In your Preteen Ministry, Children’s Ministry or Student Ministry are you living by this extremely important communication advice from Zig Ziglar? Or do you even believe it?
Communication Advice for Preteen Ministry
5 Things I’ve learned from Justin Bieber about Preteen Ministry
Pic from Mark Wilkinson’s Director
Honestly I’m just having a bit of fun. After seeing the Biebs throw down during the all star game and knowing the affinity that most of the Switch girls and all preteen ministry girls have for him, I just had to write a blog on him.
So here are 5 things I’ve learned from Bieber Fever:
- Appearance Matters- I know some think his hair is ridiculous. But one thing is sure. It’s well kept up and it’s got an identity all on it’s own. The Biebs definitely knows and shows that appearance is important. How much does the appearance of your preteen ministry environment matter to you?
- Know Your Audience- Teeny Bop love songs with some hip hop flair. Does this describe 2011 preteen girls or what? Does your programming match your preteen audience? Are you aiming too young or old?
- Fun is always cool-Sometimes even if it’s corny, like his “We’re going to Disneyland” line after winning MVP. I always have a blast watching the Biebs. In your preteen ministry are you having fun as a leader? If not, your preteens probably aren’t either.
- The power of Social Media – it gave him an All-Star Celebrity MVP and gave the country Bieber Fever. From Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter the Biebs has used technology to grow his Bieber Community. Have you jumped on the bandwagon to promote, communicate, and add some identity to your preteen ministry?
- Work with what you got- Some say he has no talent, some say he can’t sing or dance, what no one is saying is that he hasn’t made an impact in the lives of 10-12 year old girls everywhere. Embrace your strengths and use them to be effective in your ministry context.
Has Bieber Fever taught you anything?
I’m Orange
Ok maybe not that Orange, 
In order to reach the Next Generation I believe one strategy takes the cake. What is this strategy to reach the next generation? It’s being Orange.
It’s no secret, that I love everything associated with Orange the company, however the color is definitely not in my top 1,000 for Reason 1, Reason 2, and Reason 3.
But I truly believe that being Orange is something that is overwhelmingly important to reaching the next generation or Children, Preteens, Students and Parents.
Why? 3 reasons.
Parents become more of a focus
Ever since attending my first Orange Conference and hearing Reggie Joiner speak, I became convinced. You can hear about that experience here. Basically you need to know that having parents bought into your ministry is essential to multiplied impact in the students that you minister to.
If Parents are connected to your teaching, events, and resources, they will be repeating what the students are hearing in small group, large group, and campus ministry. That kind of focus will cause our students to think about the reason for such a focused effort.
Curriculum
One of the big reasons why I’m Orange is the curriculum that they produce. It’s so much more than a one experience type of curriculum (i.e. large group only or small group only curriculum). It gives you resources to give to parents for use outside of the church building (which is where we really want our students in our ministry living out their faith).
The fact that they put a ton of time into resources such as orangeparents.org, orangeleaders.com, and The Orange Conference overflow into their curriculum that they produce for Pre-school {First Look} (which Brookwood uses), Children {252 Basics} (which Brookwood uses) and Students{XP3} (which we don’t use because of the ridiculous deal we got on a curriculum and our current staffing).
Their experiences are awesome and their in-week resources are great for the family. Seriously you need to check out their stuff.
The People
The people that work for Orange are over the top awesome. Seriously, their team is not just full of producers (people that flat get stuff done) but also people that are innovative and looking to continue to improve and update what is going on in ministry to the next generation.
Reggie Joiner, Matt Mckee, Bre Hallberg, and Betsy Wright are just a few of the crazy awesome peeps that are a part of the Orange Team. They are top notch.
Needless to say you need to know where I stand. I believe that we must work with the family in order to more effectively reach the next generation with the Gospel of Christ.
Are you with me?
Redeeming the Mundane
You know that in your student ministry and preteen ministry and children’s ministry, things get mundane. It’s easy to fall into the mundane trap.
