4 Tips to Epic Preteen Ministry Events

One of the most effective things your preteen ministry can do is host events.

Fun events to build relationships.

Outreach events to serve the community.

Life-changing events like a summer camp or spring retreat.

Preteens are at the age where they love coming to events!

4 Tips to EPIC Preteen Ministry Events

Now, let’s dive into these four tips that will help make your next preteen event the best ever!

1. Be Culturally Relevant

I’m thinking this one would mostly apply to fun, relationship building events and stuff like summer camp, retreats, etc.

At the FourFiveSix Conference, Chip Garrison, shared about how his ministry does regular events. One of those events was a Minecraft event.

Here is a quick overview of the Minecraft event from Chip:

We offered a special Minecraft t-shirt to anyone who brought a friend and billed it as “live” Minecraft. We had 30 stations set-up, with computers where they hit a button and a “resource” pops up. TNT allowed them to steal from a friend, as well as Creepers would appear which would make them lose everything. We also had a live creeper walking around tagging kids taking everything.

We usually have 150 kids for a mystery night. This time we had 300 kids. 77 who came for the very first time. 45 kids made a commitment to Christ that night. Using the culturally relevant theme of Minecraft, and a $4.00 t-shirt – we were able to reach into our community in awesome ways!

If you want more info about exactly what he did, contact Chip here on twitter. He would be happy to share details of the event.

By the way, Chip shared the slide his team created for the event. Check it out…

The takeaway here is that Chip was relevant to the world of preteens (well his event was for all ages…but you get the point). Minecraft continues to be a popular game that preteens love playing. Chip and his team used that to create an awesome event.

When you create events that are relevant to preteens, they’ll show up in truckloads and bring their friends.

Jump into the world of preteens. What TV shows do they watch? What movies are popular right now? What music do they listen? What books are they reading?

Build an event around something that is popular right now in their world, and your next event will be a huge hit.

2. Keep It Simple

I write about simplicity a lot when it comes to leadership.

As leaders, we want to do everything with excellence, and sometimes we go overboard doing too much. We overextend ourselves.

Avoid going overboard by keeping it simple.

How do you keep it simple?

Do less, not more.

Easier said than done, right?

Well, not necessarily.

When you do less, you’re able to focus on what you do more effectively and give it 110%.

It is better to do less with excellence then do more halfway.

As you go through the planning stages of the event, be realistic with your time, energy and resources. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.

Also, constantly ask yourself how you can “keep it simple” throughout the planning process. Asking this question will help you avoid a lot of headaches.

Avoid caving into the pressure for bigger and better events. Preteens don’t need bigger and better. They need relationships with peers and leaders, opportunities to serve the community, and experiences where God can move in their lives.

Keep it simple.

3. Recruit a Team

You can’t lead an event alone.

Recruit a team and lead the event together.

Make a list of the major responsibilities of the event and delegate those tasks to a team.

You might have a leader over areas like: check-in/registration, food & drinks, promotion, games, transportation, supplies, etc.

When you recruit a team, you share the responsibility with others.

They take ownership in the event and feel a greater sense of buy-in.

The load is shared with others, so you don’t have to do everything.

Many of us take on way too much ourselves when leading events. As a result, we burn out quick.

For example, I’m the point person for an upcoming spring preteen retreat. In fact, it’s happening this weekend. I’m so excited.

In order to coordinate the retreat, our team met a few months in advance brainstorming lots of ideas.

At that meeting we decided who would do what. We mapped it out together, and it has been such a relief to have a team to help with small groups, games, worship, and more. Sure, I’m the point person…but we’re doing the event as a team.

4. Team up with other churches and ministries

You don’t always have to host the event.

Team up with churches in the area for an upcoming event. Partnering with other churches helps share your resources and can be really effective.

You can also take preteens to an event put on by other ministries, such as SuperStart!, iShine or something else going on in your community.

For over 10 years, our church hosted a preteen summer camp. We started with about 30 students and in a few short years it grew to over 100 in attendance each year. As our numbers grew, my responsibilities grew as well. It was a life-changing event, but it was a lot of work.

Then, our family moved to San Diego. We had the awesome privilege of being close to a camp center called Forest Home. They put on the best ever retreats and camps! So, instead of hosting our own camp, we would take preteens to Forest Home. They did all the programming and ran everything. It freed our leaders up a lot. We spent the entire time building relationships with students. It was awesome!

I’ve also seen multiple churches come together to put on a summer preteen camp. They share the load with each other and accomplish more together.

This concept doesn’t only apply to camps and retreats, but applies to any preteen event.

Maybe you don’t team up with others for every event, but a few times a year you do.

Something to consider.

In Closing…

This is by far NOT an exhaustive list of things to think about when it comes to preteen events.

Just some helpful tips swimming around in my head.

And for those that aren’t yet doing preteen events, I encourage you to do so.

Something amazing happens when you do. Preteens get excited about church. Community flourishes. Preteens bring their friends. All kinds of good stuff happens!

For more preteen event ideas, go here and discover all the cool ideas we’ve shared on our blog.

Here we share share a number of specific preteen events.

What’s Your Next Preteen Event?

Leave a comment below and share about your next preteen event.

Or share a successful event you’ve done in the past.

Let’s all learn from each other 🙂