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Apparently Facebook is making strides to allow kids under 13 to be allowed on Facebook.  For a long time kids have not been allowed on social networks due to the federal laws in place.  But it seems that Facebook is hoping to open up their networks to children with the permission of parents.  It hasn’t been revealed what the requirements will be between a parent’s account and a kids account on Facebook, but the new possibility certainly has significant implications for parenting in the internet age.  Because of this new possibility, I am both excited about what it means for me as a middle school minister and nervous because of the reality of what this opens up these young kids to.  Regardless of the age of students, whether 11 years old or 16 years old, there are certain steps that parents can take to be helping kids as they navigate the world of social networking.

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There are certainly elements to preaching that are universal for any situation where somebody wants to improve their ability to communicate the Bible.  At the same time there are also elements to preaching that are specifically important to remember when your audience is in middle school ministry.  Most of my preaching happens in the context of our middle school ministry, and as I have done this I have learned that there are certain things that are unique about preaching to this age group.  I am often reminded of my own failure to remember some of these important principles, so sharing them is a helpful reminder to me that as I preach the Bible to junior high students.

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[This post continues in a series of interviews with various leaders that are passionate about middle school ministry]

This past fall I had the chance to meet Marko at the Middle School Ministry Campference. In addition to working as the President of Youth Specialties and starting the Youth Cartel, Mark Oestreicher has spent a significant amount of time pursuing his calling to youth ministry by working with junior high students. This has included working specifically as a junior high pastor, volunteering with middle schoolers, and writing some of the best middle school books around. Since he has spent a lot of time thinking and writing about middle school ministry and of course is a veteran working with middle school students, I thought it’d be incredibly valuable to ask him some questions and share those with everyone.

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As students transition from middle school to high school, it is a key time for a youth ministry to be very intentional about keeping students. That means that for middle school ministry there will be a new set of 6th graders coming in and a group of 8th graders heading out.  These moments of transition can be scary and often are difficult; it is all too common to lose students as we try to transition them from one group to the next.  Yesterday on Josh Griffin’s blog I posted 5 Ways We Encourage a Smooth Transition.

High School student leaders. As a part of our middle school ministry, we encourage some of our older high school students to attend some of the middle school retreats as leaders.  Whenever we have high school students leading on retreats, the relationships that are built between the two groups is incredible.  And because of this there are healthy relationships built with high schoolers and some natural promotion of high school events and programs.

Dual role volunteers. There are a few volunteers that spend time volunteering for both the middle school and high school ministries.  This is great as it provides some familiar faces as students make the jump from one to the other.  Because of the comfort of having a leader that you already know, I also try to make a point to join our high school team on a couple of retreats throughout the year.

To read the other 3 ways, read Josh’s post.

What do you do to encourage the transition between middle school and high school?