JCISONLINE – Resources for Tween and Preteen Ministry

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Preteen Ministry Games for Small Groups Suggestions

February 2, 2011 in Preteen Ministry, Resources 0

We have some of our Community Groups on Wednesday night for our 5th and 6th graders. It’s difficult to program for this timeframe for multiple reasons.

We have tons of adult classes going on, so our pool for volunteers is smaller.
Preteens have been in school all day, they are ready to rumble (know what I’m sayin)
It’s 1.25 hours if they follow schedule. Sometimes it ends up being 2 hours for some preteens.

So I’ve been struggling to program for this time. Honestly, on a good night we are getting 15 minutes of conversation with they boys and 20-25 with the girls. So I need at least 40 minutes of time to program for our students.

What we have are iPads, some board games, and recreation materials. The season makes it tough for outdoor activities because of how dark it gets early in the night. Tomorrow we are going to set up tables in the room with a few more board games and pray it works.

Here is what we’ve tried:

Football (lights and projectors in the room, not such a good idea)
Ninja
Duck, Duck Goose (worked suprisingly well)
iPads every week

So I’ve got some resources that I go to often like YouthLeaderStash that have great game ideas. But I’m looking for some favorites for our preteens.

So I need some help.

You’ve got 40 minutes with 40 riled up preteen boys and girls. What would you do?

Church Stage Design Resource

February 1, 2011 in Resources 2

If your student ministry or preteen ministry is looking for some inspiration for stage design then you should definitely check out Church Stage Design Ideas. If nothing else, it will give your creative juices flowing.

Here are a few pics from their site.

Student Ministry Parents – Spiritual Thermostat

January 28, 2011 in Student Ministry 7

As someone who has spent some time in Student Ministry and in Children’s Ministry, one thing is incredibly different. Sure the programming, graphics, strategy and sometimes even personalities of the two are way different but none more different than this one element: Parents.

I’m not a parent. However, I deal with parents everyday. In recent conversations I’ve had with parents, one thing has become apparent. There is a shift that happens in the mind of parents when their student moves into middle school. I’m not sure why.

Talking to one parent their thought is that the barriers to entry that were few and far between in Elementary School are now everywhere in Middle School. Communication, parent led activities, and interaction between parent and teacher are so dramatically different.

One thing remains the same for you as a parent. You hold in your hands an important tool for the spiritual development of your student. You hold their Spiritual Thermostat.

What is the Spiritual Thermostat?

It’s simple, it works a lot like the thermostat in your home does. It tells you the exact temperature in your home and then you make a decision to turn up the heat or chill it down. It works the same with your student. By taking note of their thermostat, you can determine what to do.

Is your child not having a hard time making friends? Plan some activities at your home for them to invite some friends or neighbors
Is your child being selfish? Throw some service opportunities at them. Maybe a mission trip with mom and dad
Is your child being lazy? How about you exercise some spiritual discipline. Click here for an idea from Proverbs 20:4

Parents your role does need to change as your child moves to being a preteen and then a teenager and then makes it to successful adult status. But, your role is not to disappear.

Don’t lose hope.
Don’t give up.
Don’t quit.
Don’t expect someone else to parent for you.
Do grow into your new role.
Do be responsible for your student’s spiritual development.
Do the role that God gave to you and no one else for your student.
Do be authentic and truthful allowing your student to trust what you say even when you say I don’t have the answer.

Your child’s world depends on you.

Are you giving up when it gets tough and different or Are you paying attention to the spiritual thermostat and making some adjustments?

Things I wish Parents knew about Student Ministry

January 22, 2011 in Student Ministry 1

So I confess, I stole this idea from Johnathan Cliff. He is writing a series called Dear Parents, where he writes a letter to parents urging them to pay attention to specific areas in their child’s spiritual life.

So I am going to do the same thing this week. I just want to write some things that you need to know about Student Ministry.

First I want you to tell you that 72%-75% of our students at Brookwood Church come from a difficult home situation. We want to do everything in our power to teach our kids that there is a family here that loves them and cares for them.