Something you should know about me: I hate email. I’m 24, email was like old school when I was in high school and college. We were texting and facebooking each other and you emailed your family or teachers.
So I hate email. However, it’s the best way to communicate to volunteers and parents.
I thought that I would rebel early on and just call people. Too much time, couldn’t talk to everyone.
Then I tried to text/facebook everyone. Volunteers weren’t catching on to either of these and it was just wasted time.
So I started emailing them. The emails would go like this….
Bleh, bleh, bleh, info for the week, bleh, bleh, how can I pray for you?
{signature}
It was literally the most awful emails anyone could ever send. I hated writing them and I’m sure people hated reading them.
But over the last month and a half. I decided I was going to have a little fun.
Every piece of info, I decided to make fun to read. It would include a joke or something personal about myself. Then I would talk about something else.
I applied a lot of what you see on this blog in my email writing. Short paragraphs, > 3 sentences per, and something enjoyable.
Honestly, it’s been a blast just to write them. They take 3x as long but man they are fun. Crazy thing is, that volunteers across our student ministry have loved them.
I mean when was the last time you had a volunteer say this, “I love getting your emails!” Seriously, I never could have imagined.
Is that the most important part? No. The best part is that people are reading the emails and coming prepared. They seem as if they are happier about learning the info.
This honestly is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m looking at revamping a ton of other things in Switch to add some fun.
Worship
Games
Message
Small Group
Promotion
All just to keep them from becoming mundane for me or the people that are consuming them.
So what is it for you that has become mundane? How can you revamp it and bring something new to the table?
BTW if you haven’t taken a look at Ben Heine’s pics, you should click here to check his blog.
2011 Reader Survey
So I love my readers. Seriously I wake up and can’t believe people read what I write. I remember being in high school and reaching out to my friends and really believing that God was going to do something huge in my life. I thought what would happen would be good, but I had no idea where I would be at in this stage of my life. It’s easy to get caught up in the mix and lose perspective. I hope that never happens.
2010 was a crazy awesome year. I started the year in my usual role as Elementary Production Director here at Brookwood. Had one of the best Adventure Week’s ever with over 600 kids in attendance. Then in the summer I transitioned to a role of 5th and 6th grade ministry director for our new 5th and 6th grade program called Switch. I absolutely love the age group. I’ve also loved my new pastoral type role over volunteers and students.
At the same time as that transition happened. Our former Student Pastor Josh Bradley left to plant a church in Woodruff, SC with the full support of Brookwood Church. So we were looking for a new Student Pastor. Brookwood hired Jared Patrick as our Student Pastor. He’s absolutely a bang-up leader and I feel blessed to be under his leadership and when Jared came in we talked about moving to a more team oriented approach to ministry instead of the traditional silo mentatlity. So in addition to my role in Switch, I’ve also been given the reigns to our small group ministry called C-Groups. So I am the Associate Student Pastor teaching in the 5th and 6th grade area and over small groups.
So my call to reach the next generation remains the same, but logistically it’s been hectic and terribly exciting. So there’s been a ton of change and this blog space has honestly gotten a smaller and smaller spot on the list of priorities.
However, I have a few things I’m working on:
- Content focus of this blog-With so much change this has been on my heart. I don’t want you guys to remain in limbo. I want you to know what’s coming and what to expect. I don’t want to offer a mixed bag and so soon you will hear all about this, and until yesterday I’ve been bummed. Now I am pumped.
- Branding- I feel as if the branding will remain jcisonline.com. It’s me and it’s got some loyalty built up, however, the look will soon change. It needs a refresh and a new paint job. This will also tie into the content focus.
- Schedule of posting- with my new roles. the schedule of when I post has been all out of whack. I want to be realistic and also take some more time to write. In order to do a crazy awesome job at this a schedule for me is a must. You will also be hearing about this soon as well.
