Here’s a Refuel video we made for the point of “stop and be quiet” this week. Easily one of my favorites we’ve made!

JG

Weekend Teaching Series: Refuel (week 2 of 3)
Sermon Title: Stop, Collaborate and Listen
Sermon in a Sentence: God wants us to live a refueled life, we have to stop and be quiet to hear His voice.
Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 6 out of 10.

Attendance: Up 1% from the previous weekend, up 63% from this same weekend last year
Service Length: 72 minutes
Understandable Message: This week’s talk was one I was living out for sure these days between prepping talks, the PDYM conference and getting ready for a New Mexico mission trip. No family time, no margin, no time with God! Truth is, we’re too busy and fill our lives with too much noise to hear God’s voice! We talked through the story of Elijah and used a stop light to describe the actions we need to take to create the opportunity for God to speak. I really love the video we made to illustrate the concept of crowding voices on our connection to God.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students and adult volunteers ran the control room, computer, lights, sound and cameras. Volunteers were great and jumped in all over the place. I gave the announcements in the adult services this weekend as well, and ran down just in time to teach. Sweaty!

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We opened up with Jake’s Not Fair music video and also played a game where students had to guess the correct definition of a long and unheard of “re” word. Everyone voted in the crowd which definition was correct, and the contestant had to agreed or disagreed. All in all, great fun opening in keeping with the “re”fuel theme.

Music Playlist: Stop and Stare, One Pure and Holy Passion, You Deserve, Til I See You

Favorite Moment: We asked students to tell us the ways that they would commit to stop and be quiet this week – we used Poll Everywhere to have them text in whatever they want to say in 140 characters. The responses, moderated then displayed during the first song, were amazing. I’m excited to see what happens when we listen to God’s voice this week!

Next up: Refuel, series finale

The announcements this weekend in HSM …

JG

We’re still not ready for primetime on the new show, set and format – so you’ll have to make due with this little “tweener” podcast we shot during PDYM. Look for the show to return this Thursday!

JG

Just clipped this from a press release that went out about a HUGE day at Saddleback. So great to see the success of Membership Month. Wow!

SADDLEBACK CHURCH TRAINS NEARLY 2,400 NEW MEMBERS ON HISTORIC DAY

LAKE FOREST, Calif., March 28, 2009 – Dr. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in Southern California, trained nearly 2,400 new church members this morning representing the largest membership class in the Saddleback Church history.

Over the past 30 years, more than 35,000 people have participated in Class 101, Saddleback Church’s introductory membership session. The new member training walks attendees through three areas focusing on God’s plan and purpose for everything; the history, faith and future vision of the church; and the importance of membership. This foundational, historic class comes in the midst of economic troubles and uncertainty in our nation. But, Warren says difficult times are why the church was created.

“The Bible says the church is the support and foundation of the truth,” said Warren, who personally led the class. “We in California know the importance of support and foundation, because we have earthquakes. If you don’t have a good support and a good foundation when an earthquake comes around, your house will collapse. The same is true of every area of life. If you don’t have the correct foundation and support for finances, relationships and your marriage, it will all collapse. God never meant for you to go through life alone; you need relationship, you need a spiritual family.”

JG

Here’s the song list from the Purpose Driven Youth Ministry (PDYM) Conference this week, in case a few of them struck you as something you want to drop into your iPod or have your youth ministry band play:

• You Deserve – Hillsong United
• Song of the Broken – Something Like Silas (HSM/WILSIDE CD)
• Take it All – Hillsong United (HSM/WILSIDE CD)
• Blessed Be the Name – Matt Redman (This arrangement is on HSM/WILDSIDE CD)
• Your Love is Strong Jon Foreman
• Beautiful Lord – Leeland
• So I’ll Look to You – Hillsong United
• The Stand – Hillsong United
• From the Inside Out – Hillsong United (HSM/WILDSIDE CD)
• Came to my rescue – Hillsong United (HSM/WILDSIDE CD)
• Mighty to Save – Hillsong Untied (HSM/WILDSIDE CD)
• We Shine – Steve Fee
• Jesus Paid it All – (HSM/WILDSIDE CD)
• Savior King – Hillsong United
• O Come Let us Adore Him – Christmas
• Hosanna – Hilsong United (HSM/WILDSIDE CD)
• Sing Sing Sing – Chris Tomlin
• Breathe on Me – Todd Fields

JG

Kurt and I just finished up a 3 Key Learnings part of the general session on discipleship at PDYM. Here are some of the notes we took into the talk, if there’s something here you can use:

SESSION 6 – DISCIPLESHIP

1. Expect resistance. I love programs – and discipleship at Saddleback is a non-program. Youth pastors are good at launching programs – we use them to defend ourselves from parents and problems. It doesn’t come naturally for everyone, so you might find resistance from parents or volunteers, too. Small group leaders have to see this as an integral part of their role. HABITS are modeled and handed down through the small group ministry – we even had a short HABITS highlight every week in our fall training so leaders could get an idea of what resources we were expecting them to help students go after.

