5th Graders are moving into the Middle School Ministry, the 8th Graders are moving into the High School Ministry and the 12th Graders are moving away for college or staying local moving into the Young Adult Ministry.
Things are changing, students are growing older and these transitions can be hard at times.
My personal context is as a Middle School Pastor mostly. I am on a Student Ministry Team where we are all part of the team and we all funnel in together, however, my primary focus is Middle School Students.
This means, I am sending off 8th graders and welcoming in 5th Graders! This is my first year in this particular context, so my first time really taking on such a big undertaking. We have over 150 new 5th Graders moving up and the pressure is on!
Our Children's Ministry does an AMAZING job and for some of these upcoming students, they've interacted with CM their whole lives, as have their parents (the whole life of their child that is)! They are stepping away from the familiar into the unknown world of Student Ministries. This can be scary for both the student and the parent. As I reflected on the seriousness of such a change, I realized that the best way to make this transition was not to wing it, but to actually have a Strategic Plan of Intigration!
Here is the overall strategic plan:
Tues. and Wed. May 11th and 12th During game time of Blast (our Middle School Mid-week event; it happens on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as does the CM mid-week event), I will head over to CM along with 2 middle school boys and 2 middle school girls to show myself, pump up the 5th grade Blast nights and to have the Middle School students share some of their Blast experience as well as Quest (our Sunday School) and Growth Group (our small group) experiences.
Tuesday May 18th- First 5th Grade ONLY Blast night. we will be welcoming the new 5th graders with great food as well as a quick game, and a quick talk. Throughout the night, I will be doing a “talking walk through” explaining aloud all that we normally do on a Blast night.
Sunday May 23rd - All of the Student Ministries staff will be visiting Jr. Worship 1st, 2nd and 3rd services to show our faces to the 5th graders and to engage on “their turf” along side of them. Also we will pump the 5th grade Blast nights, Growth Groups as well as Quest to get them in the “know” about what we are doing in SM. (The reason we are doing this mid-week as well as Sunday is because the crowds can be different. In our context more inner-city students show up for mid-week events and neglect Sundays. Sadly, some of our churched kids show up only on Sundays and negelect the mid-week events)
Tuesday May 25th- 2nd and last 5th Grade ONLY blast night. Here we will run a normal Blast, just like it will be when everyone is there together. We will also have a parent meeting during blast. Where the new 5th grade parents can come and get all the information they could download in one night. Scott (the SM Director) and I will be around so we can hang with both parents and the new 5th graders. We will do some Q&A with all of the parents and help them get acclimated to the change from CM to SM. Here, I also invited some of our Vounteer Leaders (who have kids) to mingle with the parents and be there to answer questions as well.
Let me note that most of the above has been Scott's strategic plan for YEARS. The only addition I put into it was the parent meeting along with the leaders mingling with them. I am so lucky to be a part of a plan that has been in action for years and has worked well at integrating the new 5th graders into our Ministry.
I hope some of these insights will help all of us as we together trudge along in the murky waters of change and transition
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