In a typical junior high ministry gathering, two things are almost always present: A game and a lesson. And believe it or not, the keys to success are mostly the same for each!

LEAVE THEM WANTING MORE: A short lesson is almost always better than a long one! Nobody ever complained that the lesson was too short. Plus, a short lesson leaves your junior highers actually wanting to hear more. Short games are almost always better than long ones, too. Playing their favorite game too often ends up making it a game they are tired of and no longer get excited to play.

THE PAYOFF NEEDS TO EQUAL THE SET UP: The longer it takes to tell a story in your lesson, the better the “punchline” or application needs to be. When you start by saying, “I’ve got the most hilarious story in the world to share….” it better be a pretty stinkin’ hilarious story. If you say, “Today’s lesson could be the most important one I’ve ever taught….” it better be really important! A game that takes 10 minutes to explain and 35 seconds to play is a fail….the payoff didn’t equal the set-up. When you send out a text claiming, “tonight in JH ministry we will play a game of epic proportions…” only to have the game be a rousing game of musical chairs, you lose.

REMEMBER YOUR AUDIENCE: Junior high ministry is about them, not you. The lessons you teach need to speak to the world junior highers find themselves navigating. Teach them what they want/need to learn, not what you want/need to teach. Likewise, your games need to be age appropriate and conscientious of the developmental stage and insecurities of young teens. Games that are overly competitive, overly physical and have the potential to be overly embarrassing are best avoided.

IF YOU WOULDN’T DO IT WITH PARENTS IN THE ROOM, DON’T DO IT! Would you tell that story in the lesson if parents were there? Would you make such a strong proclamation or manipulate your students toward a desired response as aggressively if a handful of moms and dads were sitting in the crowd? No? Then don’t do it in their absence. Would you play such an outrageous game if parents were present? Would it be as gross, edgy, dangerous, etc? No? Then pass.

What would you add to the list of “rules” that apply both to lessons and to games?

I recently had the fun experience of hearing Bob Goff speak at the Orange Conference. At some point during his wonderful, wandering, wacky message he told the story of taking his grandchild to Sea World and sitting in the “splash zone” during a Shamu show.

His story got me thinking about Leadership; and the fact that we all have a personal “splash zone”. Our decisions, actions, attitudes, healthy and unhealthy leadership interactions “splash” onto others; especially those closest to us…the people who live day-to-day in our splash zone. Here are just a few people who find themselves in my splash zone:

- My wife
- My Kids
- My close friends
- The team I lead at Church
- The other Pastor’s I work with at church
- The students in our ministry
- People who read this blog
- Men and women in the Youth Ministry Nation I get the privilege of rubbing shoulders with
- Etc.

Your Splash Zone list would probably look similar. The question isn’t “Do I Have a Splash Zone”, but rather “What, exactly, am I splashing people with?” (that’s probably not the best way to phrase that question, but you get the point!) As I leader, I am splashing people all the time….but with what?

- Sarcasm?
- The residue of my knee-jerk reactions?
- Passion?
- Faith?
- Empowerment?
- Insecurity?
- Servant heartedness?
- Etc.

As a leader, people are either rushing toward a seat in your splash zone or sprinting the other direction! And it’s almost always determined by what they find themselves soaked in after being around you.

Question for you today: How does your Splash Zone effect the junior high ministry you lead?

I’m really excited about this brand new junior high Sermon Series called, “Snapshots; Pictures of Jesus” In this four-week series students will look at Jesus the Human, Jesus the Shepherd, Jesus the Rebel and Jesus the Savior.

I’m about half-way through a great new book, Contagious; Why Things Catch On, by Jonah Berger. In a style similar to Malcolm Gladwell, Berger sets out to actually quantify the science of why ideas, trends, products etc. catch on and become so popular. So far I’m loving it!

RANDOM RANDOMNESS:

* Yes, The Simply Youth Ministry Show is on a break. We may bring it back and we may not. It’s fun, people seem to enjoy it, but it’s a ton of work. We’ll see.

* So happy that Tim Tebow got released by the Jets! I have no idea what his future in the NFL looks like, but it looks brighter today than it did yesterday!

* Speaking of sports. Let’s talk baseball; or more specifically; why I’ve lost interest. I think I’ve lost interest in baseball for the same reason I’ve lost interest in Basketball and have never been interested in Hockey: The seasons are just too long! I like sports where every game in the regular season truly matters. I get excited for the playoffs, but always feel guilty for suddenly being excited about a sport that I’ve ignored for the previous 5 months.

Last weekend I had the honor of being in a fairly small group of people listening to Dr. Henry Cloud talk about leadership.

He shared tons of good stuff, but one thing he talked about stuck out above the rest: Necessary Endings. Using hoarding as the analogy, Dr. Cloud talked about church leader’s tendency to “hoard” old methods, events, traditions, etc. as we lead the church. Just like a hoarder’s garage, our churches and the ministries we lead are often cluttered with old ways of doing things and cherished things from the past that we cling on to….often for reasons that make perfect sense to us, but seem odd (or even disturbing) to outsiders who don’t understand or appreciate the past. Many of these things keep us from moving forward….thus the need for “necessary endings” at times.

Think about your junior high ministry. What are you holding onto that you shouldn’t? What systems, traditions, methods, events, and “junior high ministry comfort food” do you refuse to let go of? Is there stuff in your ministry that used to be of value; stuff that is important or meaningful to you but not to anybody else? In short, are you a junior high ministry hoarder who needs to bring about some necessary endings so your ministry can move forward?

I am.

I was recently asked what I believed to be the three most important aspects of a healthy junior high ministry. I hesitated because I don’t think I’ve ever been asked to narrow junior high ministry down to the THREE most important pieces. For me, passion for Jesus and a desire to point junior highers toward a relationship with Him is assumed in ministry to junior highers so that wasn’t included in my answer. Here is what I came up with, in order of importance:

3) Patience. Nothing good happens over night. It takes time to build a “junior high ministry culutre” in most churches. It takes time to develop a team of dedicated volunteers. It takes time to figure out how junior high ministry differs from high school ministry, etc.

2) Caring Adults Who LIKE Junior Highers. Every christian loves junior high kids…they have to because it’s part of the christian code to love each other. But most adults don’t LIKE junior highers. Adults who are comfortable and actually enjoy being around quirky, insecure, high-energy, question-filled, obnoxious junior highers are hard to find but vital to a healthy junior high ministry.

1) A Church Dedicated To The Cause. Is the church excited about young teen ministry? Is it willing to resource the ministry by providing a meeting space, tossing a few dollars its direction, helping you recruit qualified leaders (even if those leaders decide to abandon their current place of volunteerism)? Is the church going to rally behind your efforts to minister to junior high parents and to nudge the entire congregation towards recognizing that young teens desperately need to be valued and included in the overall life of the church….allowed to use their gifts, be themselves and be embraced by the entire church family instead of being relegated to the “junior high area”?

That’s my BIG 3: An excited church, caring adults and patience. What would your BIG 3 Include?

Over the years, rubber bands have made expected and unexpected appearances in our junior high ministry.

- We’ve held contests to see how many somebody could stretch from ear to ear.
- We’ve held contests seeing who could shoot theirs the farthest.
- We’ve wrapped tons of them around a pumpkin hoping to make it burst.
- We’ve spent an entire small group night unwrapping a rubber band ball and attempting to re-wrap it.
- We’ve played “dodge-band” in super tight spaces (that one didn’t work too well)

Rubber bands, and the multitude of strange uses they provide, are a wonderful reminder of a junior high ministry principle:

Junior Highers Will Get Excited About What The Leaders Make Exciting