Last Night in The Loft

We were back in The Loft on our normal school year schedule last night.  The new "flow" seemed to work well.   The full band definitely increased the energy of our worship in music.  We started off with couple great Minute to Win It games, complete with prizes.  That helped break the ice and engage the students.  Music was fantastic.

I taught the first in our current series, "2020, The Future is Now".  Each student received a booklet to use throughout the series and we included 3 daily quiet times for each week in the booklet.  I'm copying more this week because we gave all of them out last night and you know some of those will be "lost" in the abyss called "bedroom floor".

The Taco Bar was a smashing success.  The food was great.  We used signupgenius.com to create the food sign up sheet.  I included a link in the parent e-mail update last week and the parents stepped up to the plate and delivered the food.  Worked great!  Signupgenius.com is free.

Created a bumper video using Keynote and iMovie.  It worked!

We had excellent attendance last night with several guests.  Our students are approaching our attendance goal.  I'm praying we hit it consistently over the rest of this series and then boost our goal a little higher.  Every number represents a student who needs to know Christ and grow in their faith walk with Him.

Youth Room Lighting on a Budget

 

1.  Buy a remote control electrical outlet thingy.  The one I purchased controls three different units.  

  

2.  Buy a 3 way splitter for each electrical outlet thingy.  Plug into the outlet thingy.

 

3.  Buy some small par cans.  Search the web for the best deal.  Most run in the $20 range.

Get some colored gels.

Make sure wherever you buy your par cans that you buy a safety cable for each one.  You don't want them falling from the ceiling and cracking someone on the head.

Back to The Loft

This Sunday night we kick off our new school year in The Loft.  We are changing things up (see previous post).  I'm looking forward to the change, the "experiment".  A few things I'm focusing in on as the youth pastor this school year.

1.  50!  I see no reason why our youth group doesn't have 50 students on a regular basis.  (I really think we could have 100)  So my prayer is that our students get passionate about sharing their faith with their friends.  I want them to invite them to youth group but more importantly I want them to share their faith, build relationships with their peers and seek out the opportunities to share their faith.
This goal will require at least 3 things of me:
                                                                       a.  teach on how to share your faith
                                                                       b.  grow our volunteer team.  (why expect God to send
                                                                            us more students to disciple if we aren't equipped and
                                                                            ready)
                                                                        c.  A and B are the easy part.  I need to be a witness and
                                                                             I need to set the example

Why focus on a number?  That number represents 50 students who need to come to faith in Christ and be discipled.



2.  Student Leadership.  In the past I have attempted to create student leadership teams.  I created something that looked good on paper but administratively it was not a fit to who I am.  I think sometimes we get caught up in great ideas but we try to replicate what others are doing in ministry without consider the fact that God created each of us differently.  Sure we should work on our weaknesses but we should focus on our strengths.

This school year we are going to go for a more organic approach to student leadership.  Look for opportunities to draw students into ministry.  "Hey.  Can you help me and grab those 10 chairs and set them up in a circle over there?"  Those kind of moments and build from there.

In "big church" we serve each other.  Why is it that most youth ministries it is the adults serving the students?  We have been guilty of this.  It should be us equipping the students to serve other students.



3.  Think Tank.  I'm going to invite our students to join me and our middle school dude, Ramon, in a "Think Tank".  Sit down and talk with students and get their input on message series, directions to go, events, etc.  Invite the students in to help pull these things off.



Now it's time to pray!