This Sunday the 30th of January we will be having our first C-Group leader meeting. We have been praying and working and brainstorming and creating to help dramatically reduce that crazy 75% number. We need couples, yes couples, to show our students what a healthy God-loving, God-fearing, life-living, Christian marriage looks like. To show them that it is possible to live a life of faith for the long haul not just in high school and to love those students like they were their own children.

We fully believe this verse in Titus 2:3-5:

3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Our young people need mentors. It’s why Brookwood supports programs like Kids Hope USA and takes very seriously the people that we put into our young people’s lives to guide them in the way they should live.

If I could tell you one thing it’s that our kids need to see what Godliness is in the example of a human being. It’s why I will never be shy in recruiting someone for student ministry. I fully believe that what we are doing is pointing people to the cross of Jesus and saying students, this is the gospel. These students need adults that are living in an authentic way to love on them and pray for them and bring them into their family.

It’s not a small task. It’s difficult. It’s why we are praying consistently for God to give us people sold out to providing a family for students in their C-Groups for those that don’t have one.

We have a great work ahead of us. Programming, Events, or any amount of money will not fix it. Only the love from the people of God mentoring young students will.

Will you pray for our students consistently?

Student Ministry Money plus Giveaway

January 18, 2011 in Student Ministry 1

cash-stack-piles-hundreds-bills, originally uploaded by welendcashhouston.

Ok so today I thought we would play a fun little game. I’ve got some questions about money. We all say we want more of it. But would you know what to do with it if you got it?

So today answer these questions. By the end of this week, Friday at 5:30pm EST, I will give away a $20 Starbucks Card to the person with the most creative/inspiring comment.

If you were given $20 for your student ministry, what would you spend it on?

If you were given $100 for your student ministry, what would you spend it on?

If you were given $1000 for your student ministry, what would you spend it on?

If you had all the money in the world, what would you do for your student ministry?

Must answer all four and really make the most of it.

Proclaim – Church Presentation Software

January 15, 2011 in Student Ministry, Tech 2

The Choices

You know I love pointing people to things that might work for them. This is no different. Most student ministries by now have found some sort of presentation software for their venues. A few of the options that they might be using:

MediaShout (church oriented)
ProPresenter4 (church oriented)
PowerPoint (all purpose office use)

All these programs accomplish the goal. PowerPoint in my experience hasn’t been powerful enough for worship settings but for speakers and presenters it’s great entry level, if you know how to use PowerPoint . So for most worship environments PP4 and MS work wonders. But there are some things that both programs just don’t have.

The Problems

I know that MS and PP4 are both designed for those that have the responsibility of being behind the screen, keeping up with the pastor. There are some necessary things about the layout. It’s geared towards linear styles of worship. One slide to the next. Built for one specific machine to specialize. Also for those of you with multiple worship venues are always traveling to different machines, exporting, downloading, importing to each of your areas of responsibility.

Elementary & Preschool
Middle School & High School
Preteen and your other responsibilities
Multiple campuses

And what about your teaching notes. Most of these softwares are designed to allow the techs to push a note to the pastor. The note update in PP4 was a welcome addition but is designed more for those behind the screens to let the pastor know that they need to stop talking

A Solution?

That’s why I am excited when I saw Proclaim. I am pumped about the software because I feel as if it’s being designed with the Pastor in mind, rather than the worship producer. It might not be exactly what you need but I hope the others are watching what they are doing.

Some of the features that they claim to pour into their build:

Web Based Presentations
Mac and PC
Notes Integration w/ Slides Overview (THANK YOU)

Tough market to get into. I know a ton of faithful on both sides. I really love ProPresenter but am so excited about the notes and slide integration and being able to build a presentation on the web and then download onto a machine.

Should be fun to see anyway. Click here and watch the video, then enter your email for a free trial version when it releases.

What is missing in your presentation software?

Texting is dangerous

January 15, 2011 in Student Ministry 0

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWtDpGM36J8

Feel free to use this video as an illustration on distraction or focus. Try not to spit anything on your computer screen while watching, haha.

Be the Church better in 2011

January 4, 2011 in Student Ministry 0

worship, originally uploaded by kterwilliger.

Student Ministry is full of attraction based models for church growth. It’s something that a ton of student ministry people are searching for:

That new hot topic.
New way of communicating that we’re awesome
New technologically savvy cool thing.

But I think there is something that might just be better in the long run for your student ministry in 2011.

Be the Church….Better

Do that and I think you’ll see some things that you never thought possible.

Pray-better
Worship-better
Give-better
Serve-better
Love-better
Live-better

What could happen in your student ministry this year, if you could Be the Church-better?

Student Ministry Challenges in 2011

January 3, 2011 in Family Ministry 2

As our Student Ministry team is looking forward at the 2011 year, there are a ton of challenges in student ministry that we are ready to tackle. I’ve talked about some of the things I’m looking forward to already, but there are so many more. Our Student Team is ready to tackle some big things. Here are just a few of the challenges we look to tackle this year:

Launch our revamped, better than ever small group program for Student Ministry
Formalize our Volunteer Assimilation and Placement process
Refine the meeting process. More creative and more productive (this will be fun!)
Develop and implement a Student Leadership team
Work in more fun for our Student Team, Godzilla was a start
Define and package vision, mission, and values of Student Ministry.
Integrate some new faces into our Student Team.
Polish our Production Process
Brainstorm missional opportunities for our students locally, nationally, and globally
Communicate and push our students to share their experience in new and innovative ways

Needless to say my brain is completely full of ideas. I’m so pumped for this year. It will be the greatest year of ministry that I’ve ever been a part of in my life. I’m excited about so many things and also praying through some huge calls we will have to make.

It’s going to be big.

What’s on your list to accomplish in 2011?

My life in 2010

December 29, 2010 in Life 0

So taking a cue from Matt today I wanted to give a my life in 2010 post.

First of all like Matt, I have some things that are the same and God willing never change. My relationship with God has grown immensely especially over the last few months from failures and also some successes. My wife and I still love each other very much and she astounds me everyday with her wisdom and grace. My dog is still a nuisance but at least he’s the lovable kind, I think.

I moved positions from Elementary Production Director to being over Preteen Ministry (which is in our student department). It’s been great. My role is changing a bit again this year and I’m taking more of a leadership role in our Student Department as we are transitioning to more of a team model.
I was just licensed as a Pastor. This is something that I have dreamed of for a long time and more challenge for the road ahead.
We bought our first house! This part has been crazy awesome. I got some wise counsel and sort of felt as if we stole the house. We bought the house for almost $25,000 below appraisal value. Never been lived in, until the last few weeks with us in it. Straight blessing from God.
I’ve made some mistakes. I hope they continue to make me better. A few of them have already served me well.
We cut out cable tv and instead rock a digital antenna and netflix. Hopefully an internet tv will come out so we can pay for only what we watch. (My reading has at least tripled this year because of this move, fwiw)
I am beginning to understand the above and beyond reproof that I heard a ton about as a teenager in church. Much more difficult than I ever could have imagined.
Made some great new friends, I’m looking at you Patricks, and dove deeper into relationships with others.
I asked more questions than ever. Mike Hepola is continuing to teach me how to do this masterfully.
I named a church. It was sort of a joke, but it’s true. And my friend Josh Bradley is going to amazing things for a city that he adores. If you are near Woodruff, SC then DO NOT MISS ELEMENT CHURCH

Some thoughts that I hope to see happen in 2011:

More school: Grad or Seminary not sure yet. Eyeing a Master in Christian Ministry but I’m trying to figure out if I’m just scared of the M.Div. If you have advice, I’ll listen.
I’ve thought about changing this blog 1oo times. This might be the year. We’ll see.
I’ve got a book idea I’m thinking about writing. Seriously. I think it’ll be fun.

Join in the fun give us a life update and post the link here.

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