Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Dan Istvanik at Victory Church in Lancaster, PA about learning from Fortnite.
Dan recently wrote an article about Fortnite. It wasn’t the standard discussion about whether you should be using Fortnite in your ministry. Instead Dan asked the question of why is Fortnite so popular. Like anything that is popular in the preteen population it is a great idea to ask the question of why it is so popular. That question can help us to meet the needs of our preteens better.
Dan writes for ministrytoparents.com. Two things stuck out to Dan during his research for the article.
1. There is a risk of reward element to the game that taps into a preteens brain. We are all built to feel like we need to be rewarded. Your brain easily becomes addicted to something that you get a sense of reward from. Fortnite offers a risk, a reward, a prize and an emotional high which draws them into it.
2. Popularity really surged during the summer months. This is when students are looking for community because they are out of school and away from their friends. Fortnite offered them an opportunity to connect with other. It gave them a social network online and offline.
Dan and Sean discuss how thinking about these two things can help us in ministry to create a space that ministers to the felt needs of our preteens.
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/.
Today on the podcast, Sean and Makenna talk about video announcements.
When ministries have announcements, there are two basic ways during service to go about this: video announcements or live announcements.
The problem with live announcements is they can quickly use up a ton of time. A plan for 2 minutes of announcements can quickly turns in to a lot more because we want to make sure the information is clear and that the students know everything about everything.
Here are 3 reasons why video announcements are better:
1. It takes less time,
2. You can make sure ahead of time that everything you want to say is said, and
3. it is more engaging and more can be done with video announcements. Announcements can be way more interesting and gather the preteens attention better than live announcements.
Makenna and Sean talk about some different options for doing video announcements, even with limited time and budget.
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/.
Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Scott Santee from Indiana who works with churches and organizations to bring water filters to poverty-stricken places around the world.
Getting preteens involved in raising money for those in poverty around the world can be an abstract concept for them. Having something that makes this idea more concrete allows them to understand it better.
Allowing your preteens to see a water filter in action could fire them up to raise money to fund a water project in another country.
Scott explains how the practicality of the filters allows preteens to see how they can make a difference in other kids lives around the world. By offering something that helps leaders change the lives of preteens while in turn the preteens are saving the lives of these children all over. teams have distributed filters to 9-countries in Central America and Caribbean area, but the filters are being currently used in 62-countries around the world.
If you want more information about the Kids Clean Water Project click here. The project is fully customizable to what you feel would work with your ministry. Scott is also available via email at Scott@filterofhope.org. Click here to watch a 2-minute demo.
Click here for a 3-minute video you can show your preteens about these water filters.
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/.
Today on the podcast, Sean talks about having a service focused on cleaning up the church.
To clean up a giant cardboard maze which was spread over 5 different locations with 40+ preteens during a Sunday morning service sounds like an awful idea. It turned out to be an amazing service with every preteen being fully engaged in the activity. The service began with a short message about being “Doers of the Word; not just hearers.”
Allowing the students to put into action what they heard allowed them to see how the Word comes to life.
Has anyone else done a service Sunday with your preteens? If so please let us know in the comment section what you did, and how it went.
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/.
Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Dan Scott the author of “Caught in Between: Engage Your Preteens Before They Check Out” and is on staff with Orange.
Children’s pastors across the country are seeing a decrease in number of students when they reach 4th and 5th grade. Dan discusses the practicalities of adding a preteen ministry into your church even if you don’t have the resources, you can DO SOMETHING! Doing nothing, is helping no one. Doing something can be just an event focused on the preteens or having a small group leader who can facilitate the hard and deep conversations on the preteens level. Everyone can do something to enhance their ministry to preteens. Elevate the kids and make them feel like they are the church of today and that will go really far.
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/.