New Year = New Students

Welcome to 2013!  I am super excited to kick of the New Year with my junior high students.  Christmas was amazing and now we have a whole new year to look forward too.

I am so excited about where JuniorHighMinistry.org is going in the next year.  We have been working and planning new series to be released, we have been talking about new topics to discuss, and we are just crazy excited to hear more about what is happening in your ministry.

I have to tell you that this is the year that some of our junior high students will make life changing decisions.  Students will choose to follow Christ for the very first time.  Other students will choose to walk away from a specific sin to be more like Jesus.  Then we will also have student who fall into sin and need the love and understanding of our Lord in their time of need.

Our students will be different at this time next year!  The question is will they be more mature followers of Jesus, or will the move away from him.

The new year brings us as junior high/middle school ministry leaders great opportunity.  It can be a new chance to start something new, start a new habit, or build a new routine with your students.

I have been thinking about what would be really great for us all to focus on in 2013.  What is the one thing that could change our ministries for the future, and I think I figured it out.  We all need to:

BE INTENTIONAL!

Sounds pretty simple I know, but think back about the times this year when you kind of flew by the seat of your pants on things.  You just did enough to get by.  You decided not to go the extra mile because nobody would notice.

If we would focus on intentionally giving our best effort each and every time we get to meet with junior high students then we will see a dramatic change.  Momentum won’t be lost so easy.  If we intentionally commit to Bible reading then we don’t forget to mention it for a few weeks.  If we intentionally commit to praying with our students then it won’t slip our mind as much.

This is one of the reasons we created JuniorHighMinistry.org was to help you be intentional.   We want to provide resources for you to use so that you have time to do the extra things.  Our New series Creativinme is a great example of this.  We created a series that tells you how  to expand on the lesson.  We give you options to visually explain things to your students.  All you have to focus on is collecting supplies.  This is our way of being intentional for you.

Make being intentional a priority in your life.  Set goals and stick to them.  I would love to hear what plans you have for your ministry this year