JCISONLINE – Resources for Tween and Preteen Ministry

So it’s pretty easy to celebrate the wins sometime but I’ve got some big fails that have happened since we started Switch as well.

• I am awful at scheduling volunteers. It’s a new thing for me, but I feel like this is the biggest fail for me so far. I don’t like any of the systems set up to schedule volunteers and I haven’t picked one. That ends next week.
• Events. I figured by this time I would have at least three events planned throughout the year. That hasn’t happened. Camp, Milestone Events, and just some plain ol’ fun stuff needs to be planned.
• Job Description stuff. I don’t want regular job descriptions. I want some like Granger has for their Communications team. So I began writing some witty and fun to read descriptions.
• Time and Productivity. Still not where I want to be here on a personal level.
• Boys’ small group. I had a really rough time last night. It’s normal for this age group to have spectacular group one week and then not so much the next. It’s tough on my psyche to be honest. Our boys in-home group can’t seem to get off the ground either. Girl’s are a raving success and growing. Boys not so much right now. Never thought that would be the case. Any help for preteen boys small group would be ridiculously awesome right now.

I’m sure there are more. I don’t ever want this blog to be a place where I’m not authentic. It’s why I started blogging. It’s not enough for bloggers, pastors, business folks to only celebrate the wins in a public domain. I hope that these fails that I’ve had in some way encouraged you that Jesus is not done with you in any way. He wants you to know Him more and struggles are one of the best ways to do that. Because generally in struggles, desperation isn’t as hard to come up with

Address Book Brown Fern pattern, originally uploaded by moonbindery.

I’m so incredibly excited about our Switch Groups that are taking place throughout the week. I truly believe that small groups are where kids, students, and adults begin to see tremendous growth. This is my highest priority: to get students involved in groups that are filled with students their age and adults that are going to invest in them.

One of the keys to promoting this growth and love for the gospel of Christ is the connection that we make with our students outside of the box of Sunday morning. How can we attend award shows, art exhibits, school lunches, baseball games, plays, soccer matches, etc? When we show up students have this message pressed into their hearts, “They REALLY care about me.” It’s when this message is on the hearts of our students that they really begin to tune into what we are saying.

They don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care. So dust off your datebook and contact list and start planning some events outside the box of Sundays.

Besides casual conversations, what are some ways that you figure out what your students are involved in?