The Forgotten Middle School Ministry

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, February 20, 2007

The age-old debate persists over how to educate preteens, whether to integrate junior high years back into elementary schools, or keep them in transitional and what some call "chaotic" middle schools, or even bump them into the intimidating high school environment.

"No one has ever really been happy with the kind of schooling dedicated to ages 12-15," said Christopher Weiss, a sociologist at Columbia, according to The New York Times.

Churches face the same struggle.

"It's hard to know so much about junior highers and their development and what drives their emotional swing," said Mark Oestreicher, president of Youth Specialties, in an interview with his organization.

To a typical adult believer, middle schoolers can look like "annoying little creatures," said Oestreicher, "unless, you understand what's going on and have a sense of calling and appreciation for that."

For the most part, junior high ministries are forgotten and undervalued. Kurt Johnston, a junior high pastor from Lake Forest, Calif., said that the ministry may not be purposely forgotten, but in the "busyness of church ministry," it just is.

Students in their pre-adolescent stage are at that age where they feel like fools, according to Oestreicher, who described himself that same way when he was a middle schooler in the 70s.

They feel like they don't understand the world, they feel like losers, and they feel like they're the only ones, noted the two middle school ministry veterans. Oestreicher and Johnston are working on a series of books where they normalize that kind of life, telling junior high students that they are not alone.

The book series is entitled The Middle School Survival Series and will consist of six books. The first two books, My Faith and My Family, were released in January and were written in a middle school, conversational story format.

The important thing to communicate to middle schoolers is "You're not going to have it all figured out," said Johnston. "Your life in Christ is a journey."

And what Oestreicher has figured out about ministering to the preteens is not to cram them full of information. That's more meant for their elementary and high school years. Instead, "it is the right time to help them understand what it means to live the life of faith" - how to wrestle with doubt, how to ask questions, how to seek the truth, and how to experience God.

The next two books in the series the junior high veterans are working on are My School and My Friends.