Last Night in The Loft

We had an awesome time at youth group last night.
Our POD's and message all centered around God being all-present, all-knowing and all-powerful.  Good discussion happening in the POD's in this new curriculum.


Here is the line up from last night:
5:30 - Team meeting (We do this each week.  It's a 15 minute meeting)

5:45 - Music going; Balcony coverage (balcony coverage is an adult from the team outside of The Loft making sure students come straight to The Loft)

5:55 - Game - Prizes (started the game early before "start" time to pull students into the center of the room)  Game was a quick contest between two students.  The students had to run around the room and get a combination of a hoodie, sweater, jacket, etc. from others in the room, then the first one back to the front and to put all 4 on, one on top of the other, won.  The prize was a $10 iTunes card

5:57 - Start Countdown (we started a countdown with background music during the game time)

6:00 - First Song - I Am Free

6:05 - Student Prayer - (had a student open in prayer; lined this person up a head of time)

6:06 - PODS - small group discussion time (POD leaders get their discussion guides earlier in the week for prep time)

6:40 - Wrap up Pods

6:43 - The Loft - Message
 - Why is God Great?  How does He use His Greatness?
Used this video to open the message about the greatness of God  - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaYx4XmWEoI

7:00 - Closing Song - Mighty to Save

Hang Time - first song, on Spotify, Sunday night playlist, 
Hallelujah, God is Near, Robbie Seay Band

 12 Foot Sub during Hang Time

I did my part to help eat the sub

So did these guys

Our 2015 Focus

Yes it's true!   Our youth ministry team of volunteers restructured last Saturday.  BUT we will save that for another post.

Our focus this year is success in discipleship.  Now I could have stood up before the youths and said, "Students for the next 52 weeks we are going to have a discipleship class that will meet at 4 on Sunday afternoons . . . . "  I may have started with 15 but would have ended with maybe two and we probably wouldn't have made it to all 52 weeks.

Soooo what do we do?  Easy peasy!  Don't remake the wheel.  Look for a system to use that can fit into our already established youth group gathering.  So for the year and a little more (cause we break to the beach in the summer) we will be working through LeaderTreks Deep Discipleship on Sunday nights at our youth group gathering.  I'm taking the small group lessons and editing them down to fit our time frame along with a message that ties in ans supports that small group time each week.  Deep Discipleship is a systematic way to work through discipling the students.

On top of that we discussed at our team retreat about discipling as many students one on one as we possibly can.  Now our volunteers are already busy humans so I didn't want to add another time during the week that they have to meet with the students outside of Sunday night.  Our students are busy humans as well.  So let's use our Hang Time as a time to disciple.  Not talking about pulling a students aside for 35 of 40 minutes to talk.  What we will do is take a students and just sit and chat with them for about 10 minutes or so at Hang Time for about ten weeks.  During this time we will find out where they are at in their faith walk and what they can do to help them move to the next level.  After the several weeks of brief meetings we will give the students who want to pursue discipleship even further on their own with a copy of "I am a Disciple" a 40 day journal.

Our team members will transfer their notes from Know Growth to a spread sheet we are creating so we can see where all our students are "at a glance".  As a youth pastor I'm really looking forward to this.











Our goal is for our team members to disciple as many as we possibly can in 2015.  We want to see students stick with their faith after high school.  We want to see students grow and reach other students.  We desire to make disciples not just believers.

Last Sunday in The Loft

Last Sunday we "upgraded" our worship experience a bit in The Loft.

First we added in some music using some song videos from http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/worship-tracks/47457/Oceans.   The videos were great and the students really connected and were singing loud enough for me to hear in the back of the room over the music and sub woofers (which were thumpin).

We also added a piece, a student work booklet, this booklet tied in with their discussion time in their POD's and also had room for notes from the message.  I also tagged on a some info about The Call which is coming soon.  Students used this booklet as a guide during their discussion.  A great tool and our POD leaders were glad that the students had something in their hand.


The final piece was my message which I kept at about 15 minutes, including a video clip, to allow the POD's to have time to complete their discussion time.  God pursues us because he is a personal God, Buddah ain't that.  He also pursues us because he created us.  He also doesn't need us but wants us.  Great time together learning more about God and laying a foundation for our faith.



The video clip I used was The Prodigal from The Skit Guys.  Everything these guys put out is top notch!  Find them here.

