About
Wherever you’re at, there’s always a step forward. And we want to help you (and your preteen ministry) take it. And we know you can help us and others do the same. Because, to quote a slightly outdated musical, “we’re all in this together.”
FourFiveSix is a community dedicated to helping your preteen ministry take the next step.Created by the leading voices in preteen ministry, FourFiveSix wants to provide helpful resources and connect you with other women and men who are investing their lives in a similar vein of ministry.
Ministries and programs for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders are new innovations for everyone. Which means we’re all making it up as we go. And to “make it up” the best possible, we need each other. Together we can help one another take the next step.
So browse our website and join the conversation. But enough with the jibber jabber. You want to know the people behind these pixels. And here they are:
Patrick Snow works at Christ in Youth where he is the director of SuperStart!, a national touring weekend event for preteens. Through SuperStart! Patrick uses his creative talents to teach and speak to over 8,000 thousand preteens throughout the year. Patrick is also author of the book Leading Preteens. Patrick is incredibly passionate about helping the local church grow in its ministry to preteens and to help stop the growing loss of students in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade age bracket.
Heather Dunn iss changing the world, one preteen at a time, from the mountains of Colorado. Which means she has a better view than all of us who live in the flat, cloudy Midwest. Those of you on the west coast still have a pretty decent view, but Heather’s mountains are probably better. And it’s probably proven somewhere that the altitude enhances preteen ministry.
Sean Sweet joined the staff of Sunset Christian Center as the Children’s Pastor in July 2003 after teaching 4th and 5th grade in the Western Placer Unified School District for seven years. At that time, all the kids at Sunset from 1st through 5th grade were clumped together. After only a few months, it became apparent to Sean that the younger and older elementary aged kids had very different needs. He started painting a vision of a ministry specifically for 4th and 5th grade students. Sunset Christian Center now has Elevate, a preteen ministry that is separate from Children’s Ministries. As the full time Preteen Pastor, Sean is developing an incredible ministry targeting solely preteens. He lives in Lincoln, California with his beautiful wife and two daughters.
Nate Cummings is the leader of jct56, the preteen ministry at Adventure Christian Church. He is a graduate from William Jessup where he played soccer, enjoyed classes and a cold Dr. Pepper! He loves his wife Marissa, their dog Trooper and the outdoors. His hearts desire is to see preteens give their hearts to a powerful and creative God.
Jim Kast-Keat is a writer, speaker, pastor, and pathological optimist. He is the Middle School Program + Content Pastor at at Mars Hill Bible Church in Gradville, MI where he co-leads Fifty6 (for 5th + 6th grade students) and The.element (for 7th + 8th grade students). Jim enjoys life with his beautiful and brilliant wife, Jes, with whom he does his best to smile, breathe, and go slowly. In his spare time he contributes regularly to Storypraxis, takes classes at Western Theological Seminary, and plays in the rock-awesome three piece band, Super Excited to Be Here. For more about Jim, head over to jimkastkeat.com and start exploring.
Nick Diliberto wears two preteen ministry hats: he’s a preteen ministry pastor in San Diego, California and he runs preteenministry.net in cyberspace. After you look through FourFiveSix.org you should check out Nick’s site. It’s pretty fantastic. Along with the content he writes for this site and his own site, he also writes the preteen column for Children’s Ministry magazine (that’s a lot of writing!). He enjoys surfing, skateboarding, reading and pointlessly riding around naked in his Jeep Wrangler – naked as in without the top or doors on his Jeep! He is married with three kids, one of whom is approaching the preteen years.
Katie Gerber has served in children’s ministry for over ten years. Years ago she helped launch BLAST in Indianapolis. Today she lives in Joppa, MD along with her husband Pat and their daughter Hannah where she is the Elementary Director for Mt. Kidmore at Mountain Christian Church. After one month on staff she helped launch Mt. 54, their new preteen ministry.
Mike Sheley has a list of occupational experiences that is a tasty mix of fun and talent. He has been a substitute teacher, a team member at Target, and a specialist at Mecca – I mean, at the Apple Store. However, of all these grand adventures, he enjoys his current opportunity the most: Middle School Pastor at Mount Pleasant Christian Church in Greenwood, IN where he leads two ministries: fifty6-six (for 5th + 6th grade students) and seventy8 (for 7th + 8th grade students). Mike loves the unique way preteens are able to still be “kids” while simultaneously wrestle with the bigger questions of life and faith. Besides work, Mike is the father of two crazy boys and one enthusiastic daughter as well as the husband of one wonderful wife. He enjoys journaling in a book, hiking in the woods, camping in the living room (with his kids), and talking with his wife (after the kids are asleep). Mike also has the coolest hair of the entire FourFiveSix team (which isn’t necessarily fair because Patrick doesn’t have any hair at all).
