High School is a much different animal compared to Middle School.  Sure they are only separated by a few years but it’s those few years that make things very different.  I support a ministry philosophy that ministers to students where they are.  That means that at Southbrook Church you will always see a dedicated Middle School and High School ministry.  Why?  Well to be honest Middle School guys and High School guys are in two different places.  I love getting everyone together for events, but for ministry, I prefer to keep it age appropriate.

Sundays: We purposely set up High School ministry for Sunday nights?  Why?  Because I never want a student to feel like they ‘have’ to come.  I want students to want to be there.  We go through God’s word.  I know that sounds like a given, but we go through God’s word in a compelling way.  Sure we go word by word, sure we do topical series sometimes; we even break up into small groups sometimes.  Why do we do this?  Well the statistics say that 79-80% of these student (who are in church) will walk away from the faith when they become young adults.  I don’t mind if they walk away from our youth group…I do mind if they walk away from the Lord.  Our philosophy is simple…we just teach the word of God.  I can’t add anything to it, take anything away from it…God’s word stands on its own.  We pray about the series we do, we pray through the Book in the Bible we are going to next…so we seek the Lord in all the things we do.  I do expect that through His word that these students will be changed; through His word their worlds will never be the same…and their priorities will shift from ‘me’ centric to Christ centered.  I believe that this will produce life change…this may even produce solid believers who can lean upon God’s word during any storm that life may bring.

Life Groups:  We do life group for approximately 20 weeks a year.  10 weeks in the fall and 10 weeks in the spring.  Why do we do life groups?  We do them to build community, teach God’s word and develop bonds with these students.  The goal is simple, dig into God’s word, build community and more importantly trust.  Although parents are the main voice in the student’s life, the extra time we have with these students in small groups helps us reinforce what the parents are teaching at home; and we all know that a second voice saying the same thing (from God’s Word) makes more sense.

Events: We do large-scale events with the entire youth group (Middle School included). We also do events that focused on High School students.  Studies show that humans retain more of what they learn when they couple learning with an experience.  It’s true!  Think back to the first grade when you went to the zoo.  Sure you thought it was just for fun.  Your teachers had different expectations though. You see when we couple a real life experience with teaching it accelerates understanding.  The same is true with our students.  When we couple spiritual teaching with spiritual experiences (missions trips, summer camps, and events) our students grow.  They see God’s word come to life.  A mission’s trip can help a student grow a year or two spiritually.