Bible Race: PART 1

Hey everybody! So I have been waiting on God to give me peace about what my next post would be and after what feels like forever--I feel like this is an awesome post to share with you!


"Bible Race" if you have never heard of it before, that is absolutely okay! Because I just made it up about two weeks ago. Here's a little background info:

One of our 4th grade preteens brought a new "gift Bible" to Sunday School and asked me if there was anything we could do with it. To me, this is one of the greatest miracles ever! God had moved on the heart of this 4th grader and when he approached me with his question what I heard was

"I want to be used by God, can we start with this Bible?"

If you ever get this opportunity be sure to cherish it! then stand back...because God will do something amazing! 

I prayed about how to use this Bible--and there it was! BIBLE RACE! God gave me these two words and I felt led to encourage the preteen ministry to gather a bunch of Bibles together to donate some place...I did not quite know where, but I told the preteens that God would provide us with those who are in need of our Bibles. 

As I told the preteens about this mission opportunity, I challenged them, questioned how many they thought they could bring. I heard shouts of 20! 25! 40! 50! 'Whoa, whoa' I thought to myself, I began to think something like 50, might be too many for our preteens. Even though we have a regular attendance of about 40-50 4th and 5th graders, that's still a lot for everyone to bring in only two weeks time! 

I interceded with the number 30, stating this would still be a challenging goal for us to collect in two weeks. And I honestly believed that, but...I also wanted to make sure their goal was achievable. 

But when you let God lead the way...you don't just meet your goals.

We got 56 Bibles on that first Sunday of the BIBLE RACE. 

I titled this post as "Bible Race: PART 1" because I could really use your prayers as we enter our last Sunday of the Bible Race this weekend. Our new goal is 100 Bibles and now that our church heard about what the preteens are doing, they have decided to donate some Bibles as well! 

And, God provided us with a local church severely in need of Bibles, so now we have a place to donate them too. 

God is good, He always provides, He always loves. 

Be Blessed! 

Patience and Preteens

I think it's about time I simply share my thoughts and let you learn about some of my experiences in preteen ministry, especially my adventure with patience.

In 1 Corinthians we read that "love is patient" and therefore those we love we must also endeavor to offer patience. However, with preteens I have noticed within myself the pattern of focusing more on the goal of my lesson, or finishing my teaching than I am focused on offering patience with my preteens.

This lack of patience comes in many forms for me, such as continuing to speak when hands are raised in valiant participating effort, or lengthy irrelevant Bible verses that must linger on the tongues of eager preteens as I teach on. I want sooo badly to teach these young minds the truths of God's Word and

'I just know that my lesson is exactly what they need to hear!'

In effort to keep this post short, I'd like to say that since I have begun to offer more and more patience with the preteens during my lessons I have seen a slow, but beautiful growth of the Spirit in each one of the young boys and girls.
I am learning that even though the goal of my lesson may be to teach a certain point, or statement, I must never forget the goal of God, and that is to grow these preteens into disciples. The truth is simple,

Jesus is the only way to God, but I am not the only way to Jesus 

and I am humbled each time God reminds me of this when I see Him work in the heart of each preteen in a unique way that I could never do with my teaching alone.
Be blessed! 


What are some ways you have learned to show patience in your ministry?

Check Out Checkers for Preteens!

So I just had to share one of my favorite things I have been so blessed to have (and my fiancée in the middle is pretty amazing too!):

A GIANT CHECKERBOARD!

If you're looking for a fun, easy-to-make element for your preteen or children's ministry this is it! 

Here's what you need:

• Gotta be excited to make something awesome 
• Have another equally awesome person to help
• 64 squares of Vinyl Linoleum 
• Big sheets of card board 
• One of those squishy things people put under rugs 
• 2 different colors of duct tape 
• Upholstery foam 

It's actually incredibly simple to make. From the picture you can tell it's only 8x8 squares. I bought all the tiles from Big Lots for pretty cheap. Simply find the cardboard you need to lay down the linoleum tiles on top of and you're ready to go! 

