Guide To Bringing Friends to St. John’s

Here are the typical ways 6-8th graders, new to St. John’s, can get involved.  We love for you to want to bring your friend(s) and we want to make their involvement meaningful and long-lasting!

Worship:  Of course worship is one of the best ways to invite a friend.  Show up anytime, to any service and experience the life of the congregation.  No registration, little commitment,  and a great way to see St. John’s people of all-ages.

Genesis:  Specifically for 6-8th graders this is definately the best place to bring friends from sleepovers, etc.  There is no registration so bring a friend anytime and with a 10:30am start time you get to sleep in!  Friends are invited to come any and all times but you may want to make sure your friend understands that we do open the Bible, pray and talk about God.  (and that it’s awesome)

iWORD:  This option is not as good as the last two since we really do expect participants to read the verses being talked about ahead of time.  Since we also build upon previous weeks’ discussion this can also make it difficult for friends to feel comfortable and participate.  However, we will never turn a friend away who wants to talk about God and listen to others.  Since the group is very casual on Sundays we can accomodate friends more easily than on Wednesdays but again, understand that your friend may not get the most out of iWORD than they would Genesis or worship. 

Thrive:  The best way we can describe the process of bringing friends to Thrive is to compare it to other activities you may be a part of.  Think of groups like football, softball, band, theatrical play, dance class, etc.  The goal of Thrive is to really, really, really get to know the other people in the group AND get closer to God.  Thrive is not a drop-in kind of program.  If you brought a friend to your baseball practice or game, your band practice at school or your dance class they probably wouldn’t get to practice or play right away because your band leader, coach or instructor has a process to take on new people.  They are trying to build a team and accomplish a goal and new people can be great but they can also cause some issues for the team or group.  We want you to talk to your friend before just bringing them to a night of Thrive.  Ask yourself do you want your friend to just hang out with you at church OR do you really want them to be a part of your group?  What we want to see is the latter, we want your friend to want to think about actually joining the group.  We want to avoid problems that have happened in the past and kids in a group don’t talk as openly when new people just show up.  St. John’s kids who bring friends often just want to look cool for their friend and that causes problems.  Worst yet are second Wednesdays because for legal reasons we absolutlely can’t take your friend across town without a parent filling out all the paperwork.  We really want your friend to commit to Thrive, not just come every so often.  We want you to commit to your group, not just show up every so often as well.  So, talk to your friend about joining Thrive and they will see it was worth it!  Here’s the process…

1. Talk to Your Friend About Joining and Talk to a Guide as well. ->
2. Have a Parent or Your Guide Talk To Cheryl Park ->
3. Cheryl Will Contact Your Friend’s Parent(s) and Meet With Them and Your Friend ->
4. They’re IN and officially a part of your small group not just a visitor!

Sometimes Cheryl can meet with a new family the same night they start Thrive.  Often the family meets with Cheryl the week before and the meeting helps us to welcome your friend and their family, better explain the whole program, how it works, what is expected, what are the benefits and they can get their Bible and t-shirt.  This way works great!  Other ways don’t work well – we know, we’ve been doing this for over 10 years.  Our Guides have told us this time and time again that “surprise” friends end up causing more problems that night and we often don’t see the friend again.  That’s not good for Thrive, your group and especially your friend.  Just like a lot of other activities you might be part of, we know that asking for a commitment brings great results!  Trust us. 

Other Possibilities:  Special events (like Festival of Faith), Camps, Retreats and other Junior High events.