So that’s sort of 2010 in a nutshell. I would be remiss to not mention the best part of my year that I hope never changes. I got to spend my second full year with my wife Kristen. She truly does make me better and provides much needed insight and love for me in every facet of my life. She is truly the stick that stirs my drink. (thanks Dad for the wise teaching)
Now that I’ve bored you: Every year I try to take a survey of my readers and this is just a way that I can make sure that I am providing you with what you are looking for and also to try to get some incredible feedback to help me. Below you will notice a form to fill out. Please take 5-10 minutes of your day to hook me up with some info for me and to provide to potential advertisers.
I look forward to your response. As always may you have the best year ever!
And if you can’t see the embedded form, click here to fill it out
Best Breakout – Nancy Ortberg, Conflict
Nancy Ortberg taught a breakout called Dysfunction and Death. I was completely intrigued. I remember sitting there with my business school hat on and thinking everything she was saying was right. The difference, I hadn’t seen it in a church environment.
She talked about how church people sometimes shy away from conflict for the wrong reasons like fear or shame instead of engaging the issues to find the heart of the matter. I don’t remember if she said this in her breakout or in her main session but she said this:
In order to do conflict well you have to give people permission to do it poorly.
Are you allowing those that you lead to participate in conflict? Are you immediately solving the conflict? In order to be effective at anything we need practice but are we allowing them to practice the difficult things.
I think that conflict management is one biblical principle that I see handled better at corporations rather than churches, why?
- We define cowards as peacemakers – Matt. 18 teaches us about conflict resolution. Verses 15-17 look very different than the definition that we give to peacemakers. Peacemakers manage conflict and don’t avoid it.
- Conflict more clearly defines our outlook on God – we can see our trust in Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice by the way that we handle conflict. Do you really feel as though God accepts you and there is no condemnation in those who love Christ? If so you will handle conflict very differently than those who don’t
- Conflict is hard - it’s easier to do easy things. It’s hard to do hard things. So avoid hard things. Unfortunately this is how we approach the subject of conflict.
Nancy knocked this session out of the park. She recommended the Five Dysfunctions of a team and Death by Meeting as two books that you need to have read if you lead meetings or people or both
If you want a taste of the Orange Experience dont’ forget the Orange Tour it’s FREE! And if you want the whole enchilada including killer breakouts like the one above don’t miss out on the Orange Conference. Read about the special in the pic below. You only have til Feb. 17th!!!
Orange Week Best Speaker – Reggie Joiner
I will never forget the first time I heard Reggie Joiner speak. Honestly, the only thing that I knew about Mr. Joiner was that he was the founder of the then ReThink group now Orange that created the Orange Conference. That was enough for me. But when I hear Reggie speak about the family, I always come away challenged.
2008 was the first Orange experience for me. I remember so clearly being pumped about just going to a conference. I had never been to a church leaders conference. I was only 22 years old and was literally overwhelmed by what God was allowing me to be a part of not only at Brookwood, but getting to hear from some people that had been doing ministry for decades and I was soaking like a fresh sponge.
Reggie talked about influence and how parents see the church as a primary influencer on the spiritual development of children. Yep, I’m following you Mr. Joiner. Then he started to layout the differences in hours that parents had versus the church. My mouth dropped. I literally couldn’t remember anything else about the breakout.
My mind went into a tailspin. Why am I even in ministry? Did I misappropriate the influence that we could have on students and children? What am I going to do with all this one incredible piece of information?
You see the thing about Reggie when he speaks is that you never worry about what he is thinking. He wants you to get that we have to partner with parents in order to maximize our impact.
Nothing has changed my thoughts about ministry more than this one fact on influence from Reggie Joiner. I talk to parents differently with a boldness and courage because of the brevity of the role that they play. I am honestly more humbled by a killer parent than a main session speaker because of this one fact.
Everything inside of me knows that Parents have an incredible impact on their kids, and most of that knowledge has been gained because of listening, reading and engaging with Reggie Joiner’s content.
