FourFiveSix

Parents or Volunteers The topic of Parents or Volunteers is always heavy on the mind of the pastors to students of all ages. Who fits where and why as the teacher, motivator, discipler, craft person or creative genius in the preteen ministry? I have read Collaborate and right now I am reading The Future of [...]

April 8, 2011 I proposed to my beautiful fiancé, Tina Clucas. My elaborate plan involved Tina following clues to different locations that were significant to us. At each location there were friends or family waiting to hand her the next clue. It ended with her arriving on the church grounds where we met as staff [...]

My messages rarely have a point. Well, they have a point, but I don’t use it. And to be honest, the entire ministry is better for it. I recently began to purposefully erase the main point from my messages when speaking to preteens so that our small group leaders could deliver that point. I was [...]

I’ve been there, trust me, I’ve been there. The well thought out lesson, great Biblical content, and some nice power point slides. You are ready to teach God’s Word! Except Sunday comes around and, well, you know how this goes. Some kids look asleep, others look like they cannot stop moving, and the same two [...]

Righteousness. Salvation. Justification. Melchizedek. (Okay, maybe not.) But these are the kinds of “Christianeze” words that we use on a consistent basis, that hopefully we are clearly defining for our preteens, especially to those who are unchurched. We are all probably pretty conscious of explaining these difficult words and often times then supplementing an easier [...]

Time Machines From September to December I try things out and learn along the way, wishing I had a time machine so I could go back and try again with the things I’ve learned. Only here’s my secret: I do have a time machine. I call it “January.” And instead of going backwards, it takes [...]

I know you could take that title so many different ways.  I just hope it got you to read this post (which you obviously are)! I’m not talking about preteens as parents or about trying to score a date with the parents of the preteens in your ministry.  If you are reading this for either [...]

How many times have you told your preteens: “Your faith is something you live every day, not just when you are here at church.” Or my favorite: “You do know you can open your Bible during the week, right?” If we can help preteens develop the habits of opening and reading their Bible and wrestling [...]

When I began leading our church’s 4th, 5th, and 6th grade ministry, I knew there was a need to give it more definition than just “the ministry that works with preteens.” So I set out to get down on paper what I wanted the ministry to reflect, in its teaching, its structure, its methods, its outcomes – the whole ball of wax. I ended up with eight.

I was challenged this week to get rid of distractions – in my ministry as well as my life. All of us agree that Jesus should be the focus of our preteen ministry. We want our students to find Him and grow closer to Him. But, how much of what we do really points to [...]