Middle School Youth Ministry: More Important Than Ever!

November, 2011
by Kevin Driscoll
Diocese of Gary OYYA

Ministry with middle schoolers is more important than ever.

There is no question that in my nearly fifteen years of professional lay ecclesial ministry with youth, ministry with youth in grades 6-8 (junior high or middle school youth ministry) has evolved from “a good idea to have something to feed into your high school program” to “essential if you hope to have anyone in your high school program.” Most experts believe younger adolescents are encountering moral dilemmas and pressures at younger ages. Regardless of whether a middle schooler is engaging in risky behaviors when they arrive at our churches, due to the prevalence of the internet and digital media, they are without question more aware of those behaviors, more so than ever before.

Emily Norman, a writer for the youth ministry trade publication Group, wrote:

Junior High ministry is often overlooked in the church as educators focus on the younger children and older teenagers. This is a transition period in which no one really wants to be involved with or give these students a chance to discover who they are. “Adolescence is not a time of rebellion, crisis, pathology and deviance for a large majority of youth. It is far more accurate to see adolescence as a time of evaluation, of decision making, of commitment, and of carving out a place in the world” (John W. Santrock, Adolescence: Ninth Edition. McGraw Hill, 2003). In ministry, this is the light bulb that needs to go off in each youth workers head as a realization of the importance of a relationship with God early in life.

As evangelizers of the faith, simply put, we are at war with a sinful popular culture. We can win this war! In the largest single study of teens and religion ever conducted in the U.S.A. (National Study of Youth & Religion [NSYR], tracking study 2003-present, University of North Carolina), most Catholic young people surveyed report that their religious faith is somewhat (42%), very (31%) or extremely (11%) important in shaping their daily lives and in making important life decisions. So they’re open to hearing what we have to say! The study also drew a direct correlation between youth ministry programming and living a moral life: youth participating in youth ministry programs were nearly twice as likely (60% versus 35%) to say that religion or faith is extremely or very important in shaping daily life. So we can, in fact, make the world a better place through effective youth ministry!

True ministry is not about programs, it is about cultivating relationships. Like any seed that bears fruit, relationships are cultivated over time. It is my contention that traditional religious education programs do not provide enough time to establish the kind of relational ministry required to bring about truly transformational encounters with Christ for today’s middle schoolers. They need to see Christ in action. Christ needs to be lifted from the curriculum and put into action. If we hope to show today’s middle schoolers that Christ is alive and real in their lives, catechists need to evolve into comprehensive youth ministers, willing to be the face of Christ.

Simply put, more time = better relationships. In that regard, there is no substitute for a retreat, service project, or other special out-of-the-classroom religious experience for an impressionable young person to open his or her eyes to his or her relationship with Christ.

In National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR): Analysis of the Population of Catholic Teenagers and their Parents (Washington, D.C.: National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry), research analyst Charlotte McCorquodale wrote, “Young people who participate in at least one retreat, rally, conference, congress, mission trip, or extended service project report a significant increase in their feeling of closeness to God, the degree that faith is important in their lives, and how often they read the Bible on their own.”

Participation in such programs forms better Catholic youth. It would stand to reason that we must begin developing more comprehensive strategies to reach out to middle schoolers, if we haven’t done so already, to allow them to do what Christ calls them to do. We owe it to God’s young Church to bring them the Gospel through effective middle school youth ministry programs.