Once you've taken your  time applying the self-adhereing tiles, find a 8 or 9 inch circle to use for cutting out the foam pieces. It is ridiculous to try to explain how to tape them, but my advice to you is to start with long pieces that criss-cross the circle, then use smaller pieces to fill in the gaps. 

Because preteens are preteens...

• Make sure you make the checkers out of something light-weight. I can assure you they will get thrown across the room at some point.
• It is important to secure the cardboard onto the floor with something otherwise someone might slip.
• Be careful with applying the linoleum straight onto the floor, I think it is more versatile to lay it on top of cardboard so you can move it if needed. 
• Watch out for heavy objects on tiny feet (desks, tables etc...) as they will likely puncture the checker board. 

Have fun! And as always, message me if you'd like more details. 

Be blessed! 

More Apologetics for Preteens!

If you read my last post about these "Preteen Apologetics" you might already understand how to use these questions, if you haven't--no worries! It's very easy to do!

Basically, you will want to challenge your class to answer each question with their own opinion, but they must support it with any Bible verse they think applies to that situation. It is super fun and be sure to encourage every answer (be weary of your reactions to their ideas, it is important to encourage and gently instruct each preteen toward what God has placed on your heart to teach) and find a way to make connections to the question, or just compliment them on their passion and enthusiasm to participate!

My favorite motto throughout these "apologetics" is this:

There's What I Think, there's What You Think, and there's What God Knows.


1.) As Christians, will everyone else want to hear about salvation through Jesus?
- Matthew 24:9     - 1 Peter 2:11     - Matthew 28:19

2.) What kind of things should a Christian think about?
- Philippians 2:17

3.)  What if you had a teacher that is a great person, knows the Bible very well, but does not choose to live out what they teach, what Bible verse could you use to explain if their behavior is good or bad?
- James 1:22

4.) Are Christians more righteous (better) than non-believers?
- Romans 3:9, 21-24     - Matthew 5:6

5.) Will God ever ask you to do something hard?
- Hebrews 11:7,17,23,29,30 (there's a lot of examples here!)

And of course there are probably many, many more answers to these questions (the preteens usually come up with many more verses than I think of). I hope this short lesson, is fun for you and your class (remember to bring some fun treats to pass out when they answer a question correctly!).
Be blessed!

Do You Really "Follow" Jesus?

This is a super fun lesson for preteens on Christ's Lordship. It all starts with the simple question, 'who do you follow?'
This lesson will can last from 20 - 45 minutes depending on how many volunteers you accept and how much discussion you allow.

Supplies:
-- 4 Different colors of tape (I used red, green, blue, yellow)
-- Small notepad to write on
-- Space to tape numerous 2 - 4 inch lines on floor


Who do you follow? Is it Jesus? Do you sometimes follow what you think is fun instead?

Philippians 2: 9 -11
⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place 
   and gave him the name that is above every name, 
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
   in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
   to the glory of God the Father.

This verse is a perfect way to set the foundation for Christ's Lordship. It is good to explain the concept of a "Lord" to the preteens as well. Once you have fully explained the verse ask for a volunteer to step up to try a short game you have prepared.

Activity 1:
Make a 15 - 20 foot long path of randomly placed pieces of colored tape. Space them out, but mostly make sure the colors are varied and there is a distinct beginning and end.

On the small notepad you are holding write an order of colors that your volunteer must step on to win the game. Tell all of your class that you are holding the list that shows the order of colors your volunteer must step on to win. Then surprise your volunteer by telling him or her to begin. Do not show the list, simply ask them to try to figure out the way through all the wrong colors and step on only the correct steps.

This is super cool because the other preteens will shout out their guesses and try to help, when I did it my volunteer actually got the first 4 colors correct, then he stepped on the wrong colored tape and lost. This is when you demonstrate how difficult it is to try to make decisions in life without knowing the directions.

