QUARTER 1
CONTACTING
Try going to a local place that a lot of middle school kids hang out and meeting a few. Take a team member with you and try to naturally meet students. This may be a “risk” for you but it never hurts to try- and you might end up with totally different kids as a part of Campus Life.
Make a contacting calendar for the semester using the school events calendar. Ask your ministry leaders to do the same. The earlier you get things on your calendar, the more likely they are to happen!
BUILDING TIMES
It doesn’t have to be a planned activity to be a building time, every day shared experiences (like getting materials for club) can be great building times as well. Have a student bring 2-3 friends with you and get to know them as you share time.
Get a group of students and go to a Goodwill or cheap thrift store. Have fun picking out some items that would stand out. If the items are inexpensive and your students are willing to buy them, get them and dress up to go out for dinner, a movie or ice cream.
Take a ministry team leader and a group of girls or guys with you to a bookstore. After looking around for a while find a place to gather. Give each student 3 minutes to go and find a book or magazine that says something about them. Once they return talk about why they picked what they did. It should be a great time for you and them to get to know each other more.
APPOINTMENTS
Schedule at least 3-5 appointments early in the year with students you lost touch with over the summer. Talk about what they hope for this year.
Have an appointment with a couple of new students you meet at club. Take them out for a coke or ice cream (maybe focus on the kids that didn’t seem to fit in a group this week). Talk about what it means to fit in or stand out. Try to get a sense for where they feel like they belong at school, or if they feel like they belong.
Look through the club topics….which ones are likely to draw out some real emotion/hard stuff from kids? Plan your calendar. Leave some significant space the week after those clubs for appointments with students that seem to have been really impacted by the discussion that week. Always leave space for appointments the week after a Gospel presentation, as most times you are asking students to indicate if they want to talk to a leader.
SMALL GROUP
When you start your second series of the semester, ask your small group leaders if they would ever want to do a small group outside of club. You can give them small group curriculum to use if they are interested! They could ask their small group next week at club!
CORE TEAM
Go over your plan for the semester with their Core Team. Have them consider which club topics would be the most engaging/impactful for their lost friends to attend. Use those weeks to do “invite a friend” challenges. Ask them to be praying for the club and see what friends they can bring.
Revisit the club topic and any conversations they had with their friends when you are together at your Core Meeting. Who can we be praying for with them?
Encourage Core team students to be hanging out with their lost friends all the time in shared experiences, even outside of club. Instead of just your Ministry Leaders, take your Core Team students along on Contacting events.