High School Heroes
When you're in grade school, the people you most want to imitate are high schoolers. Calvary Christian Church in suburban Omaha, Nebraska, takes advantage of that fact to • tap a new source of teachers • provide juniors with teachers they respect • give high schoolers valuable experience working with youth. On Thursdays after school, 15-20 fourth- through sixth-graders come to the church for games, refreshments, and a lesson led by five high school teens in the Y.I.A. (Youth in Action) program. "We choose teens by their character and spiritual maturity," says James Taylor, associate minister. "Our teens are in 'Mustard Seed Groups' twice a year for 13 weeks. They must read the Bible daily, keep a spiritual journal, and take notes on sermons. When the program is over, many keep up the discipline on their own. These are the ones we choose to teach the juniors." Topics taught include peer pressure, rules and chores, and getting along with parents. Taylor notes two unexpected benefits from the Y.I.A. program. First, discipline problems in the high school Sunday school class have been reduced because "five of the kids in the class are teaching on Thursdays and know what it's like to struggle with troublemakers," says Taylor. "They influence the whole high school group to be better students." Second, the grade schoolers learn more than just Bible lessons. One mother of a fourth-grader told Taylor, "No matter what those high schoolers say, my son soaks it up." Says Taylor: "We take advantage of that hero worship. On Sunday you can see juniors sitting next to their high school teachers, and they're all taking notes on the sermon!"
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