Ask for another volunteer and this time tell the class that in this case, your volunteer always reads their Bible and trusts Jesus as their Lord. With the list of correct colors to step on your volunteer should be able to make it across by stepping on all of the correct colors of tape! (It's fun to pretend that there's hot lava every where and if you step on the wrong tape you lose!)

The next verse will help the preteens to see how they begin this habit of trusting Jesus as their Lord and what it means in their life.

Matthew 5:6
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 
   for they will be filled. 


This is a great verse to show how Christians can seek God and His will with all their hearts and the promise that they will find answers--you will be filled. In order to really, really trust Jesus as your Lord, you must first trust Him, and the best way to trust someone, is to learn all that you can about them! And this verse from the Sermon on the Mount is a perfect example of continuously seeking God.

How do you obey God? 

Psalm 18:2

² The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
   my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
   my shield^[b] and the horn^[c] of my salvation, my stronghold.

Use this verse above to help illustrate for the preteens, what it looks like to trust Jesus as your Lord, to be your rock.

Luke 6: 46 - 49
⁴⁶ “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? 


⁴⁷ As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. 


⁴⁸ They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. 


⁴⁹ But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”


I separated these verses so it would be easier to see them individually, because really each verse is almost its own idea. Be sure to read the entire passage emphatically in order to help your class really imagine these two different houses and which one collapsed into destruction.
Verse 46 is so powerful because it demonstrates our common practice of referring to Jesus as our Lord yet not obeying even the simplest of commands like "love your neighbor" (mention Justin Beiber to some preteen boys and you will get quite the reaction!). Verse 47 reminds us that Christians are called to apply what they learn, to be the city on a hill. Verses 48 and 49 are wonderful examples of these two types of Christians, as well as a warning if you happen to be the house built without a foundation...

Spend some time discussing these verses with your class, allow them to give examples in their life when they felt like they were the house built on rock, or the other without a foundation. Ask questions like: why does someone build their house without a foundation instead of using rock? how can we help other people building their houses without a foundation?

Matthew 7:25-27

²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

Use this verse to continue illustrating this image of the two houses--two Christians, that have their foundation on sand and on rock. It is important to focus on the concept of sand, because the preteens will really grasp onto that image of "sinking sand" as opposed to strong sturdy rock. 

Romans 12:1-2 

 ¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This final verse is the conclusion of the lesson, tying in the effects of trusting Jesus as your Lord. The trust in Him leads to obedience and the obedience leads to transformation "by the renewing of your mind." To truly be following Jesus, to make Him your foundation of rock, is to begin the transformation in your life! Paul reminds us to not conform to the patterns of  the world, to not build our houses on sand like the others, but to stand out and stand firm with our house built on the Lordship of Jesus Christ, built on the foundation of rock. 

Do You Know What Gets Preteens Really Excited?

ANYTHING THAT GLOWS! 

Friday night was "Preteen Night Out" at my church, and what that means is pretty much absolute mayhem from 6:30 PM until 10:30 PM. It is a super fun event I am blessed to lead. On the 2nd Friday of each month I gather several brave souls (university students--my friends!) and I plan as many crazy games as possible into the 3 hour span. The last hour the kids eat all sorts of snacks and sit down (some have fallen asleep too!) and watch a movie. 

Rarely do I have "theme" nights, I prefer to keep the preteens guessing, but Friday night was themed: PNO BLACKOUT! I provided the 20 something preteens with mini led flashlights and throughout the night they earned additional glow accessories while discovering them all over the church during games. 

If you're thinking about planning an event similar to this I would highly suggest you do it! The preteens absolutely loveee anything that glows. The picture above is a relay race game where the teams had to pass the hoops in order to move forward, while always having at least one foot inside a glow hoop. 

A variety of cops and robbers-type games were huge hits, as well as hide-and-seek games (but don't call it hide and seek, they might think that's a "kiddy-game"). 

If you have any other questions or would like more details on how to plan please let me know!

Be blessed! 

Apologetics for Preteens?

