FFS 292: DISCIPLINE: Enforceable Statements

Today on the podcast, Sean talks with Jaime Santos a psychologist, who alongside of her husband Pastor Chris run the 6th grade ministry in Elevate. She was on today to discuss the concept of enforceable statements. Enforceable statements are a great disciplinary technique that will help ministries. This is a concept that comes from Love and Logic, and it has been successfully used by many parents. Basically, an enforceable statement is something that you as the leader says that you will allow a student to do. For example, a simple statement like “the car leaves at 8” just means that the car will leave at 8 this is what is happening. The concept involves stating what you as the leader will be doing instead of trying to control the behaviors individually. Easy way to remember enforceable statements is how they start, “I will”, “I allow”, “I give.” When thinking about the small group times and getting individuals to stop bad behavior could use a statement like “students who chose to not listen will need to talk to me afterwards.” These types of statements are generalized for the whole group instead of individualized because this is a rule we have set in place for every student. Students tend to feel like they are being called out when they are acting up but by generalizing the statement you are setting a value to what you expect from them. Have a question about preteen ministry or a unique preteen ministry idea that we can feature on our podcast?  Send it to [email protected]. Looking for a great community of preteen leaders that you can plug into? Join us at http://fourfivesix.org/.