FourFiveSix

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 [...]

Last month Nate Cummings came from his church in California all the way to my church in Colorado for five fabulous days. I asked him to critique what we were doing and suggest ways we could raise the bar and do a better job of reaching preteens. I was really nervous. What if he didn’t [...]

Mike Branton, Preteen Pastor at Sun Valley Community Church in Gilbert, AZ, shared this encouraging and inspiring rant on our FourFiveSix facebook page yesterday. Preach it! So maybe Preteens, more than any other age group, get the concept of Justice. They might not get all the complexities of Justice, but that’s why I think they understand [...]

Every other Thursday Nick Diliberto interviews one of the co-founders of FourFiveSix about various topics regarding preteen ministry. This week he interviews Mike Sheley and they talk about intentionally designing a preteen ministry space and making a room preteen friendly. Listen to internet radio with CMConnect on Blog Talk Radio

I had a preteen event a few weeks ago called Nerf Wars. We had an outside company come it to do it, but it can easily be duplicated. And you could easily do this with up to 100 preteens. Here’s the skinny: Big room. Everyone has a nerf gun with darts. Two teams who line [...]