Friday, September 22, 2006

THE ANATOMY OF KILLING A WASP

One day a friend called and asked if I would come over and kill a wasp that was flying all crazy in her house. Her husband was at work and she was afraid to be in her house, so my wife and I got in our car and drove to her house.

When we got there, I noticed that her nephew was there, I not sure how old he is, but what I noticed was that he was eager to come in the house with me and hunt down the wasp and kill it. Of course his aunt would not let him, but he wanted to any ways.

You know - many times preteens want to be and have the potential to be mature Christians that have the ability to slay the wasps in their life, but adults stop them and don't let them in the house to learn the killing skills they need to slay the things that are trying to take them down and away from God!

At the church I minister at, I know that we are dedicated to give our preteens the "killing skills" to follow God and become all that God created them to be.

Joe

Friday, September 01, 2006

SOCCER ANYONE!

It was anyone's game, both teams exchanging goals, one right after the other. Elbows were flying, hard kicks were connecting too both, shins and the ball. Oxygen was in short supply and sweat ran off the combatants like a roaring river. The battle was intense as contestants from both teams jockeyed for postion and the victory!What's more, this fiercely fought match went down to the wire.

No! I am not talking about a match-up from the World Cup of Soccer, nor am I talking about some Major League Soccer game! Instead, I am talking about "The Edge", the youth soccer team that Christ's Church of Oronogo sponsors and the hard fought soccer game that they played yesterday at King Jack Park in Webb City, MO. Our preteen ministry came about sponsoring a team, when "The Bridge" (A unique skateboard ministry that reaches out to youth and others) contacted out Children's Ministry about sponsoring a team in their newly started youth soccer league. Our ministry is going to sponsor pre-K team, a K-4th grade team and our preteen (5th-6th grade) ministry is doing so as well (Thus, the team name "The Edge"). When the opportunity came for us to help support our community, we were more than willing. This opportunity not only gives us a chance to love and encourage some of our kids and their families outside of church, but it also helps us reach out and connect with families that we do not know. We also tell the kids in our ministry to go out and support out team.

What does your preteen ministry do to get involved in your community? Post your ideas and I will post them in a blog.

Joe
ALONG FOR THE RIDE...

One of the things that is a part of my responsibilities at the church that I minister at, is to help out in the Jr. High ministry in some capacity, or basically make sure that our out going 6th graders are making a good transition from our preteen ministry into our student ministry. For me, it means that I have a really good relationship with our Jr. High minister, or that basically "He is my best friend on staff". Fortunately, him and I get along really well. Matt is a top notch guy, who is doing great things for our Jr. High kids. The other thing that I do is get involved in some way with our Jr. High ministry.

This past month, my event that I go on with our Jr. High group as a sponsor is a week long service project event called KNOW SWEAT. I attend this event for three reasons:

1. I go to help be a positive presence for our out going 6th graders/new 7th graders, by helping be a familiar figure, as well as help them transition well.

2. I go to help build my relationship with our Jr. High minister and check-up on our new 8th graders (Which are former preteen ministry kids).

3. I go to help, because it helps me measure and gage all the things we did for the past two years with these former preteens, by observing our former 6th graders in situations that call on them to be leadrs and to act more mature.

I do this with all intentionality, what do you do to help you measure the growth of your preteens?

Joe
IS IT CRAZY OR WHAT?

I has been a crazy month for me. I was gone for almost three weeks straight and when I came back, not only did my family miss me, but the ministry did as well!

I want to tell all of you out there who minister and work with preteens, that help is on it's way! Two of the reasons why I was gone for so long , was that I went to lead some workshops on preteen ministry at a ministry conference and then I went to meet with other preteen ministers from around the country and brainstorm ideas about and for preteens and preteen ministry. However, before I talk about what we did, I want to tell you about some things that I learned and affirmed in our meeting:

1. Preteens are the most important ministry age group in our churches:

- They are the most impressionable, meaning they can be influenced and are ready to make life changing decisions (Look at marketing groups, terrorist groups, media groups, and etc... All these groups seek to fill their numbers by targeting this age group).

2. The harvest is ripe at this age! I believe Barna says that 40% of the people that make decisions for Jesus are between the ages of 9-14 years of age. I think he is wrong, I think the percentage is higher.

3. They have been negelected in our churches (For what ever reasons)!

4. The exsiting curriculum out there is not very good (However there is some stuff that is useful)!

5. This age group is being forced to mature at a faster rate than any other age group and at any other time in history (This is being forced by both media, schools, parents, culture, and etc...)!

Now this is what we did! Primarily nine of us from around the country, five from church ministies, one from a para-church organization, and three from a well respected publishing company, got together and talked shop (We talked about preteens and preteen ministry). Out of this meeting, we produced three books on preteens and preteen ministry and helped consult a little bit on the curriculum that the publishing company is going to produce.

Now I can't get into details or tell you exactly when this is going to all hit the bookshelves, but I can say that it will be soon! I even wish I could tell you the publishing company's name, but I can't. Just hang in there, it will happen soon!

Joe