Reaching the Un-churched 13 year old

on August 17th, 2007

I’ve been doing a whole lot of thinking lately….maybe a little too much. It seems like the majority of my recent posts are trolling for answers and insight which serves as a reminder that we’ll probably never totally figure this thing out!

Here’s my current wrestling match: What does a truly effective weekly junior high program look like?

In our setting, we’ve got a variety of programs for students at a variety of places in their spiritual journey, but we do have ONE PRIMARY program each weekend that is more of an entry level experience for students. This is the program we hope will attract un-churched students and the program we hope our regular attenders will invite their friends to.

It’s a solid program, and one that I think is serving us well, but we’re missing something.

Is it that we need more adult volunteers loving on kids? Is it that we need a better follow up system to help us notice when students are missing? Is it that we need better lights, a new fog machine and bigger screens (gosh, I REALLY hope it isn’t that…)? Is it that we need to radically examine how we teach the gospel? Is it that the program is fine but we need to be spending more time with students on campus, at games etc. earning the right to be heard?

This could prove to be a lively discussion….so don’t be afraid to fire away with your ideas, your successes, your failures and your reactions to what others say.

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Share Discuss (16)

Mike at 9:04am August 17

“Is it that the program is fine but we need to be spending more time with students on campus, at games etc. earning the right to be heard?” I think that this will give you the “something” you are looking for. But this answer is so easy that it is easy not to trust.

'neice at 9:47am August 21

I should calrify…”duh” as in I am a dummy for leaving that out…not “duh…we can figure that out dsm.”

ooops!