Pre-teen Culture

We have just finished our fall tour at SuperStart! This was my first experience not only with SuperStart! but with pre-teen ministry. It was absolutely fantastic. I would find myself sitting at my desk anxious to leave for our next trip. I am looking forward to a short break but am excited about our spring tour!

I just want to comment on the culture of pre-teens. I will have to say that I really underestimated pre-teens, and was a little out of touch with them until we started the tour. The thing I noticed every week was their passion to learn, take part, and become the young teens God wants them to be. I love walking around during our zone time and just seeing these kids being themselves and not worrying about what everyone else is thinking of them. This age group is just so awesome on so many different levels. I could go on and on about what I have learned about pre-teens but instead will just encourage you to read the book “Leading Preteens” by Patrick Snow.

I want to assure you that I am not just pitching this book to increase book sales. Honestly, this book sat at my desk for about a month and half or longer after I started with SuperStart!. It was when I was doing some travels in Illinois and Indiana that I started to read it. I am glad I waited to do that to. We were about halfway through our fall tour and as I read I was able to say, “yes that is exactly right, I have seen that!” The book really helped open my eyes to even more of what I was experiencing week to week. It helped me with how pre-teens think, how they learn, what is important to them, and why they act the way they do. One of my favorite excerpts from the book was an observation from one of our conferences. It talked about how at this age the little girls will start to notice some of the boys, but the boys don’t care because they are so busy being boys and doing what boys do. So what you may see at a SuperStart! conference is a line of girls in a dodge ball game admiring that pre-teen stud who will inevitably run up with a ball and nail them at full force because his interest isn’t in them yet as much as it is in winning a game of dodge ball! I started watching this at SuperStart! and it is completely true and a bit humorous at the same time.

I would encourage you to check this book out or other pre-teen material to learn more about their world. It really is fascinating. This year on tour I have been doing a survey in which I ask the kids ten questions to learn more about their culture. I currently have results for over 500 surveys in a database that has given me even more insight into their world. I hope to post this information at some point to help you in anyway to better understand pre-teens as well. Please feel free to contact SuperStart! if you would like some help in understanding the pre-teen culture a little more. We are here to be a resource for YOU. Thanks for reading, God Bless.

Aaron ><>

aaron.smith@ciy.com