Patrick Snow's Page

Tell us about your church:

SuperStart! is a weekend event where preteens experience three main sessions that are packed with high-energy worship, interactive teaching, and small groups study. Partnering with the local church, SuperStart! was created to uniquely reach preteens before they grow disinterested with the word of God and fall through the curriculum cracks.

Church/Ministry Website Address:

http://www.ciy.com/superstart

Business Website Address:

http://www.siy.com

Which age groups do you work with (check all that apply):

4th-5th

Education:

Bachelor of Science in Bible Education

Activities:

Reading
Movies
Playing Wii
Watching Lost!!!!!

Interests:

Preteen Ministry

Favorite Movies:

The Shawshank Redemption

Other Things About Me:

Around nine years ago I was given the amazing opportunity to be a leader in the children's ministry at a church just outside of Atlanta, Georgia. My job: to write, produce, and direct the large group program for students in 1st through 5th grade. I was so pumped! I had just graduated from Bible college with a communications emphasis and also had a good bit of experience with drama ministry. Not to mention that I love kids!! We launched the program and everything was great. For a few months.

Then I began to notice the fifth graders.

Our large group time was set up just like every other church: first graders on the floor in the front, then second graders, then third, then fourth, and finally the fifth graders were in chairs (since they were older) in the back. What I noticed about those fifth grade students, as I watched that back row, was the fact that they weren't as engaged in the teaching as the rest of the students. And why would they be? They were being taught a lesson that had to reach the learning needs of students four years younger than them.

Trying to be positive, I decided to try and rework the lessons to engage the fifth graders better. I soon became overwhelmingly frustrated (as you can imagine) as I found out that there really was no good way to make this work. If I wrote something for fifth grade then the first graders were lost, if I wrote something for the first grade then the fifth graders were bored and checked out. I was beginning to grow concerned for those fifth grade students. They obviously didn't fit (or feel comfortable) in the same classroom with the lower elementary students. They needed their own classroom. They needed their own teachers. And most importantly they needed their own teaching. It was from that experience that my passion and concern for preteens was born.

Over the last several years that passion/concern has grown as God has allowed me to devote my time to preteen ministry through SuperStart!. How to effectively connect Jesus to ten, eleven, and twelve year olds is what keeps me up at night. But the road has been tough. I've discovered that there isn't much out there in the area of preteen ministry. There are some decent resources and some awesome church ministries that focus on preteens, but these are few and far between. (Doesn't this concern anybody? It does me.)

Preteens need more! They need more resources and ministries devoted just to them. They need us to stop lumping them into programs that are either too young or too old. And they need us to begin intentionally teaching them about Christ. What does that mean? Intentionally teaching? It means taking the time to get to know how they tick, what they like, what they're excited about, what they are dealing with, what their learning needs are, and then using that information to connect them with Jesus.

That's my passion. That's my concern. Anybody else?