McStockard * Hemi McStockard * Denjinia Messerly
Ava Olson * Macy Roskens * Drew Stansbury * Grace Starr
Blessings,
Pastor Bryce
