I remember the summer that I realized boys were interested in me and that they wanted to be with me. They competed for my attention. And all this happened right around the time that I began developing some curves and had a great tan.…
If you’ve read much, talked much or listened much about youth ministry lately, you are certainly aware of the growing concern over the vast number of students who walk away from church during, or shortly after, their high school years. I’ll let people way smarter than me try to figure out the myriad of factors contributing to that particular dilemma.…
Our junior high ministry is getting ready to take a very short break for Christmas. It’s heading into slow seasons that I typically find myself reflecting on our ministry. Today I spent some time thinking about the various people who make up our junior high ministry who have recently brought a smile to my face.…
To help junior highers have a heart for your community play this familiar game with a twist. Tape a large map of the world to the wall at the student’s eye level. Highlight your community. Blindfold the students one at a time spin them around and have them tape a heart as closely as possible to your community.…
Challenge kids to believe the unbelievable by taking them on this biblical journey that will challenge their thinking from this strange but true department! MIRACLE PIG RETURNS FROM THE DEAD LONDON, Ky.-Dr. Campbell Mercer figures there’s something that happens at least once in every doctor’s career that he can’t explain.…
When I was 12 someone stole my 10-speed bicycle out of our back yard. When I was 14 someone ripped off my flute from the junior high band storage closet. I was outraged. I had mowed 30 lawns to earn enough money to buy that bicycle.…
If you ask junior highers to sing what happens? Some kids whisper that they have laryngitis while others sneak for the door. Kids feel self-conscious about changing voices that squeak like unoiled doors one minute and crackle like thunder the next.…
From wardrobe coordination to time management few junior highers know the day-to-day skills that’ll help them succeed. Two-income families single-parent families and blended families are all busy and few junior highers today learn basic life skills at home anymore. Eric comes to our junior high meetings in the strangest combination of clothes.…
Traditional teenage dating is dead. So say the editors of the “big three” magazines that cater to teenagers–Seventeen, Sassy and ‘Teen. “A date used to be when a boy would specifically ask a girl out make plans pick her up and meet her parents,” says Sarah Patton senior editor of Seventeen magazine.…
My heart raced as I entered the youth building. Several hundred people were attending a conference at our church but I was interested in finding only one person-my wife. I made my way to my office where I knew she’d be waiting.…
