In the many years I have been in ministry I have noticed that there is a definite age where youth drift away from our ministry. For us, it’s grade 9. By the start of grade 10 and even by the end of grade 9 we have significantly fewer people attending then in grade 8 and 7.
There is a whole bunch of reasons why this is, and I would love to hear your thoughts below. I am becoming more and more aware that the type of ministry that young and older students respond to is very different. It is a very different life stage and students are dealing with very different issues.
I found this fantastic article that outlines some thoughts about how we can treat our more senior students differently and I love all of it.
Check it out http://www.organicstudentministry.com/?p=1107
Hunting the Horizon 
nice man.
i’ve found opening up conversations about life, love, relationships, etc and really listening to the way young people respond is far more useful than talking at them for 40 minutes about why they should believe in my awesome new revelation about the next new atonement theory.
young people are undervalued – we assume they need us big, important and wise people to tell them how to live when in actual fact, i need them to tell me to calm down, have fun and enjoy life in the present instead of worrying about finance or freedom or salvation or social media taking over the world… or whatever.
dig.