What are some best practices for organizing a successful Junior High youth group?
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Our church is in the planning stages of trying to revive a Junior High (grades 6-8) group. Does anyone have some experience in organizing a successful program for this age group? In particular, did you model it after your High School group or start from scratch?
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Chelsey,
I am just finishing up my second year of a brand new Middle School ministry. We have partnered with Young Life to run a WyldLife program in our area. It is mostly outreach, but definitely meets the needs of the students who already go to the CRC. I used to do high school ministry, almost exclusively.
A few things that I believe need to be different from high school:
-Students need to be much more active. The more they run around, the better the memories.
-We do ours every other Friday night, since middle schoolers don't have as much to do on weekends and parents prefer to keep their weeknights early!
-Leader relationships with students look different in middle school ministry. They need parental figures.
-Younger middle schoolers need to spend time with leaders in groups or pairs. They are not accustomed to spending time with adults one on one.
-Talks need to be short and story based. We go through the basic outline of the gospel, each year. Each meeting, we tell a story about Jesus.
-They want stories to tell. We kicked off with a pumpkin bash that kids are still talking about. You can see our outline, here. http://ylhelp.com/2010/06/10/pumpkin-smash-club/
God has definitely showed up in our ministry. I'd love to talk with you more, if you would like!!
Erin
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