Last Sunday was our last Jr. High program for the summer. We tried something a little different than last year with our middle school students. Last year, we canceled programming altogether to give our leaders a break, but this year we decided to just do a scaled down version of our regular program. We didn't have worship or small groups. All we did was play a couple of games, taught a lesson, took communion, and did some group discussions. We called this summer program LIFT Remix. From an outside perspective, someone might think that Remix failed, because we only had about 50% of our students attend. But to be honest I thought it went pretty well!
Even though our number of students were down, we had several new students that started attending during the summer. That isn't the weird thing...the weird thing was that they kept coming back! Our usual students were doing a great job of befriending new comers and it was really cool to see.
I tell you all of this because we had one student our last week named Moses or Mo for short. He was a shorter kid and didn't talk very much. He was probably the youngest student we had there that Sunday because he hadn't moved up to 6th grade yet, but he still came. I tried to connect with him by asking his name, what school he went to, and if he knew anyone at Remix. Quietly he said no, and then just walked away. During Remix we had a time where we wanted all of our students to stand up and high-five ten people. As I was going around high-fiving like a mad man, I saw Mo so I went straight for him. I lifted my hand in the air...I had perfect high-five form and said, "Hey Mo! Give me some!" He looked straight at me and turned around and walked away. He shunned me in front of everyone. I was standing on stage when this happened and everyone saw a tiny tween totally ignore me....how did I recover? I stood there with a blank look on my face and then realized what I looked like. I shook it off and said to the other students, "Eh...that happens sometimes." We laughed about it and moved on.
I always tell people the reason I love Jr. High ministry is because even though I'm weird they still think I'm cool. The other day, I felt like the most uncool person in the world when Mo shunned me in front of everyone. Later I tried talking to Mo but he never opened up...but I didn't give up. I kept prying and prying for him to just talk with him. I really hope I didn't come off really creepy and annoying but I just wanted him to feel like he belonged. After about 10 minutes he finally said something to me, but what he said took me by surprise. I always thought that some students were just "loners" (students who go off by themselves and they don't like being in social circles. They like to be alone) and they liked being that way. Mo was a typical "loner." You could see it from a mile away, but what he said threw me. After playing some air hockey with him, he looked up to me and said, "I hate being the new guy." Then he did his usual and just walked away.
It killed me when I heard those words. This semester in our ministry we are making a big push for our students to make people like Mo feel welcomed and like they aren't just "the new guy." In Ephesians, Paul talks about how Christians have been adopted in God's family, and in a family people are (well they are supposed to be) loved and a part of something bigger than themselves.
This is kind of a random post, but it is just something that has been on my mind so I thought I'd share it with you guys. I guess the question for us is, "Are we making people feel like they belong in the family?" Who is your Mo that feels like "the new guy"?
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