Most schools truly want help from the church, but they don’t necessarily want Bible clubs. How can youth workers bless schools with real help, especially as the school experience is changing so greatly?

Youth ministries always have had a focus on schools because they are full of teenagers, and we simply love kids. However, the agenda of the school is not to provide a holding place for teens so we can reach them with the gospel. The school’s agenda is to educate students.

We as youth leaders see the “tribe” gathered in one location, which provides easier opportunities for ministry. Schools see the “tribe” gathered as their responsibility to educate—and education is losing to attitudes, violence, apathy and crime. More and more of school life is about warehousing teens; education is squeezed out for survival’s sake.

My vantage point comes from 17 years as a substitute teacher while also serving as an employee at my church. I purposely have found time to serve the school system. Through the years, this has given me a two-world perspective that has changed how I lead in youth ministry and how I approach the school system in my community. From this vantage point, here is what I’ve learned.

Being a Blessing, Not a Detriment
Schools need the church to partner with them. I have found most schools truly want churches’ help because they are full of caring adults who are community-minded. However, church staff and lay leaders most commonly meet with students over lunch, host Bible clubs and things of similar nature. These ideas serve the ministry’s agenda, not the school’s.When our agendas don’t align, the church becomes just another headache with which the administration must deal. I challenge you to be a true blessing instead.

As a substitute teacher, the greatest thing I can offer is crowd control. I can be a blessing to my school because I know how to handle teenagers. Lunchroom monitors are needed in schools. Teachers hate this duty, and administrators usually are too busy during lunch putting out small fires. Lunch is the most chaotic time of the school day. Volunteering during this volatile time would be a blessing to your school’s administration. You become their eyes while interacting with students. This is more helpful than just eating lunch with your teens.

Other ways to bless schools:
1. Help with concerts, games, plays, pep rallies, etc.

2. Proctor exams. Some schools require two adults to be in a room when giving a standardized or other type of exam. All you need to do is watch. You can’t do any work or reading, but watching is a good opportunity for intercessory prayer.

3. Judge senior projects or science fairs.

4. Help sign in tardy students in the mornings. Teachers on duty sometimes can’t collect notes and sign passes quickly enough.

5. Serve on bus duty. The time it takes to load the students onto the busses or get them to their extra-curricular activities is intense.

6. Volunteer in the nurse’s office. You don’t need a medical background for this one. Depending on school funding, schools may or may not have their own school nurse. If they don’t, they just need an adult to help the students call their parents and wait with them if they get an early dismissal.

7. Sell tickets at games.

8. Sell concessions at school events.

Secure Your Position
Once on school grounds, be certain to respect bells and schedules. The structure has been set to get the education mandate accomplished. The bells are more important than the extra minute talking with your youth. Although, which student wouldn’t love any quasi-excuse to be tardy to class?

Security is an issue in these post-Columbine days. Most schools lock all the outside doors except the main door during school hours. When visiting your school, graciously use this door and get to know the security staff (whether hired security guards or teachers on duty) so they know you.

IDs are required for everyone in most school districts. My school has a license-scanning machine that detects if the visitor is on the sexual offender’s list. If the person is on the list, the machine (not a human) automatically notifies the principal and the police. Other school districts have implemented iris-scan systems for those who have the responsibility to pick up children. School busses now come equipped with GPS systems and cameras. So, proudly wear your dorky visitor’s pass; it’s your access.

Security measures are not the only change on school campuses since you were a student. New technologies, the push for school choice, security issues and several innovative education ideas are all being incorporated to meet the education agenda. While security cameras and metal detectors are not new, Webcams in the classroom are. This allows the school and parents to check on children throughout the day. Teachers also are finding creative way to use Webcams with assignments, such as focusing them on science projects so students can log in on weekends and visually check how their projects are progressing. You can, too. How blessed would a student feel knowing you also know the status of his or her science project?

The Student Has Left the Building
What about the “tribe” that does not gather in a school building? As of 2006, there were one million students neither receiving their education in a traditional classrom nor being homeschooled. They’re getting their public education online. How will not having students in school buildings during school hours affect your youth ministry plans?

Online learning is not just for the school year. Many courses are offered throughout the summer. Some students are taking year-round school by their own choice, which also will affect your summer youth ministry plans.

In my school system, fifth- and eighth-graders can choose to go to a neighborhood school or attend a different school that offers a specialty program. This means most of my students do not go to their feeder school; even siblings may attend different schools. Middle-school friendships almost certainly break up due to being in different schools. Most have longer bus rides; their specialized programs have more homework requirements; and high-school sports rivalries are becoming historic memories.

The changes impacting the high-school experience are too numerous to list, but they give us new opportunities in our approach to blessing our schools. They need our help. The students need our help. My challenge to you is to pray and seek ways to be a true help, to be a true blessing—not just serving your agenda, but serving the school. Because of these changes, what can be done is wide open for God-blessed possibilities.

10 Ways to Bless Your School
Tip 1: Keep at it. It is vital that the administrators know who you are, including your goals for the school. When you offer your help, do what is asked of you. If nothing is asked of you in a reasonable amount of time, offer again. Make this meeting more than a one-time introduction or permission request to eat lunch with your youth. Begin a relationship with the administration, particularly an assistant principal. They tend not to be pulled in as many directions as principals are.

Tip 2: The principal is your pal. Do not believe what other youth workers have said about the administrators. It may or may not be true. Remember the administrator’s role to educate is overwhelming and hard enough to accomplish without an outsider trying to use the school to fulfill a personal agenda. You may find the administrator grateful and easy to work with because of how you approach him or her.

Tip 3: Credentials = Credibility. When you meet with the administration, take a copy of your police/FBI report for his or her files. That is just a courtesy in the modern world.

Tip 4: Be nice. Graciously thank all teachers and administrators for all their help and every little thing they had to do to make your visit to the school easier. While you may believe your presence, particularly as a Christian, is a good thing, in reality you are adding an unknown factor to the potentially volatile school balance.

Tip 5: Just do it. If you decide to volunteer, be consistent and reliable. This will speak volumes about you and your church—volumes.

Tip 6: Do the dirty work. Another responsibility of a lunchroom monitor is to pick up all the trash each lunch shift leaves behind. The teachers on duty will appreciate it if you will help clean up.

Tip 7: Join the staff. Some schools will offer you opportunities to help for pay, such as substitute teaching, coaching or bus driving. A solid commitment will be mandatory, and you will become a part of the school. If you have a check signed by the school board, your free speech will have legal limitations, but often over time and through relationships, you may earn wide parameters in your influence.

Tip 8: Clean up your act. It is preferable for the administration not to know your church kids because of referrals to the office for misconduct. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of youth workers had troubled school experiences, and they enjoy retelling the stories of their questionable past with great delight and hilarity. If you want to be of help to your school, this is not the message you want to send.

Tip 9: Ask first. If you want to hang your youth-ministry posters at the school, seek permission. This may seem like a no-brainer, but I have witnessed too many examples of youth workers freely hanging signs or posters while they were visiting a school, or their youth posted signs without permission. Everything displayed on school property must be approved by the administration, from students’ handmade posters to Army recruitment billboards.

Tip 10: Love everyone. Remember the overlooked ones. Do something special for the individuals who do not get a “teacher appreciation week.” This includes the janitors, security and ISS teacher who has to put up with all the students who got referrals and in-school suspensions. Let your youth ministry creativity bless these overlooked ones.