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Creative ideas for separate High School/Middle School time?
My youth group has 20-25 students & runs 7th-12th grade. Aside from Sunday School, High School & Middle School are together for all programs/events. This hasn't been an issue in the past but this summer we've had a bigger than normal 7th grade class coming in & it has really changed the group dynamic (half the students are 7th-8th grade, half are 10th-11th with few 9th & 12th graders). I think we're going to need more times when HS and MS are split. However, I don't know if I have the resources to do completely separate youth group times for both ages. Plus I think there's benefit for both groups to have time together. Does anyone have suggestions for giving both groups some time on their own without creating two separate youth groups?
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We are using a small group format called e-Groups that works pretty well. The night begins with collective worship, then I speak for 5 min tops about the topic to be covered. Then students break up into their e-Groups for 20-35 min [depending on how much time is left in our hour long program] which are broken up into 2 jr. high groups, 2 9-10th grade groups and 2 11-12th grade groups. Groups are led by adult mentors and student mentors. Multiple interactions with different groups all night has created some success for us. Hope that helps! |
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Our youth group had a similar situation with more students coming in. So on the day of our youth services what we did is have HS and MS together during Praise and Worship and for the games and word we split them up. HS and MS do games and separately, as well as a word is given. This has worked pretty well especially for MS they feel more secure and closer to each other, they're not dominated by the presence of high schoolers. |
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Our amazing high school pastor here worked at a small church before coming on board here in Utah did it this way (and we adopted it at our most recent multisite): student ministry meets Sunday night. First 60 minute is Jr. High teaching time, then there is 45 minutes of mingling/games and then the last 60 minutes is high school teaching time. J high students leave after games and high school students don't show up until game time. It worked at his old church and is working pretty well here too. |
