Archive for the ‘Youth’ Category

Posted on November 9, 2008 - by Mary

Chosen Youth Conference ‘08

It’s Sunday after the Chosen Youth Conference. It’s a little after 9pm. I am very tired, yet I blog.  Why? Because this year’s Chosen Youth Conference was AWESOME!!!  For now, here are a few of the testimonies we heard:

• Does Chosen partner with Acquire the Fire? This conference is so well run that we thought it was part of ATF.  (the answer is no, Chosen is not part of ATF, although Chosen supports ATF and vice-versa)
• That was very informative; just what I needed; I really enjoyed that (said by youth pastors and youth leaders after the youth pastor breakout session)
• The pace is very well organized; perfect for teens (mentioned by a youth pastor)
• Most of our teens have stayed in the auditorium the whole time; they have not gone wondering around the venue during the messages (a youth leader referring to the teens in her youth group)
• My daughter and her friend can’t wait to come back next year!

Those are just some that I personally heard.  I know there are more and after I get together with the other coordinators I know there will be more, by teens themselves especially.

The venue holds 1100 people, and we were filled with 900! We already have almost 300 registered for next years event which will be held in the same place, for now.  So, if you’d like more information, or would like to purchase tickets for next year’s event before it sells out, click here.

Once I get them, I will put up some pics!

Posted on October 25, 2008 - by Mary

Rock Band 2 Update

My hubby found out from this site that Rock Band 2 is going to add songs by Kutless and Underoath via free download Nov. 4! Cool, some great Christian artists and music teens like. If you didn’t read one of my prior posts about an issue with having Rock Band 2 at youth group, go read it here.

Posted on October 11, 2008 - by Mary

Rock Band or No Rock Band

As some of you may or may not know, my husband and I are youth leaders in our church.  We are assistants to our youth pastor and are very involved with the youth ministry.  I am the administrative assistant (voluntarily) for him as well and my husband is head of security on Wednesday nights.  We also minister to the youth and are there for them to talk to us.  There are a lot of unchurched kids who attend youth group every week, and we get some that come and go. Last year, our youth pastor asked us to step up in the ministry and be part of the "eldership" of the youth ministry.  There are two other couples in this "eldership" as well. 

At our leadership retreat back in September, we were brainstorming ways to reach more of the youth in the community. Our youth pastor has always wanted to stay away from "youth groupie" things like video games, pool, foosball, etc. and focus more on discipleship and ministry.  Well, since we’ve done that the past two years when he took over the youth ministry in our church (he has over 12 years experience in youth ministry) we have seen tons of unchurched kids come once or twice and never return, so we began questioning why. As we discussed the possible reasons, we came to the conclusion it was because we weren’t doing those youth groupie things. Our youth pastor is a great speaker, there are lots of adult volunteers (although we could use more-what youth ministry couldn’t?), several student leaders, a cafe, good Christian rock music, etc., but it just wasn’t holding the kids attention. So, we decided to spruce up the hang out area (the "dome") with some video games! We had just enough money in our youth account to buy 3 plasma screen tv’s, and two video games. One video game was donated! We all agreed we should get "Rock Band" and Nintendo’s Wii.  The game that was donated was a Wii as well. We have the perfect place to set up Rock Band in the dome.  There is a stage and with the speakers turned just right, only the people playing Rock Band can hear the music from it, and the rest of the people in the dome can only hear the music being played through the speakers.  We’ve had this set up since Sept. 24, so about 3 weeks.  We’ve monitored the songs that are played and have weeded out the "bad" ones with swearing and such. Most of the songs are from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and are ROCK. The kids LOVE it and it really has drawn some of the kids who have come once or twice before and some new ones.  We also separated the service into two: the Junior High students go in before the Senior High, giving each age group separate time to hang out and their own service.  We’ve gotten about 20 new Junior High students over the last three weeks and about 8 or 9 new Senior High. 

The problem, and the reason for my post, is that when we were setting up for service last Wednesday, some parents were in the church early in the afternoon.  The guys had just set up the video games for the night and on the Rock Band screen there were some skulls with wings.  One of the parents must have mentioned something to our Senior Pastor about them and he asked that it be taken off or shut off, that it wasn’t very Godly. So, my husband changed what was on the screen.

Later that night, after youth group was over and most of the kids gone, one of the parents (same ones mentioned above) pulled our youth pastor aside and spoke to him about having Rock Band as part of our youth group.  He thought it wasn’t sending a good message to the kids and that it could cause other problems because of the images shown and some of the lyrics in the songs.

Now, I have not played Rock Band, but I have watched others play it (all Christians). My daughter plays it (sings), my husband plays it, the youth pastor plays it, our youth band worship leader plays it. Why not let the kids play it? Why not have it in church? Some people say the skulls with wings are demonic, but I say, as does my husband, that skulls and wings are God’s creations! Some man came up with the idea to use them as "evil" symbols. 

