Junior High Parents - Discuss!

Alright Parents...here you go... Here is a copy of the notes that I sent you in email already. Read and add your comments into the discussion thread!

Here are the basic notes from our Senior High Parent’s Meeting on Sunday, September 28^th. I encourage you to read through it and reply back to the entire group with additional ideas or discussion. If you have something to suggest or discuss that you would rather not have the whole group privy to, please feel free to send it just to my email.

We started off the meeting with the question, “What do you want the Jr. High Ministry to look like?” There were many fruitful responses to this question:

- Get the Jr. High students more active in the youth ministry so that they are sold on Jesus and the youth group community by the time they hit Senior High.

- We discussed numerous ways to accomplish this including: activities that are more centered on things that Junior High students are attracted to, more activities that are just for Junior High students, more overall focus in the direction of the Youth Ministry toward building up this group.

- Create more of a bond amongst the Junior High students.

- This will be accomplished thru the means mentioned above.

- There is a general feeling that it is okay to do some things that are combined with the High School students.

- Make a split to Junior High Small Groups on Sunday nights.

- Begin integrating the students into helping with the leading of the Small Group devotional times.

- Begin forming a model in which the Senior High students model servanthood to the Junior High students who in turn model servanthood to the younger children in the Children’s Ministry.

- This is a model in which Greg has begun researching already including having met with an “expert” in this area of youth ministry. Greg, Jerry, Allen, and Todd will begin to put some flesh on this and continue to seek parent input before implementation is made.

- Begin a ministry in which women are mentoring the Jr. High / Preteen girls.

- This is a very exciting idea in which Julia has proposed that mom’s and other young women from the Body begin mentoring our young girls thru different means. This could be thru activities, retreats, Bible studies, one-on-oneing, etc.

We also listed two categories on the chalkboard and had everyone put their individual input into each of these categories by using Sticky Notes. Please take the opportunity to respond to either of these categories thru the website! They are:

Entry Point Activities – Outreach in nature, low spiritual level.

(Responses Included)

- Bowling

- Movie Nights

- Game Nights

- Paintball

- Wii Night

- Build Your Own Sundae

- Karaoke

- Putt Putt

- Paintball

- Halo/Games Night

- Beach

- Campfire

- Fishing

- Camping

- Funtrackers

Mid Level Activities – Still outreach in nature, but leans toward modeling one or more aspects of Jesus’ life, i.e. service.

(Responses Included)

- Small Group Devotionals

- Beach Cleanup

- Mow a yard for an older person

- Tri-Area Devos

- Guest Speakers

- Visit and Encourage at Nursing Home

- Visit a Women’s Shelter

- Community Service at Church Facility

- Assisting Elderly Members

A large discussion that we had during the meeting revolved around the nature of our Sunday night times. The decision was made to use this format (with flexibility):

1^st Sunday Night of the Month – A joint Senior and Junior High activity

2^nd Sunday Night of the Month – Separate Junior and Senior High Small Groups

3^rd Sunday Night of the Month - Separate Junior and Senior High Small Groups

4^th Sunday Night of the Month – Body Life Activity (Whole Congregation)

5^th Sunday Night of the Month – Joint Service Project

There is a lot of flexibility to make changes to this schedule as is needed. But for the most part, this will be our framework for Sunday Nights.

It was agreed that the Havelka’s would host the Jr. High on Oct. 12^th, and the Collier’s would host the entire youth group for a Games and Movie Night on November 9^th.

We decided to do a join the idea of doing a Youth Group Halloween activity with an Outreach activity and decided to call it HaloWeen. We will host a Halo tourney here at our facilities on Nov. 1^st. Details will follow. (For those who do not know, Halo is a first-person shooter, video game).

It was agreed that we will have a Joint Christmas Party for the youth group.