Leading Preteens

It's been an amazing journey since we began SuperStart! almost three years ago. Through countless hours of reading, talking with preteen ministries, and spending time with preteens themselves, God has solidified in our hearts the importance of an intentional preteen ministry. Not only has this journey helped us fall in love with preteen ministry but it's also blessed us with some understanding of what it looks like and how it could be used.

In the last year I've worked with Standard Publishing to take the knowledge and experiences we've been blessed with and put it all in a book for others who have the same passion. The book is called Leading Preteens and it's now available through Standard Publishing. I've found some books that talked about preteens and the need for preteen ministry but few of them gave a practical look at what it could actually look like. Leading Preteens is designed to help preteen leaders understand preteen ministry from the ground up (something I wished we had when we first started). The best part is that it also includes great practical advice from a few leaders who already have successful preteen ministries.

Whether you're already passionate about preteen ministry or just figuring it out, you should check out Leading Preteens. And afterward let me know what you think!

Patrick Snow

Preteens Are Playing Games With My mind!

This past week I was around a sixth grader named Thomas. As we were hanging out, Thomas gave me a serious look and said there was something he didn't understand. Thinking that Thomas was about to open up and allow me the opportunity to pour guidance into his young inexperienced soul, I asked "What?". Suddenly Thomas' face changed from serious to silly and in a high pitched almost winy voice he sang out "YOU'VE GOT FIVE MINUTES TO GET RID OF THAT WORD". Immediately I realized what had happened. Instead of allowing me the chance to teach one of the great truths of the universe, Thomas had tricked me with one of the great preteen games of the universe. A game that I myself played on unsuspecting victims when I was a preteen. The "WHAT" game!

By saying the word "what", I had so carelessly stumbled into Thomas' mastery of the game. Because of my foolishness I now had the task of getting someone else to say "what" before five minutes was up. Try as I did, there was no way of getting Thomas to say the word, so I automatically moved to the easiest target I could think of: my wife!

Later that day I thought about how true to preteen ministry that experience was. As quickly as opportunities to reach preteens come they can disappear. The question then becomes; "in the small amount of time I actually had their attention, did what I say even get through???" And to me that's the true mind game!

Patrick Snow