Ask & receive

Group, May/Jun 2001

GIVE AND TAKE

Any suggestions for easing the tension between a senior high group and a junior high group that share the same youth room? (For example, the senior highers have decorated three of the walls in the youth room and left only one small wall for my junior high youth group.)

Anonymous

Via Internet

One thing I'd suggest doing is using one central theme-not only are you solving the problem of who uses what walls but you're also bringing the two groups together. The junior highers get to see a little of the excitement the senior highers experience, and the senior highers get to minister to the younger ones.... Pick a Saturday where both the junior and senior highers come in to paint the central theme of their youth group.

Jeremy Summers

Rock Island, Illinois

I created a "wall of shame" in our youth room... all our youth group members brought in embarrassing photos of themselves. Some were goofy photos/poses, some were high school members when they were younger-- scrawny/bad hair/braces... it brought both age groups down to the same level and showed the middle schoolers that the high school youth group members weren't always as cool as they'd like people to believe. And of course... Dave's picture is the goofiest of all!

Dave Griffiths

Louisville, Kentucky

I've found that mixing the ages together can really make for an interesting class .... It turned out great because we got the teens involved in teaching with us.... Giving your teens more say-so in what goes on at church may encourage them to make more mature decisions, like giving up an extra wall to paint for the junior class.

Connie Saxon

Hays, North Carolina

We don't combine middle school and high school youth when doing our weekly outreach for each group. However, when we do worship, we do combine... Mainly, we've spent a good deal of time training our high school students to see their middle school counterparts as an opportunity to mentor. Also, in youth ministry there's much cynicism toward middle school students. We're careful to make sure that students don't see this displayed in our ministry.

Rich Griffith

Sugar Hill, Georgia

Get a core team of "youth ambassadors" and let them decide on the agenda. You should be open-minded to each group [junior and senior highers], but they have to represent their views in a respectful way to you and the core group. Meet once and plan from there.

Denise Goodwyn

Lewiston, Montana

This may sound a little silly, but something like this happened to us .... Give the junior high kids the ceiling to decorate. It definitely works.

Angila Crockett

Moline, Illinois

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I'm a minister of youth and education who's also got responsibility for college ministry-any ideas for college networking?

Steve Kagy

Tallahassee, Florida

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