Coaching the Kids

This morning our middle school Bible class studied about being ready when Christ comes again. Tonights class was on what kind of things we could be doing to be ready. The students were given 5 minutes or so to come up with a list.

Most of the lists had the kind of things you might expect… study the Bible, go to church, pray. But one of the students said he wanted to talk to other people more. I love that because he is naturally shy.

I asked them if they had ever walked up to a stranger and introduced themselves and started a conversation. They had not. I practiced with them how they might go about that. Mainly just asking questions and letting the stranger do the talking.

Then I mentioned that greeting visitors at church is very important and asked them who they thought might be the best greeters at church. One said Ricardo Baca and the other said Larry White.

Both those guys are good but I have a list in my head of our best 5 greeters. Three of them are women and two of them are men. I recruit greeters and point out to them people who they need to use their excellent skill set on. Greeting can be taught and coached but some people are naturally gifted at connecting with others. Lauren Underwood.

One characteristic of a good greeter is they naturally make eye contact with others. I asked the class if they have experienced people who walk by them and never make eye contact and act like they don’t know that you even exist. I also asked if they had experienced people who would make eye contact and engage in conversation with them. And what were their feelings about both kinds of people.

I then asked them what group they were in. Eye contact or no eye contact. Smiley face or frowny face.

I told the young man who wanted to talk to more people that I was going to carve out some time for him and coach him to be able to talk to other people and when I thought he was ready I would take the leash off and turn him loose.