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Deepening Relationships at End-of-Class Party
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Deepening Relationships at End-of-Class Party
One of our teens is finishing up a Creative Writing class as the school year ends. It’s been a pretty cool experience. We had an idea to have an end-of-class experience, partly because we want to see if the relationships and friendships could continue through the summer and beyond.
When it comes to Kingdom thinking, relationships are important not just because they are fun or essential for health — though they are. They are important because community is essential to manifesting the presence of Jesus (Eph 4:11-16) and brining God’s will into the world (Mat 18:19). In the case of a creative writing class, without continued relationship, much of the self expression and creativity explored — and the revelation of God-in-us that this can represent — will shrink and wither without the continued watering of encouragement and friendship.
So how can we be intentional during our end of class party to build relationship?
First, we sat down as a family and used The Journey Map to discern the relational position of the class. Although most class setings are designed for the forth position — “Growth Journey” — with cycles of skill building, their institutional context means we don’t arrive in the classroom with a complete feeling of relational Belonging (positions 2 and 3). You might make an acquaintance or two in class if theirs a lot of interaction, but becoming friends usually happens outside of class time. Thinking back to my school days, a person might come to my attention in class, but we became friends at lunch and recess. This shows that we have to add less-directed relational space to class-like settings (here me know churches) in order to create Belonging and friendship.
Using The Journey Map, we discerned that the relationships from creative writing are still in the Story Zone: that is we are still hearing about aspiration and situation, potential and pain. The beginning of Belonging is when people feel seen in the tension of who they want to be and what they want in life and the challenge of this becoming a reality.
To “prime the pump” we’re going to have a discussion at the party where we ask everyone, “What did you learn about yourself during Creative Writing?” Once each person shares, the floor will be open for other people to relate or connect to what was said.
Our family is going to intentionally “take notes” since each person’s answer is an opportunity to see they and connect with them further to build relationship. We’ll follow up with ICNUs (I see in you-s) over the next few weeks and see if that begins to nourish friendship and community.
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2 Replies
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@bopbop made a suggested follow-up questions that we could put on the group text: “What kind of blocks do you encounter as you write?”
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This is really encouraging. I think I’m going to try this out for my end-of class party.
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