GUEST POST: The 56ers – a new frontier

This is a guest post from my friend Grant Diamond.  He currently serves as a Director of the 5th and 6th Grade Ministries.  Grant is a great guy with a huge heart for students to come to know the Lord.  This is a unique opportunity and can be truly the new frontier between children’s and youth ministry.  See what he has to say.

Hello to all readers of Ministry Blackboard! My name’s Grant Diamond and I’m currently serving as the Director of 5th and 6th grade ministries at First Baptist Church of Geneva in Geneva Illinois. Tom was my Youth Pastor during my High School years while I was at Cedar Run Community Church and he’s asked me to share a bit about what my ministry is all about and why I think it’s important, so that’s what’s below, enjoy! Let me start my thoughts on all this by saying that I am NOT any sort of an expert on 5th and 6th graders. I’m not a Father of one yet (fortunately since I’m just 21!) nor had I spent an overwhelming amount of time with this age group before I took the job. That said I feel like I’ve already learned a TON about this age group and its uniqueness since I started at the Church in June.

Let me give a quick introduction to what 5th and 6th grade ministries look like at our Church before I fully jump into the post. We offer two main ministries for 56ers, Sunday school that’s exclusively for 5th and 6th graders, and Club 56, which is our Wednesday night program for 56ers which runs from 6:30 to 8:00 during the school year. Club is extremely popular in the community, we average about 130 kids each week and had above 200 for our big fall outreach and have had as many as 180 at a regular Club. Twice a month we have “normal Club” this is the staple of Club 56, the kids show up and play a half hour of games, listen to a 20 to 30 minute sermon from me, and then spend a half hour in small groups. Once a month we have a “service night” where all the kids do service projects both in the Church and in the local community, and then once a month we’ll have an outreach event (think your classic “event based’ outreach, bowling, Laz-r-tag, etc.)

The biggest observation I’ve made in my first 6 months on the job has been that 5th and 6th graders are the ultimate “in between” age group and no one really seems to know where to put them. Most Churches do NOT seem to have a specific 5th and 6th grade ministry. Instead it seems that most Churches keep the 5th and 6th graders in some form of Children’s Ministries before moving them up to Student Ministries when they get to Middle School in 7th grade. The confusion about the stage of life that this age group is at is reflected in schools as well. Across the country 5th and 6th graders are grouped in lots of different ways. Some schools will put Kindergarten through 6th grade together, some will put 5th and 6th graders together alone in their own school (that was my experience), and some schools will group 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students together for Middle School (this is the approach of most schools in the area of the Church.) Because this age group is so overlooked in both Church and schooling I’ve come to believe that there is a HUGE opportunity for Churches to serve their communities and their congregation by offering 5th and 6th grade specific ministries. Below I’ll present three reasons I think your Church should consider starting up 56er (5th and 6th grade) ministries. First, because it’s something that parents want. Second, because 56ers are ready to “go deeper” than most Churches Children’s ministries allow. Finally, because offering 56er ministry is an easy way to draw in and reach out to a wide variety of kids both churched and unchurched.

It’s what Parents Want:

The biggest thing that’s been (pleasantly) surprising to me since I’ve started at the Church is the incredible affirmation I’ve received from parents of students in the ministry. So many parents have emailed me or grabbed me at Church just to let me know how much they LOVE the fact that we have ministries designed just for their 56ers. Just last night after one of our Clubs I spent a few minutes talking with a parent of two students, one 5th grade and one 6th grade. She ended our conversation by sharing with me that “The reason we ultimately chose this Church is because we loved that you offered 5th and 6th grade ministries.” This parent went on to explain that she did NOT want her 56ers thrown into ministry with Middle Schoolers as she felt that that would intimidate them and stymie their growth. This parent wasn’t alone in that opinion. Since I’ve started this position I’ve received an incredible amount of “Thank  you for offering age specific ministry for these kids and not just tossing them in with Children’s ministry or Middle School ministry” and literally no parents wondering why we offer 56er ministries. Parents want to know that Churches aren’t overlooking their 56ers as they go through those strange years between Children’s ministries and Middle School, and offering 5th and 6th grade ministries is a HUGE win with the parents.

It’s what the Kids Need:

The biggest thing I’ve been convinced of since accepting this position in June is that 5th and 6th grade kids are ready to wrestle with truths that can only be hinted at in most Churches Children’s Ministries. In this first year on the job I’ve been aggressive about challenging the 56ers with deep truths under the conviction that the majority of them are ready to wrestle with them in community. This fall we worked through the attributes of God together under the theme “Our Great God.” Over the course of the fall semester we discussed Our Great God: Creator, Judge, Redeemer, Sovereign, Love, and Jesus. As I’ve sat in on the small groups each week I’ve seen students ask and wrestle with questions I wasn’t asking until I was in college! I’ve watched leaders work through the “problem of evil,” the Trinity, and “Is my friend who’s not Christian going to go to heaven?” week after week. I personally led a small group after I preached on God’s sovereignty where the kids were challenged in their general belief that Satan is the reason that bad things happen. The question I asked that they did a great job with was, “Well who’s in charge of Satan?”

Now I’m not trying to throw down with Children’s ministries here. Children’s ministries are AWESOME at our Church and they do a great job preparing the kids for 56er ministry. What I am suggesting though is that Children’s ministry is by its very nature is limited in its ability to get students thinking deeply through some of these big picture questions. They’re limited simply because most students in Children’s ministry haven’t developed their young minds enough to grapple with them! But in 5th and 6th grade my experience has by and large been to confirm what I suspected when I accepted the job, 56ers are ready and willing to tackle the big questions if they’ll get challenged with them.

By its Nature 56er Ministry is an AWESOME Outreach:

Because so few Churches offer ministries catered to 56ers, and because the school systems group 56ers differently from school to school, offering a ministry that is exclusively for 56ers serves as a great and easy outreach for local kids. I would estimate that a good 40 percent of the kids at Club each week don’t go to First Baptist. A huge number of those kids who show up are Catholic kids, and a smaller number of them are kids from other area Churches that don’t offer 56er ministries. Then there’s the last chunk of kids in that 40 percent.  That’s the kid that I get introduced to literally every week, a kid who has no background with the Church, and might not even know anyone in the ministry, but is there because his parents have heard that this is a place where lots of 5th and 6th graders are together hanging out every week. It’s that student that I’m most excited about having in the ministry each week, and literally every week there will be at least one student like that. Simply offering a place for 5th and 6th graders to be together in community each week is an easy outreach because, frankly, no one else is doing it! I’ve been surprised and blessed by the number of Church “outsiders” who are showing up each week simply because no one else is offering them a place to be in community with their friends, get loved on by adults, and learn about God.

So, that’s why I think your Church should consider offering some form of 56er ministries. The parents want it, the kids need it, and it’s an awesome and easy outreach each week. There will undoubtedly be some sacrifices that will have to be made to offer additional programming, but I believe with all my heart that it’s worth it (and I’m not just saying that because I wouldn’t have a job if it didn’t exist!) So let me close with a question, what are 56er ministries like at your Church? Are they part of Children’s ministries? Middle School ministries? Do you think you could create age specific ministry for 56ers at your Church? Let me know in the comments! And feel free to ask any questions about the details of my position and ministry.