The many possibilities of middle schoolers

As far as middle schoolers what do you see are limits of ministering/recreationing with and to middle schoolers and in contrast what are some of the opportunities? What were your expectations going into MSO as far as how middle schoolers would be?

Well, when I think of middle schoolers I think of my sister who is in middle school. There are times when I think that she is fully incapable of learning, but weeks later she will surprise me with some tidbit of information that she had retained. The opportunities for middle schoolers I think are that they are very open and receptive to modeling. Middle school is a time where kids look to idols and mentors and it is a great time to be a positive mentor and introduce strong Christian figures and heroes that they can look to i.e. St. Francis, Martin Luther, Shaine Claiborne. Especially for my sister it helps her to see real people that live a life like Jesus in the here and now. For the recreational aspect middle schoolers love to play games and have fun. As far as limitations, I think that middle schoolers can dig in deep to the word, but their attention span and thinking capacities are similar to that of a small rabbit especially if social media is not utilized. Also for recreation sometimes kids don't want to cross the middle school cliques and hang out with the other kids.

I hope this question isn't confusing. The more experience you have had with middle schoolers then your answers will probably be better. My experience is limited.

The Christian Calendar

Carly Haas

I did not know very much about the Christian Church Calendar before this assignment, so I had to do some background work. I am attaching the source I got my information from on here so if you want to get some background you can. http://www.cresourcei.org/chyear.html

In thinking about the church calendar I did not realize how purposely laid out it is to tell the story of Jesus. The website above talks about how the Christian calendar revolves around the life and ministry of Jesus from start to finish and it also touches on the Great Commission and Jesus’ return. With thinking about the Church Calendar in association with teaching the children, I think it is a great way to connect them with the stories of Jesus. A lot of the time the children are learning something different than the congregation in “big church”, but I think if the children, youth, and adult ministries all teach and learn from the Christian Church Calendar then they can connect with each other, while learning about the life and teachings of Christ. We don’t, however, want to loose the other important stories within the Bible and only focus on the Gospel. The other stories are also part of our Christian history. In what ways can we implement the use of the Christian Calendar in teaching the children, but not loosing sight of the other stories within the Bible as well?

The Role of Missions as a Form of Recreational Ministry

Tyler Cheek

When most people think of 'missions' their minds travel to the far reaches of China, the safaris of Africa, or the rain forests of South America. However the idea of missions is so much bigger than the extreme images of full time missionaries. Missions is an important part of Christianity that any person of any age should carry out in their daily lives. While it is no exactly realistic to prepare first and second grades to be sent into Las Vegas for street evangelism, there are still areas of missions that they can be trained in. Before Jesus left the Earth he left us with the instructions on how to live our lives. He summed all this up with what is known as the "Great Commission" (Matthew 28:18-20). How can the Great Commission be literally applied in your life as a teacher, so that through example you can teach and disciple others?

Program Templates and Youth Meetings

Sara Cover:

Youth groups are something that most of us are familiar with, we can think back to the silly games, interesting lessons and yummy food. But I am sure none of us really stopped and thought about the work that went into pulling it all together. Reading this chapter really helped me to see that it is not just all thrown together but thought through. So what exactly are the parts that make up a successful youth meeting?

Well like Jesus says the first shall be last and the last shall be first, that is how you have to begin your planning with the end in mind. Figure out what you want the students to get out of the meeting, what one point do you want them taking with them and processing through out the week. That is the thing that you build games, songs, and discussions around. After that is done brainstorm ideas of things that will go with your main point and help to emphasize it. The last thing you need to focus on is making sure your point sticks with them and that they want to come back the next time. You can do this in three easy ways : make stepping stones that connect the point from tonight's meet to the point for next weeks meeting. Also decided what the function of your hook is; is it to review, preview, or connect and in what form a challenge, question or promise.

My questions are from your youth group experiences what was one thing you really took away from the meeting each night and what is one thing you wish you could have changed to make it better. Also do you believe that there are any topics that should not be discussed in a youth group setting why or why not?

Experientail YM Handbook: Full-day Events

Emalee Dunkle: I really enjoyed this particular statement: "remember that there are no throwaway moments in ministry." This just blew my mind, many events or plans get pushed away because we think that they can not be as meaningful as they should be but in reality, there is always a learning experience to be had, you just have to be open for it. Since sometimes full-day events seem that they are too much work for such a little time I think we tend to put less emphasis on them. Another thing that caught my interest was the T.S. Eliot quote used at the end of the chapter: "We had the expierience, but we missed the meaning." This seems to be evident in many things when we discuss about imporvements that we feel need to be done in church programs it seems that sometimes we are missing the meaning of the events and not getting out of it what is being offered to us. My question relating to this deals with reflection: In what ways do you think participants can get meaning out of an experience to emphasis the purpose of the event? (that might be a little confusing of a question but hopefully my answer will clear that up) For me I think there needs to be a good amount of time for reflection so that those invovled can think about how they may have been impacted. Personally just leaving time for prayer is not always the most beneficial way to do this, asking questions and then letting the participants ponder and pray about thier answers is usually a more beneficial way for me to get the most out of an expierence.

Best-Ever Games: Introduction

Mike Smith

Are games still an effective resource that we must utilize in order to engage our students in ministry, and how can we fight through the entertainment barriers to get the kids involved?

Games have been around for many years, but it seems that this generation has strayed away from the desire to be involved in games that involve a group of kids. Many of them would rather be at home on the internet, watching TV, or playing video games. The book, Best-Ever Games states 7 reasons that games are still valuable today including: games are universal, stress-relieving, improves person's feel of belonging, and a few other good reasons. Acknowledging these benefits of games shows me that these games are still an important tool to use in effective ministry. In order to engage the kids, we need to be of encouragement and try to help show the students the benefits of playing games by pushing them to be involved, but never in a demanding, forceful manner.

Games

Often times in the church, from what I have seen, games are mainly used just as a distraction or a way of burning off kids'/teens' energy. Games are also sometimes used as a form of competition to suck in a certain crowd into the church with the purpose of building up numbers (this is particularly prevelant in youth groups.) What I think we need to ask ourselves in the church is if these are good enough reasons for having games. There are certainly times where a game can be useful in opening up a kids service to get children active and connected, and games may very well be a good way to minister. But I think these should only be done if there is a plan behind it. We need to ask ourselves before we plan a game: What are we trying to accomplish by doing this? What kind of impact could this game make? Will everyone be able to be involved?

So my questions are (1) How do we make sure our games have a purpose or value? (2) What might be some kinds of games to shy away from? What are kinds of games we should try to utilize?