WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT JUNIOR HIGHERS DURING WORSHIP

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 Celebrity in the House?!

I was sitting in my seat, doing a recount of our group to make sure all of the students were in their seats like they were supposed to be.

The pre-service song that served as a reminder that things were about to get started was playing. All of my leaders were here.

They each gave me a “thumbs up” that their small group members were all present and accounted for.

This all seemed remarkable. All of our junior high students were where they were supposed to be and when they were supposed to be there!

Looked like it was going to be a great week at our summer conference…and then it happened.

The worship team was on stage and started playing the first song of the night.

All of the sudden, the junior high students around me flew up out of their seats and ran to the front of the room!

They were rushing the stage like preteen super fans at a pop star concert!

This is NOT a Concert!

But surely they realized that was not what was going on! We were not at a concert. It was time to worship.

This is not how you are supposed to behave when you are celebrating and honoring God.

These junior highers were acting like we were there to see the people on the stage!

We were supposed to be worshipping God together and be led by the people on stage.

Why did these students not understand?! Well, as the group leader, I was just about to get up and help them understand with a “mean parent” style lecture…

A Mirror

It was in that moment when I felt convicted. The Holy Spirit was using a moment of high frustration in my life to teach me compassion and understanding.

It wasn’t the students who needed a lesson. It was the pastor. Let me explain. Then, if you experience the frustration I did, hopefully you can gain a different perspective from my experience.

And if you are already where I had to get, may you be encouraged in your passion for junior highers and worship!

We tend to get very frustrated at teenagers these days and how much time they spend in their virtual mirrors taking selfies.

However, as I looked out at these students that night, what I saw began to change my heart so that I realized I needed to turn my self-facing camera on and take a deeper look at myself.

Observations

When I stop and think about what I saw – removing my emotions and assumptions – the picture is not as frustrating as it appeared.

Junior high students were excited!

I know sometimes we think it doesn’t take much to excite a junior high student.

But think about the context of church. How often do you see the enthusiasm level of a junior higher move up at all in a typical worship service.

No matter how hard our worship teams try, it is the exception rather than the rule that students are excited in a service.

Positive Peer Pressure/Mob Mentality

We see too often in the news the effects of negative peer pressure or the foolish decisions that people make in a crowd when a mob mentality takes over.

Here, I was seeing students encouraging others out of their seats to join them as they rushed the stage for worship.

They were motivating others to get out of their seats and go from observers to full-on participants! That’s usually our goal, right?

Singing the Words

In today’s world, we have some of the greatest tools to put lyrics in front of students to help them sing along in worship.

But too often that is paired with an example of parents who simply stand in a service without singing along – especially fathers, if they are even there. So we shouldn’t be surprised when it is a challenge to get students to sing along with us.

But that’s not what I was seeing.

These students who had rushed the stage weren’t just watching the people on stage, they were also reading and singing along with the lyrics projected on the screens next to the stage.

They were junior high students singing in a worship service!

Belonging before Believing/Practicing before Playing

I know these students well enough to know that some were swept up into what was going on. They don’t know much about Jesus.

They weren’t thinking deeply about the lyrics they were singing. They were belonging to the group before fully believing what the group believes.

They were practicing what it is to worship before actually playing or genuinely worshipping.

But none of this is bad. It’s what all young children do – mimicking parents and others older than them before fully making their own choices and figuring out the why behind what they do.

Lessons Learned

That was a humbling day for me. And I’d love to tell you that the rest of the week, and all the weeks since then, that I rejoice and celebrate at the enthusiastic response I see from junior highers in worship.

I’m optimistic, but still human. I still catch myself questioning what’s really going on in a worship service where junior highers are present.

And I had to calm myself several times again during that summer conference and be reminded that my immediate assumptions and frustrations may not reflect reality.

I still have a lot to learn. But here are some lessons I am learning along the way that might be helpful for you.

Excitement is a good thing!

Having students who come to church and describe it as “fun” is a good thing! Playing a game or some loud music before worship to raise the energy level in a room is not just acceptable, but highly recommended!

Junior highers don’t arrive at your meeting space fully focused on Jesus and ready to give their full attention and energy in worshipping him! We have to help them with that.

So, building in a game or some fun, loud music that helps them transition from whatever they have been doing and thinking about into the reason we gather is a good thing.

Transitions Matter

At the conference, they did a great job transitioning from the high energy of a game or song to a time of celebrating and honoring God with music to the teaching to more music or an activity etc. We need to do the same.

Junior highers have a ton of potential energy in their bodies just going crazy trying to become kinetic energy which equals movement!

So take the moving they have been doing in a game or dancing to a song and transition that into your worship time!

Find or add motions to a song. Have the person leading the music challenge them to jump up and down or clap or wave their hands up in the air! Maybe even throw in a dab or whatever dance move is popular at the time.

Laughter is Powerful

If you can get junior highers to laugh, you can accomplish great things! Get an adult leader on stage doing dance moves to a fun song or as motions to a worship song.

When they mess up or just realize how silly it looks sometimes, seeing them still participating and able to laugh at themselves helps junior highers not be so concerned about how they appear to others.

If the leader they respect can have this much fun in worship and look that goofy, maybe so can they!

Not only does this break them out of their comfort zones, but it also helps them to build a connection in the community of your group.

Whether you have five kids or five hundred, laughing together is a shared experience that helps build bonds in your community.

Words are Important

Junior highers may not examine the words in all the songs they sing. They may just like how it sounds. But it is our job as leaders to examine these words.

Do they communicate correct doctrine? (Just because someone can write a popular song doesn’t make them a Bible scholar!)

Do the words make sense on a junior high level? There are some great worship songs that don’t fit until high school or beyond because the wording is too complicated for junior highers, especially if it involves lots of abstract thinking to understand.

So choose words that your students can understand and make sure those words teach truths from the Bible accurately.

I’ve even pulled songs out of our pre/post-service or game playlist because of these principles. It’s more than just the songs we classify as “worship music” where we need to examine these characteristics.

It Takes Time

Finally…these are junior high students. If they rush the stage at a camp or conference because they want to be close to “the band.”

We should be okay with that. It’s a starting point. As they experience that service, they may begin to allow the words to sink in and become natural expressions of their heart and mind for God.

But that probably won’t happen in the first session or even in the one week of the event.

These students need time to grow into being a disciple who celebrates and honors God. It’s our job not to rush the process and to help them along the way.

Celebrity

There is a celebrity in the house. We worship Him. These students may not realize it yet, but their passion and enthusiasm for this experience is a God-given desire to celebrate and honor someone so much greater than they are.

The next time you see junior highers rushing the stage, remember these lessons.

And if you happen to see me getting frustrated, remind me to take a breath and just play along. One day they’ll get it. And maybe, just maybe, one day I will too!