Written by Have you ever had a leader experience loss? How did you respond? Has a leader on your team ever had a surgery or prolonged illness? Was there a celebratory moment like a college or graduate school graduation? Has there been a birth or adoption within your community?
When it comes to caring for our people, we need to practice intentional community and support for them. Often we can default to monetary care, and while that can be a part of caring well, we can and should be thinking about different opportunities to love and support our community. But what are some additional ways to care well during difficult or celebratory moments?
- Send a personal handwritten note or card.
- Pray with and for the individual.
- Visit with them and make sure you have allotted the appropriate amount of time to visit.
- Send flowers and/or balloons.
- Send a gift card to your local supermarket or DoorDash to help provide meals.
- Start a meal train and bring a meal by yourself.
- Encourage your youth group to write cards to the individual.
- Put together a gift basket with contributions from your leaders and/or youth group.
- Help out with any service projects around the home and encourage your students to help with these.
- Check in and see if they need help with childcare or pet sitting.
- Ask families to contribute to any of the above ideas.
These aren’t meant to be a catch all, but instead to challenge us to think creatively when it comes to caring well for our people. We want them to know they are seen, loved, and missed and these are just some options that help us to think outside of our normal ways of doing things.
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