Middle School Ministry Podcast

Sunday Morning Squirrels: Week two of our new Ruth series! Lots of 6th-grade students getting into the flow of the week and today I wasn't the only adult in the room! All in all, a pretty good day of Middle School Ministry! Countdown Video: StrongBad Email - Dragon Still resorting to things I thought were funny in high school. If this goes well, I may have a whole bunch of really silly videos to s...

If you have students, you've got parents! Plenty of parents are invested in your ministry and want to know what you're doing, and what's going on! Ronald's church has three parent meetings a year, but Michelle doesn't do any. Which is better? Which do you prefer? Do you have regular parent meetings? What do you do at the meetings? How can you resource your parents? Can you make it better than just...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: New week, new series! I was really excited about teaching this series again! It's one I wrote and I am a sucker for the Old Testament. Such wonderful pictures of what God had up His sleeves the whole time!  I hope you find this helpful! If so, go leave a review and share and other internet things.  Those are nice things to do. Countdown Video: Homestar Runner Dot Com I de...

We're the professionals, right? Who would DREAM of putting students up on the stage? Well, Michelle and Ronald kind of do. When students get up in front of their peers to lead, play games, do announcements, and teach, it validates them and challenges them. Also, it usually means their peers listen more than when the paid youth worker is up there anyway. This week we talk about why we put students...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: Now we're getting into a groove with Sunday mornings! This was the first week where sixth-grade students were REALLY getting into serving and it's awesome to see them getting into the flow of everything!  This is our third week of Purpose and we're focusing on LOVE today! It's been really great and I love the season of newness! Countdown Video: Man Gobbles at Turkeys I di...

Fall is here!  Or at least in theory, it should be. It doesn't quite feel like fall in Texas. Maybe in California. Either way, school is back in session and it's time to kick off the fall season! Are you pulling out all the stops and really making it a big deal?  Here are some questions to think about: For your Fall Kick off, are you going all out or just getting back to the routine? Are you going...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: Now we're getting into a groove with Sunday mornings! This was the first week where sixth-grade students were REALLY getting into serving and it's awesome to see them getting into the flow of everything!  This is our third week of Purpose and we're focusing on LOVE today! It's been really great and I love the season of newness! Countdown Video: Animal Vines Week two of th...

There are only so many hours in the day! It's time to use what we've been given to the fullest potential!   Ronald and Michelle have been flying by the seats of their pants this summer. Both of them are trying to get a hold of their schedule before the fall kicks in with full force. There's a lot to manage! Meetings, planning, growing, reading, studying, meeting parents, hanging with students and...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: Sunday number two with the new group of students. A little less chaos. But only a little!  We continued our series on Purpose from the 1 John series from DYM. It was a good day! Countdown Video: Animal Vines Remember vine? Those were the days. Our countdown video was just tons of animal vines all put together. Animals are funny. Students like animals. Win win win. Games:...

Every year Ronald's church attends the Global Leadership Summit through a satellite campus. This year, Michelle went for the first time to a satellite campus as well. This episode we talk a little about what we took away from the conference and what we can apply to middle school students and leadership! Here are some questions to think about: What is your church doing to invest in leaders? How can...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: What a crazy good Sunday! Our students all promoted today. That means tons of new students, a new group dynamic, and lots of names to remember! It was a really a great Sunday morning. We began a new series talking about our Purpose through 1 John. Absolutely a blast! Countdown Video: Chickfila Pickup Lines This was a funny video, BUT I was disappointed that it was a littl...

This is a really great event that we do the week before we have our 6th-grade students promote into the student ministry! It's a chance for the incoming students to be in the room, get to know me, and have a ton of fun eating and learning about the ministry! Here's a quick run-down of what we did. Game: 12 in 12 A really fun memory game based on screens. My 6th-grade students always really engage...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: This was the last week we had with our students who are in 8th grade. Next week we promote up and have a fresh group! I'm excited about it, but we needed to finish up strong! Jeremiah was our focus today. We reminded students that they are not too young to do God's will. We also spent some time praying for our leaving group of students. 8th Grade Send-off: We circled up t...

