posted by Scott Rubin

Some of your churches are like mine, and you encourage some of your volunteers to “take a breath” during the summer months. We push the pause button on our small groups in June & July so that our faithful volunteers can vacation, rest, and be ready to jump back into investing in junior highers once the school year begins. Honestly, our ministry is less effective during those months, and I miss those volunteers like crazy, but for us it’s the best choice in the long run. (and, it probably explains why so many of our volunteers have stuck around for years & years!)

So last week, I was anticipating the “re-arrival” of our school year volunteers. I said to our staff team, “Who’s one person that you’re really really looking forward to serving alongside of this year?” It was fun to hear people’s answers… and look forward to this fun we’re going to have together this year, as we point middle schoolers towards Jesus.

Later that day, I decided to take 4 minutes & jot a note to one of those volunteers… and tell them how much they’re valued around here – and why.
It’s a habit I’m trying to “re-create” – because honestly, I’ve gotten a little sloppy with it! (Which is crazy, because when I get an encouragement note, sometimes I’ll carry it around with me for a few days!) Thoughtful words are really meaningful to me — and in about 4 minutes, I can put some fuel in someone’s tank just by jotting them a snail-mail note. In a mailbox full of credit card offers and cable-tv-advertisements, a card from you would be a welcome site!

This past Sunday I visited one of our regional campuses to see their youth ministry in action. It’s something I try to find time to do on a semi-regular basis but in reality don’t end up doing as often as I would like, mostly because all three of our regional campuses are lead by incredible youth Pastors who don’t need me looking over their shoulders.

I was reminded of the power of healthy leadership yesterday when visiting our Irvine campus led by Leo Galarza. What I saw Sunday was really encouraging: The ministry recently split JH and HS into two separate groups and each is growing since the split, both bands were led by student leaders, volunteers were EVERYWHERE….teaching, running audio, greeting students, setting up and tearing down.

The whole thing was quite impressive, actually. And it was all because of Leo. but here’s the twist: Leo was nowhere to be found…in fact due to some family issues, Leo has been out of the country for almost THREE months!

Make no mistake, Leo is a strong leader and his presence is greatly missed….but his strength as a leader has been proven NOT by the fact that his presence is missed but by the fact that even though their leader is missed, nothing else about the youth ministry is missing at all!

For you to ponder:

- when you are going to be gone, how much work does it take for you to prepare everybody for your absence? The more you equip and empower others day-to-day, the more easily they can fill gaps left when you are away.

-

Some of us call it junior high ministry… some call it middle school ministry… some have 6-8th grades… some 7-8th grades… in our ministry, we have 7-9th graders.  I know, it’s weird, but I love it!  I love having students for three full years and I LOVE the depth and maturity my 9th graders bring to our ministry.

As much as I love it, with any three-year program, and I would argue even two year programs, it’s a challenge to keep that “top grade” engaged and fed.  Year after year, right around January, I hear statements like this from my top grade students:

–> “The seventh graders are so immature.”

–> “I don’t like the games we do.”

–> “I feel like you’re teaching to the 7th graders, not us.”

–> “I already know all this stuff.”

I’m not kidding, it’s the SAME comments EVERY year.  Even though we have a specified doctrinal class (year-long) for ninth graders only– even though I use Greek and Hebrew in my teaching– even though we engage 9th graders in leadership.  My initial response, if I’m honest, is to be annoyed, personally hurt, or indifferent.

This last year, however, my volunteer staff and I decided to take a different approach.

1) We were proactive: On our 8th grade retreat (just two months before they officially became 9th graders in our ministry), we had a straight forward conversation about the tendencies of 9th graders.  We challenged our incoming 9th graders to be different– to sit in the front row, rather than the back.  To engage the 7th graders and mentor them rather than ignore them.  To understand that we all need to be life-long learners & there is always something they can learn from the teaching.

2) We asked questions: One of the first weeks in January, we asked the 9th graders to stay after for ten minutes following our mid-week program.  We acknowledged, right off the bat, that they probably had noticed some differences between them and the 7th graders– they all laughed.  We said, “We want to honor you guys as our 9th graders– what are some things we could do that would help you to feel ministered to?”  They had some great ideas!

3) We listened AND responded to their ideas: For the remaining months, we chose one week to pull the 9th graders out half way through our mid-week program and go deeper into the topic.  During our “Love Spectrum” month for instance, we had 9th grade-only conversations about sexual pressures & temptations– a conversation we would have had to be more conservative about if 7th graders were in the room.  We also set up a couple 9th grade duos to coordinate the games for our mid-week program.

