How to Avoid the #1 Danger Preteen Leaders Face

Patrick Snow spoke at one of the main sessions of the 2013 preteen leaders’ conference last week. In his talk, he shared how to avoid the #1 danger preteen leaders face. The following is a summary of his talk, with a little of my own thoughts added.

What’s the #1 danger a preteen ministry leader faces? Allowing ministry, rather than God, to feed your soul.

It happens so easily. A parent thanks you for making a difference in the life of their preteen. You see preteens at camp come into a relationship with Jesus for the first time. Volunteers embrace your leadership and invest their time and energy in the lives of preteens in their small group. Preteens begin to own their relationship with God. All of this happens as a result of your leadership. In a way, it feeds your soul. Being a preteen leader becomes your identity. You sort of get addicted to doing preteen ministry. You see the results and it fuels your ego, replacing God as your driving force for doing ministry. Of course, all of this happens under the surface, without you realizing it.

Ministry can feed your soul in many ways, such as giving you affirmation, recognition, and identity. You feel significant because you are affirmed by others in your leadership role. Or you feel important because you are recognized by your peers as a high capacity leader. The list goes on. There are 100 ways that ministry can feed your soul.

How to avoid the #1 danger a preteen leader faces:

1. Know your purpose

Why does your preteen ministry exist? What’s your #1 goal? Knowing your purpose helps you to stay focused on the reason you lead a preteen ministry.

2. Recognize the danger

You have a specific emptiness that ministry has the potential to fill. Maybe ministry gives you affirmation, identity or even feeds your ego. Whatever it is, identify what that is for you. Recognize the danger and expect it to be a temptation.

3. Stay connected to God

You will have the greatest impact in the lives of preteens when God’s love is your driving force. Staying connected to Him fuels your passion for ministry. Keep that relationship strong and everything else falls into place.

4. Create a visual reminder

Patrick had a really cool visual during his message involving a chocolate candy bar. I could share the illustration with you, but I won’t for two reasons. First, the impact of the illustration is lost when writing it down verses actually experiencing it. Second, because you simply need to go to next year’s conference to experience cool stuff like this for yourself. One of the cool things about the conference was how interactive the main sessions were. Back to creating a visual reminder. If you want something to stick, then create a visual reminder to help you know your purpose, recognize the danger and stay connected to God. What would that look like? Hmm, I’m not sure. I guess that one in this case is up to you.

If you want to check out more updates about the 2013 preteen leaders’ conference, go to fourfivesix.org (lots of great stuff on their twitter feed). And if you haven’t watched the video of the preteen game led by Mike Sheley at the conference, be sure to watch it now. Very cool!