For those of you in the trenches of ministry to middle school students, this recap of my last Sunday might sound familiar to you.

In this episode I talk about:

Ukele's

Funny videos that weren't

Rainbow lights

Nearly broken computers

Be encouraged!

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

Listen to the Podcast? Review the podcast!

Middle school drama. It's going to happen. In this episode I talk about what we do in two different instances of drama: middle school drama directed at adults and drama between students.

It doesn't ever all go away because we're all going to have drama. In this episode, however, hopefully I talk about how to better deal with it in these ways:

Talking about respect versus fun

Defining what respect looks like

Showing students the Biblical way to confrontation

Reminding ourselves the goal of raising functioning adults!

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

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We had a middle school retreat this last weekend and I learned a ton! This year, we had an AMAZING student to leader ratio, but more importantly we made a big push to set the expectations we had on our leaders early. I talk a little bit about that in today's episode.

In this episode I talk about:

Helping leaders avoid the bubble

Getting them to have conversations with students

Helping them be above reproach

Setting expectations so you can see results!

 

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

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Do your middle school students have cell phones? A lot of mine don't! At a recent training we were talking about a few different ways we could encourage students who don't have a cell phone yet and, even though some of our ideas were old school, they can still be such a big win!

In this episode I talk about:

Mailing stuff: postcards, letters, snacks

Going to their events/games/plays

Inviting them to hang out and eat on a bank holiday

This all happened because of a DYMU training video. Check it out!

If you've never heard of DYMUniversity, what are you waiting for? Click here.

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

Want to see my resources, including my newest ebook on speaking to Middle School students? Click here.

I'm not bitter, I promise. But MAN have I been neck deep in food allergies this year in Middle School ministry!

I don't know about you, but with every event, retreat, and trip I've been flooded with questions about food. I hope this helps you think through these issues in your minsitry before they become issuses!

In this episode I talk about:

Having a food allergy policy

Making a distinction between medically neccesary and preference

Wanting students to learn how to manage their own allergies

Here's the policy we came up with for Sundays:

Our policy for Sunday mornings is the following:

Clorox wipes are available at the student’s discretion to clean off any surfaces they may fear have come into contact with allergens.

Parents are discouraged from bringing food with nuts in them for Sunday Snack.

Whenever the Student Ministry is tasked with providing the food, we will ensure that they do not contain nuts.

If any allergens are found to be present in the food brought, we will put up a sign warning those with allergies about the ingredients.

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

Want to see my resources, including my newest ebook on speaking to Middle School students? Click here.

More words on Middle School students and social media!

In this episode I talk about:

How students should think of social media like a tattoo.

That students should THINK before they post

Why we should model this approach in our own social media use.

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

Want to see my resources, including my newest ebook on speaking to Middle School students? Click here.

In this episode, I take some lessons learned from conversations with the queen of middle school ministry, Katie Edwards and share them with you! We do our students a disservice if we just hand them social media accounts without any training about how to use them.

We also do our parents a disservice if we don't talk about this with them as well! 

In this episode I talk about:

The benefit of getting social media accounts in steps, instead of all at once

Comparing getting a social media account to getting a driver's license

The reality that once it's posted, it never goes away

 

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

Want to see my resources, including my newest ebook on speaking to Middle School students? Click here.

In this episode, I get to talk to Gabe Reed and Amanda Veenstra, the middle school pastors at Napanee Missionary Church in Napanee, Indiana.

We talked about the positive aspects of working with Middle School students because, let's face it, most of the time we don't hear about that part! It was a great conversation and you should totally hit them up. They're doing a great job out there!

We talked about:

Our own middle school experiences

Recruiting MS Volunteers

How to talk about MS ministry in a positive way!

Gabe's twitter: @gabriel.s.reed 

Amanda's twitter: @amandarae_veenstra

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

Want to see my resources? Click here.

In this episode, I don't talk much. That's because I'm listening to Middle School Ministry Guru Mark Oestreicher (MarkO) talk about how he goes about trying to understand the kid in front of us. The squirrelly middle school student who shouts out during prayer time or

You got this.

We take a look at:

Middle School students and abstract thought

Helping Middle School students "flex" their abstract thinking muscle

A great book to read: How God Changes Your Brain

Taking ministering to Middle School students seriously (but maybe not yourself so much)

Check out Mark O's day job: The Youth Cartel

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

Want to see my resources? Click here.

In this episode, I talk about how I teach middle school students in a large group setting. Large doesn't have to mean hundreds, but just more than allows for a typical small group discussion. It doesn't have to resemble a nuclear blast, but it also probably won't look like coffee at Starbucks and a John Piper book discussion. 

You got this.

I talk about:

Thinking shorter

Setting up your teaching into 5 minute "blocks"

How to teach interactively

Planning out concrete application

Got a middle school ministry question?

Email [email protected]

Need student ministry resources?

Check out www.downloadyouthministry.com

Want to see my resources? Click here.