It’s August! This third and final blog is full of resources for commissioning and blessing students as they pack up their backpacks and head into another year of learning and growing.
While we certainly hope you use this “back to school Sunday” to recognize the vocational calling of students, our deep hope is that this message is one that carries through the year beyond the first day jitters. Included in this blog are ideas for this week, and others to come.
Blessings of the Backpacks
Many churches have started to practice a “blessing of the backpacks” before a new school year. Students of all ages bring their backpacks into church and wear them as they come forward for a time of prayer. Some members might put a pin with words of encouragement on the children’s backpacks. Some have luggage tags or stickers ready to hand out.
This isn’t merely a “cute” moment, it can also be a thick and meaningful practice for all who are present. The backpacks are a visual reminder of the work that these students will do on a daily basis. They are called to learn, study, memorize, and engage God’s world. The backpacks can also become an embodied reminder whereby students remember this blessing every time they throw the pack over their shoulder. Here are several ideas for backpack blessings.
Blessing of the Backpacks (by Meg Jenista Kuykendall)
*This is especially appropriate at the beginning of a new school year, inviting all students and teachers to bring their backpacks. It is also a good opportunity to invite all members of the congregation to bring their briefcases, computer bags, purses and diaper bags, whatever they use to bring the stuff of work with them. You may consider providing a pin, a key chain or some other reminder that people can put on their bags to take with them.*
Older voice: At the start of a new school year, we think of all that God is calling us to make.
Young voice: Making our lunch and making it to the bus stop on time. Making friends and making the team. Making art, music, math equations and computer code.
All voices: May God the Father guide our making
Young voice: We think, with excitement and fear, of all the work ahead in this new school year.
Older voice: Administration, janitorial staff, teachers, social workers, counselors, cafeteria workers, crossing guards, safety ofDcers, classroom aides, and volunteers all work to keep our students safe, healthy, learning, and Eourishing.
All voices: May God the Son our working bless
Older voice: At the start of a new school year, we pray that God will use us to share Jesus’ love
Young voice: With the friends we already have, with new kids too and even with our teachers and staff. Help us not to bully others and to stand up for those who are littler than us. Make us excited to learn about everything in the whole world, which You made and You love. Make us brave, give us wisdom and help us to be kind.
All voices: May God the Spirit lead us into righteousness.
Simple Backpack Blessings
You can offer a simple prayer and blessing over the backpacks and students:
God bless these backpacks and those who wear them
May they have the tools they need to work
May they have the minds they need to study, hands to create, hearts to serve
Fill them with your goodness, carry them with your strength
Bless them in this school year that they may grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ. Amen
If you’re up to the challenge, write and lead a prayer based on the contents of a backpack:
God bless these backpacks and those who wear them
May these notebooks and computers be filled with curiosities about your world
May the calculators show them something of your order and rightness
May the erasers remind them of your grace and forgiveness
May the lunchboxes feed and nourish both body and soul
Bless these backpacks and those who wear them. Amen.
Back to School Liturgy (written by Edwin Clark)
Charge to the Parents
Leader – Parents may the Holy Spirit remind you that as covenant partners,
our faith community is here for you and your children.
As you send them to be molded and shaped in knowledge,
may you remember they are gifts from God.
Know that God’s blessing is with you to help them reach their potential
because they are made in the image of God.
As you prepare clothes, lunches, and backpacks.
People – May you be filled with peace.
Leader – As you challenge and encourage them to grow.
People – May you have perseverance and marvel at God’s new work in the world.
Commissioning of Teachers/Professor
Leader – Educators, may God’s blessing, protection, and Spirit be upon you as you guide,
lead, serve, and even comfort students. You have been called by God to be ambassadors for
Christ, living out God’s love in your daily work. As you educate God’s children of all ages
People – May you be filled with mercy and wisdom.
Leader – As you encounter challenging situations and challenging students,
People – May you love and serve as Christ, in the strength of the Spirit.
ALL – We will.
Blessing to Students
Leader – Students, may God surround you with blessings and protection as you carry these
backpacks for this new school year. As you carry notes, books, and assignments,
know that you also carry the love of Christ to see everyone around you as someone loved by God.
People – May you be filled with God’s grace.
Leader – As you grow in wisdom and knowledge
People – May you grow in compassion.
