Middle School Ministry Moment #5

Leadership Principles

The following are a few notes that I took while watching a "Simply Junior High Video Podcast" by Kurt Johnston on the subject of leadership. Kurt is the middle school pastor at Saddleback Church in California.

For starters: Tune into “The Office” on NBC, watch Michael Scott & don’t do anything he does! Watch Michael Scott and then do the opposite of what he does.

Kurt said that if he had to boil leadership down to 3 words, he might use these 3 words to sum up leadership ...

*Leading Effectively – Simply the ability to do the right thing. Take all the opportunities that present themselves to you and decide what is most important. Say "yes" to the most important things and say "no" to the not so important things. Or to say it another way, say yes to the “God” things and no to the “good” things.

*Leading Efficiently – Simply doing things right. This includes paying attention to detail. In ministry effective leadership is managing people in the right way. doing things in the right way.

*Leading Ethically – Simply doing the right things in the right way properly. There are a lot of ways to get to the same end result. It's important how we arrive at those results. Questions to ponder, "Are you being honest? Are your motives pure? Are you being forthright with people? Are you using people to get what you want?"

Conclusion: Leadership is not easy but is can't be easier if we learn to lead effectively, efficiently and ethically.

Middle School Ministry Moment #4

THE "FUN FACTOR"
I'm discovering that the older I get, the easier it is to forget the importance of the "Fun Factor" when working with students. I think sometimes I personally spend so much time making sure people realize that you don't have to be "wild, crazy and super out-going" to work with middle schoolers, that I unintentionally communicate that to be so is a bad thing. While in reality, we must not forget that "fun" is a love language of middle school students.

If this is really true, then one of the best ways we can let students know that we love them is to have fun with them doing the things that they enjoy. So the question for us to consider is, "What do the students I work with consider fun?" Knowing the answer to this question just might be the key to much more than simply being known as "wild, crazy and super out-going." It might be the key to unlocking the hearts of students and to greater ministry opportunities.

Middle School Ministry Moment #3

One of the most challenging and oftentimes frustrating aspects of Middle School ministry for me has been in the whole arena of "worship" and how to help students this age grasp what it means to worship God through music and truly engage in such experiences. Thus, when I came across a blog post that Kurt Johnston, who in my opinion is the leading middle school minister in the country, did a while back titled, "Junior High Worship" needless to say I was all ears (or should that be eyes). Click here to read Kurt's post and listen to the podcast he took part in that discussed this topic.

Middle School Ministry Moment #2

Top 10 Myths about Being A Great Volunteer Youth Worker
(these come courtesy of Youth Specialties)

1. You must be young
2. You must have adequate Bible training
3. You must be a perfect example of a Christian
4. You must be able to act like one of the students
5. You must have plenty of free time
6. You must be wild, crazy, and dynamic.
7. You must know everything about the latest youth culture
8. You must be a captivating communicator
9. You must always feel comfortable and secure
10. You must be liked by all the kids

The truth is that as long as you love God, love people and are available to be used there is a place for you to serve in Student Ministries.

Middle School Ministry Moment #1

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
You can have the greatest ideas, games, programs and messages in the world but if you aren’t speaking their “language” you might as well be talking in a foreign language. This was the light bulb thought I had following a recent breakfast with two of our all-star Junior High volunteers at NMC. It wasn’t a light bulb moment because I hadn’t her this concept before but rather because I realized I’m not sure I know today’s Middle School students the way that I need to in order to ministry to them effectively.

Having stepped away from day-to-day involvement in our Middle School Ministry for this past school year to take on some other roles within Student Ministries has left me desiring to go back to the drawing board on this whole thing of “knowing my audience” as I prepare to re-enter middle school ministry more on a full-time basis beginning this summer. I’m definitely noticing that the older I get (I’m now 32), the easier it is to become out-of-touch with today’s students.

Here are a couple of books I’m planning to read this summer as I seek to better understand today’s Middle School students and what makes them tick.

(1) Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online by Anastasia Goodstein
(2) “The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids” by Barbara Strauch

Middle School Ministry Moments

My goal is to each Monday provide some kind of ministry thought or idea as it relates specifically to Middle School Ministry. So, drum role please for Middle School Ministry Moment #1 …