Here was the line up:
Game
Party Lama Countdown
Knowledge Video
Song - Grace is enough
Song - Oceans
Song - 10,000 Reasons
Message - The Hound of Heaven
POD discussion


We also sent every student home with a The Call info card and event envelope so they can sign up for the event.

Check out LeaderTreks Deep Discipleship!  Awesome stuff!!

During Hang Time we consumed pizza from Slice Pizza, our official Pizza sponsor.

Super Bowl Party

 Last Sunday we had our annual Super Bowl Party.  This year I took advantage of the Big Game event kit from Download Youth Ministry.  I used the graphics for promoting on social media and we used the game ideas during breaks in the game as well as the video message for during half time.  We had a great turn out and lots of food.  Great time for hanging out with the youth.

 

 

Sunday Night in The Loft

Well. . . .  we weren't in The Loft.

A few years ago we looked to "un-busy" our calendar of activities and events and focus on our weekly youth group gathering.  With extra curricular activities, sports, rec league, drama (as in play practice), jobs, homework, students are plenty busy and they don't need more busyness, in fact some of them probably need to slow down.  I think our culture is producing this need to keep busy feeling, I don't know what to call it.  This is just my humble, yet professional, opinion.


This doesn't mean we don't do special events and activities but they are few and far between and when we do the event has a purpose beyond let's just have a fun outing.

This week our church is housing our homeless community for the week.  Our guests arrive Sunday evening and stay through till Sunday morning.   We feed them a hot breakfast, pack a lunch, and feed them a nice dinner.

So rather than try to juggle around the space we decided to meet elsewhere with the youth.  So we did.  We went bowling!  I know it doesn't sound super spiritual and yes we didn't open the Bible at the bowling center, but ministry happened:

• We interacted with more students than we have in a few months.
• Students brought friends who don't go to church, we had several guests.  The guests had fun and will hopefully return this Sunday.
• Leaders were able to spend some time with a handful of students as each lane had adult leaders involved.
• Meaningful conversations took place.  Ministry happened.
• It mixed up the "usual".  We did something different at our normal meeting time.
• Students were excited to be there and it was a chance to plug the Super Bowl party for this Sunday.
• A huge amount of cheese fries were consumed and pizzas.

Look for opportunities to break away from the "usual" and design it in such a way that students interact with each other and even more importantly with the adult leaders who are investing in their lives.  You never know, a kid may go play laser tag as an introduction to your youth ministry and end up coming to know Jesus Christ.

Death in the Family

This is Sasha.  Twelve years ago my dalmation died of old age.   Twelve years ago I said, "I'll never get another dog."  If you've been there you know what I mean.  Well, that lasted 2 weeks.  I was driving down the road and in front of the pet store there was the humane society with a bunch of puppies staked out on chains in hopes of people adopting them.  I saw this puppy with a huge head and paws.  I did a U turn.  An hour later I was a dog owner again.

Our dog was part of our family.  I made sure she realized she was a dog and not a human.  When I would wrestle with her as a puppy my wife would ask why I was putting her in a headlock and pulling her tail and grabbing her ears (it was playful not painful).  I explained that one day we might have kids and I want her to be tolerant of kids messing with her.


Two years later our eldest man-child came along.  She became his friend.  She was a pillow, a horse, a companion in the backyard.  She would step between us is she sensed discipline about to happen.  She protected him.  Sasha was part of our family and our children loved her.

Last week for the first time, in my ten year old's life, we found ourselves hugging and both crying together.  I've held him many occasions when he cried but this time it was different because I was crying right along with him.  His buddy, Sasha, died that evening. 

For the first time our children were dealing with death on a personal level.  So if you haven't been there yet here is what we did, not saying this is the perfect way or the best, but here is how we handled it.





We cried together.  She was a family member.  Our home would feel totally different to our children because they never experience life in the Lawrenson home without her. 

We shared together.  The next night at dinner we talked about our favorite things about Sasha, best memories.  We printed off a pic for my son to hang in his room.


We are having a memorial service.  Hey, I'm a pastor, I can do that.  We ordered a little plaque to put in the backyard.  We will place it and talk about our good old dog. 

Kids are resilient.  The twins bounced back that day.  My eldest lost his roommate so this is taken him a bit longer but he's doing great.  They have even talked of getting another dog but we are gonna hold off on that for a while.  So they have handled their first "death" well and I think this is a good experience for them since we never know when we will have to deal with a death.