4) We created an event just for them: Last week, we held the inaugural “9th Grade Formal Dinner Cruise” on Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota’s finest and largest lakes (we have nearly 14,000 lakes! .  We gathered a group of 9th graders a month before the event and asked them to design the night’s program.  We marketed it as a 9th grade only event– “You have the opportunity to do something we’ve never done before!”  The response was amazing!  Girls found after-prom dresses at Macy’s for $23 and guys borrowed jackets and ties from their dads.  We met an hour before hand and took great pictures– most same gender, trying to promote the idea of it being a 9th grade event, not a date night.  Then, we cruised for three hours, enjoying food, mingling, and the “Red Carpet” theme.

From talking to many middle school ministers, I know this is a challenge for everyone– whether your top grade is 8th or 9th.  Much of it is developmental, I believe, but there are things you can do to engage them and honor them.  Trust me, it’s worth the time and effort!

I went to Caribou Coffee yesterday, drank no coffee, and still left with a bunch of energy!

I met up with a great middle school pastor named Dugan, just to “talk shop” about jr. high ministry. He serves at a church just less than an hour away, and I’ve known him for a few years.  We just talked about some of the Big Challenges that we’re trying to tackle as the school year launches. There was no white-board, no big strategy flow chart, nothing fancy. But we ran ideas past each other – and it was super-helpful! We laughed about how middle-schoolers are one of the toughest audiences to teach… and how we love to give it our best shot. We talked about retreats, and small groups, and web sites.

And – as is usually the case in a conversation like this – there was one really helpful take-away for me. Dugan’s realized that jr. high girls have different types of conversations in small groups than jr. high boys do. (Did I mention that he’s a genius?) But more than just “realizing”, he’s trying to do something about it. So he shared with me his idea of structuring the boys’ small groups a little differently than the girls’ groups. Great thoughts, great ideas! Will it work? Definitely…Maybe! But for me, the important part was that I left the coffee shop challenged to think about that dimension of my ministry in a fresh way. And it gave me an idea or 2 of my own that I’m going to experiment with… ideas that I didn’t have yesterday morning.

Just wondering — would it help you to set up a caffeinated conversation with someone in middle school ministry near you? Maybe!

This is the first book I have written (co-authored with my friend, Tim Levert) that isn’t solely focused on junior high ministry. That, combined with the fact that much of the content was dictated by the results of the study, made it an interesting project for me.

If Youth ministry 2.0 is where we used to be, and youth ministry 3.0 is where we may be heading someday, then I think this book is an excellent resource for the current state of youth ministry in the local church.

Check it out here.

When I think of all the things I do throughout an “average” day of ministry, there are things that energize me and things that suck energy right out of me.  When I first started in ministry, I did a fantastic job of avoiding those energy-sucking things.  Budgets, van reservations, calendar descriptions, and vision-planning meetings got pushed off so I could hang out with students and until my boss had sent me the second email reminder.  I ended up creating more stress and more work for myself– and became even more bitter toward all those elements of my job.

I don’t want you to think I have been healed of my administrative/non-gifting avoidance disease, but I have figured out some practical steps to keep me sane… and employed.

* Get rid of the monster: If I have something non-fun or conflict oriented that I must do, I do it within the first hour of being in my office.  I get rid of that big, looming monster so I can move on to more life-giving things.

* Administer the positive pep-talk: As I am going over the mission trip contributions or editing my summer camp manual, I say to myself (usually out loud) “This is all for the kids!  Because you’re doing this, it’s going to be a better experience for the kids!”  It may sound cheesy, but it works for me– I remind myself that it all blesses the kids in the end.

* Get out of the office: Many of us could be busy in our offices for days at a time– it takes being intentional to break out of that administrative grind and be with kids.  As I look at my weeks, I make sure there are multiple one-on-ones with students, football games, musicals or lunches in school cafeterias.  Even if it’s just a couple hours away, it refreshes my spirit and enables me to do the stuff that doesn’t.

* Surround yourself with people who ARE energized by the things you’re not: I don’t know what I would do without Amy’s efficiency with Excel spreadsheets!  I love to see how Rick is energized by correcting essays for our 9th grade doctrinal class!  It’s the Body Of Christ 101– God created us to be energized by our gifts– let people use their gifts and learn from them!

If I lived in a perfect ministry world, I would spend all my days floating on the Lazy River with kids at the water park, cheering at hockey games, and enjoying Coldstone with a struggling kid… but ministry is more than just those things and I want to be a well-rounded minister!

MAN, I NEED VOLUNTEERS!

For the past couple weeks, I have noticed more and more that my service seems like “The Jared Show.” I preach, I run games, I give the announcements.  I would probably also lead the music, if I wasn’t afraid my singing would turn students away from Jesus!   I have always known that volunteers were important, I was one for years, but now the importance of adult volunteers is really hitting home for me. I have come into this new position of middle school pastor, and as I’m learning a new church, two things have really hit me about volunteers.

