10 Tips for Life-Changing Student Meetings

School Culture

Through relationships, the Kingdom is built, the human heart flourishes, and earth begins to look more like heaven! Therefore, it should be our goal as school leaders that every student would feel known and loved. As we pursue strong relational connection with our students, we can rest assured that we are fulfilling our call to love and to reflect the nature of the Father in our school communities.

Bill Johnson once said that while many people come to our school of supernatural ministry for the miraculous, most stay for the culture. Your school’s environment is a reflection of the culture you build with the students in your school. To love them well is, without question, the primary goal and key to success. Here are ten tips to help you have one-on-one student meetings that will cultivate connection and foster a revival culture.

10 Tips for Life-Changing Student Meetings

1. Show Up. When you show up for a meeting with your student, make sure you bring yourself! Be fully present and bring your best to the table by coming to student meetings awake, alert, and ready to connect.

2. Create a Safe Place. One of the most important things to remember in a student meeting (especially in the early stages of connection) is to make sure he/she feels safe. Sometimes, you can get through a whole meeting and feel like you got nowhere simply because your student doesn’t feel safe to share with you. Help put your student at ease by becoming aware of his/her body language, taking authority over anxiety in the room, and leading with kindness.

3. Listen. This may seem obvious, but it’s really important to listen to your student. Be a great listener by not thinking about what you’re going to say next and allowing your student to speak freely. Remember, the goal is that the student would feel known, not you. Listen without distraction—it’s always a great idea to turn your phone off. Give your life away by giving your student your undivided attention and you will see great fruit in his/her life.

4. Make Eye Contact. We are humans and we were made to look at each other in the eyes. Give your students the gift of your eye contact to help them feel seen and known. This is a real trust-builder. You’d be amazed at what a powerful gift eye-contact can be for those who have histories of relational brokenness. Let Jesus (who lives inside of you) look into the eyes of your students with great love and compassion!

5. Ask Good Questions. Become a genius question-asker! Good questions are like doorways into the heart of your student where you can see the Holy Spirit enter in and minister great love and truth. Here are some great questions to start with: What do you love? What’s your dream? What scares you? What breakthrough are you contending for? What’s your family like? How’s your relationship with your parents?

6. Follow Holy Spirit. Always follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is the great Counselor, Comforter, and Friend we all need. None of this is possible without Him, and everything is possible with Him! Your job is not to fix your student, but to let Holy Spirit bring the breakthrough he/she needs. He will show you when to listen, when to ask a question, when to give counsel, when to pray for deliverance, etc. What a joyful journey it is to follow Him! Simply trust and obey.

7. Know Your Strengths. How has God uniquely gifted you? Do you have a gift of counsel and wisdom on your life? Do you carry deliverance and breakthrough? Are you gifted with compassion and empathy? Know what God has given you and play on your strengths. In the same way, know your weaknesses and discern the proper moments when it might be best to refer your student to someone more qualified to help him/her in an area of need.

8. Govern Your Boundaries. It is really important that you understand how to manage yourself and govern your boundaries as you meet with students. It is your job as a leader to lead your school with transparency and honesty. However, a one-on-one student meeting is an opportunity for the student to be vulnerable with you, not the other way around. Follow Holy Spirit closely in this area and set up your student for great success by making the meeting about him/her.

9. Minister Powerfully. Don’t hold back in this area. You are a revivalist, a world-changer, filled with the Holy Ghost, and have been given authority to see heaven invade the lives of your students. Declare breakthrough, prophesy, pray, and encourage the hell (literally!) out of your students. This is where things get fun!

10. Follow Up.  After a meeting with your students, we encourage you to follow up them. Continue to walk alongside them and let your relationship develop over time. Challenge them, encourage them, advise them—be the kind of mentor to them that you would want to have in your own life. Lastly, remember these relationships are the backbone for what is going to bring mass revival to our planet!

May you be abundantly blessed as you and your students encounter God together and build a culture that sustains revival!

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