Youth Ministry Q&A: When should I split junior high and high school?

YOUTH MINISTRY Q&A: When should I split my students into separate junior high and high school ministries? Maybe we should just stay together?

Splitting up is common practice in youth ministry today – and in most cases, I would recommend it. It allows you the opportunity to challenge high school students and speak to specific needs of that age group.

Split as soon as you can. The when is based on your time, your health and your resources, but it’s not appropriate to have 11 year olds hanging out with 18 year olds. It’s healthier when there are separate Jr. High and High School environments and leaders. I would try to split when everything is in place, but obviously the sooner, they better. You can still do some events together, (like a praise and worship celebration) but now you’ve got a chance to make sure events are more age specific. It helps with the maturity of your younger students and keeps your older students around because they feel like they are being valued. I’ve seen it work other ways for sure, but genuinely feel this is best!

One final thought: if at all possible I’d also make sure you hold both of the services on the same night so that you don’t have leaders or parents out on multiple nights of the week.

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About the Author: Josh Griffin

Josh Griffin is one of the leading voices in youth ministry with 25+ years experience in the trenches, currently serving as the junior high pastor at Mariners Church and before that the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. He's the co-founder of DownloadYouthMinistry.com, YMUniversity.com and heard in 400+ episodes of the DYM Podcast w/Doug Fields. He's created more than 50 youth ministry resources and authored several books including 99 Thoughts for Small Group Leaders. Josh and his wife Angela have 4 kids, which are now all teenagers! Contact Josh | Speaking Requests

One Comment

Shervin August 25, 2021 at 1:26 am - Reply

Josh, thank you for your post. We currently combine MS and HS and I’ve grown to appreciate the dynamic between the two groups. I can see some MS teaching the HS and vice versa and I would love to say that it’s like one big family. Unfortunately, unlike a family, youth ministry has a bunch of kids who are not related to one other, and unlike in a family, an older kid may become interested in a much younger kid… and that’s where the trouble starts.