Creating Kingdom Citizens

What if I told you the most important thing you can teach your students is not in a textbook?

I believe this is true, though I hold learning in the highest regard. As a teacher, your job is to teach content, striving for academic excellence and robust learning. But that is not your only job.

As a Christian teacher, your job is also to help shape your students to be lovers of God and lovers of others. This can happen through the teaching of academic content, certainly. But you’re also spending up to 180 days with young souls who need to be pointed to Jesus. And you are in a unique position to point them there.

One way that a teacher can lead their students in following Jesus is by giving them opportunities to serve. This might come in in simple, organic ways as you have your eyes open to immediate needs around you.

Did the wind blow the dumpster open, scattering garbage all over the school yard? Take a few minutes as a class to collect the trash.

Did another class play outside in the rain and track mud all over the hallway? Get each of your students to grab a paper towel and clean one section of the hallway.

Do the younger students need help getting their mittens and boots on before going outside in the winter? Have your students help them.  

But you can also give your students opportunities to serve beyond the random, momentary opportunities that will pop up. With a bit of planning and minimal preparation, you can create other ways for your students to be servants.

Here are a few ideas to get your imagination rolling.

Acts of Service

Look into your immediate community for needs that your students can fill. Maybe you can do yard work for the neighbours. Maybe you can go door-to-door or to a retirement home and sing Christmas carols. Maybe you can make artwork for your nursing home aide friend to pass out at her place of work.

Beyond encouraging your students to serve in their local community, you can also look for needs within your church or the churches of your students. Make cards for a shut-in, write thank-you notes to the pastors, or do yard work for the elderly.

On an even smaller scale, don’t neglect to look for regular opportunities around your own school. There may be a maintenance or cleaning task that needs to be performed regularly that is within your students’ abilities to perform. Volunteer to have your class take care of it.

Fundraiser

Another great way to serve is to help your students conduct a fundraiser, then give the money to a good cause. It is so healthy for our students to learn how to work hard for monetary gain, then use that money to help people who are needier than they are.

I’ve heard many stories of teachers who have found creative ways to raise money with their students, such as baking and selling Christmas cookies, selling chocolate bars or soda pop at a profit, making a hot lunch for the school body and charging per meal, or selling hot chocolate on a cold day.

Once you’ve accrued enough money, students especially enjoy getting to have a voice in where the funds go. You could offer a list of ideas and let them vote. Or you could find an organization that lets you purchase things like cows, pigs, chickens, etc. for needy families in underdeveloped countries. Students love hearing about the ways different animals could help to change someone’s life and choosing several to sponsor.

Encouraging Others

Some of my favourite memories from my years as a teacher were what I called “Encouragement Days.” (The title wasn’t all that original, I admit).

I taught sixth grade, so I started by talking to my students about how they are leaders among the elementary students. Then, we worked together to make little cards of encouragement for all the younger students.

I had a few templates for them to choose from, usually with a simple drawing and a punny saying. (For example, a cartoon donut saying, “Donut give up!” or a cute fish saying, “You’re o-fish-ally awesome!”) Each of my students was assigned the names of several students so that all of the children in the younger grades were divvied out. They made a card for each of their assigned students, writing the child’s name at the top and signing it, “Your Secret Encourager.”

This was the part that was especially fun. Children love to be in on a secret, and they love to be sneaky. We attached a small snack to the note, maybe a little baggie of goldfish crackers or a piece of candy. Then, I let my students leave the classroom one at a time to deliver their notes to the younger children’s cubbies. They would come back giggling and glowing, bursting with stories of how they “almost got caught” or had to duck to avoid being seen by someone.

We usually did this at the end of the day, and it was pure delight to watch my students’ faces gleam with barely-concealed satisfaction at the buzz that permeated the school at dismissal as the younger students reacted with shock and wonderment at the secretive packages.

The anonymous nature of this activity was intentional. Needing to be stealthy made the whole experience more memorable and fun, and I also wanted my students to learn something of what it means to do a kind act and not get recognized for it.

Secret Agents of Good

After the highly successful Encouragement Days, one year I decided to come up with another way to capitalize on my students’ delight in secrecy. That’s when I came up with “Secret Agents of Good.” I share this here not because I think you need to do this exact thing, but as one example of how you might use some creativity and out-of-the-box thinking to encourage your students in kind, servant-like behaviour.

I divided my students into two teams and allowed them to come up with a team name (of course, because that’s more fun). For the purposes of this explanation, though, I’ll simply refer to them as Team A and Team B.

In addition, I let each student come up with their own “Secret Agent” name. This was also fun and hilarious, as they ranged from things like “Sneaky Snake” to “Bob.”

Then, each week, I’d assign them a secret mission. These secret missions varied, but were ways they could practice being thoughtful, kind, unselfish, or diligent. They were things like holding doors open, saying please and thank you often, letting others go before them in line, making only encouraging comments while playing sports, double-checking their spelling lists before handing them in—basically areas that I wanted them to work in developing themselves as a person. I’d write that week’s secret mission on pieces of paper and distribute them.

All of Team A was given the same mission, and all of Team B was given the same mission. Their goal was to complete the action as many times as they could throughout the week, recording each instance in a little notebook I had given them. They would receive points for each time they successfully completed the mission. One week, for my own delight and pleasure, I gave both groups the mission of participating extra well during grammar class. I’ve never enjoyed teaching grammar more, and I dare say they had never learned grammar so well.

The other way we made it competitive and fun was that they could also receive points for correctly guessing the other team’s mission. This meant that they had to be sneaky when they were completing their own secret mission so that the other team wouldn’t easily figure it out. And of course, I pointed out to them that the best way to keep the other team from guessing their secret mission was to do lots of other kind and thoughtful things as a decoy.

They loved it. And I loved seeing them delight in doing good while also unconsciously making those actions a more habitual part of their lives.

Church and Community Needs

Don’t neglect letting your students offer suggestions for service. The more ownership they take of these acts of service, the more invested they will be.

Ask them to come up with ideas of how to serve. Perhaps they know someone with cancer, or someone who just experienced a house fire, or someone who just lost a loved one. Brainstorm together how you could bless that person in the unique need they are facing. Your students are creative in ways you as an adult might not be. Use that creativity to bless others in beautiful ways.

We live in a world that is increasingly individualistic and self-centered. As believers, we know that Jesus compels us to serve. But our sinful, selfish hearts get in the way. Our students may need help to think outside of themselves and their own little worlds. But when they are given opportunities to serve, they can start to experience the joy of becoming more like Jesus.