If for no other reason to just understand more about the role that parents have in the spiritual development of their children, you should go to Orange. But if you need convincing then take it from a young, long way to go, pie in the sky, leader, it’s life changing for you and those you minister to.
Orange Week – The Zest
I love to grill. Absolutely love it. If you grill and add any kind of marinade or sauce, then you know the power of Zest. It’s used in baked items, marinades, sauces and even some firewater 
The cool thing to me is how such a small portion of the entire thing is such an incredible source of taste and aroma. Seriously, your dishes change when you add some zest.
Well I’m going to tell you about something that might be the zest that you need in your ministry. We all need that extra pick me up, encouragement, challenge or conversation that propels us to the next level. This opportunity could be it for you.
This week around the children’s/students/preteen blogging community you will see an array of posts about something we like to call Orange Week. It’s a way for us to promote something that we all believe can make a huge difference in your life or ministry and that’s The Orange Conference. It’s a 3 day event that could change the way you do ministry, literally.
But even before the Orange Conference, Orange is hosting an Orange Tour Online and it’s FREE!! It happens on Feb. 15th and it’s a way to add a boost of Orange flavor to your life. This FREE event will answer questions that you have about the Orange strategy. Did I mention it’s FREE.
I am Orange for so many reasons. But the best reason is because of my makeup. My greatest ministry is my family. I am more accountable to them for my actions than anyone else in my life. I believe that is why the family is such an important area of focus for ministry.
This week you will see some personal highlights from the Orange Conference and I hope to hear some from you as well. Honestly, I think you should clear out your schedule to go. I really believe that the philosophy itself is enough reason to go to this conference.
But here are a few others in no particular order.
Seriously, you need to come. I will be pitching hard this week to try and sell you on it. If you are on the fence then I challenge you to show up everyday this week to hear from someone who has experienced Orange and the impact it is making on them years (2 to be exact) later.
If you are already convinced then click here to register for the Orange Conference. The Early-Bird rate expires February 17th, so save some cash and sign up today.
Update Preteen Ministry Small Groups
So I talked about needing some games for our Preteen Ministry Small Groups. In that post I talked about some of the issues that we’ve been having with our groups on Wed. Night. I’ve been praying for some time about it, because honestly it’s been a burden that has been weighing on me since the new year.
Last night was so incredible! The best small group time that we’ve ever had in Switch. A few things really helped draw the kids in.
We placed round tables in the middle of our large group room. It took away the large space and the kids had less room to run. Plus, the girls who normally would hang out on the edges of the room, sat at the tables. I think that helped the boys calm down a bit as well.
- We started a new type of curriculum last night. We are going through Crazy Love from grades 5-12. One HUGE difference: there is a video element. Video teaching provided a natural transition from hang out time to teaching time. Lights get lowered and the soothing backtrack in the Crazy Love DVD helped kids calm and focus.
- Francis Chan can engage anyone, the kids loved listening to him.
- They were ready to ask questions last night. In my group our boys talked about how they view God. We also talked about how music, movies, people, and ourselves really draw a picture of who God is and that it doesn’t always line up with how the Bible describes God. Because of that, there are some things that we define God as but he really isn’t. One big one that we talked about is that Jesus wasn’t a white guy! 6 of my 7 boys didn’t know that Jesus wasn’t white.
Overall I hope some of these things help you as you are analyzing your programming. There are things you should always be examining:
- Your environment: space, look, feel, tables or floor, carpet or tile
- Your content: Are kids engaged? Are they listening and discussing? Can you add media?
- Transitions: This is incredibly important. Your transitions set up your next element. For us we needed an element to bring our kids down and at the same time draw their interest. Video teaching will probably be something that we use over and over again.
So there is the update.
What are some things that you are looking at changing in your ministry?
Preteen Ministry Games for Small Groups Suggestions
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?
