I’ve often wondered if this simple job description is the most accurate for junior high youth workers: “Sowers of Seeds”
You could make a fairly strong argument that one of our most consistent tasks is that of continuously tossing out little seeds in the lives of young teens.

- seeds of faith
- seeds of hope
- seeds of “I’m okay”
- seeds of “I’m gifted!”
- seeds of “I’m gonna make it!”
- seeds of confidence
- seeds of “I can make a difference”

I often tell the junior high team I help lead, “We are ALWAYS casting seeds, and SOMETIMES we even get to harvest them!”
Too many junior high youth workers are frustrated by not enough tangible result for their labor. And their response is often to question their calling, their effectiveness, their students receptivity, etc. Instead, I think it’s wise to develop a long-view of youth ministry and embrace the fact that much of what we do in the junior high years is truly just sowing seeds that will (maybe) take root in our ministry only to begin to fully grow and blossom later on.

Maybe it’s okay to focus less on results and more on faithfully, consistently sowing the seed.

It’s Monday, it’s my day off, and I’m feeling a bit lazy. So I decided to pick a picture that was mostly self-explanatory.

Most adult youth workers like to talk….A LOT. In fact, we probably talk a little bit too much most of the time. It makes sense: We are older, wiser and have all sorts of life experience; especially compared to a 13 year-old. Because of this it’s extremely tempting to share our answers and wisdom with the students in our ministry…A LOT. In fact, we probably share our answers and wisdom a little bit too much most of the time.

The solution: Be a junior high youth worker with MASSIVE ears and a TINY mouth. In other words, make it a goal to listen much more than you talk. When you stop to think about it, most junior highers have few people in their lives who truly listen to them. Teachers teach, coaches coach, and parents parent. Some are better listeners than others but most adults view their role as that of imparting information to young teens.

Want to be an exceptional junior high youth worker? Develop the art of listening.

For years, our junior high ministry spent Spring Break in Mexico building homes for local families. Because the ministry we partnered with didn’t allow power tools (what, they don’t trust a 7th grade girl with a skill saw?) we had to hand-mix the concrete used for the 11′x 22′ foundation. That doesn’t sound like a ton of work until you actually do it; which we did….for about 12 hours on the first day. We had only three days to completely build a home, and if we didn’t push like crazy mixing concrete on day one, the foundation wouldn’t dry in time to build the rest of the home.

Mixing the concrete was hard, thankless work. In over 10 years of doing it we NEVER had a new home owner look at the concrete floor and thank us for such a great foundation. But we consistently reminded our students that without the blood, sweat and tears of the first day of mixing concrete, the rest of the house would have never been built.

Junior High ministry is the “concrete mixing” part of youth ministry….it’s where the foundation is built. It’s hard, and often thankless. I’ve been to hundreds of High School graduation parties over the years and rarely get mentioned in the “thank you” speech while the High School pastor almost always does. While the student is thanking the high school pastor and ministry for all their influence, I’m sitting there thinking to myself, “Hey, what about me? You were a punk in junior high and we loved you anyway! We layed the foundation that the high school group built upon!”

What you are doing matters….it matters a lot. You are in the concrete mixing business. Don’t give up, because God will use the foundation of your student’s junior high years to build something wonderful!

I’m a visual learner. Because of this, I’ve often used simple images in my thinking and training about junior high ministry. So…I thought I’d pass some of them along in a series called, “JH Ministry In Pictures”. Feel free to use these photos in your own setting if you’d like!

I use the picture above as a super simple way to explain the three primary areas of our JH ministry focus: We minister to students, to parents and to our volunteers. A three-legged stool is solid and steady but if we neglect or completely ignore any one of the three legs it results in an unstable, wobbly ministry.

In our setting, we try to spend about 75% of our time ministering to our students and to our volunteers and about 25% of our time ministering to parents. Certainly the percentages vary from time to time, and I suppose arguments could be made for a wide variety of time allocations in these three areas…which would certainly be valid.

Why such a simple picture?
A) JH ministry is actually quite simple; why do we feel the need to complicate things?
B) I want anybody on my team to be able to explain our ministry focus to a parent or potential volunteer clearly and succinctly while having coffee at Starbucks.

- We are in the middle of a new series titled, “SNAPSHOT…Pictures of Jesus” in which we are looking at four “pictures” of Jesus: Jesus the human, Jesus the shepherd, Jesus the rebel and Jesus the savior. It is shaping up to be one of the best series we’ve created in a while.

- THREE picks in the 1st quarter? Come on, Peyton, even Tim Tebow can do that!

- If you haven’t watched the most recent episode of the Simply Youth Ministry Show, you can do so right here. It feels like Jason and I are beginning to hit our stride. One of the many things I love about Jason is that he isn’t afraid to speak his mind…which he certainly does in this episode!

- Dear Mitt Romney, I think your campaign is in deep, deep trouble. Some of it isn’t your fault….but most of it is.

- This year I’m leading a JH small group with a highly organized co-leader. He thinks he hit the lottery by getting me as his co-leader. I am about to shatter his dreams. In fact, I may have already done so since his wife reads this blog regularly!

- Yesterday I played in a golf tournament for the Jessie Rees Foundation. Jessie was a 12 year-old girl in our junior high ministry who lost her battle with a brain tumor several months ago. This AMAZING girl spent her last months on earth starting a little foundation (that has grown and grown) that gives away “JOY JARS” to kids all across the country who are fighting terminal cancer. It is a super simple way for your ministry to encourage others. Check it out!