During the school year, JHS (Junior High Students) in Grades 7-9 meet weekly at FAC for worship, teaching, and small groups. Also watch for special events to invite friends to! Follow us on Instagram for the latest news: @jhstudents.
JHS Wednesday Worship
As of September 2018, we’ve moved to Wednesdays, 7:00-9:00 pm upstairs in the Discovery Theatre (south end of building) and have combined large group worship/teaching and small groups into one night!
What are we learning about?
February Theme: Things Are Changing
Early adolescence is the second-most significant period of change in the human lifespan. This high degree of change can bring a lot of confusion and fear for junior high students and parents alike! One of our primary goals—which we encourage you to adopt also—is the idea of “normalizing” the experience of these changes.
Week 1 (February 6):
In our first session, we’ll look at Luke 2:41-52, the biblical account of 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple (when he freaked out his parents and they couldn’t find him for three days). Don’t worry … we won’t suggest that your child do the same thing! Instead, we’ll explore how Jesus experienced changes in His own life.
Week 2 (February 13):
This week we’ll cover the physical and emotional areas of change. While some kids are excited about the changes they’re experiencing, most fear it, and they wonder if something’s wrong. We can have a profound impact on our kids by encouraging them to see the changes they’re going through as normal and good, and that they’re going to turn out just fine.
The emotional changes they’re experiencing are usually more confusing than concerning. Kids might seem emotionally volatile or moody; that’s because they’re feeling things they’ve never felt before and don’t understand, and that’s okay … have patience!
Week 3 (February 20):
This week we’ll look at intellectual, social, and spiritual changes.
Teenagers’ emotional, social, and spiritual change flows out of their intellectual growth. Their brains are changing to expand their reasoning to ask “what if?” and “why?” questions, and to see themselves from someone else’s point of view. This the root cause of changing emotions and social skills.
This is where we spent a good deal of our time—their spiritual life is also directly connected to those new thinking abilities. A junior high student’s ability to speculate causes them to start wondering about the beliefs they were so confident in just a year or two ago.
Teens need to question their faith and wrestle with doubts in order to move to a more adult faith that’s sustainable beyond early adolescence. It’s critically important that we don’t shame teens for their doubts but instead walk alongside them in this process.
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