Junior High Students – ACT NOW

It’s time to get our junior high students serving.  Junior highers are capable of doing so much more than what many adults give them credit for.  As we look at junior high ministry, we can’t help but compare it to high school ministry.  With high school students, we always want to get them involved in serving, going on missions trips, and working at the food pantry.  What do we do with our junior high students though?  It’s important to find a way to turn their faith into action.

If you don’t see how much junior high students can accomplish for God, then you need to find a new area  of ministry to work in :).  The big question is – how do we get them to serve and to be excited about it? We have all done service projects where a group of students comes out and does something because we planned it and their parents said they were coming.  Wouldn’t it be nice if they were the ones figuring out how to serve?  Wouldn’t it be great if they were the ones driving the project?  How do we make this happen?

Recently I read a post  called, “5 Tips for Mobilizing Teenagers to Do Something“.  In this article the author says this:

Harness their passion, good or bad. “You don’t ask them ‘what do you care about,’” she says. “You ask them what pisses them off… and it’s gonna be something close to home. ‘I’m pissed off that my teachers suck,’ or ‘the school lunch is gross’ or that ‘that empty lot on the side of my street could be a ball field.’” Then you have to channel that energy into something productive: point them to tools to organize a community clean up of the lot, for example.

If students want to rake leaves, work in a soup kitchen, read to younger kids, start a Bible study in their school – then release and empower them to do it.

Stop over analyzing situation and give students the opportunity to put their faith into action.  We have some pretty amazing junior highers who want to serve.  Help them do this and you will all be blessed.