FourFiveSix.org: Great Ideas for your Preteen Ministry

Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Dan Istvanik at Victory Church in Lancaster, PA about learning from Fortnite.

Dan recently wrote an article about Fortnite. It wasn’t the standard discussion about whether you should be using Fortnite in your ministry. Instead Dan asked the question of why is Fortnite so popular. Like anything that is popular in the preteen population it is a great idea to ask the question of why it is so popular. That question can help us to meet the needs of our preteens better.

Dan writes for ministrytoparents.com. Two things stuck out to Dan during his research for the article.

1.       There is a risk of reward element to the game that taps into a preteens brain. We are all built to feel like we need to be rewarded. Your brain easily becomes addicted to something that you get a sense of reward from. Fortnite offers a risk, a reward, a prize and an emotional high which draws them into it.

2.       Popularity really surged during the summer months. This is when students are looking for community because they are out of school and away from their friends. Fortnite offered them an opportunity to connect with other. It gave them a social network online and offline.

Dan and Sean discuss how thinking about these two things can help us in ministry to create a space that ministers to the felt needs of our preteens.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean and Makenna talk about video announcements.

When ministries have announcements, there are two basic ways during service to go about this: video announcements or live announcements.

The problem with live announcements is they can quickly use up a ton of time. A plan for 2 minutes of announcements can quickly turns in to a lot more because we want to make sure the information is clear and that the students know everything about everything.

Here are 3 reasons why video announcements are better:

1.       It takes less time,

2.       You can make sure ahead of time that everything you want to say is said, and

3.       it is more engaging and more can be done with video announcements. Announcements can be way more interesting and gather the preteens attention better than live announcements.

Makenna and Sean talk about some different options for doing video announcements, even with limited time and budget.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Scott Santee from Indiana who works with churches and organizations to bring water filters to poverty-stricken places around the world.

Getting preteens involved in raising money for those in poverty around the world can be an abstract concept for them. Having something that makes this idea more concrete allows them to understand it better.

Allowing your preteens to see a water filter in action could fire them up to raise money to fund a water project in another country.

Scott explains how the practicality of the filters allows preteens to see how they can make a difference in other kids lives around the world. By offering something that helps leaders change the lives of preteens while in turn the preteens are saving the lives of these children all over. teams have distributed filters to 9-countries in Central America and Caribbean area, but the filters are being currently used in 62-countries around the world.

If you want more information about the Kids Clean Water Project click here. The project is fully customizable to what you feel would work with your ministry. Scott is also available via email at [email protected].  Click here to watch a 2-minute demo.

Click here for a 3-minute video you can show your preteens about these water filters.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean talks about having a service focused on cleaning up the church.

To clean up a giant cardboard maze which was spread over 5 different locations with 40+ preteens during a Sunday morning service sounds like an awful idea. It turned out to be an amazing service with every preteen being fully engaged in the activity. The service began with a short message about being “Doers of the Word; not just hearers.” 

Allowing the students to put into action what they heard allowed them to see how the Word comes to life.

Has anyone else done a service Sunday with your preteens? If so please let us know in the comment section what you did, and how it went.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Dan Scott the author of “Caught in Between: Engage Your Preteens Before They Check Out” and is on staff with Orange.

Children’s pastors across the country are seeing a decrease in number of students when they reach 4th and 5th grade. Dan discusses the practicalities of adding a preteen ministry into your church even if you don’t have the resources, you can DO SOMETHING! Doing nothing, is helping no one. Doing something can be just an event focused on the preteens or having a small group leader who can facilitate the hard and deep conversations on the preteens level. Everyone can do something to enhance their ministry to preteens. Elevate the kids and make them feel like they are the church of today and that will go really far.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Chris Santos the 6th grade, Pastor in Elevate regarding the production of Dry Bones.

One of the visions of the 6th grade ministry was to get the 6th graders more involved in the process of the ministry. The 6th graders were part of an illustrated message, which was only part of the actual service. This is taking the idea of having students act out a portion of your message when you call them up front, to having the students dance, sing and speak after weeks of practice and rehearsals.

