Today on the podcast, Sean speaks with Chris Santos about coteaching during services.

Sean and Chris have been coteaching in Elevate and they have 3 ways they have been toying with when it comes to coteaching. The pros of coteaching that they have seen are the idea of seeing the two pastors work together as well as certain preteens resonating more with one pastor over another, adding strength to the ministry. Some of the drawbacks is that one speaker needs to stay on script to stay on schedule, the energy can compete with a difference in energy levels between the two speakers.

The three methods that have worked for Elevate are:

Line by Line: Write a message and determine who will speak which parts.

Section by Section: One speaker does the first piece, which in Elevate is the “Lesson Set-up” while the other speaker does the main message.

Week by Week: In this style each week is a different speaker. This goes back to the pro thought that some kids resonate better with certain speakers.

Share the teaching. If you are by yourself there might be a small group leader that is willing to step up and teach. Don’t be worried that they won’t be able to do it as well as you.

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 shares some of Chip Henderson’s breakout session from the 2019 Online Conference.

Chip spoke at the 2019 Preteen Leaders’ Online Conference regarding principles of small groups. Chip offers 8 principles that he has used with his small group leaders.

1. Always ask open ended questions – this will allow preteens to learn for themselves
2. Always draw them back to practical actions – make the preteens think what they will do with this new information.
3. The Bible is the authority not you.
4. Don’t let one student dominate.
5. Call on students specifically.
6. Be ok with silence – don’t worry if you don’t get an answer right away let them ponder a bit.
7. Be ok with asking questions again in a different way.
8. Don’t be tied to the questions.

Chip explains it the best when he states that our jobs as leaser is not to give the preteens the water but to lead them to the water. If you liked this podcast and would like to hear more from the 2019 Preteen Leaders’ Online Conference click here.

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 the problems he is seeing with ministries starting a preteen ministry.

As Sean has been speaking at various conferences, he is coming against some challenges with ministries willing to start a preteen ministry. People are seeing the need for a preteen specific ministry but are not willing to pull the trigger to start one. So many times, the ministries feel like it is a gigantic boulder, too large to make it past. And in some cases, there is one leader that will see the vision and then see the boulder ahead of them and wonder if they will be able to accomplish it by themselves.

Sean goes on to share two impactful times he had when he first started the preteen ministry and the mighty boulders he will never forget. The lack of volunteers to help prepare for services and the addition of multiple VBS camps during the summer. He had low points while starting the ministry but just remember that getting the boulder going is tough but the bigger the boulder the more momentum it will build and the bigger the impact it will make.

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/.