The Source: A Glimpse Into Episode #9

A GLIMPSE INTO EPISODE #9

From THE SEVEN SINS OF MIDDLE SCHOOL MINISTRY Section...

SCOTT: Sin #1, for me, is "wait until high school to really take students' spiritual growth seriously." If you want to mess this up, just wait until high school. You know, keep them in a holding pattern, or a holding tank, while they're in junior high. In other words, if you just keep them in the church, babysit them until high school, then you can really start the spiritual conversations. It's stupidity.

JONATHAN: It's a mistake, huh?

SCOTT: Absolutely. Too many times we wait. We say we'll get to that later...I have too many pressing issues right now. I think high school ministry becomes rehab when we do that. But if we do junior high ministry right, it can be preventive in so many ways.

JONATHAN: Well, Scott, what couple of words of advice could you give the person who is overwhelmed with their responsibility for junior high, senior high, and college ministry kids who may be kinda "babysitting" their junior high schoolers?

SCOTT: Great question. First, just know that not everybody has to have a passion for junior high ministry. There is permission for other passions, just don't neglect the junior high students. Somewhere in your group of leaders, there is someone you could fire up about junior high ministry. Equip them and encourage them to champion it. They can be your junior high expert. Those leaders do not have to be paid...you just can't forget about them!

DAVID: Yeah, I've seen that at work in our own church. We have a strong children's ministry, strong junior high, and now a strong high school ministry. Our pastors kept asking, "Why do we have to wait to do missions until our kids are in high school?" Our Children's pastor even took kids out-of-country for projects. Because if you are not instilling faith in junior high students, what are you gonna do, microwave it at the high school age? It's just not going to work.

SCOTT: Yep. Now, we intentionally leave some things out for high school. You know, we say we're going to get this far, but I want to hold some things out. We save some ministry for high school students.

TODD: I'm wondering how many people are feeling a little guilty, because they stand on that soapbox that says, "Youth are the church of today," but they do hold back their junior high kids. I just am thinking of some of the adults who would rather wait until the kids are out of high school, or out of college, before they take them seriously.

JONATHAN: OK, so what's Sin #2?

SCOTT: Ok, this might surprise you in some ways, but Sin #2, if you really want to mess up junior high youth ministry: NEVER EVER think about your own junior high school years. Just block them out. Never go back there. Don't pull out an old junior high year book. Never go back to the thought, feelings, and emotions you had in junior high.

JONATHAN: But Scott, all of the youth culture sessions we attend and the stuff that we hear and read today says everything is different today. So shouldn't we just block all that stuff out?

SCOTT: In some ways, that's true. A lot of things are different. But, at the same time, the awkwardness, the "trying-to-figure-out-who-I-am, I'm not an adult but I'm not a kid either," those experiences are much the same. For instance, you remember being ticked at your parents, you remember your buddy being a foot taller than you, you remember not being able to understand certain things.

JONATHAN: Yeah! My next door neighbor Matt V. had armpit hair and I didn't.

SCOTT: See. You're still scarred.

TODD: Not only is all that you guys just mentioned true, but, my best friend in 5th and 6th grade was not my best friend in 7th and 8th grade. That was the hardest thing as I look back. I am now able to look back and see how one whole group of us went in different directions, but could not see it then.

SCOTT: That's a good example. I think you will see that a lot has changed, but a lot has stayed the same.

DAVID: Yep. You're still asking the same questions: Who am I? Where do I fit in? DO I fit in? Who's like me? The questions have grown in number today. But at the core, kids today are still asking the same questions the four of us asked of ourselves back then.

SCOTT: You know, one practical thing that I do is keep my junior high yearbook on my desk so I can stumble across it occasionally. I flip through it and remember what a dork I was. And that is just from looking at the hairstyles alone.

TODD: Did Scott just say "WAS a dork?"

JONATHAN: That's pretty brave for a guy with no hair! At least he has hair!

SCOTT: Yeah, so that is Sin #2.

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