Rated G - No Way!
Okay, here is the situation. Yesterday, in one our 5th grade boy's Sunday school class, we always have "What's the latest" discussion time at the beginning of class. Well for most of the fourteen 5th grade boys in room 5B, the latest was the movie "CARS". Several of the boys were excited about the movie and some of the boys said they hated it. Well I did care for a couple of the boys attitude when they said that, so I went on an investigative search of why they didn't like the movie CARS. After several questions, what I found out was that the boys who said they hated it, DIDN'T EVEN SEE THE MOVIE! The only reason why they did not like it, was because the movie was rated G and G ratings to these boys are not cool. However, when asked by their fearless preteen minister (me) if they liked such and such movie, the sais they did and that it was awesome and one of their favorite movies, until I reveiled it to them that it was rated G as well. Hmm, sometimes I can be a stinker because I used that moment as a teaching moment on "be slow to speak and quick to listen."
It seems coolness and peer presure are getting younger and younger!
Joe
Monday, June 19, 2006
Friday, June 16, 2006
What I am learning...
Have you ever been in a situation where no ones has what you're looking for? Well I've been in that situation for a little over two years now (And longer if you count the years of ministry when I was over multiple grades)! No! This has nothing to do with lawn mowers, although I need one. What I'm talking about is curriculum for preteens! I can't seem to find anything out there that connects to preteens. I am not trying to be harsh to the the FEW curriculum writers and publishing houses that have attempted to produce something for preteens, it's just that most of it is either out of date, and therefore out of touch, or like most of us in the church world - trying to play catch-up to the trends and needs of culture and people, so we are behind.
What I am learning to do is to be a hardcore student of preteens and preteen culture. I have come up with some observations that most of us already know about preteens: Firstly, they love to be active, almost to a fault. Secondly, they love to talk, especially about themselves. They want to be known (The old - preteens are shy and unsure of themselves has went out the door for most of them. Thanks to parents and culture that tell them that they special). Thirdly, they want to and have to trust the adult who is their authority over them, therefore causing us to share about ourselves (They want to know our biography). Next, they want to and are capable of authentic faith (And this means in anything). And they want this authentic faith to make a difference in their lives and the world around them! There are several other things I have observed and there are many variables that come into play in these observations, however when we put them all together - what do we get, well we get craziness!
What we have done in our preteen ministry is to use as our foundation seven focused principles or teaching points, that we believe are vital in helping preteens establish their relationship with Christ, help them make a diference in the lives of the people around them, and help them grow in and experience their role in the church. The seven are: Authentic faith, Spiritual priorities, Moral boundries, Meaningful friendships, Wise choices, Others first, and God-given authority (these terms were taken from North Point Community Church's 6th grade ministry. Most of us have been using these seven points as guidlines, they just know how to word things). Ezzo, in his book "Preteen Wise" - says that we need to move preteens from obedient kids, to responsible kids. I like to say it this way - From kids who listen, to kids who do!
Joe
Have you ever been in a situation where no ones has what you're looking for? Well I've been in that situation for a little over two years now (And longer if you count the years of ministry when I was over multiple grades)! No! This has nothing to do with lawn mowers, although I need one. What I'm talking about is curriculum for preteens! I can't seem to find anything out there that connects to preteens. I am not trying to be harsh to the the FEW curriculum writers and publishing houses that have attempted to produce something for preteens, it's just that most of it is either out of date, and therefore out of touch, or like most of us in the church world - trying to play catch-up to the trends and needs of culture and people, so we are behind.
What I am learning to do is to be a hardcore student of preteens and preteen culture. I have come up with some observations that most of us already know about preteens: Firstly, they love to be active, almost to a fault. Secondly, they love to talk, especially about themselves. They want to be known (The old - preteens are shy and unsure of themselves has went out the door for most of them. Thanks to parents and culture that tell them that they special). Thirdly, they want to and have to trust the adult who is their authority over them, therefore causing us to share about ourselves (They want to know our biography). Next, they want to and are capable of authentic faith (And this means in anything). And they want this authentic faith to make a difference in their lives and the world around them! There are several other things I have observed and there are many variables that come into play in these observations, however when we put them all together - what do we get, well we get craziness!
What we have done in our preteen ministry is to use as our foundation seven focused principles or teaching points, that we believe are vital in helping preteens establish their relationship with Christ, help them make a diference in the lives of the people around them, and help them grow in and experience their role in the church. The seven are: Authentic faith, Spiritual priorities, Moral boundries, Meaningful friendships, Wise choices, Others first, and God-given authority (these terms were taken from North Point Community Church's 6th grade ministry. Most of us have been using these seven points as guidlines, they just know how to word things). Ezzo, in his book "Preteen Wise" - says that we need to move preteens from obedient kids, to responsible kids. I like to say it this way - From kids who listen, to kids who do!
Joe
Monday, June 12, 2006
PART 3 THE END
Okay, okay here it is! We have been conducting an Education Forum at the church I am on staff at, which included a few hand-pick staff members, whose job it was to rethink education churchwide. CCO is a decent size church (about 2300 people), so paradigms have shifted. Everything was on the chopping block, so to speak, and I mean everything! We were forced to take this measure, because even though we are in a somewhat rural setting, cultural has drastically changed. Even though culture is not as fast paced as it is in California (I am from the San Fransico Bay area, CA. I moved to southwest Missouri 5 years ago), it has become very rushed and busy, especially for families. Therefore, causing church events and programming to conflict or add to the other activities our families are involved in. Something has to change! We as a church want to build bridges to our community, but instead of wanting the community to cross over to us, we want to cross over to our community. In other words, we want our families to influence their neighbors, friends, and family members for Christ, by going into the community they are already involved in; whether it be at Little league practice, afterschool programs, soccer practice, etc... We can no longer expect people to pick our church activities over the other activities in their lives. They just aren't doing it! We are forced to simplify and narrow our focus!