My husband specifically prayed Wednesday night that if we weren’t supposed to have Rock Band as part of our out-reach to unchurched kids, for God to give us a sign, and vise-versa.  The next day on our way to work (we carpool), we heard on one of the podcasts Jeff listens, to the scripture in Galations where Paul is talking about being legalistic. He felt that was a sign from God that it is okay to have Rock Band in our church so we can reach others for the gospel of Christ.

What do you think? I’d really like to hear from other youth pastors, pastors, leaders and parents. Is it wrong to have Rock Band, to have students playing Rock Band in church? Do you have any video games in your church or youth ministry? If so, how’s it going? Do you think it helps draw unchurched kids so you can minister to them?

Posted on September 8, 2008 - by Mary

Highlights of the Fall ‘08 Youth Leader Retreat

This past weekend was the youth leader retreat for the main leaders (aka planners, visionaries) of our youth ministry, //twentyfourseven.  A couple from our church kindly let us use their summer home on Burt Lake for our retreat.  They cooked dinner for us both nights and supplied the food for the rest of our meals.  It was awesome.

Here are the pics and explanations that will pretty much describe the weekend!

This is the first meeting on Friday night. We are all busy taking notes (aka doodling!).

Our fearless leader, James.  He looks so official with his flip chart!

Um, supposedly they were making us breakfast! LOL. Zach and James

Out on the "veranda" (aka the deck). Yea, yea, we were planning and focusing on youth ministry! Yea, uh huh!

This is Jeff, trying to get Zach to focus! LOL

The view from the back deck. Awesome!

The beach! (This is their back yard!)

Cherie on the dock.

The view of the back of the house from the dock.

Me and Jeffy!

Cherie and Terry…oh so cute!

More focusing and planning (yeah right!) on the beach.  The fresh air helped clear our heads.  Sounds good, right???

Zach and James need a little extra fresh air! They took the row boat out. It was hilarious! Windy and wavy!

Zach. His tummy needed  more fresh air, eh

Nick, Sandy, Cherie and Terry. Awesome youth leaders!

Zach and Carson, the homeowner’s son.  Carson loves Zach and was his little shadow!

Speed Scrabble, oh yeah!

More Speed Scrabble!

Planning by campfire! Somehow campfire’s on the beach really do help you focus better!

Proof we really were working! See the laptop screen!

Here we are. I’m typing away on my laptop.  After this, my laptop smelled like campfire! It’s better now.

The fire. Mmmmm warm and toasty!

Zach and Sandy, paying attention. (miracle of miracles!)

Ah, James.  See, we really did work! See all the papers hung on the fireplace and railing?

Posted on September 4, 2008 - by Mary

Why Should Teens and Youth Leaders Attend the Chosen Youth Conference?

First of all, what is the Chosen Youth Conference? Obviously it’s a conference for youth, but it is more than that.  It is not just another big teen event with bands and speakers created to draw a big crowd of teens, get them fired up for a weekend, then send them home just to go back to doing the same things they’ve always done. 

The vision of the Chosen Youth Conference is to have students and adults alike have a life-changing encounter with God, like never before. All of the bands and speakers at Chosen will be performing and speaking on the issues that teens and youth leaders are facing right now and how they can be over-comers, enabling a closer relationship with God. When teens and youth leaders leave the Chosen Youth Conference, they will be equipped with the tools necessary to be an over-comer in their schools, communities and youth ministries that will not fade away after a week or two.

How do I know this? Because I attended last year’s Chosen Youth Conference and I’ve seen great changes in my 16 year old daughter that I know come from the things she heard at the conference.  She still talks about some of the messages she heard from both speakers and musicians. And yes, I help (voluntarily) with some of the administrative duties for the conference, but I would not even begin to work for an organization that I did not believe in. And I believe in the Chosen Youth Conference for both students and youth leaders.

Go to ChosenNow.com, check out the videos, read the bios from the speakers and musicians, and register your youth group, students, family or church friends for this life-changing event.

Posted on February 4, 2008 - by Mary

Hide and go poop!

Hilarious video I found on another blog by a youth leader! (Of course!!!!)

I think our youth group should play…NOT!!!!

Posted on January 30, 2008 - by Mary

Youth Sunday

This past Sunday was Youth Sunday at our church. The youth worship band does the praise and worship for both services and Pastor James Speaks. But, this Youth Sunday was a special treat because some of our youth did a skit. It’s awesome! The other video posted here is where we got the idea from, and a better video for viewing, until Karlie gets the one from our church edited. They will be performing it again next Wednesday at youth group, so hopefully we will get a better video.

But for now:

Our skit from Youth Sunday
lifehouse everything skit

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The skit from YouTube: