Preteens Making an Impact

Note: This is a guest post by Ryan Senters, 5th/6th grade pastor at Cornerstone Chandler Church in Arizona.

Before I became the preteen pastor at my current church, I served as a high school pastor for several years.  To be honest, coming into my current role, I wasn’t sure what preteens could really do or understand.  Are these 5th and 6th graders just older kids?  What impact can they make at their age?  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Preteens are passionate, able and willing to make a huge impact for God!

This fall, my preteen ministry made it our goal to sponsor 10 orphans at an orphanage in India for an entire year.  To help raise funds, we decided to make hundreds of Capri Sun bags that we could sell to kids at our church and local community.  We collected over 2,000 empty Capri Sun packets this summer then we cut and cleaned them out.  I had some volunteers sew them into bags and now the students are selling them to raise money for our orphans.  No joke…in 2 weeks my preteens (yes, I have 200 of them) have raised over $2,000 of the $4,000 needed by selling bags and thinking up their own creative ways to raise money.  It’s crazy how passionate they are for helping God’s kingdom halfway across the world!

-A 5th grade boy started a video game drive where he collects old video games from his friends and sells them at game stop to collect money for orphans.

-Another 6th grade boy made bracelets and started selling them at his school.

-One 6th grade girl signed up to run a carnival booth at her school’s fall festival to sell our Capri Sun bags.

-To top it off, one of my 6th graders made a PowerPoint presentation at his school and asked his teacher to share it with his class.  The teacher allowed it, then the principal found out and asked if he would present our orphan project to the ENTIRE school during the morning announcements! I was floored when I heard this.

Preteens aren’t too young.  Preteens have the ability to be Kingdom Shakers.  Preteens know what it means to be compelled by love to make a difference in the world.  Preteens aren’t kids anymore.

Now, as adults in their lives lets raise the bar to help them understand what they can do with God’s help.

Ryan Senters lives in Chandler, AZ with his wife where they raise their 2 year old daughter and 1 year old foster son. Ryan has worked with youth from 5th grade to college students and he is currently the preteen pastor for 250+ students at Cornerstone Chandler. Ryan has a master’s in clinical psychology and is finishing another master’s in Christian leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary.