This past weekend, over one hundred middle school students descended upon the Hayward Wesleyan Church for the Spring Lock-In. I don’t know why they like doing this?!
In order to organizationally survive 10 hours with middle school students, one needs to have a comprehensive plan for the time allotted. Preferably there needs to be more activities planned that one has time for, which turned out to be good for us this time. We didn’t run out of things to do, but because of the number of students that attended, we had to not do certain activities that we had previously planned.
Here is the run-down of the events of the evening:
As a middle school pastor who manages a number of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students each week, I know that our list of rules grows by the week. If you want to see if you have any holes in your policies, just place some middle school students in the middle of your experiment and they take care of things pretty quickly!
It’s tough and exhausting to stay up on all the “cool” fads in Youth Culture. I’m so glad that I’ve been in Youth Ministry long enough to know that “being cool” isn’t found in how you dress, or one’s ability to quote and sing a current Pop music song, rather “being cool” is found in how relationship with the Lord can transcend humanity’s various changing sub-cultures.
As the clip below illustrates: Jesus doesn’t belong in a box of all your past “cool” stuff, but rather in our hearts no matter what culture you are a part of…
I recently came across this resource and wanted to look into it. After using one of their samples in my small group of 6th grade boys, I’ve concluded that this is great stuff!
They target this curriculum toward 5th and 6th grade students and it worked beautifully. The video segment is memorable, full of information, and done in a middle school “goofy” sort of way. The boys were able to not only remember the content, but also laugh at the silly parts of the video and it made it engaging. The anti-workbook and the activities contained within really connected the ideas in the lesson we piloted: Who wrote the Bible? God or humans? The leader guide was helpful for the uninitiated and guided me through the various options for activities as well as informative regarding the topic and theological issue.
If you’re looking for a fun, engaging confirmation curriculum, or a year-long Sunday school curriculum (for middle school students), you’ll be thrilled with the engaging and extremely age-appropriate content.
It’s called re:form and it currently comes in a few different varieties:
“re:form features two DVDs with 40 hilarious animated short films that frame the theological questions that youth really ask, an Anti-Workbook that’s chock full of individual and group activities, and a fully reproducible Leader Guide.”
It address the following questions:
Bible
Who wrote the Bible, God or humans? Is the Bible true? Why does the Bible contradict itself at times? Is the New Testament more important than the Old Testament? Why are there so many versions of the Bible?
Creed
Can it be proven that God exists? Is God male? How can God be “three-in-one”? Does God still create stuff today? Am I really supposed to believe Mary was a virgin? Why did Jesus go to hell? Is the Holy Spirit a person or wind or fire or what? Why do we say we believe in “the holy catholic church” if we’re not Catholic? Do cremated people go to heaven?
Discipleship
Why should I follow Jesus; can’t I just say I believe in him? Why should I pray when God doesn’t answer all my prayers? Why should I pray the Lord’s Prayer when it feels like I’m just going through the motions? Can someone lose their salvation? Can I be a Christian without going to church?
Jesus
Was Jesus of Nazareth God? Did Jesus know he was God? If Jesus was God why did he have to die? Do I have to believe Jesus performed miracles in order to be a Christian? Why did Jesus get baptized? Is believing in Jesus really the only way to get to heaven?
Other Beliefs
If there is only one God, why are there so many different religions? Why do Christians believe Christianity is the best religion? Why are there so many different Christian churches?
Tough Questions
Is it a sin to think about sex? How do I stop doing things I know I shouldn’t do? Is divorce a sin? What does it mean to be “born again”? What if my friends aren’t Christian? Is it okay to be angry at God? Did God create the devil? Can you accept the theory of evolution and still be a Christian? Why does God let bad things happen? Can I do something bad enough to make God stop loving me? Does Revelation really describe how the world will end? What does God think about war?
“Traditions gives your youth the tools they need to deeply explore their particular faith tradition with witty videos, engaging individual and group activities, and an online forum for sharing what they’ve learned along the way. Traditions is designed to be used alongside the core re:form curriculum, or your current curriculum, in settings like confirmation classes where additional denominational-specific material is preferred or required.
“We assembled the dream team of Methodist, Reformed, and Lutheran theologians, pastors, and practitioners from across the country to create re:form Traditions. Together, they provided historical accuracy, a theological framework, and translated it all into fun activities and language that speaks to today’s youth.”
“re:form Ancestors is a youth Bible study that explores the ancestors of our faith by exposing the real, unpolished and unexpected personalities of Old and New Testament Bible characters.
“With re:form Ancestors, youth discover similarities between themselves and the many unlikely people selected by God to do extraordinary things.”
Which “ancestors” are included?
Adam & Eve: The lovable screw-ups
Noah: The obedient eccentric
Abraham & Sarah: The ordinary patriarchs
Jacob: The conniving survivor
Joseph: The virtuous dreamer
Moses: The frustrated leader
Rahab: The faithful opportunist
Deborah: The exasperated matriarch
Samson: The raging prima donna
Ruth: The tenacious outsider
David: The flawed and beloved king
Solomon: The ambitious son
Elijah: The get-r-done prophet
Daniel: The invincible visionary
Jonah: The passive-aggressive coot
Temptation is something everyone experiences—even Jesus was tempted! And one of Satan’s most devious tricks is to use temptation not just to get students to sin, but to separate themselves from the body of Christ because of guilt and shame.
Lessons include:
The Temptation Story
Selfish Temptations
Do Nothing Temptations
Dishonest Temptations
Cruel Temptations
These small group series from Simply Youth Ministry have been really successful for our Middle School Youth Wednesday environment. We divide the large group into about 8 small groups and show the video segments in the large group and then have the small group leaders (adults) talk through the questions with the students in between the two video segments. That’s it. The series are focused, simple, concrete, and easy for middle school students to understand. It is digestable and memorable.
It’s been a great first part of the school year using these various small group curriculum teaching series.
I created a msy series landing page for our various series this year as well as previous years (although I have not retroactively updated our previous years teaching series yet, but I hope to do that in the future). Any elements we add to the series or want to communicate further we add to the individual series page on Tempting Stuff series @ hwcyouth.org.
Students get to dig in to the words of Jesus himself, the “Red Stuff”. They’ll take a look at five of Jesus’ parables, uncover what His message was, and see how it still applies to their life today.
Lessons cover what Jesus said about:
The Bible
Our Talents
Pride
Persistent Prayer
Eternity
This series worked really well with our students. The series did a great job teaching about parables and other teachings of Jesus. One really neat side benefit was the discovery that the words of Jesus were colored in red in most Bibles. They thought that was really cool!
I created a msy series landing page for our various series this year as well as previous years (although I have not retroactively updated our previous years teaching series yet, but I hope to do that in the future). Any elements we add to the series or want to communicate further we add to the individual series page on The Red Stuff series @ hwcyouth.org.
Ever watched a TV sitcom and wished that your life’s problems could be fixed and answered in just 30 minutes, too? Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way. Life is messy. You and I are broken—and so are the students in your youth ministry.
We’re broken physically by sickness and disease. We’re broken emotionally by painful life experiences and hurtful words that others have spoken. Our relationships with God and other people are broken, too.
In this 5-week small group video series from Heather Flies, your students will examine the reality of our messy lives—and discover how valuable they are to God, despite their messiness. They’ll investigate the wrong ways and the right ways to handle the stuff that makes life messy and causes our pain and brokenness. And they’ll be encouraged to invite God and other people into the process of change in their lives.
Help your students discover that despite life’s messiness, we can be healed and made whole.
Topics for this series include:
Me, Valuable?
Um, What Happened?
How To Handle The Hurts
Finding Hope in the Messiness
Remember, Life’s Pain Isn’t Permanent!
I created a msy series landing page for our various series this year as well as previous years (although I have not retroactively updated our previous years teaching series yet, but I hope to do that in the future). Any elements we add to the series or want to communicate further we add to the individual series page on Messy Stuff series page @ hwcyouth.org.
This was a good series for us to start with and was useful for some topical conversations with the students as well as for us as leaders to figure out how to structure the small groups @ msy.
Verna Kline has been in youth/children’s ministry for the past 63 years; since 1948! It’s an amazing video to watch! At one point the speaker asks “Grandma Kline”: “Aren’t you ever afraid of these ‘rough’ kids?” With utter confidence she replies: “No!”
What does it look like for someone to be a youth ministry volunteer for 63 years? Verna Kline from Pennsylvania has been working with the “kids” in her church since 1948. Listen as Tic Long interviews her about what she’s learned over the years.
This past Wednesday@ msy we started a new series called: “Tempting Stuff.”
One of the questions posed to the students in their small group was: What are some temptations that middle school students face?
In an effort to bring out to the whole group what was being shared in the small groups, I grabbed the white board and recorded the students responses to this question. Here it is:
