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