One, you can never have enough.  Finding more volunteers and learning more about the ones I already have is going to determine the effectiveness of my youth ministry in the first year. I’ll be the first one to admit that this is hard. I love students; that’s why I’m doing youth ministry, but I need adult volunteers if I hope to have a youth ministry larger than ten.  I need caring adults to help make my weekend service run; I need small group leaders to help grow a healthy ministry where students are known. I just need a team that I can rely on and empower to do more than I could ever do on my own. The plan is already in place to recruit more and work is being done to get to know better the adults who have already been serving at my new church. If you’re not in the season of recruiting more leaders I urge you to do it. Its hard and sometimes painful but well worth it because the second thing I have been learning about volunteers is that amazing, Godly adult volunteers are the backbone, hands, feet and really every other body part of a healthy youth ministry. I’m reminded of this point whenever I get to observe one of my volunteers being used by God. Whatever it might be, as volunteers are being used in the areas of their giftedness, God is given the glory. I’m trying to think of ways to better use, encourage, and grow the few volunteers I have and trusting God to multiply my workforce. I need more but I also need to use what I have to the best ability right now.  Last week I had my first “design team meeting” where I had some adults and high school students come to the office to help me come up with ideas for our next series. I think it went well and I think they enjoyed being able to speak into to vision for the services. Plus, we had a great time laughing at some of the more ridiculous ideas…like having Alex Ovechkin (hockey player and hometown hero in the DC area)  show up to a service just for shock value.  I also took a risk and allowed one of my college age volunteers run a game this weekend.   He did a great job, and it was nice to NOT be on stage for a few minutes.

If you aren’t recruiting volunteers I would encourage you to do so now, before the fall hits. As summer winds down and the school year starts, this is a great time to ask people to volunteer for your ministry. Promise to support them and do your best to train them, but don’t be afraid to ask them to help. If you have volunteers, spend this last month of summer getting to know them better and helping them to do even better ministry.

I know I need to do both!

The High Slug
A few weeks ago, I made a rookie mistake. I’m not a big fan of Lock-ins/All-nighters, but I’m new to my church, and I thought it was a good way to get to know lots of students in a short period of time. The Sr Hi lockin was awesome: the adults were on point, the schedule went off without a hitch, and the Sr Hi students rolled through 12 hours of bowling, skating, rock-climbing, and Full Throttle energy drinks.

The Jr Hi lockin was an Entirely. Different. Story. The adults were on point, the schedule was going off without a hitch, but the students started melting down just a tad after midnight. The boys wouldn’t stop punching each other, the girls were catty, and nothing we did was stopping the derailment. The difference in the two groups (and the mistake I made): I forgot about puberty.

In case you haven’t noticed, Jr Hi students don’t quite have the same stamina as Sr Hi students. And they can’t help it! Even the early bloomers are at a disadvantage: their lungs and hearts are smaller, their brains haven’t really begun to develop “rational decision-making” wrinkles, and their emotional intelligence is too low to measure. I’m not being rude, I’m just talking science. Here are a few things we can do to recognize the biological uniqueness of Jr Hi students:

1. Think about your schedule. Sr Hi students can deal with conversations that last until 3AM and still manage a 7AM breakfast. Jr Hi students – not so much. Maybe for one day. Or even two. But if you’re planning to end your camp with a late-night Thursday movie night, don’t plan an early morning devotion on Friday. Before you finalize your event schedule, give serious thought to the stamina level of Jr Hi students.

2. Think about your meals. I like pizza as much as anyone, and Coco-puffs are awesome for a quick breakfast (and for blowing out of your nostril), but I’m not counting on either for nutritional value. Once again, planning one or two meals for convenience isn’t going to ruin your Jr Hi students, but feeding them a week’s worth of junk food will affect their energy and behavior. When you’re planning your menu, balance cost with nutrition when you’re planning for Jr Hi students.

3. Think about your adults. Let’s be honest, some of our adult staff “get it,” and some don’t. When it comes to spending a few days with tired Jr Hi students, make sure you’re choosing adults who genuinely care for and appreciate the nuances of working with Jr Hi students.

We can’t rush puberty, but we can tweak our planning to accommodate the developmental issues of early adolescence.

Keep loving students-
Tim

Posted by Kurt Johnston

I am so excited to finally be able to announce that the first year of the LIVE small group curriculum for junior high students is all online and ready to roll!  As you prepare for a new school year of small groups, I hope you will consider investing in the LIVE curriculum.

It has been a long time since I have been this excited about a new resource…and I can’t wait for our small groups to start using it.  Check it out here, I think it may be a good fit for your ministry, too.