Programming of Junior Highers

I would hope to be known as one who loved and built up people-not programs. It was for people, not
programs, that Jesus lived, died and rose. My legacy
must be in lives. Anything less would amount to very
little.
-Doug Burleigh
What does a successful junior high program look like? How
many meetings per week should there be? How many adults
should be involved? Should junior highers and senior highers
meet together or separately? Which curriculum is best? Are today's kids
too sophisticated to play games? What about confirmation classes?
How do I get my junior highers excited about Bible study? What about
sixth-graders-should they be included in the junior high ministry or
remain in the children's department should junior highers participate
in service projects? How do I motivate them to come? And, what is the
meaning of the universe?
Tough questions, all of them. Unfortunately there are no easy
answers that will hold true for everyone in all situations. A good answer
here might be a bad answer there. It's like telling someone that water is
good. That statement is true if you are thirsty, but not if you are
drowning. Likewise it's difficult to be specific about programming for
junior high groups. What works for one group may not work at all for
nother. People sometimes ask me, "What should my junior high
Program look like?" My best answer is usually something like this: "Do
whatever it takes to meet the needs of your kids. That could mean lots
meetings or no meetings at all, lots of activities or none at all. Lest
Sound like a complete evasion of the question, let me remind you
that Junior high ministry is first of all relational. The key is people, not
programs. If you love junior highers and are able to relate to them well,
just about any program will probably do the job.
Having said that, it's obvious that most junior high ministries
won't survive without programs. In this article I want to give you some
guidelines on how to go about creating a junior high ministry program
that will meet the needs of your kids and realize your ministry objec-
tives. I won't be describing for you the perfect junior high ministry
program (as if one existed), nor will I give youa list of program ideas
that are guaranteed to work with your junior high group. By the way, if
you ever see an advertisement for a junior high program that is
"guaranteed to work," be careful. "Guaranteed to work" is probably
pure marketing hype, especially when it comes to junior high ministry.
Still if you are brave enough to use them, I have include some of ideas for junior high ministry in this article.

The Purpose of Programs
Programs are tools that we use to make junior high ministry possible.
It's important to remember that they are not ends in themselves. They
simply provide opportunities to do ministry-to be with kids, to talk
with kids, to laugh and play with kids, to share Christ with kids.
Programs are the disposable part of youth ministry. It's best to "use 'em
and lose 'em." It's always dangerous to let programs determine what the
ministry will look like. It's the ministry that should instead determine
what the programs look like.
It's like the young couple who were preparing dinner. The
husband asked his wife, "Why did you just cut both ends off the ham
before cooking it?"
"Well, that's the way my mother always did it," she replied.
Later she asked her mother, "Mom, why did you cut both ends
off a ham before you cook it?"
Replied Mom, "Well, that's the way my mother did it." So mother
and daughter visited Grandma to ask her the same question.
"It was the only way I could get it into my pan," Grandma said.
The story illustrates how we sometimes keep on doing the same
thing in the church over and over-sometimes for generations-
without asking the question, "Why are we doing this?" I sometimes
suggest to youth workers that they consider throwing all their
programs out the window and starting over from scratch. (This is easier
said than done, of course, especially in a traditional church environ-ment) you may find out that you don't really need Sunday school classes, or those weekly youth group meetings, or that week at Camp F-U-N-Games. Those programs may have been perfect at some time in the past, but this is not your parents' junior high ministry.

To answer the question, "Why Junior are we high doing ministry. this?" it's helpful to
remember that the purpose of programming is essentially fourfold:

1. Programs help meet the needs of kids.
As we dicussed in this article programs for junior highers need to be
designed around an informed understanding of the needs of early
adolescents. We can't make the mistake of "drawing targets around our arrows." Using what we know to be true about junior highers as a guide, we can create programs that will not only be creative or fun or entertaining, but programs that will do something worthwhile.

There are all kinds of needs. In this article we have spent a lot of time looking at the developmental needs of junior highers have. We can say that they are common to the age group. If we have a good understanding of the needs of early adolescents, we will create programs that are developmentally appropriate for them. Unfortunately some junior high programs that are only discarded or warmed-over high school programs. The vast majority of junior high schools are nothing more than miniature high schools ___ which is why middle schools were created. The big idea behind the middle school movement has been to develop a new kind of school one that takes seriously the developmental needs of early adolescents youth. We will look at some characteristics of a junior high ministry program that is developmentally appropriate below.

There are other needs that will be specific to the junior highers
you are working with. Some needs will be determined by a particular
environment or ethnic background. Kids in Los Angeles have different
needs from those in Sioux Falls. The needs of urban Hispanic youth will
be different from those of suburban white kids. Needs will also be
impacted by news events of the day, popular culture, or individual life experiences of kids and families in your church. If your youths
this have
experienced the death of a friend, or have been victims of have crime, or
have lived through a natural disaster, they will have specific needs
which will dictate the kinds of programs you choose.

The best way to determine needs is to spend time with
kids.You can learn lot by reading books (like this one) and taking advantage of
other helpful resources specifically designed to keep you informed.
But there is no substitute for just being with students, finding out
firsthand their worries, concerns, fears, problems, likes and dislike opinions and ideas. Find out how they are feeling and what is important to them. Take surveys and conduct interviews with your kids
or with parents. Visit them in their homes, meet their parents, discover
their life situations. The more you know about your kids, the more successful your programming will be.

@Orchidaceae