How to Transition Preteens to Youth

I love working together with other ministries in our church. It always reminds me of how we are all one body serving our Lord to do His will. Does your ministry ever work with other ministries in your church?

Last year, I was thinking about how so many of our preteens talked about their fears for leaving 5th grade and moving into 6th grade. They were all so worried about this transition from our preteen ministry into the older Youth Ministry, as well as all of the additional changes they had heard about.

I started talking with our youth ministry intern and after praying about it for awhile we decided to create an event only for our preteens moving on into the youth ministry.

It has been such a powerful resource. This transitional event for our preteens allows the youth ministry leaders to get to meet with their future students and begin establishing relationships before they are seeing them on Sunday mornings, and youth retreats. In fact, last year we hosted this event for the first time and we had a great response! We invited the current members of the youth ministry to come with the intent of being welcoming and inviting the future teens.

We played tons of team-building games, and played silly charades-style games that allowed the students to showcase their talents and act silly in front of everyone. The youth ministry intern told me that it was incredibly effective to have all of the preteens already familiar with the layout, leaders and other students before our "Promotion Sunday."

When the youth ministry leaves for their week-long summer camp, they usually focus on building relationships with the new students, but now they already have the foundation and they work on strengthening and truly getting to the heart of the new youth students!

I hope you get the opportunity to help your preteens cross the bridge into Youth Ministry
because it really is an awesome thing to see these kids feel accepted and excited about continuing their journey in discipleship with Jesus Christ. 

Are there any things your ministry does to help your preteens feel at ease with the transition into Youth Ministry?

Be Blessed!