Skip to main content

Tag: preteen ministry

Preteen Curriculum: Why We Chose “Preteenministry.net”

Kathie Phillips

This post is Part 4 of Ministry Basics: Selecting Curriculum.  

You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Our Preteen Ministry, Route 45, is very special to me.  We launched it from the ground up in Sept 2012 and designed it to be a safe place where 4th & 5th Graders can ask hard questions and begin to own their faith.

What we use, the selection process and why this was our choice

Our team selected curriculum from preteenministry.net.  I blogged about our selection process here.

How the curriculum looks at our church

This is what our current format looks like:

  • Arrival Activities (20 minutes):  After checking themselves in, preteens are able to hang out until our Large Group worship begins.  (They are able to enjoy basketball, air hockey and board games.)
  • Large Group Worship (15 minutes):  Our preteens worship with our 1st-3rd Graders.
  • Large Group Teaching (20 minutes):  After worship, our preteens head back to their area for a teaching time.  Sometimes our teaching time includes a game or object lesson that relates to the Bible story.
  • Small Groups (30 minutes):  During this time, preteens split up into 2 groups: 4th & 5th Grade Girls and 4th & 5th Grade Boys.  Each group has one adult or high school leader who facilitates discussion, application activities and prayer.

What I like

  • The selection of available lesson series is great.
  • The artwork is great, too.  (I use each series’ banner picture as our Facebook page cover photo.)
  • The lessons are engaging and do not look the same each week.  Some weeks, there might be a video clip; some weeks the preteens act out the story.  Other weeks, there might be an object lesson or group art project.
  • The games are fun and tailored specifically to preteens.
  • We hardly ever have to supplement the material.
  • There is flexibility to choose our own lesson schedule, which allows us to customize for our needs.
  • The cost is very affordable, as each series is digital.

What I don’t like

  • I’d like to see take-home resources provided for each lesson.
  • It would also be great to have scripts for social media (i.e. Facebook and Twitter) that accompany each lesson/series.  Right now, I write my own.

Preteenministry.net is a great resource for ministry leaders.  In addition to curriculum for elementary, preteen and junior high ministry, it also provides training materials, games, and other great stuff.  Check it out!  You can click the image above for a direct link to website.

Do you use preteenministry.net for your preteen ministry? What has your experience been?

If you don’t use preteenministry.net, what do you use?  How’s it working for you?

How We Brought Preteen Parents and Leaders Together

Kathie Phillips

This past Sunday, we hosted a Small Group Leader & Parent Breakfast for Route 45, our church’s Preteen Ministry.  I was inspired to plan this after I saw an idea on a great website, Stuff You Can Use.  The website offers a free, editable kit that will help you plan the entire event.  The event was originally designed for Middle School Ministry, but I found it easy to design it for our needs.

I described this event to our parents as the church version of “Back to School Night”.  This type of event is usually held in August or September.  Since things were extremely busy in the fall, we scheduled it for February, the mid-point for our ministry year.

Here’s an overview of our event:

Purpose:  The primary purpose of this event was to bring parents and leaders together for a light breakfast and conversation.  Since our preteens are allowed to check themselves in and out on Sunday mornings, many of our parents and leaders had never met.  I didn’t want the school year to go by without this important face-to-face interaction.

Logistics:  We held our event on a Sunday morning during both of our morning services.  Parents were encouraged to attend during the hour that their child attends Route 45.  I recruited a few teens to help me teach the morning’s lesson and help with crowd control.  Leaders were provided with a timeline for the morning and a copy of conversation starters prior to the event so that they’d be familiar with how things would operate.

Promotion & Registration:  We began promoting the event through our weekly parent email approximately two months before the event.  It started as a “Save the Date” promotion and then moved to actual emails with more details.  We also promoted the event through announcements during our preteen Large Group time, our online church newsletter and the church bulletin.  Invitations were provided for each preteen to take home and give to their parents.  (We wanted to publicize in many different ways.)  Our invitations and other handouts were customized to be blue and white (to complement our color scheme) and include our logo.

Food:  We kept the menu pretty simple.  We served muffins, bagels and cream cheese, protein bars, fresh fruit, juice and bottled water.  We were able to keep the event to less than $60 for food and supplies.

Decor:  We set up three 9-foot tables parallel to each other with space to walk in-between.  We covered the tables with table cloths and placed an acrylic sign holder in the middle.  The sign holder held the names of each small group leader.  At each place setting, we placed a legal-sized place mat (with a section for notes); a two-sided post card – one side shared how we want to partner with parents and the other side listed our leaders and contact information; and a feedback card that parents and leaders could use in telling us if the event was beneficial, if we should offer it again and suggestions to make it better.  We also placed name tags, pens, markers and copies of Reggie Joiner and Carey Nieuwhof’s book, Parenting Beyond Your Capacity, for parents to peruse.

