Habits

This may seem basic, but I believe that preteens CAN engage in spiritual habits (or disciplines). I think they can have a regular time in the Bible. They can have a prayer life. They just need to be taught how to do that and reinforce that on a weekly basis. There are a lot of ways to study God’s word and pray, so my suggestion is to pick one method and use that when you open God’s word and pray during your program. Our ministry uses HEAR (Highlight, Explain, Apply, Respond) for Bible study and ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication) for prayer. Having repeatable habits in your program reinforces them throughout the week.

Heart

We don’t want preteens to follow God out of routine or obligation. We want them to have a heart that reflects God’s heart. We also can’t expect them to reflect God’s heart if they don’t know what it is. While there are many facets of God’s heart we can reflect, I think a few of them are prime for the preteen world.

• Repentance – We want preteens to be aware of their need for a savior and respond positively when they mess up. Instead of simply feeling bad, we want them to understand how our actions affect our relationships with God and others. The heart of repentance leads us to ask for forgiveness from God and others.⁣
• Forgiveness – Once we know the effects of sin, preteens need to know that the only remedy for sin is forgiveness. They need to know where to find forgiveness and how to give it. They need to know that since God completely forgives them in Christ, they should freely forgive others.⁣
• Compassion and Empathy – Preteens are just starting to understand their emotions and have a hard time understanding how others feel. They need help unlocking the heart of compassion and empathy. They won’t treat people others like Jesus would until they learn to see them as Jesus does. In your Bible application, make sure to walk them through how other people might feel when we do something wrong against them.

Head

I really wish there was a systematic theology for preteens. Preteens can understand deep concepts about God. It’s our job to make the deep things of God understandable to our preteens. Here are a few key pieces of knowledge to consider.

• The character traits of God. Preteens need to understand what God is like if they are going to genuinely trust and worship him. We must regularly talk about what makes God great.
• Gospel fluency. Preteens can understand the basics of the Gospel. A key part of understanding is articulation. If they can say it out loud then it’s probably fuzzy in their mind. We don’t want them to parrot our words, but we do want them to be able to communicate the Gospel in their own words so they can communicate it to others.
• The Basic timeline of the Bible. Part of Biblical literacy is knowing how scripture is laid out. This helps them read the Bible with a plot in mind. Once they know the basic plot they can now understand how each piece fits into the bigger story of Scripture.