From Spirit Week to Super Special Week
It’s that time of year when grade schools with basketball teams send out THE email to parents: the Spirit Week dress-up days schedule.
Depending on what kind of parent you are, you receive this email with joy or consternation. You revel in wrapping your daughter’s hair around a plastic cup and fistfuls of glitter for Crazy Hair Day….or you silently scream as your teenage son slouches off to school in pajama pants for the fifth day in a row. Being that I have but two costumes in my closet (an orange pumpkin wig for Trunk or Treat parties and a dirndl for our annual Kirchoff Oktoberfest), you probably guess what camp I’m in. (The one who is trying to practice maternal love whilst crawling through the crawl space for a cowboy hat).
I’m not inherently a grinch. I absolutely reveled in Spirit Week myself as a grade schooler, practicing hard-core basketball moves before the big game. At 5’10” in seventh grade, my star shone bright for two years as the high post and center on our grade school team. I camped out under that hoop with a solid gold play: lob pass to Dana, pivot, bunny shot. SCORE!
But through the years, I’ve wondered if there is more to Spirit Week than dress-like-your-teacher day and cross-town basketball rivalries.
Fast forward to the last few months. The Blueprint Schools team has been observing a pattern, and as I talk about that pattern, please hang in there. I promise I’ll come back to Spirit Week in the end.
The pattern is disconnection, and more specifically, the desire for more connection in our school ministries. As schools have grown or stalled or changed, the way we’ve always done ministry shows some cracks. One of those cracks is disconnection. In so many of the ministries we’re serving right now, school teams talk about the following forms of disconnection:
Between congregation members and the life of the school ministry
Between families and the life of the school
Between the community and the life of the school
Between board members and the life of the school
This can show up as a feeling of disconnection, the loss of volunteers, and an inability to make plans and decisions in line with the needs of the school. It shows up as a crisis of vision and confusion of purpose. Quite simply, it shows up as pain.
What gives?
Growing up with a pastor father and teacher mother, marrying a teacher, and counting dozens of friends in ministry, I know that disconnection isn’t a new pain, but it does seem to be a worsening one.
I think there are many reasons that this pain is escalating. I’d like to focus on one reason. For years, the people in the pews were the same people in the school parking lot. We were mostly serving our own. Our members were mostly paying the cost to educate. Our cradle roll was our enrollment pipeline. It was a very simple organization. While there could be rifts, for the most part people were really on the same page. We worked together to serve our own, understood it took offerings to make the budget and volunteers to clean the school. Outreach was mostly evangelism, not marketing.
Now, our schools serve member and nonmember families. Many have transferred to a tuition model. And churches are actively using their schools as outreach arms, marketing included and assumed. A lot has changed. The people in the pews aren’t necessarily in our schools. And the people in our schools aren’t always in our pews, though we are praying for that to happen in faith-based schools everywhere.
One model isn’t better than the other, but I can see how disconnection has naturally happened in a lot of our schools. For now, let’s simply say that a lot has changed. So here’s the million dollar question: what do we do about it?
The answer is one that isn’t easy and requires a lot more time and energy, but all good things do. Like all good things, this is worthy of our investment. The answer is INTENTIONAL CONNECTION BUILDING. If you’re one of the many teachers, early childhood directors, school board chairmen, pastors, principals, or congregation members noticing disconnection in your ministry, the answer is to do something about it. The answer is rarely to wring our hands at the lack of school families in church or shake our fingers at the people who aren’t volunteering anymore. The answer is to take a step back and ask: how can I be more intentional in building connection at our ministry?
Which brings me back to Spirit Week and an idea. No, I’m not banning face paint and sugar-fueled pep rallies, I’m proposing that this is one of the many opportunities we have on our school campuses to build intentional connection.
My idea is called Super Special Week.
It’s time for Spirit Week to celebrate one of the biggest blessings we have on our school campuses: the people who CONNECT and work together to make our schools special places of ministry and education and purpose. School spirit isn’t about glitter and cross-town rivalries; school spirit is about our SCHOOLS and the people who make Christian education possible.
What if each day of Spirit Week Super Special Week we had a dress up day AND celebrated the five groups of people that made our school SUPER SPECIAL? I propose that we kick-off or end each day with a short, 20-minute assembly
Monday: Our Community - invite in a special member of the community to honor and thank. Recognize a policeman, firewoman, or city council member for making your community a better place for your school. Give them an honorary t-shirt or jersey. Invite them to give a short speech about your community. Another option is to use this day to do some form of community service or volunteerism.
Tuesday: Our Church - invite your pastors, board of education, church council, and any committee to your school assembly. Have every group take turns standing as students read notes of thanks to each committee or board.
Wednesday: Our Families - use this time to recognize your parent volunteers! Again, have them stand in front of your student body and list off all the things your family volunteers do to keep your school running. Make them a special breakfast to eat afterwards.
Thursday: Our Faculty & Staff - invite your board of education to recognize your faculty and staff. Use this as a mini-teacher appreciate day (who says we can only have one day in May!?!). Have a teacher share their story of getting into the educational ministry.
Friday: Our Students - honor students who have displayed extraordinary school spirit. Have the principal give a short message of what it means to work in the body of Christ, to do ministry together, or to “one another,” all motivated by the love of Jesus who is the reason for all of it.
BONUS: For schools that have gone through the brand message process with Blueprint Schools, use these school assemblies to reinforce your brand pillars: your unique Christian component, culture component, and educational component. Weave your brand message into every assembly with all these groups to reinforce your identity, the heart of your school spirit.
So many times I hear principal and teachers and board of education chairman speak passionately about their schools. One of the things they say again and again?
“Our school, it’s just a super special place.”
I know every single one of them is telling the truth. It’s time to lean into this truth by looking at everything we do, from the admissions process to yes, glitter-infested spirit week, as opportunities to build connection.
Because the people serving their Savior together are what make our schools super special.
Reflection to Build Connection
Before planning your next Spirit Week—or Fall Festival, Grandparents Day, or Auction—pause and ask: are we simply executing a tradition…or are we building intentional connection?
Use these questions to guide your conversation:
What long-standing traditions at our school are primarily event-focused rather than connection-focused?
Who feels most connected through this event? Who might feel left out, invisible, or unsure of their place?
How often do congregation members meaningfully experience the life of the school?
Are there traditions that could intentionally highlight the partnership between church and school?
Where could we more clearly show how the prayers, support, and service of our congregation bless students each day—and express our gratitude?
If someone attended this event for the first time, would they better understand the heart and mission of our school?
Intentional connection doesn’t happen by accident. At Blueprint Schools, we help school ministries clarify their Gospel-centered identity and build stronger partnerships across church, school, and community. If you’re ready to take a next step, schedule a consultation. It’s one of our favorite ways to partner with schools like yours.
