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Ministering to Students Who Aren’t Showing Up

By Justin Knowles|2023-07-13T13:16:16-07:00July 24th, 2023|Uncategorized, Youth Ministry Hacks|11 Comments

We just recorded a podcast for Youth Ministry Hacks (CLICK HERE to listen) about the importance of following up in youth ministry. Follow up is such an important aspect of ministry but something easily overlooked because it’s easy to miss to move on to bigger and better things.

One of the things I get asked the most about in youth ministry is what is the exact system we have set up in order to make sure student don’t fall through the cracks? Below is what we have set up right now. Does it work? If I am honest, we don;t know yet. We only really started the whole process in all phases about 2 months ago. It seems to be doing it’s job. I do know we will be looking at it and adjusting it as we go, but it seems to at least fill some holes we had noticed over the past two years of having lots of news students but not being at “sticky” as we have been wanting.

We are in a season where we have the ability to track who is coming to our campuses and we want to make sure we are effectively following up with every student who walks through our doors throughout the year.

We will run a weekly (new students), a monthly (this month vs last month) and a quarterly (CCB roster scrub) report.

The following is how we need to be following up with each group of students that we can run reports on:

1st Time Student Follow Up:

When a new student comes to SCY for the first time they fill out a QR code with their info. The info gets put into a list where the youth network team will then create a new student profile and put it in a queue for the youth lead to follow up with.

Here is how the process is set up in CCB:

Thursday
- “Glad you came” postcards get written up (cards have been provided) and addressed with a note and put in the mail.
- Follow up text from the lead.
- Follow up text from the group leader they were placed with the previous night.
- Parent email, introducing the lead and the ministry
Tuesday
- Queue will prompt a follow up invite with a text from the youth lead to invite back to groups the following night.
Thursday
- Youth lead will check to see if that student came back to groups.
  - If student did, connect with them and let them know they are so glad they got to come back and will help them get more connected in the ministry
  - If the student did not, they will keep them in the queue and invite them back the following week for 3 weeks.

Monthly CCB Report – Students who checked in last month but not this month

We have the ability now to run a monthly report of every student who checked into a group the previous month who has not come back the current month. This is a good way to follow up with kids we have not seen in a bit and a good way to see if any of the first time students have been plugged in.

Follow up should look like the following:

All follow up should happen within two weeks of receiving the roster by campus.
A “We miss you” postcard addressed with a note from the lead be sent in the mail.
A call or text to the student
- “Hey! We have noticed you have not been here in a few weeks. Just letting you know we miss seeing you! We hope you are good. Is there anything that we can be praying for you about or do for you and your family? We hope to see you soon!
- Something along those lines.
An email to the parent with a very similar text.
If the CP knows the family, they can reach out to the parents.

Quarterly CCB Report – Students who have checked in this year, but who have not come this quarter

We have the ability to run a report to see students who we have not checked in at youth for 3 months. This is a great opportunity to reach out to youth and parents to let them know we notice, to check in and invite back.

Follow up should look like the following:

A “We miss you” postcard addressed with a note from the lead be sent in the mail.
A call or text to the student
- “Hey! We have noticed you have not been here in a few weeks. Just letting you know we miss seeing you! We hope you are good. Is there anything that we can be praying for you about or do for you and your family? We hope to see you soon!
- Something along those lines.
An email to the parent with a very similar text.
If the CP knows the family, they can reach out to the parents.
That student should be removed from any CCB group roster so we can have accurate information in regards to youth rosters as they are a leading indicator for the success of youth at Sandals.

Whatever church management system you have, it really doesn’t matter, you can take this process and apply it. If your group is small or if it’s massive, the important part is being intentional with the process of follow up to make sure you are covering all bases and making connections with students.

Hope this is helpful.

@justinknowles3

Why you should follow up

By Jen Bradbury|2017-10-12T04:35:04-07:00October 12th, 2017|Uncategorized|2 Comments

The event’s due date passed and my numbers were bleak.

Worse, I simply hadn’t heard from the majority of people in my youth ministry.

Were they not interested?

Did they have plans?

Had they simply forgotten to turn in the forms?

That night, I debated what to do. At what point should low numbers keep you from doing a big, overnight event?

The next morning, I woke up and decided to give it one more shot.

I went through our roster and systematically followed up with families. I e-mailed parents, told them about the event, and asked if their kids would be interested in participating. I texted students and personally invited them to join us. I told people that I wanted THEM to participate. I also name dropped and let them know their friends had already signed up.

By that night, our numbers had doubled, giving us the critical mass needed to make the event worthwhile.

As I watched our numbers grow, I was reminded that low numbers don’t always reflect a lack of interest in participating. In my follow up with parents, what I heard again and again from people is: “Oh! Thanks for the reminder! We meant to turn in that permission slip but it’s still sitting on the counter with all the other forms!”

Families today are inundated with things, including paperwork. Sometimes, even the most organized parents lose track of things. Even when you e-mail reminders or newsletters, those too, sometimes get filtered with all the other promotional or junk e-mails (especially if you use e-mail services like constant contact.)

So, when you take time to personally reach out to a family and invite them to participate, your effort is never wasted. Parents appreciate the reminder (and the grace in turning in forms late.)

Students also appreciate the personal invitation. When you personally invite them to participate in something, it shows you value them. It communicates they matter to the group.

And regardless of whether or not students participate in your event, showing you care matters. It lays the foundation for them to participate in your ministry, if not at this event, then one in the future.