Leading a Middle School Sunday School Class

Here are my tips for leading a great Sunday School or Youth Group Bible lesson time. These methods are specifically for Middle School (Junior High) age kids.

Using my lesson plans: On the "Lesson Plan" page you will find many pre-made Bible lessons to choose from. These are not the usual "bubble-gum" lessons that you normally find offered in curriculum books. Rather, they are foundational, doctrinal issues. These kids are ready to learn more detailed answers to questions like, "Where do you go when you die?". Plus they want answers to hard questions like, "Can you go to heaven if you commit suicide?". Kids will ask you these loaded questions. If you give them the same old route answers they will turn you off and mistrust whatever you're teaching. If, on the other hand, you prepare a detailed, Biblically supported answer, weather it's a tough answer or not, they will grow to trust you and appreciate your lessons. The point is to tell the kids the truth.

Age group differences:
My lesson plans can be adapted to both Junior High and High School age kids but the teaching methods are quite different. Middle school kids are just starting to realize that they can make their own decisions. They are just now beginning to grow their own faith apart from their parents. It's an exciting time to teach them.

Here's a tidbit from "Frontline":
"As the prefrontal cortex matures, teenagers can reason better, develop more control over impulses and make judgments better. In fact, this part of the brain has been dubbed "the area of sober second thought."

Click on Lesson Plan for full size PDF Image

If your class is primarily 6th-7th graders I recommend having them fill in the blanks on the lesson plan worksheets. This helps them begin to be able to create a "life application" sentence drawn from reading a Bible verse. Have them sign their names, and hand them in at the end of the lesson (I let them select one item from the "treasure box" as a reward {more on that later}). At the end of a season we spend a class making cover pages and assemble the Lesson Plans into a booklet for them to bring home to their parents. I add pages of pictures of the class that we have taken throughout the year. The booklet becomes a valuable treasure and accomplishment for many of them.

For older kids and High School age filling in the blanks is more like a tiresome chore. They're ready for a free flowing discussion debating the finer points. Just use the questions on the Lesson Plan for discussion starters. Use the verses as Biblical support for the issue being discussed. Guide the discussion to the main point the verses are conveying.

Rewards: I use candy as a discussion stimulator. Any answer gets a kid a piece of candy. If they're not paying attention I usually bounce it off their heads. I've heard some youth leaders insist that this "keeps the kids in a perpetual state of immaturity." I say, it works great. All eyes are focused on me and kids are reaching for answers. They'll mature soon enough.

The treasure box: Oriental Trading is a great source for inexpensive rewards. The "Mega Deluxe Toy Assortment" IN-5/715 has 250 trinkets the kids like. I also refill the treasure box with Religious Bracelets IN-36/1375, and pieces of candy.

Take lots of pictures: Kid's love pictures of themselves. A digital camera is a must for a youth leader.

Digital images can be easily enlarged and printed to hang proudly on the youth room wall.

Pepper the pictures on the back of the lesson plan worksheets. The work sheet then becomes a treasure that the kid will take home. You never know where that will lead, but a lesson plan with pictures will be viewed more often than one without pictures.

Add pictures to your e-mails. The kids will eagerly look for your messages increasing your communication effectiveness.

Match your style to the kids: Each group is different. Your's might be boys who like to play physical games. Another might be mainly girls who like to socialize. Yet another might be primarily kids who like "brain" games. You must match your teaching style to the kids.

Multiage Leaders: I strongly recommend putting together a mix of volunteers from different age groups. Most young leaders lack experience. They have a hard time coming across as authentic when talking about things like perseverance. They have not yet faced the troubles of life and won. However, the younger leader can offer the exuberance of a budding faith that an old warrior can not. In addition, 20-something jock youth leader will naturally attract athletically able boys to his youth group. A grand-motherly youth leader might have a group that resembles a girl scout troop. A leader will attract the kids they empathize with most.The other kids will feel disconnected and may drift off to some other churches group. If you find yourself serving at a new church with a group you don't connect with quickly enlist the help of volunteers with the characteristics that match your kids. No one will have all the characteristics of every kid in any group so a varied group of volunteers will help ensure that all the kids feel a natural connection to one of the leaders.

Don't be afraid to be silly or outrageous: Sometimes I come dressed in a Starfleet uniform or Jedi costume. In one of my pre-lesson activities I weigh the girls (you can hear the gasps). These are the lessons they remember years later.

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