One Strategy to Build Community with Little Effort

There’s a way to build community in your preteen ministry that involves little effort.

You might think the only way for preteens to build relationships is to host a fun event, such as laser tag, sleepover, game night, etc.

The problem is that hosting events takes up a lot of time, energy and resources.

Therefore, you’re limited in how many you can do throughout the year.

Now, don’t hear me wrong, relational events are highly effective.

However, I’ve discovered a way of capture the magic of “events” and bring it to your weekend services.

How? Glad you asked…

Host a pancake breakfast that takes place at the beginning of your weekend services.

It’s so easy to do, requires minimal effort, and produces maximum results.

I recently did this a couple of weekends ago in Pursuit, the preteen ministry I lead, and it was a HUGE hit.

Expect these results:

• Preteens will naturally build relationships with peers and leaders. Relationships are vital to spiritual growth, so the more opportunities provided, the better.
• Students will bring their friends, some who normally wouldn’t come to church. It’s a great outreach opportunity.
• Preteens will be REALLY excited to attend church. Woohoo!
• Students will think their preteen ministry is the best ever 🙂

Steps to successfully host a pancake breakfast:

• Pick a date and announce it weeks in advance.
• Create flyers for students to invite their friends.
• Recruit a team of volunteers to make the pancakes in your preteen ministry room. They show up early to make the pancake mix and cook the pancakes on a skillet. You can buy or borrow pancake skillets, which allow you to make a ton at one time. Recruit parents who normally don’t volunteer so that your leaders are connecting with students. These parents will also get a taste of volunteering, which means they may turn into future leaders.
• Provide syrup, utensils, paper plates, etc.
• Either do the pancake breakfast the first 30 minutes of the service or have students arrive 30 minutes early. We only have one preteen service on Sundays, so we did it 30 minutes prior to the service. If you have multiple services, then you might want to do it the first 30 minutes of the service.
• Adjust your Sunday service accordingly. Preteens will experience a major sugar rush, so go “light” with the lesson. Nothing too deep. Also, if you do the pancake breakfast the first 30 minutes of the service, then you will only have 30 minutes or so for everything else you normally do. Adjust as needed. A simple message and few discussion questions work well.

Our first pancake breakfast was so successful, we’re thinking of making it a regular thing.

It’s a simple way to build community within your preteen ministry.

I would encourage you to give it a try!

On a totally unrelated subject…

Many of you are aware of our new membership program.

If not, be sure to check it out.

This week, we added a new resource for members. It’s a tool to help you walk alongside of parents in the faith journey of their preteens called, The Parent Connection. I’m really excited to offer a resource to help churches foster a relationship with parents. In addition to the Parent Connection, members get instant access to 105+ games, 28 Bible lessons, 55 object lessons and new content added monthly.

Learn more about becoming a member