Student Ministry

Back to School and the Rest of the School Year

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By Steven Turner: All across our nation, the last few weeks have been abuzz with excitement. Our televisions have been filled with ads and the source of this excitement has found its way into our living rooms and around our dinner tables. I bet that you have been a part of this excitement too. I’m not talking about a Presidential election; I’m talking about the start of a new school year. Every year, our youth face a wave of excitement and apprehension as they prepare for a new year that carries every bit as much meaning as January 1.

The Changing High School Experience

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Youth workers love high schools. Mostly because they are full of teenagers and we love teenagers. However today’s high school experience is very different from what you experienced. Today’s high school life is definitely not what you see in High School Musical. It certainly isn’t like anything you saw in Saved by the Bell or Beverly Hills 90210 or even the recreation of 90210. And certainly not Glee. Even the “realistic” The Secret Life of the American Teenager doesn’t truly portray what today’s high school life is really like.

Because high school life is important to youth ministries, it is important to understand this changing experience so your youth ministry plans are in sync with your teens’ real life–not the supposed life you remember from high school.

Why I Am Still Not Rah-Rah Over the Campus Missionary Movement (At Least Not as We Know It Still in 2007)

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Back in 2001 I wrote a Pair of Cleats that had been stirring in me for quite some time. I labored, studied, and prayed over what was stirring in me and the fruit was the most negatively received Pair of Cleats ever entitled, “Why I’m Not Rah-Rah Over the Campus Missionary Movement.” Not that this bothered me. I felt peace after the sweat labor from working through all of my supposed-to thoughts mixed with what I was seeing and learning. As Wild Frontier and out-there those thought were, I was confident of what I wrote. Even if others weren’t.

Six years later I still am. So I bring my thoughts to you again with an added six-more-years perspective. I am now starting my 27th year of youth ministry and I’m in my 15th year as a substitute teacher in the public school system. I still believe strongly in the Wild Frontier lifestyle which is to live your life beyond human limits.

Be a Blessing to Your School

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The big reason why youth workers love high schools is that they are full of teenagers. There are lots of teenagers all gathered in one place. Hence youth ministry has a large focus on the high school.

More often than not though, our agenda for the high school is not the same agenda of those who work in the school system have, particularly the administration. Their vision (and mandate) is to educate students and they need all the help possible to achieve that goal. The school has their mandated responsibility of education but they are also daily fighting losing battles with attitudes, violence, apathy, and various crimes. Just to name a few. Add to that multi-cultural teaching, sex education issues, character education, etc. These are also mandated but they take away from education time.

Beyond Summer Camp Ministry

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The question has now been put out there. Any veteran in youth ministry may have already had the thought but Time Magazine put it in print. Is the teenager disappearing? Is the age of sweet 16, slumber parties (girls only, not mixed), and hours of car talk becoming something of another time? The life stage of teenager has only been around for 50 years, but will it be around much longer?

We are seeing the changes first hand. Boys and girls are becoming men and women physically between the ages of 10 to 13. Most ten year olds are not even invited to our youth meetings yet. Many high schoolers are getting into their career jobs while still in high school. My high school hires students to do their computer networking and webwork. Students are doing work on their teachers’ computers and getting paid. Think about that.

Life At School

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It’s is back-to-school time. Time for a schedule change for your teens. This issue contains some honest insight about life at school for our teens. These thoughts come from my 15 years as a substitute teacher at my school, from teens I talk to at school as well as my church youth group and from Scott Greene, a 33-year old youth pastor who actually enrolled himself at a high school for a two-week experiment. You can read about his experiment at www.twoweeksback.com.

There are a lot of numbers for students to remember. Especially the first few weeks of the new school year. All students will get a locker number and then a locker combination for that locker. They will also get a PE locker with a number as well as another locker combination for that locker. Each class is assigned a room number which has to be found and traversed to in a span of 3 minutes to 7 minutes.
Read more: Life At School

It's Time for the Prom Alternative

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Full Disclosure: I hate prom. I have since the ‘80s. This is not new. Many, many teenagers over the years have heard me pontificate on my hatred of prom. My reasons: It’s expensive; it’s overhyped; and for the majority of prom-attenders, the evening is either one of let down and/or regret. Yet a lot of money, energy, and emotions are expended. Too many silly distractions and emotions are spent on who is going to ask or do the ask, what dress to buy, can I afford the limo, what to do after the prom, etc. And sadly, so few teens in reality have that dreamy prom night date and experience. Too many dislike their dates, are uncomfortable in their shoes, are uncomfortable about what is happening in the limo, and wish the whole night would be over. Only then to have to go to the after-prom plans which are even more uncomfortable.

Churches Can and Should Fill Nitches Schools No Longer Can Afford

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Last month I challenged how the Church can fill a void in what has become of prom. There are so many other ways the Church can also fill niches that schools can no longer afford.

Due to No Child Left Behind, public education is going through major changes. Due to budget slashing, public education is going through even greater changes. Some programs are outright getting cut while in other school districts parents have to pay for a program that has been traditionally offered through public education such as Advanced Placement Art History, junior varsity golf or fourth-year German. For a good cursory overview of this, read this Wall Street Journal article: Free education is no longer free. And I’m not talking about the taxes we pay to support education.