Dream
Connections are at the heart of any good work in schools. Our connections to the students, the teachers and support staff or our connections to churches, our local community and, most importantly, connecting all of these with God, are all vital to our work.
To start with, take a moment to think about why you decided to do the role you do with your church or organisation. What motivated you to apply or start the work? For me, as a Christian, I do what I do because I want to bring God’s kingdom here on Earth. So when I work with schools, I want to connect everything I do with my faith. At the moment the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils (SMSC) is a big focus in schools. There is an important statement in the Ofsted school inspection handbook, which talks about the role of schools to: “Develop and demonstrate in pupils, skills and attitudes that will allow them to participate fully in and contribute positively to life in modern Britain.” I think this relates well to the purpose of our work in schools. I want to connect with pupils to bring them a touch from heaven, which will help them develop as people and live a fulfilled life and find their purpose.
As schools’ workers, we need to allow God to stir up the dreams he has for our work and our connections. A prayer I often use is from Luke 17:5 where the disciples ask Jesus to “Increase [their] faith”. The word for faith in Greek is ‘pistis’ and literally means ‘confidence in divine truths’. We need to connect with God and his divine truths around our work if we want to see more of his kingdom established.
Develop
How do we develop our connections? Our most important connection is with God and everything we do needs to flow from that. Here are some questions you can reflect on:
- What is your personal time with God like? Does it involve the Bible and prayer?
- Do you meet with others who share your heart for work in schools?
- Do you have supporters who are cheering you on and eager to hear about your work?
If not, put some time and energy into growing these connections in your life. Once you have found them, meet regularly with them, pray for your school(s) with them and prayer walk the areas you work in with them.
I often use Luke 10 as a helpful process to measure my connections with schools. When Jesus sends out the 72, he tells them to linger where they are welcome, to eat and drink with those people, to heal the sick, and to preach the good news to these people.
What does that mean for our work within schools? Firstly, work where you are welcome; it takes time to build relationships with staff in schools, and often key contacts move on and building those relationships has to start all over again. Get to know those at all levels of the school community: ask about their lives and their needs, eat and drink with them, get involved in the life of the school in all sorts of ways. Then after establishing relationships, be involved in praying for the school, be that with Christian staff or students, or offering to pray for people’s needs as appropriate. This could mean running a prayer space in school or meeting needs in more practical ways, always remembering to respect the educational environment and the wishes of the school. Luke 10 ends with the instruction to preach the gospel. In a school, this does not mean to literally ‘preach’ the gospel. Sharing the Christian faith in schools looks different for all of us, but the main message students and staff will get is from how you act in schools and how you treat people. It is about demonstrating the gospel, offering insightful dialogue and discerning where God is at work and then joining in. What stage are you at, and where can you develop connections? You might find it helpful to use a connections audit (an example is provided for you as a download through schoolswork.co.uk).
Do
- When working with students, either one-to-one or in groups, you could use the following activity to help them consider their own connections. You will need to print out a dartboard template and the accompanying cards (previewed below, and available as a download at schoolswork.co.uk).
- Give the connections cards out to the students, which list different connections they have in their lives (eg family, friends, music, their phone, a relationship, school) and ask them to place these cards on the dartboard in relation to which are the strongest connections and which are less important. Ask students to complete this on their own initially (you will need enough for one each). Then ask them to do it in pairs and allow conversation to develop as they learn about each other and put forward their argument as to what they think should go in the centre.
- This activity helps students talk about why certain things are important to them, as well as think about how others’ responses may be different. It builds up their emotional understanding of what is important to them as well as helping you to get to know them better. It works well as part of a long-term mentoring or group work relationship, and can be used for a variety of outcomes as best suits your setting.