Your leaders' opinions of the trip matter! When you take leaders on a trip, you have the opportunity to ask them to be your "eyes and ears" for things that you might not be able to see because you've been working so closely on the details of the whole thing. Debriefing with your leaders is hugely important and can really help when you're either trying to change a big part of the trip or make it be...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: We've only got two weeks until we promote up the fifth-grade students into the middle school room and I'm excited! But that means we need to properly send off the eighth-grade students first! We started a two-week series called "Launch" which I'll put down below for you to download and make your own! It's always a crazy Sunday in middle school. Here's what we did! Countdo...

Middle School Girls. Chances are half of your group is female. How do you take time to make sure they are ministered to on trips? Michelle and Ronald have a candid conversation about making sure you've got what you need to meet the needs of half your group when you're gone on a summer (or really any) trip! Here are some questions to think about: Did you buy pads? You should. Do you have extra clot...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: Woo! This Sunday I've got someone teaching for me and it's their very first time in front of middle school students! I'm super pumped. I helped him write his talk, he gave it to me sitting in a chair in the middle school room (not awkward one bit) and then he watched himself after we recorded it. The rest of the day, was pretty normal/crazy with games, announcements and f...

Summer usually means summer trips! What trips have you been taking? Michelle and Ronald talk about the trips they've been taking, the reasons they take them, and how they recover! Here are some questions to consider! What trips do you take during the summer? How do you rest after taking a trip? What tips do you have for taking trips with middle school students? Mentioned on the podcast:  DYM Commu...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: We're back from our mission trip and I'm ALMOST recovered! It was a really great trip with students coming forward with a lot of brokenness. There's definitely some more unpacking that needs to happen over the course of time, but for now we're still rocking our series "Pause" from DYM. I made some tie ins to what happened at the mission trip but we'll do a deeper dive soo...

Youth ministry means designing things! Whether its parent newsletters, emails, social media posts, or slides for teaching, you're going to be designing things! Even if you're not great at it, there's lot you can learn from looking at other ministries and why design matters! Here are some questions to consider! What are your favorite free design resources? Who can you get to design things for your...

Sunday Morning Squirrels:   It’s definitely still summer! We leave on our mission trip this week but Sunday is still coming! We’re doing a DYM series called “Pause” and it’s been great! Check it out! Countdown Video: Fail Videos People falling down. It’s always funny. This is a fun and clean video. Download and us! Games: Rank This We had rows compete against each other in this fun game. Super eas...

Vacation Bible School is a staple in many churches! Whether you call it VBS, do it at night or in the morning, there's probably something going on in your children's minister for your kids during the summer! The question is, how can you get your middle school students involved in serving? Most of them have either JUST promoted out of elementary or are still not far from it, so can they really be h...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: Summer series time! We always have a fun series where it's a little calmer and a lot more practical. I was really glad for that because this Sunday we had REALLY low attendance! It was still a ton of fun. Since people either have a ton of free time in the summer or are crazy busy, we're looking at how to "PAUSE" and take time with God. It's a DYM lesson seriesUNdersto, so...

Summer is when our students and their families normally take a vacation, but what about us? As ministers, it's really important for us to get away, recharge and refresh. The problem is when most people are off (like during the summer and Christmas holidays) that's usually when our ministries are running full steam! That doesn't mean we don't take time off. It actually means we should be even MORE...

Sunday Morning Squirrels: VBS hangover is real. But our Sunday was still great! Countdown Video: VBS Volunteer Because so many of our students volunteer for VBS, I felt like they'd like this video. I wasn't wrong! It was a hit! Games: Extreme Row Makeover This was a great crowd game! Everyone can play and you need no supplies! The row has to do what shows up on the screen first and if they do, the...