Challenge Your Preteens

In your preteen ministry, you probably have at least one boy or girl who is just out-of-the park amazing. I'm talking about, the preteen who seems to know more scripture than you, and gets in trouble at home for staying up too late reading their Bible.

I love all my preteens and when you have this preteen in your ministry you feel supremely blessed! They can follow directions, sit quietly, and listen. 

But they are every bit as in need of your guidance and God's truth as the "troubled" preteen talking in the back of the room. 

In my experience I have seen a pattern of preteens being forgotten about. In a trend similar to a bell curve. The "trouble-makers" are neglected when leaders are short on patience, and on the opposite end the few students who excel are often neglected in an entirely different way: they are bored. 

It's time we seek ways to challenge all of our preteens! God stretches us that we may grow in His strength, and your preteens need to be stretched so they can learn to rely on God rather than their strength alone! 

In AWANA (our Wednesday night program, check out the organization's website Here) we have an amazingly dedicated preteen named Zach. He loves learning about God and learning as much scripture as possible. With a month left in the semester, Zach, has completely finished all of the scripture memorization curriculum available at the 5th grade level (He's pretty much ready for seminary now!) What this means is that on Wednesday night he no longer has any new verses to learn in the AWANA program at our church (we stop AWANA at 5th and have a separate middle school ministry).

So here is what I have decided to do...

After praying about this for awhile, I asked Zach 

if he would like the opportunity to teach the class of 15 other preteens during the "Council Time." This is usually when I teach a lesson I have prepared during the week, and I felt it would be the perfect way to challenge Zach's knowledge of scripture. It is one thing to memorize verses, and another thing entirely to apply their truth and teach others! 

He was incredibly excited at the opportunity to teach, and I have since been helping guide him toward God's will for his lesson. Zach recently chose to teach on Acts 16:29-31. I am super excited to see what God has planned for Zach's lesson, and I am so glad God led me to offer Zach this opportunity. 

I pray you seek ways to challenge your preteens and present them with more and more opportunities to serve the Lord. 

Be Blessed!