Being around a group of other middle school ministry pastors for a weekend inspired me to make a list of random generealizations about what is true of many of us who find ourselves working with middle school students.  All of these things came from observations that I had about middle pastors while at the campference; they are all at least true of myself.

You Might Be a Middle School Pastor If…

• You own a pair (or two) of a converse.
• You cannot walk through wal-mart without thinking of game ideas.
• You think poop is funny.
• You have a nerf gun in your office.
• You think any object can become a game.
• You think you’re awesome at dodgeball because you normally dominate middle schoolers.
• You love to meet other people who love middle school students.
• Your crazy enough to believe junior high students can change the world.

What should I add to the list?

Photo Credit: Varjakkk

If you work with middle school students, it’s always helpful to think back to what life was like when you were in middle school.  I spent some time thinking about it, and here is the list that I came up with:

• I wanted to be in the NBA.
• I bought an mp3 player for $300 that held 8 songs.
• People freaked out about Y2K.
• Gas cost a little over $1/gallon.
• I started using AOL Instant Messenger and created my first ever SN: rjgrune2000 still works to this day.
• I didn’t own a cell phone.
• My computer ran Windows 98.
• My grandma had this crazy computer called an iMac.
• People in schools started worrying about school shooting.
• Pirating music became popular due to a program called napster.
• Beanie Babies and Tamagotchi were popular for a short time.
• I made a website dedicated to Britney Spears.
• A teacher told me I’d make a good pastor someday; I thought she was crazy.

This past weekend I got to be a part of the Middle School Ministry Campference put on by the Youth Cartel.  This event was unlike any other youth ministry conference that I’ve been to.  The main reason for this was that it took place at Spring Hill Camps, allowing it to take the best elements of a conference and mix it with the best elements of camp.  Because of the camp environment, the conference was less about listening to keynotes, although that was important, and more about spending time with the middle school ministry tribe.  I loved to be able to go to breakout discussions, play dodgeball in the gym, hang out throwing pizza boxes into the fire, or just hang out talking about life and ministry, all with other people who love middle school students.  Being at camp, all of the speakers hung out with us, which gave us a great opportunity to not only learn from them as they led breakouts or keynotes, but also to learn from them personally and get to know them as friends.

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Worship is an abstract concept.  Worship is anything that we do in response to God for who he is and what we’ve done.  While simple in statement, the reality is it can be a difficult thing to grasp.  Despite it being difficult, not only do I think middle school students can grasp this, I think that often they understand worship better than many adults.  In middle school ministry one of our primary goals is to lead our students in the worship of Christ.  All our students are worshippers, so as leaders we try to guide them to worship Jesus, not just in song, but with all of their life.  We want our students to worship Him in their homes, as they go to school, and as they gather together with the Church.

But beause of the place that we find middle school students, how can we teach something as abstract as worship?  When it comes to corporate worship, how can we teach them how to worship in that environment?  When it comes to our personal life, how can we teach them how to worship in all that they say and do?

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