This year I have had the wonderful opportunity to lead T&T in Awana each Wednesday night! During council time I'm allowed 30 - 45 minutes to teach a Bible lesson for the preteens. Now, usually these kids sit down and watch an object lesson, but I think it's a great idea to really engage the 4th and 5th graders with the Word of God by once each month focusing on "Preteen Apologetics."

Once a month I plan 5 to 10 questions related to their lives as Christians. The questions range from day-to-day situations to Biblical theology. It is absolutely amazing to experience the preteens apply their Biblical knowledge and communicative abilities.

With a box of cookies/cupcakes nearby I offer each one as a prize to the preteens who are able to answer each question, proving their opinion based on additional scripture from their Bibles. A phrase I commonly use to advocate diversity of thought is this:
 "There's what I think, what you think, and what God knows."
This is something I try to remind the kids of in order to maintain a respectful environment, since this lesson often becomes similar to a debate.

Here are some of the questions I used:

Can God help 2 Christians on opposite sides of the world at the same time?
- Psalm 139: 7-10

Do Christians need to worry?
- Matthew 6:25

In Matthew 26:69, why did Peter deny Jesus 3 times?
- let the kids discuss

One man donates $100, and another man donates only $1. The first man was upset after he donated, and the 2nd man was happy. Who gave appropriately?
- 2 Corinthians 9:7

Should we fear Satan?
- 1 John 4:4

Can Christians really do everything Jesus did?
- John 14:12

Can we know the will of God?
- John 6:40, 1 Thessalonians 5:18


I try to find a verse or two that I believe appropriately answers each question in accordance with the teachings of the gospel. I have done these "apologetics" several times throughout the year and the preteens absolutely love it! It can be a little challenging to figure out how a variety of scripture can be applied (because you want to be supportive and not tell someone the verse they chose is completely wrong) and discerning between which verses will help facilitate learning.

If you have any questions or would like some more tips please let me know!
Be blessed!

Cool Idea for Attendance!

So if you have preteens you probably know that attendance can be all over the place. Partially because parents have busy schedules and partially because preteens don't always feel like coming.

An awesome way to support your regular attenders and encourage the irregular attenders is to use attendance cards! With a design similar to "frequent buyer" cards you can put stickers on each square

for attendance and anything else you would like! Try giving additional stickers for bringing their Bible, or bringing a friend! Maybe you are having a canned food drive, add another sticker for preteens that bring canned food!
And if you would like to increase the use of each card, be sure to laminate them, and use hole punches after all the squares are filled up with stickers.

Also, to challenge the preteens and allow them to take ownership over their "Preteen Pass" I am allowing the preteens to keep their card inside their Bible. This will encourage them to bring their Bible each Sunday, as well as help each preteen to see their Bible as a tool and not just another book.

Our ministry is focusing on leadership and bringing friends to church, so we are using these cards to help encourage some fun competition too!   At the end of 10 weeks I will take 5 of the preteens' attendance cards with the most stickers and hole punches, and then draw randomly from those 5 and award one class with cookie-cake and mini-ice cream cups! Also, to encourage unity within each class, we will award the Sunday School Teacher of the winning class, a $5 gift card to Starbucks!

I hope you get some awesome ideas from this post, and if you have any questions please ask or if you really like the design let me know and I can send you the file.
Be Blessed!

Got Pictures to Share?

Do you have lots of fun events in your Preteen Ministry?? If you do, hopefully you are taking lots of awesome pictures to share with the preteens and their families!

But it is important to consider how to safely share those pictures with everyone all at once...

Shutterfly Share Site

Shutterfly.com is a wonderful tool to safely display numerous pictures of your preteens. You can easily set-up a creative, and engaging webpage via the easy-template interface and password protect the site making it completely private from the general public. Parents can easily sign up for a shutterfly account and join the group. All members are admitted based on administrative approval, meaning you control who joins the site and who does not.

In addition to great picture security, shutterfly offers the ability for users to select their favorite pictures and purchase prints, posters and even photobooks directly from the site!

