Last Night in The Loft

 Last night in The Loft:

5:50 Games - Boxes (great game and a student won the grand prize of dinner for himself and 3 friends, chauffered in the big blue van of happiness to a local mexican food restaurant)

6:00 - Song - Our God
6:05 - Prayer led by student, Offering
6:07 - Song - Whom Shall I Fear
6:11 - Video - To This Day

6:20 - Andy - Intro to the study
6:23 - PODz (small groups)

7:00 - Hang Time (quesadillas and floats)
8:00 - Goodnight

Last Sunday in The Loft

Well actually we were outside The Loft half the time.

Our line up was as follows:
5:45 - Music going; Check in station manned

5:50 - Game  - Blocks
(starting the ice breaker games a little earlier in hopes to get our few "late comers" to arrive early/on time)

6:00 - Song - We Believe

6:05 - Song - Whom Shall I fear


6:10 -  Message - Rescue series - Sacrifice: Why did Jesus have to die?

6:25 - Next Steps/Offering


6:30 -PODS (small groups)

7:00 - Hang Time

During Hang Time we went out to the fire pit and roasted hot dogs and had all the fixins to go with and sat/stood around the fire and chatted.  Also we made Smores, always a crowd favorite.  Some of the students played some soccer.  Good times were had by all.

 instagram promo pics

Social Media Promotion

 Do you use Instagram or social media to promote your youth ministry?

Lately I have been making two Instagram pics each week to promote our Sunday night youth group gathering.  I usually make one that focuses on the message and one that focuses on the food and fun.  I then post them a few times during the week to spread the word.  Hopefully students will catch on and "like" and "share" with others.  We also use a # that students can use during youth group to post pics.

 

 

Sunday Night in The Loft

Sunday night we had a great time in The Loft.

We were all pretty tired from the weekend.  Most of the youth group had attended The Call and many on our team had volunteered at The Call.  So we were tuckered out.  At least I was because I'm an old man.  Good turn out of students and some guests.

So it looked like this:
Game - Clumps (always a crowd favorite)
Song - Our God is Greater
Prayer and welcome by student
Song - Inside Out
Share time - students took turns sharing what they learned at The Call.
Offering -
Prayer Time - we sat in a big circle and students would share a prayer request and another students would pray for the request.  Working on getting students to not be afraid to pray out loud.

Followed by Hang Time - we had sloppy dogs and bacon cheese fries.

I give the night a 4 out of 5 popcorn boxes!

The Call 2015

This past weekend we hosted The Call 2015.  Students from several different youth groups and their leaders gathered at Nags Head Church for a weekend of intensive learning and worship.

During our main worship sessions we were led in worship in music by the MP13 Band.  The band did a great job of leading and the students jumped right in.  Loved it!

Our first night Dave Glander shared his story of how God changed his life.  A powerful example of life-change.

 

Day two:

Students were picked a track for the weekend, so the students were with the same leader, same topic, same group of students for the weekend in the tracks.

We had Shane McGann from LeaderTreks leading the 4 sessions of leadership.  Shane did a great job, our students shared with me about some of the things they learned and the initiatives they did together in that track.


 I shared a message during our second worship session.  The focus was on being a follower of Jesus and not simply settling for being a believer in Jesus Christ.

Todd Kemp, youth pastor of Bagley Swamp Wesleyan Church, led our track on evangelism.  Students were equipped to share their faith and were given the opportunity to practice sharing together.

Amy Denson, youth pastor at Duck United Methodist Church, led the discipleship track.  Student learned some great spiritual habits to instill in their lives to help them grow in their faith and be more deeply rooted.

Dave Glander led our apologetics track.  The students had a great time learning to defend their faith.  One student said to me, "Dave blew evolution out of the water."

 I met with the youth leaders.  We wrote several topics we wanted to discuss together on a giant post it note.  Then we chipped away at the topics.  I also shared about our team restructure and our focus on discipleship in 2015.

Ramon Sanchez wrapped up the weekend by challenging students to take what they learned this weekend and put it into action in their lives, not just store it up but to let it go.

 This was the smoothest flowing The Call we have ever hosted.  Our volunteers knocked it out of the park!  Everyone knew what they were supposed to do and they did it.  Very little, if any, stress on me leading the event.  The sign of having great support from wonderful volunteers and good planning.

Already looking forward to The Call 2016!