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About Your Junior Highs
by ELEANOR L. DOAN / Editorial Director, Gospel Light Publications
The Junior High Is Important This adolescent is a most important person. Let us consider some challenging facts concerning this great teenage population which will help us, the church, and of course the Junior High, himself. Junior Highs are important to the nation and to society. They are the future tax-payers, voters, law-makers, soldiers, homemakers. Of today’s seventeen million teen age population, the Junior Highs number approximately seven million. And in another five years they will Haim about ten million. Numbers alone make them very im portant in consideration of tomorrow’s world, so provision to prepare them for life is made through public school education. Community programs are planned and con ducted just for them. Guidance centers are maintained for their benefit by many law enforcement agencies. Junior Highs are important to the business world. Because of their tremendous influence in purchasing habits, business men look at them with dollar signs in their eyes. According to one researcher the teenage popu lation controls a purchasing power of nine-and-one-half billion dollars a year. Products are planned just for them, clothing manufacturers cater to them, advertising is geared to their tastes, the record and music industries continually consult them. Junior Highs are important to the home. They are a constant challenge to parents of their responsibility, guid ance, and understanding. Junior Highs are loved and endured, prayed over and wept over. Their membership in the family is reflected in every area of activity, some times so dominantly that parents remark, “What did I do to deserve this?” Junior Highs are important to the church and to the Sunday school. In many respects, Junior Highs are the most important persons to the Sunday school. “ Perishable property” should be printed above every Junior High classroom door, for we are faced with the grim facts that many churches lose between seventy to eighty-five percent of their Junior High youth. Since ninety percent of the church members come from the Sunday school, the future size of the church will be in proportion to the present size of the Junior High department. Junior Highs are important to God. A Life was given to save them (John 3:16). Nothing conditions the desire of the Lord Jesus Christ to draw these young people to Himself. He longs for their love and devotion and service. If a Junior High is won to Christ by the time he is fifteen years of age, he has a potential of forty-five years of Christian service. However, unless he is won during his early teens, chances are 5000 to 1 he will not be won
omy 1:8). How much Junior High land there is! Joshua 13:1 tells us that “There remaineth yet very much land to be possesed.” Truly there are millions of parcels of teenage land yet unclaimed. Face thè truth concerning Junior High Youth. Doesn’t it challenge you to know that every contact with a Junior High is an opportunity to reach him for Christ—to possess thé land? Perhaps you may wonder how to begin, and what to do. First, you can love the Junior High. Love him for what he really is—a person for whom Christ died. You may not like all his habits or ideas or actions, but you can love him. In fact, you must love him to be under standing of him. You must be understanding of him to know him. And you must know him to win him to Christ. Besides his need for love, a Junior High has three other basic needs: to feel secure, to achieve and to have spiritual guidance. One of the surest ways to help a Junior High feel secure is to assure him of Christ’s love and to help him to find a satisfying place among other Christian people. Make him feel welcome and wanted; give him something to do. Remember the old truism: “ Use him or you’ll lose him. Examine the effort your church makes concern ing the Junior High. Is there a special department just for him? Is there a class just for his age? Are there activi ties planned which will interest him? Does he have re sponsibilities which will challenge him? Does the church plan visitation with him in mind? Does it make a special effort to win him to Christ? Encourage the Junior High’s effort at achievement. He wants recognition as a person and longs to be believed in. As a rule, Junior Highs have greater capabilities than we realize. They possess far more data about their environment than any previous generation; they are smarter, have access to more information through the media of television, newspapers, periodicals, etc. They are more alert, better trained, and their experiences make them more mature so that they have greater confidence in their undertakings. Show genuine interest in his efforts, praise him generously and criticize him without malice. Junior Highs have a sincere desire for spiritual guid ance. They are serious in their search for faith and have a wholesome appreciation of adult guidance. Encourage him when he feels that his own salvation experience does not compare with the experiences of other Christians he has heard about or known. Teach him with confidence and through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Help him to learn the great truths from God’s Word for himself This experience with the Junior High will help you to really know the truth about Junior High Youth; that he is a real person, that he is important, that he is a challenge of land to be possessed for Christ. 17
during his young adult years. The Junior High Is a Challenge
The Bible says, “ Behold (NOTICE!) I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land” (Deuteron- OCTOBER, 1960
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