Many youth workers approach junior high ministry with a sense of fear or even reluctance. One youth pastor I met confessed, “I can handle high schoolers, I can even handle kid’s ministry if I had to, but junior highers don’t make any sense to me! I’m terrified of them!”
Fear of the unknown
has a way of paralyzing people. In 1908, people were fearful of just the
thought of driving an automobile at high speeds of 55-65 MPH. It was thought
that your head would be blown off at such a speed. The speed limit at that time
was 20 MPH on a freeway and 8 MPH within city limits.
A change of
perspective is in order if we’re ever going to move away from a paralyzing fear
of junior high ministry. Rick Warren, Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church,
stated that, “anyone who works in the church should know that junior high may
be the single most pivotal period for spiritual decisions in the lives of
our children.” The
Barna Research Group backs up Warren’s statement with statistics showing that
the overwhelming majority of Christ-followers date their conversion prior to 14
years old, after 14 years old the likelihood of conversion drops drastically.
The importance of
junior high ministry can’t be overlooked, but our success will be found in
realizing the advantage of working with junior high students. Psychologist Stephen
Glenn states, “Puberty has just hit junior highers, and the physical, intellectual,
social, and emotional changes that accompany this change of life creates
growing awareness in these kids that a whole new adult world is opening up to
them.” This discovery phase produces 3 effects: rapid experimentation, a thirst
for information, and a sense of transition.
If we attempt junior
high ministry with the same bag of tricks and same set of rules we use on high
school or college ministry, then we’re doomed to be left frustrated. We have to
take advantage of the fact that junior highers are ready to try anything, thirsty
for information, and are trying to find their place in the world.
The world is
transitioning on them as they find themselves captured in a whirl wind of
change. They are crossing over a bridge from adolescence to adulthood. They
look up to high schoolers and want to be involved in their
“cool” world. In an essence, junior high workers are gate keepers. We
stand in the middle of elementary and high school, kid’s church and youth
ministry, Dora and YouTube, Sesame Street and Facebook.
This is the beginning
of their adult life and the foundation that their future will be built on. Our
goal should be to effectively create an experience that will lay a solid
foundation for the rest of their lives. As gate keepers, we have the awesome privilege
of transitioning young students from one season of life to another.
JR Arellano serves as area Leader for the Butte Section
He is the Junior High Pastor at Calvary Christian Center in Yuba City, CA
I love Jr. High kids. When I was a youth pastor, they were always my favorites. And I told them so, often in front of the high school students. A big reason I did that is because NOBODY says that about them. How many parents have you heard say something like "I wish I could lock them in a closet until they're 15"? If a youth group is a place where they feel loved, they will want to be there.
ReplyDeleteWhen iPods were brand new I did this big competition thing where at the end a Jr. High student won a shiny new iPod, and I gave it to him in front of the High School group. They asked "When do we get to win an iPod?" and I said "You don't. Because I like them better."
They're still moldable. They will try crazy things. They're usually pretty honest. AND they're old enough to appreciate sarcasm.
It also didn't hurt that my youth group was probably the one place every Jr. High kid could come and think "I am not the dorkiest person in this room, because THAT guy is way worse than me."