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Cooties: Friendship, Dating, Etc.

February 9, 2012 in Middle School, Preaching, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

Cooties title

This past Sunday, we began our new sermon series for the middle school ministry for the month of February. Cooties is a series about friendships, dating, identity, and sexual purity. For four weeks we are going to be looking at what we can learn about dating and relationships during the middle school years.

More Than Friends

During middle school, it is very normal for people to begin having the desire to be “more than friends.” Because of the changes that are happening, during this age we begin to look at the opposite sex differently. While 3rd graders focus on playing tag with the opposite gender, 7th graders begin to have all kinds of ideas about what it means to be boyfriend and girlfriend. These new attractions are normal; it’s part of growing up. Now, what we do with these new attractions is a very important discussion to have.

All Access: How to Pray

January 30, 2012 in Middle School, Preaching, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

All Access

This past Sunday, we finished our sermon series for our middle school ministry entitled All Access. Because of the death and ressurection of Jesus we have complete and total access to our God; since we have complete access what does our prayer life look like? The third and final message was all about “How to Pray.”

What the Church Can Learn from Pixar

January 27, 2012 in Leadership, Worship, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

Pixar

Pixar is one of the most creative companies in the world. They consistently push the boundaries of technology, release hit movies, and tell touching stories. I have loved Pixar movies since I first saw Toy Story and I continue to love both their movies and their approach to being a creative organization. In the Church we may not be creating movies, but a significant portion of our work is about telling the story of Christ and life change within our midst and finding creative ways to do so. Because of this I think we can learn a lot from Pixar’s approach to fostering creativity.

All Access

January 10, 2012 in Freebies, Preaching, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

This past Sunday we started a brand new series for our Middle School students entitled “All Access.” For 3 weeks, we will be discussing prayer. Because of the death and ressurection of Jesus we have complete access to God. Because we have complete access to him, it is important that we use that access we have and continually be praying. Throughout the series, I will be sharing some of my notes from the lessons (except for the first lesson, which I did not give). If you’re looking for a series on prayer and want to steal any of these ideas or graphics, feel free.

Week 1: Why Pray?

Week 2: What is Prayer?

Week 3: How to Pray?

For a copy of our additional background slide: download it here.

Waiting for Inspiration

January 9, 2012 in Leadership, Preaching, Youth Ministry with 2 Comments

Light bulb

The most difficult temptation to overcome in creativity is the idea that we must wait for inspiration. There is not a creative person on the planet that doesn’t love the moments where an idea seemingly bursts out of nothing in the middle of the night. These inspirational moments are important, but they are not the norm. One of the most difficult things to do in the act of creation is to face an empty canvas on a day that you feel uninspired. The choice you make when you face the blank canvas and have zero inspiration determines whether you will create mediocre art or great art. You are left with two options:

Sermon Series Branding Questions

January 2, 2012 in Preaching, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

Questions

[This post is a part of the Creating a Sermon Series series]

An important part of the series creation process is the point where you work through key details that need to be discussed in order to execute the series. In order to help our team discuss the branding of a series, I put together a few different questions to help work through the details of a series. There are certainly other important questions and discussions that may come up, but these questions help set up a framework for us to discuss some of the creative elements to our upcoming series.

A Visit to Santa II

December 18, 2011 in Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

Branding a Sermon Series

December 12, 2011 in Preaching, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

Logos

[This post is a part of the Creating a Sermon Series series]

Branding the sermon series is the part that is one of my favorite parts of the series preparation. It is the part of the planning that we really begin to think about what images, words, and symbols will help make this series of messages memorable. What visuals will help not only make it memorable, but help communicate the message that we are trying to share. The branding stage is the stage that a sermon series begins to look like an actual usable sermon series. The branding is when the series gets a title and begins to be fleshed out into all the elements that make up a sermon series.

Where Do Ideas Come From?

December 6, 2011 in Leadership, Youth Ministry with 0 Comments

light bulb

Where does an idea come from? What is it that sparks the imagination so that it creates a painting, a screenplay, a poem, or a song? I am fascinated at what it is that makes one day seem like a day where creativity spills out of my brain and other days it feels like scratching nails against a chalkboard. I don’t think there is a trick to make your day an idea-filled day, but I have noticed a few places that seem to help me generate ideas.