Why?

I get these questions all the time: "Why did you start working with junior highers?" "Why have you stuck with it?" "Why do you plan to continue?" Your reasons may differ, but here are five of the biggest reasons I choose young teenagers as my ministry focus.

• It's my calling. I can't tell you the exact moment I felt called to this ministry. The skies didn't part and God's voice didn't wake me in the middle of the night. I simply feel called to this age group. My friends and ministry colleagues don't understand it, and sometimes I question it myself, but I'm convinced that God has wired me and called me to dedicate my life to this wonderful, hard-to-figure-out, frustrating, thankless, joy-filled thing called junior high ministry. If I sense God is calling me elsewhere, I'll be obedient, but until then I'm staying put.

• It's fun. I'm 40 years old, so lock-ins aren't as fun as they used to be. I don't find a whole lot of joy in sneaking out at midnight with a bunch of seventh grade guys to toilet paper a house.

But pound for pound, it's impossible for me to think of a ministry that's more fun than this! Summer camps, mission trips, small groups, dodge ball, skits, ministry teams, relay races-these are just a few of the highlights. Sure there's a lot of work involved, but working at having fun isn't a bad gig!

• It's overlooked. I have a soft spot for the underdog. Junior high ministry is definitely the underdog of the local church setting. I fight for my share of the budget, for the use of facilities, and for announcement space in the bulletin. Sure, every department fights for the same things, but somehow we always have to fight just a little bit harder. Young teenagers need advocates. They need adults who believe in their cause and are willing to fight on their behalf.

• It's important. We don't need the latest surveys or statistics to show us that the world is different today than it was five or 10 years ago. Kids are growing up faster but are less equipped to deal with those life changes. They're both saturated by, and vulnerable to, culture. More and more of their parents are divorcing. They live in a post-9/11 world that has chipped away at their sense of security. If junior high ministry was important when we were their age, it's even more so today.

• It's working! Junior high ministry works. It's a pretty simple formula, really: Caring Adult + Junior High Student = Good Stuff! Sure, we like to complicate it with an emphasis on creativity, programs, snazzy youth rooms, training seminars, and columns in magazines from people who seem to have it all together, but the simple truth is that junior high ministry works. Caring adults all across the globe are spending time with goofy, insecure, rude, obnoxious young teenagers...and it's working!

Why do we do it? Because it works.

Kurt Johnston is the junior high minister at Saddleback Church in California. He's written and contributed to several books, including Full of It: Ideas to Fill Youth Ministry Volunteers With Encouragement (Group).