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Question for the Community: Ceremony for Graduating Seniors

by Seth Bartlette
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
All, Blog
3 comments

We’re counting on you to help us answer this question from a fellow youth-worker:

I am planning our first ever "Graduating Seniors" dinner and would like to do something special to honor them. Ideally, I’d like to plan something that helps them transition from high school to adulthood. I would ask our leaders to say something amazing & life-changing to the students, but then I would like to do some sort of ceremony. I'm sure someone else has done an epic job with this, and rather than spend hours/days trying to figure out something to do, I'd rather steal someone else's brilliant idea. Any thoughts?

Time to weigh in with your thoughts, YMG Team. Help Jake by commenting below. Thanks!

Tags:Question for the Community

3 comments

1
SuzieSaturday, July 14, 2012 11:01 AM
I have not done a dinner. Of course we would hope that our ministries are preparing them for this transition over the years. Some books that would be great gifts are "99 thoughts for college age people" "Creative times with God" "Live large be different shine bright" I think giving them one or all of these books would be something you can do as part of the ceremony. I like the idea of doing a dark, candle lit, prayerful ceremony commissioning them into adulthood. Maybe appoint an adult mentor at this time who will be there for them during at least their first year out of high school. (even if they mentor from afar)
2
KathyMonday, July 16, 2012 12:08 PM
Our church buys each graduating senior a bible engraved with their name on it, which all the youth leaders and prayer moms sign with some kind of encouragement, memory or scripture. We bring them up in front of the church and have the pastor pray over them during our third service. After service is over, we go to someones house for lunch, then after lunch we present them with their bibles, have them share their favorite youth group memory and then whatever youth leader wants to share something shares a memory or what areas we've seen them grow in and remind them about what they've overcome during the last 4-7 years (a lot of our kids have been around since 6th grade). It's a really great day, for them and for us!
3
AllisonMonday, July 16, 2012 12:37 PM
We recognize them in our services, but then we also have a lunch after our last service on Sunday morning for the entire congregation where we celebrate the grads. We give them a nice study Bible and a book that I think is appropriate (This year it was "Not A Fan" and last year it was "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" - I can't remember back any farther!) We do a massive video with their little kids pictures up through current youth group videos that we give them all a couple of copies of. I try to describe the tone of the specific class to the congregation and then brag on and challenge each one individually. We then do an open mic in the room for encouragement and advice and close in prayer. Some years I have had the important adults in their lives write them letters and have made albums for each student, but that really depends on the size of the class and the amount of volunteers willing to help to assemble them. This event takes some planning, but our graduating class is usually between 8 - 15 students, so it's still manageable for our youth ministry.