FourFiveSix

Once when I was substitute teaching in a 5th grade class, I was showing the kids a map of Asia. After I pointed out major countries like China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, a boy raised his hand and said, “I thought Vietnam was in South America?” Now, my question is, who taught him that Vietnam [...]

I’ve found that I don’t practice what I preach. I tell the preteens to be the unique person God created them to be. Yet, when I visit (or read about) another cool preteen ministry, my first inclination is to be just like them. I want to mimic one person’s amazing environments. I want to be [...]

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 [...]

You have likely heard Adele belt out her recent hit, Rolling in the Deep. But have you heard a ten-year-old sing it like this before? I work with preteens every week, yet I never expect them to break out into song, sounding like this. (And if the ten-year-old vocalist wasn’t enough, the other two musicians [...]

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 [...]

Here’s an idea I came across while reading an article written by Shawn McEvoy, the Managing Editor of Crosswalk.com. Taking an arrow, I point out the feathers and ask why the feathers are important. Without the feathers, it’s just a pointed stick, and doesn’t fly too well. Now I point out the one unique feather [...]

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

On October 7th, 2011, 5 preteens, one teen helper and two fearless leaders gathered to embark on their first service project of the fourfivesix LIT Ministry. This was a project that was formulated in the minds and hearts of the Sunday morning LIT Ministry preteens. They heard about the Great Coats, Hats, and Gloves give [...]