ALL – We will. AMEN
Blessing of School Supplies and Backpack
O God, we are grateful for your created goodness. As we gather rulers, pens, crayons, notebooks, and backpacks, bless these tools to help us grow in faith and service to you and to others. Fill these backpacks with wisdom as they are filled with books, lunches, hopes, dreams, as well as the worries and brokenness we bring from home. May these gifts remind our students, parents, and even us that we love them because you first loved us. And Lord, thank you for the energy and passion of the educators here today. Fill them with your Spirit that they might be wise in their preparation, strengthened in their difficult days, energized in their moments of success, and prayerful in their daily encounters with those with whom you have entrusted them. Bless O God these students and these educators that they might grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Back to School Prayer (written by Kevin Adams)
We pray for teachers: give them creativity, energy, and encouragement. Guard their health and provide for their needs. Help them to know that their acts of humility and compassion are valuable in your kingdom.
Lord, in your mercy:
Lord, in your mercy:
Lord, in your mercy:
In the Name of Jesus:
Ten Commandments for Back to School
God has promised to be with us no matter where we go. God loves us and God wants the absolute best for us. That is why God gave us the Bible and gave us the 10 commandments! They are not rules that are supposed to make us feel bad about ourselves all the time, they are given to us from God because he loves us so much, he wants us to do what is right. Responsively, we remember the 10 commandments for our school year.
#1- God is God
even at school!
#2- God is more important than anything
even grades or friends
#3- Always say God’s name respectfully
#4- Don’t get too busy for church
#5- Speak to those in authority with respect.
parents, teachers, bus drivers and principals
#6- Don’t hurt anyone
watch where you sling your backpack and look out for the younger kids
#7- Be a loyal friend
respecting your body and other people’s bodies too.
#8- Do not steal
not taking people’s stuff, copying their homework or looking at their answers on a test.
#9- Don’t tell lies about other people
either to get them in trouble or make yourself look good
#10- Don’t get jealous of what others have or what they can do
We want to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Beyond August
How might we take this August ritual and turn it into a creative year-round way of blessing the whole congregation in their daily work? Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- After “backpack Sunday”, invite the adults in the congregation to bring their bags to church the next week – diaper bags, laptop bags, tool belts, feed bags, medical kits, lunch bags. Say a prayer and a word of blessing over all the bags and those who wear them. The children have led the way for them.
- As part of a children’s message, have a couple of the adults open their bags and show the kids what is inside. Have them talk about how God equipped them that week to do their work. Have them ask the children how God was with them in their week of learning and growing. Pray together that God would continue to bless the work of our hands.
- Invite children to bring their bags back into church with special projects they made, papers they wrote, worksheets completed. Designate an intentional space in the sanctuary where they bring their work forward during the congregational offering time and hang it up as their offering. When you say a prayer for the monetary offering, include a short prayer for the creative offering of your workers of all ages.
On mission
Education and studies in all shapes and forms are not a necessary evil – something mandated by the state or by the parents. They are not simply a rite of passage. We were created by God to learn, grow, discover, and play. Part of bearing God’s image is wonder and imagination. When these students walk into their classroom each day, they enter as priests and priestesses of the parish God has equipped them to serve. They serve through algebraic equations, beginner band, understanding grammar and sentence structure, world history, and so much more. Once a year, we can seize the opportunity to remind these precious students of the value and goodness of their calling to be learners in God’s world. We certainly hope that happens more than once, but here is a formative opportunity to send students “back to school” through the lens of “back to mission.”
- Hang a “mission map” of your local city. Put pins in the map for each school represented in your church. This simple visual helps children of all ages see their place in the mission of God as they grow and learn.
- Regularly invite students to bring the work of their hands as their offering to God. It could be a favorite art project, or a well-written paper, a good grade, or a certificate. This is their offering of praise.
Liturgy for Children Offering Their Work (written by Susan Goforth)
God, in the beginning, You created.
And we are made to be like You
You are generous to give us all that You created.
And we are made to be like You
Jesus, You welcome the work of our hands
And we made it for You!
Invite the children to come and place their creations at the altar.
Creator God, Bless these gifts and all the work that we, your children do. We offer it up to you and say thank you. We ask that you bless it and bless our hands that we might continue to do what you have called us to do. Amen.