2. Being connected to an adult leader makes all the difference. Someone is Twittering every time we say something about relational volunteers. They are the BIG deal.

3. “Growing On Your Own” (Sprout/H.A.B.I.T.S.) requires continuous vision casting. We say “grow on your own” then hide behind it. We need to walk a little way down the path, then help them take some steps on their own. In the talk, suggest a verse for core students to memorize. At the end of a message, consider a HABIT being an action step from the talk. But because there is no weekly class, or weekly meeting in a house, discipleship can slip under the radar too quickly. You have to keep beating this drum. Discipleship never ends.

JG

Jason shot some fun video of people getting hit with the Refinery water cannon.

JG

Kurt and I just finished up a 3 Key Learnings part of the general session on worship at PDYM. Here are some of the notes we took into the talk, if there’s something here you can use:

SESSION 4 – WORSHIP

1. When we “wing it”, we suck. We focus on debrief every week, between the first 2 services of the weekend. Don’t be afraid to beg, borrow, steal (example, Grangeris using our series this week, we’re using their screen game next week). Plan ahead, evaluate, debrief, strategy. The -2,5,12,19 Meeting.

2. Relational leaders are the key (and they are hard to find!). If there was one wish I had right now, it is that we had more weekend leaders. Leaders that engage in the weekend service. When we say “just talk with students” that isn’t enough – it isn’t easy enough to “get” it, and stand in the back. God uses all types of personalities.

3. There’s more to a crowd program than a program. People, program, place

JG

Jake takes us through the Refinery during the PDYM Conference.

JG

Really liked Brian’s post on PDYMCommunity.com about the crowd program and some options he had listed as a sort of “job description” for a crowd program volunteer. Here’s a clip, head there for the rest:

•INVEST TIME: Come as early as you can, stay as late as you can. Lots of times, the best conversations can be had before the service begins and after it’s over.
•SPREAD OUT: Spread out from other adult leaders. Don’t sit in groups larger than two of you.
•BE HABITUAL AND CONSISTENT: Try to sit in the same area each week- teens are creatures of habit and you’ll find it’s easier to get to know them by sitting in the same place- they will likely do the same thing.
•LINK STUDENTS TOGETHER: If someone is sitting in an area- likelihood is, someone in their area knows them. It’s also easier to remember names if you can remember who they are “usually” with. It’s also easier to notice someone who is missing. You can also help a lonely student meet others by being the match maker and introducing students who are sitting near one another to one another. They often won’t be observant or confident enough to do that on their own.
•MINGLE: Initiate Conversations. Remember it takes at least 6 questions before they believe you even care. Students are not looking for a hip adult- they’re looking for one who genuinely cares about them.

JG

The other man on the street from this week’s Purpose Driven Youth Ministry Conference.

JG

Been thinking about this subject personally a little on and off the last couple of weeks, it came to a head in a conversation with my wife last night. Here are 3 “simple” things youth workers need to remember every day:

It’s not about you. God is doing a work in your ministry. Why He’s chosen you and I in this time and place is His to know. You have less to do with the success of your ministry than you probably think. Be faithful and work hard, but know that it is God that brings in the increase and it is all about Him. When you start to think you’re something, you’ve taken a step backward.

It’s not about numbers. Success in youth ministry is about more than numbers. Some well-meaning people around you might thing otherwise, but they’re wrong. You can tell them that. Good youth ministry is what matters most – caring relational youth workers loving students and pointing them to Jesus.

It’s not about arriving. I’m afraid too often we think that someday we’ll arrive and we will … when we arrive in Heaven. Until then, be a learner and a humble servant of God.

JG

Fun man on the street video from PDYM this week …

JG

This year at PDYM we needed a speaker countdown for the stage, and just discovered Online Stopwatch. We’re just running it off a laptop and a monitor with a long cable, but it works great. Just thought I would share if you can use it!

JG

Here’s the official list of bloggers at the Purpose Driven Youth Ministry Conference this week:

• Rob
• Dennis
• Danny
• Neal
• Michael
• Ben
• Joel
• Lucas
• Mike
• Shane
• Allison
• Jessica

And to keep up on all of the Twitters, hit this.

JG

Here’s a fun little screencast we did yesterday to help explain what’s inside a Teaching Series at Simply Youth Ministry. Check it out and all of the great sermon series, too.

JG

Are you blogging the Purpose Driven Youth Ministry (PDYM) Conference this week? If so, leave a comment on this post and I’ll compile an official list and send people your way looking for learnings. Also, if you Twitter, be sure to use #PDYM when you send a conference-related Twit. We’re working to get them on the big screen in The Refinery, too. Fun!

JG

Here’s the sermon bumper video for our Refuel series. Super clean, made with Motion 3 on a Mac, I believe.

JG