Posted on February 23rd, 2012
“Controlled Chaos” is a great way to explain two sides of one coin in preteen ministry. Years ago, Kurt Johnston wrote a book on junior high ministry with the same title. Great book by the way! The concept applies to preteen ministry as well. On one side of the coin you have chaos. If you’ve [...]
Posted on February 7th, 2012
Long before PreteenMinistry.net existed was a resource site PreteenMin.com, which has some really great resources for those leading preteen ministries. The name of the organization is CDM International. Every time I talk with Clint May, it’s creator, he’s telling me another story of how preteens are making an impact in the community. After each conversation, I [...]
Posted on February 6th, 2012
I recently came across a new preteen ministry blog, The 5/6 Journal. Nick Bremmer, a student ministry leader new to leading preteens, got the urge to start a blog…and he did! The goal is to journal his weekly experiences, both the highs and lows. If you’re new to preteen ministry, just now launching one or simply [...]
Posted on February 1st, 2012
One of the most difficult parts of preteen ministry is keeping your leaders fresh and equipped for the task at hand. We kick-off the year with a huge training event, and we host periodic training events throughout the year. But I always wish we could do more. When I read a great article or blog [...]
Posted on January 28th, 2012
As I dropped off my preteen son to school on Friday, something caught my eye. Ethan was holding his sisters’ mini-beach girl (not a usual thing), and something looked different about it. I looked closer and realized he had given the mini-beach girl a buzz cut (see the above picture). Ha! You got to love [...]
Posted on January 26th, 2012
I confess that I am a coffee addict. It all started a few years ago when the church I worked at had really good free coffee – all day long, everyday. We even had 3-4 various flavors of creme to choose from. I got hooked pretty quickly. Lately, I’ve been exercising more often and am [...]
Posted on January 23rd, 2012
In a previous post, I wrote about the first 4 steps of Responding to Preteen Craziness. These are steps to take when, despite your creative programming success, preteens get out of hand. Keep in mind this works best when followed as an escalated response, which is why the first four should precede the below responses. [...]
Posted on January 21st, 2012
My son, Joey, had a his 8 year old birthday party last night. He was given the choice to either have a really cool party or get some good gifts from us. He chose a party. And not just any party, we rented the Game Truck. Simply put, it was the most fun kids had [...]
Posted on January 18th, 2012
No matter how fascinating we are as speakers, or how interesting the content is, or how engaged most of the preteens in your group might be, there are always students who will go off-track. It’s a mistake to take this personally, and it’s a mistake to chock it all up to misbehavior, too. I mean, [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2012
I’m two weeks into living a slower, more relaxed life. As I mentioned in a previous post, The Power of Focus, I’ve begun to eliminate much of my work-related activity – becoming less productive, but enjoying life much more. I’m focused on the most important stuff and have begun to let go of everything else. [...]
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