Breakout

A few weeks ago I spoke at Breakout, an outreach event for preteens at Christ Community Chapel just outside Cleveland, OH. Nearly 500 preteens showed up on a Friday night. Most astounding, about 350 of them don’t go to church at Christ Community Chapel. Wow! Their preteen ministry does this event once a year as an outreach to the community. Preteens are encouraged to bring their friends and they do some promoting in the local schools and community. Obviously, whatever they are doing works. It was really fun to be a part of the experience!

If you’re thinking of doing a similar in your preteen ministry, or you already do – then you might glean some ideas from Breakout. Here’s how the night went.

First of all, they had around 70 volunteers show up to help with the event. This was key because I saw volunteers (all in Breakout shirts) all over! The event was safe and well organized with that many leaders being involved.

There were several options for preteens to choose from throughout the night (see the list below). There wasn’t a designated time to do various stations. They freely chose what  to do throughout the night.

The event was from 7-10pm. Once most arrived, preteens went in the main auditorium for a quick introduction and a couple of worship songs. Then, off they went. Near the end of the night, around 9:30pm, they came back in the auditorium. They did a couple of worship songs again and I did a quick message. A simple takeaway message targeting the newcomers in the audience. It was fun!

Here are two quick video showing a run through of the activities:

Here were there various activities throughout the night:

– Rockwall (portable, outside)
– Inflatables (in a gym, lots of them..and yes, the gym was smelly with all their shoes being off)
– Game Truck. This was one of the most popular stations throughout the night. It’s basically a trailer with big flat screens, video game systems and couches. You can pick only the games you want, so they stay rated E. I’ve used them in the past, and it’s always a huge hit! It’s a franchise and they’re all over the U.S. See if one is near you.
– Hayride (outside)
– Gotta feed preteens – They had spaghetti tacos (an iCarly favorite), cookies and lemonade.
– Finger rocket war. Finger rockets are like foam darts that fling off your finger into the air. They can fly up to 100 feet and are really cool. My favorite way to use them is split up two teams and shoot them at each other. If you’re hit, you’re out. Keep gong until one team is eliminated. You can buy them here.
– Big game of Twister
– Speed cup stacking (one table, two speed cup stacks with timers). They kept track of the fastest times throughout the night.
– Karaoke. Yes, the most popular songs were by One Direction and Justin Bieber.
– Face painting throughout the hallways.
– Balloon making (You name what kind balloon you want made, they make it. Ex: dolphin, hat, etc.)
– Crazy hair. There were 3-4 stations all lined up like a hair salon. Preteens wait in line, sit on chair. Then a leader sprays them with bright hair color (washes out), glitter and/or gels their hair in all sorts of crazy configuration.

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment. I will have Michelle, who organized the event, on stand bye to answer any questions you might have.

Or if you want to share a relational event you’ve recently done with preteens, go ahead a leave a comment. We would love to hear what you’ve done.