Middle Years Life Transitions

THE MIDDLE YEARS (5th-9th grade, Ages 10-14) ARE A HUGE TIME OF LIFE TRANSITION.  IT MIGHT EVEN BE ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TIMES IN A PERSON’S LIFE! 

 Do youth pastors/workers know and understand the transition that is happening in the lives of their students?  Do we appreciate the power and the potential for doing effective ministry to students in these years, where 65%-85% of people make lifelong faith decisions?  

Here are a few life transitions during these pivotal years, especially as students head back into school settings. 

• One Classroom to Multiple Classrooms.  Going from the elementary school, one, maybe two main classroom settings to the middle school/Jr.  The high setting of a homeroom and changing classrooms for every subject.
• Stable to Emotional.  With changes all around them and internal and hormonal changes.  Middle-year students may go from being stable and emotionally consistent to having ranging emotions from highs to lows, often within a short period of time without much real cause or warning.
• Dependent on Parents to Independent of Parents.  Middle-year students with various changes in schedule and personality will also move from childhood dependence to a maturing need for more freedom.
• Arranged Friendships to Chosen Friendships Friendships go from parent-arranged “play dates” to students choosing their own peer groups based on mutual preferences and interests.
• Innocent to Knowledgeable.  With social education, media access, and parent’s having “the talk,” the middle years are marked by a stage from a more innocent view of the world to a more knowledgeable, realistic view of life.
• Fearful to Risk-Taking.  Along with the move from innocence to knowledge and the transition from dependence to independence to knowledge, the middle years are a time of being fearful of taking risks socially, emotionally, and even physically.
• Sexually Unaware to Sexually Aware.  More specifically, in the innocents-to-knowledge transition, these are the years of becoming aware of sexuality, others, and their own, often leading to some questioning and identity awareness.
• Concrete to Abstract Thinking.  A black-and-white, right-and-wrong simplicity of thinking moves to processing grey areas and synthesizing understanding and thought.
• Child Body to Teen Body.  Growth spurts, puberty, and sexual discovery are the physical transitions in the middle years that move a child into being a teen/young adult.
• Family Faith to Personal Faith.  Where the role of middle years ministry and the importance of a church providing a solid middle-year-specific ministry becomes so paramount.  Belief moves from what parents believe and teach to what a student personally discovers, question, and claim as their own.  The reason we do what we do as 5th-8th pastors/directors/leaders/volunteers!!!