Being Culturally Relevant to Preteens

Posted on May 17th, 2012

Note: I dedicate this post to Mike Branton, who was absolutely floored at my current lack of knowledge of preteen culture. Thank you Mike for inspiring me to launch something new! Last month I hung out with some fellow preteen leaders, both at the preteen leaders’ conference and the FourFiveSix retreat. One of the things [...]

Preteens’ Media Intake

Posted on May 14th, 2012

  Here’s some interesting stats regarding media consumption: Young people, ages 8-18, spend an average of 7.5 hours a day consuming some type of media. Smartphone owners spend an average of 30 minutes more a day interacting with media compared to those who don’t have smartphones. (How many preteens in your group own one?) The [...]

Epic Fail – New Video Series for Preteens Coming Soon

Posted on May 7th, 2012

I am really excited about a new preteen series coming soon – Epic Fail. I spent all day Saturday with Chris Santos, our video guy, shooting segments for the video series. I even have a sunburn to prove it (we shot outside)! Epic Fail will be a six-week series helping preteens deal with failure. Preteens [...]

Passionate Ignitors

Posted on May 7th, 2012

  My 8 year-0ld son, Joey, has the best teacher in the world – Ms. Montag. She’s passionate about teaching her students and taking an interest in them outside of school activities. She makes teaching fun, which inspires students to reach their full potential. She’s enthusiastic about teaching, which motivates students to learn. Always looking [...]

Caine’s Arcade: A 9 Year-Old with a Vision

Posted on April 30th, 2012

If the above video doesn’t appear on your device (iPad, iPhone, etc), click here to watch it - Caine’s Arcade I came across the Caine’s Arcade video and was inspired. Yes, I even shed some tears near the end! If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly recommend you do. You’ll be inspired by what a [...]

FourFiveSix Retreat

Posted on April 26th, 2012

    After the 2012 preteen leaders’ conference, which ended last Friday, the FourFiveSix team, who coordinated the conference, got away for a few days. We drove from Sacramento to a town called Truckee (near Lake Tahoe) in northern California. We hung out together, played SuperSmash Brothers (yes, on the Gamecube…the cabin even had a [...]

Preteen Conference – Boards

Posted on April 25th, 2012

  At the 2012 fourfivesix preteen leaders’ conference attendees were asked to write their ideas of what they do with various areas of their preteen ministry. They posted them on a board outside the main meeting area for all to see. Now, we get to share them with you. Click on the below links to [...]

Highlight: Preteen Leaders’ Conference

Posted on April 23rd, 2012

Last week, the FourFiveSix team led the Preteen Leaders’ Conference in Rocklin, CA. We had 160 leaders from around the country (and some Canadians) gather to learn how to take the next step in their preteen ministries. By the way, the dates for next year’s conference is April 17-19, 2013 and it will be hosted [...]

Elevate in Action

Posted on April 23rd, 2012

The preteen leaders conference ended on Friday and it was awesome. The night before the conference I had the opportunity to visit Elevate, a preteen ministry that Sean Sweet leads. I took some pics, so if you want to check them out, scroll down to the bottom of this post. Here’s my thoughts after sitting [...]

Elevate Preteen Ministry: Sneak Peek

Posted on April 18th, 2012

I am really excited about the Preteen Leaders Conference, which officially starts tomorrow – April 19th. Tonight I (and anyone else attending) get to see a preteen ministry, Elevate, in action. Elevate will be having their midweek service and us leaders get to sit in the back and soak it all in. Two years ago [...]