Response #7

1. What are some good topics or textual topics to focus on at the junior high age to avoid being redundant?

Well, in jr. high, there are many things the students struggle with. As a result of that, I think there are an endless amount of topics that you can talk about with them. Everything from sex to cheating is fair game. Not that it is bad for a teacher to talk about salvation and forgiveness of sins, but there is so much more involved in Christianity. One thing I personally would love to see taught more in today’s church to the younger students is the importance of outreach and reaching the poor. I feel as if this is a forgotten topic for young people because it is uncomfortable. I’m thankful that more and more this is become a topic of conversation among adults, but why not bring it to students as well? If we begin to instill in them the importance of taking care of our poor and “forgettable” then maybe we will see a complete turnaround in outreach in the future.

2. Should you always have a back-up plan for your lesson for a case such as a very small amount of students showing up?

While having a back-up plan would be a good thing, I think it is more important to just plan your lesson so that it can relate to any size of group that may show up. Plan your games so that they work with 2 people or 20 people. Now I know sometimes that isn’t possible, so in those cases, just create back up games that you can use in case no one shows up. But there is no need to totally change up your plan just because a few people didn’t show up. Just changing the game would be suitable. Always be prepared though. I learned that in Boy Scouts and it’s a good motto. Also, just trust that God will use the things you have prepared. Just be prepared.