Today on the podcast, Sean discusses the idea of focusing on who you teach rather than what you teach.
Sean spent some time with Chip Henderson this last weekend and they discussed the concept of using a church wide study so that parents and children can go home and discuss the same things they both learned. The problem in this is that there are things that need to be taught that won’t be taught anywhere else to the younger generations, like preteens or junior higher.
However, these topics will be talked about when you start with the “who” first. By starting with the “who” it allows you to come up with a different “what” versus starting with a blank slate and figuring out what you want to teach first, and then making it fit your students.
When you have this “first, what I’m teaching” mindset, it exacerbates the negative perception of behavior problems that arise because you are focusing on the “what” and the preteens are keeping you from the “what”. By focusing on the “thing” versus focusing on this person, that student can feel like they are getting in your way. When you start with the “who,” you may come up with a completely different strategy than if you started with the “what” first.
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/.