I tell you all this to serve as a backdrop for the changes that are going to take place in our preteen ministry.
EVENTS
Preteens by nature are social cats (I hate cats, but love preteens). Most of my preteen ministry budget dollars are invested in the events category. We do alot of events for them, such as a fall retreat, a summer preteen road trip, Superstart, Believe, camp, and the list could go on. All of these events are very purposeful and have been successful, drawing large crowds and have brought about life change for some of our preteens. However, we don't need to do all of these events - So I am cutting some of the events out and redoing a couple of the others. In all we will do a total of four event, not including camp or our large summer outreach event (we do not do VBS). With this narrowed focus, we hope to be able to make the events that we do, more excellent and effective.
SUNDAYS
Are made for worship (haha)! Anyways, we did have programming for all three services. We did a computer lab during the first service, we did a more traditional Sunday school format the second hour, and then we had a preteen worship hour at our third hour service. Here is what we are doing and (already do in our preteen worship hour, during third service): We are going to no longer offer anything for preteens during the first hour (This means no more computer lab... Reasons why, will be discussed in another blog). We are moving in the direction of having two preteen worship services - one will be during the second hour (No more traditional Sunday school... Hate me all you want) and third hour services. Here is what they look like:
Each hour is sliced into four blocks:
The Hangout time 15 minutes- Students and leaders come into The Edge and hangout, playing foosball, air hockey, Game cubes, and catch up on what's been going in their lives.
The Connection time 15-20 minutes - Worship time (We use a live band). This is when preteens will here announcements, focus on the music aspect of worship, drama skits, video clips, and etc...
The Point time 10-15 minutes - This is the teaching time. A 10 to 15 minute sermon will introduce the point that we want our preteens to learn that week.
The So What time 15-20 minutes - This is small group time. This is where preteens will be divided by grade and gender to discuss the teaching point and how it applies to their world, but they will build community with each other, by talking about life in general and share what is going on in their lives with their small group friends and adult leaders.
The rest of the remaining time is hangout and wait for parent pick-up or released to meet parents.
For the sake of room, I will talk about Wednesday night programming in another blog. What I gave here, is programming and formating. I will also be blogging about philosophy, curriculum and reasons why we are doing things this way, later on.
Joe
Okay, okay here it is! We have been conducting an Education Forum at the church I am on staff at, which included a few hand-pick staff members, whose job it was to rethink education churchwide. CCO is a decent size church (about 2300 people), so paradigms have shifted. Everything was on the chopping block, so to speak, and I mean everything! We were forced to take this measure, because even though we are in a somewhat rural setting, cultural has drastically changed. Even though culture is not as fast paced as it is in California (I am from the San Fransico Bay area, CA. I moved to southwest Missouri 5 years ago), it has become very rushed and busy, especially for families. Therefore, causing church events and programming to conflict or add to the other activities our families are involved in. Something has to change! We as a church want to build bridges to our community, but instead of wanting the community to cross over to us, we want to cross over to our community. In other words, we want our families to influence their neighbors, friends, and family members for Christ, by going into the community they are already involved in; whether it be at Little league practice, afterschool programs, soccer practice, etc... We can no longer expect people to pick our church activities over the other activities in their lives. They just aren't doing it! We are forced to simplify and narrow our focus!
I tell you all this to serve as a backdrop for the changes that are going to take place in our preteen ministry.
EVENTS
Preteens by nature are social cats (I hate cats, but love preteens). Most of my preteen ministry budget dollars are invested in the events category. We do alot of events for them, such as a fall retreat, a summer preteen road trip, Superstart, Believe, camp, and the list could go on. All of these events are very purposeful and have been successful, drawing large crowds and have brought about life change for some of our preteens. However, we don't need to do all of these events - So I am cutting some of the events out and redoing a couple of the others. In all we will do a total of four event, not including camp or our large summer outreach event (we do not do VBS). With this narrowed focus, we hope to be able to make the events that we do, more excellent and effective.
SUNDAYS
Are made for worship (haha)! Anyways, we did have programming for all three services. We did a computer lab during the first service, we did a more traditional Sunday school format the second hour, and then we had a preteen worship hour at our third hour service. Here is what we are doing and (already do in our preteen worship hour, during third service): We are going to no longer offer anything for preteens during the first hour (This means no more computer lab... Reasons why, will be discussed in another blog). We are moving in the direction of having two preteen worship services - one will be during the second hour (No more traditional Sunday school... Hate me all you want) and third hour services. Here is what they look like:
Each hour is sliced into four blocks:
The Hangout time 15 minutes- Students and leaders come into The Edge and hangout, playing foosball, air hockey, Game cubes, and catch up on what's been going in their lives.
The Connection time 15-20 minutes - Worship time (We use a live band). This is when preteens will here announcements, focus on the music aspect of worship, drama skits, video clips, and etc...
The Point time 10-15 minutes - This is the teaching time. A 10 to 15 minute sermon will introduce the point that we want our preteens to learn that week.
The So What time 15-20 minutes - This is small group time. This is where preteens will be divided by grade and gender to discuss the teaching point and how it applies to their world, but they will build community with each other, by talking about life in general and share what is going on in their lives with their small group friends and adult leaders.
The rest of the remaining time is hangout and wait for parent pick-up or released to meet parents.
For the sake of room, I will talk about Wednesday night programming in another blog. What I gave here, is programming and formating. I will also be blogging about philosophy, curriculum and reasons why we are doing things this way, later on.
Joe
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