The Edge - Middle School Ministry - Friends of Tony, Inc.

Welcome to The Edge!

Our kids play ball with each other, vacation together, hang out on the weekends with each other, sleep over at each other’s houses, spend countless hours in the summer with each other. They all go to school together and hang out with each other, BUT they don’t all go to church with each other even though they share the same faith in God. Having a relationship with God and sharing that relationship with your friends is not uncool and can be fun! Our kids will be better able to watch each other’s backs and keep each other accountable to not do so many things that ultimately cause problems for them, the parents, the teachers, and our communities.

Educators, psychologists, and youth ministers have stated that middle school might be one of the last opportunities we have to positively impact and assist a child in his or her educational, spiritual, emotional, and social development. By creating and establishing a substantial middle school youth ministry program, early adolescents will experience Jesus on their level. The middle school youth ministry process will allow a smooth transition for them into high school ministry.

Kids can never seem to get a break!

Early adolescence is a very critical and difficult time in a person’s life. The middle school years begin the process of transforming a child into an adult. As children they are warm, loving, willing and wanting to cuddle and be responsible. When they hit pre-adolescence they seem to sulk, become forgetful, irresponsible, and sometimes even downright belligerent.

The operative word in early adolescence is "change” and lots of it! Change takes place in their physical appearance, their beliefs and attitudes, as well as how they intellectually synthesize and process information and data. Besides infancy, the middle school years are where the most changes take place in an individual.

The needs of middle school youth in a youth ministry program are quite different from children in Christian formation and high school teenagers. They are literally caught on... THE EDGE. While they are no longer children, they are not yet as independent as a teenager in high school. They feel a sense of powerlessness because they still have to depend on others for so many things in their life. If that’s not bad enough, their parents still have to drive them everywhere!

During this time middle school kids are open to good and bad behavior, positive and negative ideas. Peer pressure is tremendous. Many of the values and beliefs they held as children are now questioned and challenged. Middle school adolescents are trying to figure out who they are and what they believe. They are struggling to put together the pieces of their life’s puzzle. The decisions youngsters make in middle school may not be permanent, but they are forming the foundation for their entire life. Middle school youth constantly test the waters, as well as their parents, teachers, and adults who minister to them.

Like so many other aspects of their life, their faith is in flux. Middle school youngsters are moving from a child-like spirituality to the "Doubting Thomas” phase that will hopefully evolve into an adult faith commitment to Jesus Christ. It is during this "Doubting Thomas” phase that many youngsters become leery of their faith and begin to question, as well as doubt, what they believed as children.

They spiritually challenge everything from the nature of God to why they have to go to church on Sunday.

During middle school, many early adolescents may have a difficult time living out their faith. What they say about their faith and how they live it out can sometimes be contradictory. Since they are very idealistic at this stage, middle school youngsters may know what the "right answers” are in religion class, but to live it out the next day at school or at home may be a completely different story.

Early adolescents begin the process of moving from being family-centered to friend-centered, and eventually become spiritually healthy adults; other-centered. Pre-adolescents are in the process of moving toward making life long decisions about faith, values, education, and attitudes. The experience of early adolescents can significantly shape one’s life. It is an important time in an individual’s life. It is at this stage that parents are less involved in their middle school youngster’s life. Since it is a time of change and flux, many parents step back and wait. It is all the more important at this part in a youngster’s life that parents and caring adults be actively involved in a middle school child’s life.

The Edge is all about providing "surround sound" for our kids. No matter where they go, or what they do, The Edge is about helping our kids create, find, and nurture their relationships with each other so that all of the people in their lives - not just mom and dad, or their Sunday school teacher - but all of the people in their lives including the friends the see so much, share the same values and relationship with God. Having a relationship with God is not just about one or two hours on Sunday or for a quick prayer at dinner time with the family.

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