Mind of a Jr. High Student

Do you remember when you were in Jr. High? It was such a strange time but such a big time in your life. For most of us it was the first time that we really started to notice the opposite sex in ways other than just throwing stuff at them. We began to ask really big questions like, “Who am I?”, “Who are my friends?”, “Who is God”, “Why do I smell so bad all the time?”. Well, maybe I just ask that question about my 7th grade boys.

I want to talk about the two sides of a Jr. High student that we see and must minister to. The first side is what I will call “The Child” and the second side is what I will call “The Teen”.

Here at Journey Church our Jr. High Ministry is from 6th grade to 8th grade. With these with the 6th graders it is very easy to see “The Child”.

In the reading I have done lately about Jr. High students, I have learned one very big fact, and understanding this little piece of information opens up a big understanding into the Jr. High world. The fact is this: Jr. High students' brains are not yet fully developed. Mainly the frontal lobe of their brain is not fully developed. What does the frontal lobe do? The frontal lobes are involved in motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgment, impulse control, and social and sexual behavior.

It makes a lot of since now that when I ask, “Why did you do that?” and I get the answer, “I don’t know”. They really don’t know sometimes.

So how do we minister to someone that is going through all of these changes? Simple, we do exactly what we saw Jesus do. We meet someone's physical needs and then focus on his or her spiritual needs.

The aspect of fun is vitally important when it comes to Jr. High ministry. For many students this is a big physical need. We want students to play games, run around a little bit and just have fun. If you don’t think that this is a physical need for a Jr. High student, then you must not have been around very many of them. They bounce around the room with seemingly unending energy because they are still very much kids. We must allow them to be children and play.

Also, we want to blend fun into teaching as well. By using illustrations that students can see and touch it allows teaching to come alive and be more than someone just talking at them for 20 minutes.

With all of that being said, it's as simple as this: We must meet students right where they are. Some 6th graders act like they're 35 years old, while some 8th graders run around like they're 5. You must be flexible enough to allow the students to be themselves and show love and grace in every possible situation.

So as much as these students love to run around and be crazy, they start to ask some very difficult questions. “Who am I?” is one of the biggest questions that most students ask at this age. They normally don’t ask it in this way but you can understand what they mean.

Identity for so many of these students is very difficult. They feel like they do not measure up. They see friends that are developing physically faster than they are, and for many of them, this crushes their self worth. Many of these students were starters on their basketball team in the 3rd and 4th grade but have not hit their growth spurt yet and are struggling on the JV team. We may not see things like this as much of a big deal, but it is huge in a young students' life.

As a ministry we want to give students something more concrete to live by other than sports or their looks. Tim Mannin our head student pastor here at Journey created these four values.

Our first value is “Live Differently”. As a student walks through our ministry, we want them to hold to this value and know that they do not have to be like all of their friends; that God has called them to something so much greater. This value speaks to a lot of our students that are dealing with identity. As they are growing up and their parents are starting to let them make more decisions on their own, they begin living their faith journey for themselves.

Our second value is to “Love Recklessly”. We pray that students will understand how to love God and others recklessly. I love using the word recklessly to describe our love because it reminds us all that love is sometimes not always safe. Love should always be something that we fight for.

Third is to “Lead Courageously.” We do not believe that someone has to be an adult to lead. We want to allow students the opportunity to lead and do ministry in their community. We have students serving in all types of different ministries.

Finally we want our students to “Dream Wildly.” This is one value that has really touched my heart over the past year. With many of these students you see “The Child” in them as they dream. Jr. High students dream huge dreams with which God can do amazing things not only in their own life but the lives of their friends and schoolmates. We want to see these students live into the dreams that God has given them to see a city transformed.

So I want to leave you with this. My prayer for anyone reading this is that you will be a Jr. High student today. Go do something fun that you haven't done in a while, run until you can't run anymore, laugh until you can't breathe. But at the end stop and ask yourself this question, “God, who have you created me to be?”.