Perhaps one of my favorite features of the site is the calendar. You can set up one-time events or reoccurring events that last throughout the year, and shutterfly allows you to set-up reminder emails to be sent out to all the members of your site as well!

I love using shutterfly because I feel completely safe posting pictures of our preteens for their parents and family to see, as well as the wonderful ability for the site to automatically send out reminder emails for upcoming events.

In your search for a way to share your various media, if you don't use shutterfly I hope you find another site that has some form of password protection--it is very important to keep our preteens safe!

Be Blessed!

You Can't Play Football by Yourself

This is one of my favorite lessons, because it is fun and engaging, with a little spirit of competition thrown in! Make sure you have really prayed about it, and let God lead you through the teaching. Feel free to change anything and I hope God uses it to bless you as much as He blessed me. This lesson tends to last from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. 

Supplies:

1. Long rope to be used for tug-of-war
2. Colorful tape to be used to create path on floor 
3. Blindfold

- Get a friend and you can make a pass

- Get a few more friends and you can make a team 

- Even MORE friends and you can make a conference

- Even MORE friends and you can have a LEAGUE!! 

Christianity is not meant to be done alone. It is not an individual sport, but rather a team event utilizing the strengths of many to achieve one goal. We must recruit a friend, and another, and another and start a team to win the game for Christ!

Christians Need Each Other:

- The book of Acts is all about the first church getting started

1.) ACTIVITY: Ask 1 preteen to pull rope against you (exactly like tug-of-war). Tell the class that the preteen is symbolic of a Christian, and you are symbolic of sin. You are like sin tugging on their heart, trying to pull them away from God. 

     - After you beat your volunteer ask them to sit down, and mention how you (the sin)       were stronger than the 1 Christian trying to resist you.

- 1 Corinthians 14:26 

²⁶ What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.

     - Address the significance that these things “must be done for the strengthening of the church”  

     - Extra Verse: 1 Corinthians 14:37-38

•  This is a great verse to discuss the significance of accepting and acknowledging your gifts given to you by God! 

- 1 Corinthians 12:27-31

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.²⁸And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues.²⁹Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?³⁰Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?³¹Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

     - Address the significance that each one [preteen] is a part of it . We are all parts of one body, each of us with unique gifts (remind preteens of previous verse). 

- Hebrews 3:13 

¹³ But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

•  Focus on the need to encourage each other daily (maybe ask “have any of you encouraged anyone here yet?”)

- Romans 15: 5-6

⁵ May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, ⁶ so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

•  Focus on the ability for Christians to come together to glorify God

- Hebrews 10:24-25

²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

•  Focus on the need for Christians to lead, and guide each other

2.) ACTIVITY: Ask volunteer to walk along the path of tape laid out on carpet. But blindfold them. 

•  After your volunteer has failed to stay on the tape path (or “path of righteousness” ) ask for 2 more volunteers to help guide their fellow Christian. 

     - This next part begins the conclusion of the lesson and it is vital that you are passionate about this topic! 

- Acts 4:29-31

²⁹ Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ³⁰ Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

³¹ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

•  Focus on the significance of what God can do when groups of Christians work together. Especially the last part of 31, “and spoke the word of God boldly.” It is super important that you mention the ability for your preteens to be able to do the exact same thing as the Christians in this passage! 

•  Paraphrase Acts 4:32-36. This is important to keep the passage in context in order to fully illustrate what God was doing with this early church. 

- 1 Thessalonians 1:8

⁸ The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it,

•  This verse is displays the awesome faith of the church in Thessalonica, as their faith in God has been testified “everywhere”. Focus on the amazing ability for God to use churches to perform tasks that would normally seem impossible!

3.) ACTIVITY: Ask the first volunteer to try to beat you at tug-of-war again. But this time ask them to invite 2 more friends, then ask those preteens to invite more until everyone in the class is holding onto the rope against you (they should be able to beat you [sin] much more easily this time!).

- Close with the demonstration that together Christians can overcome anything.