Preteen Leaders’ Conference: April 17-19, 2013

Written by Sean Sweet, Director of the 2013 Preteen Leaders’ Conference

If the typical conference is a meal of random food prepared by random chefs with no order to when or how the items are served, then this year’s Preteen Leaders’ Conference is an intentionally designed four course gourmet meal prepared especially for you.

To register or get full details about the 2013 Preteen Leaders’ Conference, go to the official website now. (P.S. – If you register by Feb 15, you save $30).

The 6^th year of the Preteen Leaders’ Conference is this April 17-19 in Greenwood, Indiana. I’m really excited to announce the vision that we have for this year’s conference.

It’s going to be unlike any conference experience that we know of.  Here’s why:

Typically, you go to a conference, attend break-out sessions and large group sessions, and walk away with an overwhelming amount of unconnected information.  As you attempt to put everything into some cohesive order in your brain, some of the great things that you heard in a break-out session on the morning of Day 2 are completely lost by the end of Day 3.

At a typical conference, Speaker A puts together a workshop on worship, Speaker B puts together a session on volunteers, Speaker C puts together a class on teaching style, but NONE OF THEM thought about your overall experience or how A relates to B and B relates to C.  So, you are tasked with making some sort of connection between all the speakers and your own ministry’s needs.  Meanwhile, each attendee at the typical conference is having a different experience, hearing from Speakers E, D, and F….or maybe Speakers X, Y, and Z.  You are left with nobody to process your experience with because everybody’s experience has been so different.

I’ve seen it on the faces of participants at other conferences.  As they enter the last session on the last day, some people are brimming with information and ideas and are excited about the new knowledge they have.  Others have a dazed, overwhelmed look like they have received so much information and they are trying to synthesize all of it into their thinking.  Many people feel like they’ve just been hit with ideas from 1000 different angles and don’t have a clear plan of what to do next.  Nobody has had a unified experience, with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

This is what a typical conference is like….but this year’s Preteen Leaders’ Conference is NOT typical. It is inventive and creative and intentional.  It has a clear beginning, middle, and end.

At this year’s Preteen Leaders’ Conference, whether you are attending by yourself or with others from your church, you will be placed on a team.  Each team will have facilitators who will coach them along the way.  Each day, the teams will share experiences and teachings that are focused and that move everybody together toward the same goal.  When the conference is over, you will have gained practical ideas, greater vision and structure for your preteen ministry, and a stronger sense of how to communicate that vision to your church’s community.  Not only that, but you will have gained connections with other preteen leaders from around the world who are praying for you, your preteens, and your ministry.

The entire experience is cohesive, intentionally designed from beginning to end to give you a greater plan for your church’s preteen ministry, a greater source of fun and useful ideas, and a greater connection to Christ and the growing preteen ministry community!

To register or get full details about the 2013 Preteen Leaders’ Conference, go to the official website now.