Today on the podcast, Sean speaks about the idea of giving preteens space to organize their thoughts.
Preteens are a mess some times because of all the changes going on in their minds and bodies. The preteen years are the biggest change in a persons’ life beside the ages of 0-2. Because of these rapidly changing thoughts and feelings, preteens don’t have a way of organizing them, they may not even have words to explain them. If preteens are not given the opportunity to organize their thoughts about God, they may never know what and why to believe something. We are great at giving input to them but we need to give them a chance to reflect otherwise we are just adding to the craziness in their heads.
Where can you offer space in your ministry to allow the preteens to organize their thoughts? Small groups are one place of opportunity, allow them to talk with their peers about their thoughts. A second option is a writing prompt at the end of a lesson, either on a card or a poster response station. By allowing them to publish their thoughts and feelings we are allowing them to organize and own their thoughts and feelings.
Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast? Send it to podcast@fourfivesix.org. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.
