Josh Loveless wrote a very interesting article in the current issue of Relevant talking about how his 20-something ministry is shifting to an intergenerational separate campus as opposed to a ministry option. Two quotes stood out to me as a Student Minister.
“I’ve noticed the more transitions and graduations that have to happen for someone to be a part of a church, the more difficult it is on a person’s spiritual formation.”
and
“Relationships formed over a lifetime with people who are just like you is, honestly, a form of self-worship.”
In many ways specialized student ministry is a necessary evil. Everything around us tells us that we have to divide people according to their age, and in more places than just church there is animosity between different generations. However the bottom line is that those transitions are hard on students. It is hard to enter the 6th/9th grade and it seems to be extremely hard to integrate into the larger church body after being with people of the same age for the previous 18 years.
So where is this headed? Could the role of student minister become a relic of bygone times in the next 50 or 20 years? I think it might, or at least the roles that person fulfills will look vastly different. Getting to a point of change will not be easy.
Perhaps a good place to start may be to blur the lines of the program. If transitions are the contributing to the disconnect that many students are experiencing, these transitions may need to be softened. I think it would be unwise to think that 6th graders and 12th graders can share commonalities in life, but it may be good to give 7th-9th graders some mobility. The way that many student ministries are setup there is a demarcation line from middle school to high school. What if we are able to design programs that were more based on philosophy and not grade, allowing students to have freedom of choice in what to get involved in. By giving some of these bridge ages some mobility it mitigates some of that transition anxiety.
I feel as though I am a bit all over the place on this issue, but I definitely have the sense that something is stirring.
Would really appreciate any feedback or thoughts you may have on this.
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Some good thoughts. The biggest line between that 6th grader and that 12th grader is development. The ability to get those abstract thoughts just isn’t there for a majority of those younger students. Therefore, your teaching is going to be different. Those 12th grade students will get very bored and want To jump ship. I see it totAlly necessary to have a seperate ministry but see it wise to provide opportunity for all to come together. All just based on their cognitive development.
I do think we do a disservice to students if we do not provide opportunities within the church to interact and form some sort of relationship with older/other generations. I dont think is going to lead to the demise of youth ministry. Or at least I hope not.
Sounds like an interesting article. I would love to read it.
We are on the same page Leanne, the distance between a 12 and 18 year old is probably the biggest 7 year gap in our entire lives; the mental/physical/emotional/spiritual differences is absolutely staggering. Seeing many 20-something ministries begin to examine themselves and change their approach it got me thinking if something similar may happen in student ministry. Getting students together for events works to some degree but that seems to be a place where the gulf between the ages works the most against you. A simple merge doesn’t seem prudent but easing some of those transitions might be. I am just trying to figure out if there would be a way that we could officially unofficially allow our 8th graders and 9th graders to have some mobility to jump ahead and step back into programs? I think the natural problem will be students still not wanting to move on and the abrupt transition only happening a year later.
Thanks for interacting here, and helping me process this. Since you have time to read this I hope that means that your life as a new and awesome mom is calming down a bit.