So no more vet bills, buying dog food, trips to Pet Smart.  But I'll miss her laying at my feet, sitting by the fire pit with me, barking at the UPS truck, and the low, "I'll tear you to pieces" growl", when someone came up our steps.

New to The Loft

One of our volunteers made this great cell phone charging station.  Students can use it to charge their phones and if they are texting when they shouldn't be we will confiscate their phone and be nice and charge it for them until youth group it over.

Last Night in The Loft

God reveals himself to us in:
Creation
History
Jesus Christ
His word

This is what we tackled on Sunday night in The Loft:  Not just how God revealed himself to us but also how that impacts our lives today.   What are you going to do with the knowledge of the fact that God wants a relationship with you?

After a short 20 minute message our students dispersed to the PODz (small groups) for about a half hour or so.  In their PODz they did more digging in the scripture as well as discussed how God revealing himself to them impacts their lives. 

Two thumbs up on this installment of Knowledge.

The question may come up, especially if you are on staff, "Shouldn't you be writing your own stuff?"
A.  God's word is not "my own stuff"
B.  Others have done a lot of work to put together awesome studies, curriculums, etc. that would take months for me to prepare.  Many of them are way more intelligent than I.
C.  This allows me to invest my time in other areas of the youth ministry.
D.  I take the curriculum and don't use it straight out of the box.  I tweak it to fit who we are, where we are at, where we want to end up.  So there is a bit of re-writing and editing I do each week.
E.  If the wheel works why try to recreate it?


After our PODz we had Hang Time in The Loft with the football game on the big screen and flat screens.  We served up Totchos!!!!!!!!  Think nachos made with tater tots.  How can you go wrong with that one?  We had nacho cheese, home made queso and bean dip and guac, sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes and jalapenos.  It were good!

This Sunday night our church will be housing the homeless for a week so we are moving our regular youth group gathering to the bowling alley and encouraging our students to bring students who don't have a church/youth group family to come along with them.

Last Night in The Loft

Last week we launched into Deep Discipleship with LeaderTreks by working together on session #1 of Knowledge. 

This week I thought we would change things up a bit.  I created a 6 station Names of God interactive experience.  We started at station #1 - discovering what our own name means then went from there to 5 more stations to learn the names of God and to see how God's character is shown in his names and how those names can impact or influence our daily lives and relationship with God and others.

Each POD (small group) went through all the stations starting at #1.  I dismissed a new POD every 7 minutes, so the PODs had 7 minutes at each station.  Some stations involved scripture reading and discussion, other stations involved an activity, such as writing your name on the name of God that means the most to you where you are today, etc.

I received good feedback and it's always good to change things up and take a break from the "normal" routine or layout of a youth group gathering.

We followed that time up with Hang Time featuring crock pot bacon cheeseburgers.  BACON!  How can you go wrong?  Lots of fun fellowship and games and a great time discovering more about God our Father. 

This Sunday we dive back into the Knowledge study and session #2 - "How do we know about God?"

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Last Night in The Loft

Last night in The Loft . . . .

We opened up with some give aways by taking advantage of cheap Christmas clearance stuff.  Sent some lucky winners home with a gingerbread house kit and some of those over sized super fat candy cane sticks.  Sugared em up!

I then taught for about 20 minutes giving the intro to our series on knowing God.  This series, Knowledge, is the first installment of our strategy to use 2015 to help students drill down deeper into their faith and be disciples.  We are looking forward to how this will go hand in hand with our other discipleship strategy that I will reveal in a February post.
If you want to know more about Deep Discipleship check out LeaderTreks for the details.  Lesson one was great! 

We followed the teaching time with about 35 minutes of small group time.  Students read scripture and discussed more about knowing God.  A few great questions came out of this study time together.  I took the introduction lesson and dissected it a bit to create a teaching time followed by small group time and customized it to fit our time frame and layout of our youth group experience. 

After our POD time was over we had Hang Time and during that time the cheese quesadilla bar was wide open.  This year we plan on doing more food than just chips and cookies.  I'm looking forward to what we can pull off with our budgeted amount for food each week.

This coming Sunday we will be doing an interactive experience on the names of God.  Looking forward to putting this together and hearing from students afterwards.