Expect the Unexpected

I love teaching junior high students.  I love that every once in awhile something clicks in  their head and their heart.  I love that I can work on a plan that will help them come to learn a truth about Jesus, and that truth can change their life.   I love planning our whole service for Sunday.  I love thinking of activities and strategies to draw students in.  All of this is part of the reasons I love junior high ministry.

One of my favorite things about junior high students is when they do things or respond to things unexpectedly.  Sometimes we work with these students and we don’t expect a lot of depth and understanding of Bible study.  This isn’t always the case though.

In our junior high ministry we have been studying Romans 12 on Wednesday nights.  We haven’t just studied it for a week.  We have been studying Romans 12 for four weeks already, and we probably have at least two weeks left.  We sit down for our study and read Romans 12, then we figure out what God is trying to tell us.  Our students discuss and disagree about a some of the topics brought up.  Some of them quote other scripture while we are discussing it, and they all learn a lot.  At the end of the night our students don’t even realize that I haven’t talked very much.  I will ask them questions and guide them through a small section of scripture, but they are the ones figuring it out.

I challenge our students to read Romans 12 everyday during the week.  This will take them about a minute and a half each day.  I have challenged them to think on this scripture all day, and carry on a conversation with God about it.

Many times I feel that we need to expect more from our Junior High Students.  We need to plan on them being excited about reading scripture.  We need to plan on them being excited about service.  We need to treat them like the children of God they are.  God wants to use them now.  God wants to communicate with them now.

Sometimes we have to just let go and let God.