Transitioning Students to Trek and Journey

At a recent Google hangout (now available on YouTube), Awana YM director Jeremy Pettitt shared a bit of practical advice for increasing the number of kids who make the transition from TNT to Trek and from Trek to Journey.

As a youth pastor, he made a practice of visiting the 5th or 6th graders in the TNT group 2-3 weeks before the end of the club year to tell them about Trek. (In the same way, the high school leader visited the 8th or 9th graders in the Trek group to invite them to Journey.) Jeremy found that many kids don’t make the leap to the next group out of ignorance; they just don’t know what it is or what they might find when they get there.

He also suggested bringing along a student from Trek to tell the younger kids what it’s like, what you do there, what you learn – and why it’s fun. Just putting some faces and details to the name of the program might be enough to begin to build interest and expectation in starting out with Trek – or Journey – the following year.

Catch our next Google Hangout live – or check out our YouTube page to see archived versions of recent conversations with Jeremy.