There are so many benefits that can come from doing something like this. There is an impact on the students when they are a part of this small team doing a performance like this. Allowing students to feel like God is using their talents to speak to others can be very beneficial for their growth as well.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean talks with Zach Matchett about having a multisite preteen ministry.

Zach runs the preteen ministry for a church that has 11 sites of which 7 have preteen ministries. Through consistency, ability to work for any size environment, and adaptability the same information can be used at all of the preteen ministry at the various sites. By making the information fit for whatever the environment the leader might encounter, be it a portable (shared) facility or a set space, having the resources that they will need to succeed is most important to the success of a multisite preteen ministry.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Eddie Aviles from Washington about persistence in prayer.

Two years ago, Eddie and Sean met at the Northwest Ministry Conference in Washington. At the time Eddie’s church offered no preteen specific ministry but Eddie had a passion for preteens. Coming up on November 29, Eddie’s church is launching their preteen specific ministry.

Eddie began as a volunteer 5-years ago at the church working in the K-5th grade ministry. Eddie could see that there was a difference in the learning and conversations with the 4th and 5th graders. The preteens have always been on his heart and he felt a calling for them. Eddie began planting seeds in church leadership and parents about his vision for a preteen ministry. By asking parents who were enthusiastic about the idea to pray, the vision continued to grow. After 5 years of vision casting about his dream, and many times of wondering if it would ever happen, Eddie persisted in prayer and sharing his vision.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Louie from Morningstar Community Church in Oregon about a Q&A Panel he does in his ministry.

Once a quarter Louie brings in pastors and leaders from the church to answer serious and silly questions from the 4th and 5th graders.

This allows leaders in the church to see how deep the 4th and 5th graders are thinking. It also allowed the preteens to see different leaders and levels of pastors and leadership coming in to invest in them.

Louie has done this for the last couple of years once a quarter and the event is always themed. One of the events was pastors, and he brought in pastors like the Senior pastor, youth, worship, college, pastors from all areas of the church. Another event was living out their faith in school and Louie brought in teachers from the church.

Two Sundays before the panel Sunday he will have the preteens write down their questions so that he has them ready for the panel, also allowing him to weed through the questions. Most of the time Louie has just sprung the questions on the panel the day of, but this most recent event he sent the questions to them ahead of time because they were deeper, and he wanted scriptural backing for the answers.

Louie is the moderator of the questions and he also reminds the students that they brought the panel in to answer the question, so the students don’t attempt to answer. Having this type of event allows the pastors and leaders to become more real to the preteens and it opens the eyes of the pastors and leaders to who the preteens actually are.

Here are some of the questions Louie’s preteens asked during the last Panel:

Did Jesus have a choice to love us?

How long did Adam and Eve live?

How do I know other people believe in Jesus?

How does God know us all?

Why is the cross shaped like that?

How do you know if someone is growing in God?

When did you accept Jesus?

Is it possible to come back alive? How did Jesus come back alive?

Will I pick my age in heaven?

What's heaven like? Is it true that heaven has golden streets?

How do we stay connected to Jesus?

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.

Today on the podcast, Sean and Makenna discuss small group night that took place in Elevate recently with the 4th and 5th graders.

Over a couple weeks leading up to the event the Small Groups discussed ideas of things they would like to do together as a group on this specific night. For example, Makenna’s small group decided to go to John’s Incredible Pizza which is a all you can eat pizza and arcade type place. Other groups did the mall, ice skating, frozen yogurt and arcade/ Each group chose something they all wanted to do together.

Sean’s group wanted to just hang out at one of the boys houses to eat pizza and play video games and after go watch one of the other boys in the group play in his football game.

Everybody enjoyed themselves and it had a different feel that a normal event night because it was just the Small Group. They are able to bring friends as well.

This is the first time Elevate has done this and they learned some things from this time. On the podcast, Makenna and Sean discuss what they learned:

1. It’s good to have another adult present, whether it is another small group leader or even one of the parents.

2. It is important to know what each of the small group leaders is doing for their event so when parents ask what their kid will be doing you are able to respond with the appropriate information.

3. Give the groups some set choices up front, this is to limit the expense of the event.

Small Group Night was a nice time to have little to no agenda but offer a time to build relationship with the students. It offers a great connection time between leaders and students that will allow for better overall discussion in the long run in their small groups.

Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.