The 2-year Cycle

Longevity pays off anywhere you work, but especially in Middle School Ministry.

For the past five years I've been bumbling through lessons and series, going back and forth between creating my own and adapting bought series, all the while trying to develop a solid two-year cycle of teaching. After five years, I finally repeated a series. And it was fantastic. Here are some reasons I love teaching off of a well-built two-year cycle in Middle School Ministry.

I have a plan. If a parent asks me what's going to be taught, I can give them the outline for 2 years. When I think of a topic that should be taught, I can visually see the best time of the year to put that into the cycle. I very rarely suffer from the "What am I going to teach next week?" syndrome.

My lessons get better each time. Instead of focusing on WHAT to teach, I can focus more on HOW to communicate it. I don't have to figure out the 3 points from this passage, I just have to refine and tweak it to make those 3 points stick better.

Great ideas stay great. So many times I come up with a "great ideas" that flops, simply because all my time was spent writing lessons. When teaching in a Middle School cycle, the lessons remain priority, but more time is freed up to make that great idea come out great for the students.

It takes a long time to know what Middle School students need to hear, and it takes longer to put it together in some semblance of order. But once you get there, you'll thank yourself for hanging in there. And even though your students will likely never thank you, you're making the time for them that much better.

Mixing it up...

I took some advice this week to try and get out of the message rut. I combined the random thoughts that I typically jot down on a notepad with my love for sticky notes.

We are headed into our 2nd week of Crossover's own version of HSMs HAPPY Series, a look at the Beatitudes. A great way to get Middle School and Jr. High students to think about true happiness.

I had a lot of thoughts for this week, but no clear way of arranging them. I decided to jot down individual thoughts on sticky notes, and then sort them into a clear communication flow. Worked super well, check it out!

Pre-Fall To-Do List

Speaking of things to do in order to launch a new year of Middle School Ministry, here's my to-do list for the fall:

• Inform Sunday school teaching team on how to use the new Grapple curriculum.
• Arrange and price books for our new student book store.
• Attain equipment for our new student coffee area.
• Print, frame, and hang about 40 ministry pictures in the Mill.
• Get out September's parent newsletter.
• Finish developing the opening series for Tuesday night program
• Ask more people to join our small group leaders staff
• And some other stuff. Yikes

Middle School Ministry

This Spring I reserved a copy of Scott and Marko's new book, Middle School Ministry: a comprehensive guide to working with early adolescents. 

I'm 3 chapters in and love it. I wish there was more time in the day and less things on my to-do list. 

I look forward to giving a full review next week sometime.

Retreat in Review

We had a great time at Camp Orchard Hill the other weekend. After some time to recoup and think back on the weekend, this is how I boil it down from a Middle School/Junior High perspective:

Worship Band: C While they did a great job, they were at a level that was much deeper than where the Middle School students were at. Songs were too slow/repetitive, without the elements of simply exciting and getting kids pumped to be at camp.

Speaker: B Did a great job illustrating stories from the Bible and bringing them to life. However, his messages were always long, and lacked any kind of visual element such as PowerPoint or videos. Towards the last session, a lot of the Middle School students would start to disengage as soon as he started, simply because they knew he was going to only talk for 40 minutes. 

Meals: A- I always love the food there. 

Free Time: A Good mix of free time and organized fun time. There's enough options of things to do during free time that no Middle Schoolers were bored, and they didn't have enough time to get into any serious trouble.

Curfews: B+ Set at good times, but could have been better enforced...mainly in my cabin. They did not sleep the first night (which led to peace and quiet the second night).

Organized Group Activities: A The COH Staff has their fingers on the pulse of "how kids have fun" and did an excellent job of providing a variety of games (from mental to physical) that every student could plug into.

Conclusion: A fantastic weekend for many, a fun weekend for all. This was a mixed (Jr. and Sr. High) retreat, and might be one of our last. While the Sr. high students were pushed harder than usual, this left some of the Middle Schoolers behind. 

Awesome idea from NYMC in action

Tim Schmoyer gave us an idea in one of NYMC Brown Bag Lunch Seminars. We're using twitpic and 12seconds to post updates from camp for parents! Check it out on our Student Ministry Website.

Retreat time!

I came into the office to do all the last minute things before our weekend retreat, and found that there is really nothing for me to do right now. That's a good feeling: I get an A for ministry preparedness.

Unfortunately, I still have to pack, but can't until all my socks and underwear get done in the dryer. Not such a good feeling. I get about a C- for personal preparedness. Better luck next time.