Missing Students System
The last system that has to do with attendance is what you do with missing students.
This is a tough one. Before the pandemic, I think the average committed student attended roughly 2 times per month (24 times per year). So, when do you follow up & when do you not? How do you make sure a student knows you missed them but also not overwhelm them & come off like a creeper?
Again, in order for this system to exist, you’ve got to have a good & consistent attendance system. So, come the day after your environment, how will you or small group leaders know which of their students weren’t there?
Yes, the hope would be that small group leaders have a good enough relationship with students that they know if someone was gone & reach out to them. But you have systems so you don’t have to just hope. Remember…one of the reasons systems exist is so we don’t leave the most important things to chance. Students feeling like they belong is one of those important things.
Here are a few reasons why these systems are important.
Students feel valued.
The tension I always felt when it came to this was that I wanted every student who felt like my ministry was their home church to know that when they weren’t there, they were missed. I never wanted that to be something they wondered about. I also didn’t want to shame & guilt them for not being there. I didn’t want to give the impression that their church & small group leaders were disappointed with them because they hadn’t seen them in a few weeks.
So, systematizing this helps you be strategic with who reaches out to them, how often they reach out & what they say when they do. Creating systems like this isn’t about trying to control everything, but it’s about giving your leaders some really clear instructions (which most of them want & need) on when, how & what to reach out with.
Our relationship isn’t just tied to the church.
Systematizing communication to students who have been missing is a huge win when it comes to helping them understand that their relationship with you or their small group leader isn’t just tied to their attendance. Part of that is the messages you design to be sent out when they’ve been missing shouldn’t always be things like…
“Sean, it’s been 2 weeks since I’ve seen you at church. We miss you!”
“Sean, it’s been 3 weeks since you’ve been to church. We miss you!”
“Sean, it’s been 4 weeks since you’ve been to church, God misses you!”
It’s okay to let a student know they were missed, but what tends to be a more meaningful connection in those times are things more like…
“Sean, how is baseball going?!”
“Sean, how’s life!? What have you been up to lately?”
So, build a system to figure out at what points missing students are reached out to. Then, help give your leaders a lot of examples to choose from when it comes to things they can reach out to them about.
Click below to deep dive into another system.