Here are a few pictures:

Flow for the morning:  At the beginning of the morning, I welcomed parents, shared the purpose of the gathering and brief overview for the morning as well as insight into our ministry year.  (We launched Route 45 in September, so the word for the year is “new”…new format, new curriculum, new leaders, new space, new programming, new, new, new!)  Then I turned things over to our leaders and let them facilitate the conversation.  Five minutes before the service ended, I wrapped up the time by giving a few announcements and a heartfelt “thank you” to our parents and leaders.

Overall, I am so glad that we held this event and I look forward to it again in the fall.  It warmed my heart to see parents and leaders talking about how we can best work together to help our precious children in their spiritual journey.

Leaders and volunteers:  How do you encourage a partnership between your ministry and parents?

Parents:  How can your church better partner with you as you guide your children spiritually?

2 Tools We’re Using to Help Us Do Ministry Better

Kathie Phillips 6 Comments

I love finding tools to help make my life a little easier.  A few months ago, I discovered two online tools that have helped make our ministry more efficient.

According to their website, Basecamp is “the world’s #1 project management app”.  Our Family Ministry team began using this tool to help us better collaborate on joint projects.  So far, it has been wonderful!

Here’s how it works:  Our administrative assistant goes in to begin our project, sets our to-do list and assigns who’s responsible for what.  The to-do list can be assigned a date, so when you have a project due, you receive an email reminder.  (That’s very cool.)

What I love about this tool:  Like I mentioned before, Basecamp has helped our team collaborate better on projects without sending countless emails back and forth.  We have eliminated the need to scribble to-do lists on napkins or pieces of paper because there’s a running to-do list for each project.  Also, when you complete your assigned task, you can cross it off as “completed”.  Who doesn’t love that?!

Disclaimer:  While this tool isn’t free, the 45-day trial offer is.  We tried it out for 45 days, loved it, and decided to purchase a package.  I think you should check it out.

My absolute new favorite ministry tool is a program called Dropbox.  The tagline for this wonderful invention is “simplify your life”.  Something that promises to do that really needs to live up to its promise!

Here’s how it works:  Download the program from its website.  Then you’re able to create folders where you can save photos, documents and videos and then share them with a person or a group of people.  It’s very easy to use and best of all, it’s free!

What I love about this tool:  Every week, I would email my preteen ministry leaders their lesson for the upcoming week.  A few weeks ago, I discovered Dropbox and thought that this would be a great way for my leaders to access their lessons, which I could load up lessons weeks in advance.  We have just started using this tool, but I love it already and so do my volunteers.  They see upcoming lessons as soon as I ‘drop’ them into our shared folder.  I also love that the files are saved on all of my computers and accessible by my cell phone app.  The app is free!  Love it!

I am really not doing either of these tools justice by describing them.  If you are looking for ways to do ministry better, I strongly encourage you to check out these two options.

Do you use either of these tools or found other tools more helpful?  Tell me about it below!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H Your Ministry Dollars

Kathie Phillips 10 Comments

People all across America waited in long lines this past Thursday and Friday to snatch up good deals for Black Friday.  And today, Cyber Monday is in full effect.  The bottom line is that we are looking for great deals to stretch our dollars a little further.

This is nothing new for those of us in Children’s Ministry.  It really doesn’t matter how big or small our churches are…Children’s Ministry leaders want to get the most bang for our limited bucks.

Here are a few tips for stretching your ministry dollars in three of the biggest expense areas:  curriculum, snacks, and crafts.

Curriculum

  • Order enough materials for children who attend 75% of the time, plus 2 or 3 more.
  • Better yet, consider switching over to digital curriculum.  While you will spend time printing and purchasing paper, this will help reduce overall costs for take home pages and in-class activity sheets.
  • Search for free lessons online.  Check out Ministry-to-Children to get started.
  • Invest in reproducible books.

Snacks

  • Have your congregation or parents donate frequently used items, such as napkins/paper towels, cups, crackers and O-shaped cereal.
  • Serve water instead of juice.
  • Buy in bulk from a membership warehouse.
  • Find people who love to bake and ask them to bake cupcakes, cookies, brownies, etc.
  • Purchase generic brand snacks.

Crafts/Craft Supplies

  • Shop end-of-season and post-holiday sales for seasonal items.
  • Alert your church of needed items and allow them the privilege of donating.
  • Shop early enough to avoid rushed or overnight shipping costs.
  • Buy crayons, glue sticks, and scissors before the school year starts (when school supplies are dirt cheap.)
  • Again, reproducible craft books are a good investment.

General Money-Saving Tips

  • Use email, your website and social media for publicity.
  • Swap items with another church.
  • Save money on DVD’s by borrowing them from your local library.
  • Ask professionals in your church to teach their specialty to your children, parents and volunteers.
  • Maintain your resources.  For example, keep caps on craft supplies and properly wrap food.
  • Print your own brochures, handbooks, business cards, flyers, etc.
  • Make black and white copies instead of color.
  • Use white paper instead of colored.
  • When photocopying, use both sides of the paper if you can.
  • Consider using 1/2 sheets of paper to get your message out.  That way, you get 2-for-1 sheet of paper!

How do you stretch your ministry dollars?  Share your ideas below!

error: Content is protected !!