Ministry During Transitions: from Children’s Ministry to Youth Group
Note: this article is the first part of YPT’s “Ministry in Transitions” series. We will explore transitions into middle school, from middle school into high school, high school graduation, as well as ‘rites of passages’ throughout adolescence.
The easiest way to avoid navigating transitions in youth ministry is to move from church to church as quickly as the oft-cited “18-month” tenure youth pastors are often attributed. However, most of us probably believe that effective and faithful ministry includes staying rooted in a community for more than a blip. As a result, we walk through several seasons of transition with our students and their parents. Of all the transitions youth pastors may navigate in their ministry, the transition from Kids Ministry into Middle School is the one I think we often make the most assumptions about. We don’t often ignore it but we may assume that the kids who have been coming to the programs and events in our church’s Kids Ministry will simply transfer over and become regular participants in the Youth Ministry.
Whether we handle this transition into Middle School this way because we’re more focused on the transition at high school graduation or we have incoming students whose siblings are already part of our ministry, I think we can give more attention to this first transition. After all, it is our chance to start on the right foot with students and their parents, especially if they are the first in their family to enter adolescence.
When we navigate this transition at the front end well, it strengthens our ability to navigate the transitions that come afterwards. Here are several suggestions for purposefully and meaningfully transitioning students from Kids Ministry into Middle School.
Be Present Before Transition
Ministry is relational, whether it’s youth ministry, kids ministry, or adult ministry. Transitions are no exception. If we expect our incoming students to feel comfortable when they don’t know any of the youth leaders, then we’re missing something. We recognize that the kids and teens in our church are a part of the Body, and as pastors and leaders in the church we’re called to know and shepherd them too - even if they’re not yet who we’ve been specifically charged to care for. This can take many forms, from something as simple as getting to know the younger siblings of existing students to a more involved role like teaching regularly in your church’s Kids Ministry programs. If your church has a Kids Ministry pastor or director, ask them how you can be involved and build relationships with the kids who are close to Middle School.
Begin Strong
We should also recognize the opportunity to build and clarify expectations. This transition is a key time to set the vision and purpose of a church’s Youth Ministry for the new students and parents. Our goal at this time is not simply that they keep coming through their first year or two, but that we also start building well towards the transition out of high school.
Begin strong with encouragement and equipping for parents’ spiritual leadership, so they know you see them as the primary disciple makers and that you want to partner with them. Begin strong with integrating and welcoming these new students so the existing students in your ministry know these new students are now a part of the community. Begin strong by beginning with the end in mind.
Make It Special and Different
As I mentioned above, I think this transition between Kids Ministry and Middle School is one we can easily overlook or make assumptions about. While the accomplishment of graduating high school and moving into adulthood is a bigger moment than moving into middle school, we can still celebrate this transition and make it meaningful.
One way that I’ve sought to do that in my ministry contexts is through a Rising 6th Graders Dinner, where the students entering Middle School are invited to a dinner just for them and their parents (no siblings!). I cook some of their favorite foods, we talk about the vision and purpose of the ministry, play a game together, allow space for questions, and have the parents and students write letters to each other that I send a few months later. Consider what it might look like in your context to make this transition into the Youth Ministry special and different.
These students are moving from the oldest in the Kids Ministry to the youngest in the Youth Ministry, and that can make them feel intimidated or anxious. Making this transition meaningful is one way we can communicate that we value them and all they add to the ministry.
Cultivate the Existing Culture
The existing culture of our youth ministry is one of the more impactful factors in navigating this transition well. We can go to great lengths to be present in the Kids Ministry, offer something special and different, and begin well with clarity for new students and their parents. But if the culture they walk into is one of cliques, cutting each other down, exclusion, pride then new middle school students will either walk away, huddle with each other in the corner of the youth room, or join in and perpetuate the culture we don’t want to see.
Our youth ministries ought to reflect the truth Ray Ortlund points out in his book The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ, “By the power of God, the gospel creates something new in the world today. It creates not just a new community, but a new kind of community.” (p. 65) Time spent cultivating the culture of our youth ministries to reflect the Fruit of the Spirit is time well spent. Consider these practices as a great place to start establishing a healthy gospel culture.
Allow and Explain Room for Grace
As much as we set out to navigate this transition as well as we can, we also understand the need for grace. These new middle schoolers are caught in between childhood and adolescence, and may go back and forth between wanting to be an independent teenager and feeling embarrassed that they’re not as independent as their peers. Good pastoral care for these students will provide some extra attention and guidance, especially during special events and retreats.
Parents may have trouble understanding the vision of the ministry, especially if they had a different youth ministry experience of their own. Families whose first born is entering middle school are in a new phase they’ve never navigated before. Try to provide them with as much clarity as possible, repeatedly and without resentment. Remember, you are ministering to them, too, and hopefully you’ll have an ongoing partnership with them for the next six or seven years.
As we consider the entire scope of our ministries and how we want to be integrated with the whole church, may we see this transition as one opportunity to do that. May we rely on God through prayer for this transition, and be praying for these students and parents. May we plan well and make adjustments when needed. God is faithful to begin and complete the work he’s doing in these students’ lives - let’s cooperate faithfully in that work.