It’s the middle of July. Are you feeling the fun—and fast pace—of ministry in the summertime? However we’re out serving with students right now, don’t we all experience this reality in some way?

Middle schoolers don’t do well with vague directions or projects that involve multiple steps they must decipher on their own; but they will thrive when they have a clear idea of what to do and can see a tangible impact of their work.

Specific instructions + visible results = service projects that make middle schoolers shine! A few great examples:

1. Assembling food baskets and delivering them to shut-ins or local merchants
   

2. Food bank sorting and stocking
   

3. Working with kids in an organized day camp setting
   

4. Serving in a VBS/children’s ministry class alongside an equipping adult
   

5. Assigning Top Secret Missions to small groups with a specific project
   

6. Picking up trash (undercover)
   

Specific instructions doesn’t mean telling students every detail of what to do and leaving no room for play. But without some direction, students will get frustrated and likely end up doing nothing.

(If you’re not a detail person, who can you invite to team up with you to help organize clear projects for students?)

The key is to stretch, but not overstretch. Stretching middle schoolers to try new things and discover their God-given super powers (see this summer’s Spiritual Caffeine issues for more on that) builds their confidence and God-dependence! But overstretching young students by expecting them to do abstract problem-solving—or throwing them into a setting they are emotionally unprepared for--will have the opposite effect.

Projects that may overstretch:

1. Emotionally intense settings like hospice visitation or prison ministry
   

2. Ministry to children without any specific games or plan in place
   

3. Taking too many students to a place that can’t keep them busy
   

4. Operating machinery that requires lots of coordination
   

5. Tasks with no people interaction
   

6. Tasks that involve a high quality level/minimal room to play as they work
   

Service projects with visible results help middle schoolers see the impact of loving not only “with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18). I hope you have as much fun as I am this summer inviting students to discovering God’s love at work in and through them!

(Thanks to all of you who contributed to this issue with your insights & ideas on middle school service projects!)

~ Laura Wampach