ephesians 6 | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 191

Weekend Teaching Series: Before and After: a study through Ephesians (series finale, week 3 of 3)
Sermon in a Sentence: A celebration of summer camp decisions framed around the whole armor of God.
Service Length: 89 minutes

Understandable Message: The week after camp might be my favorite youth group of the year. Everyone is there and everyone is on fire! All 4 high school services this weekend were a total joy to be at – hearing all that God did in the hearts of our students was absolutely incredible. Made me so thankful to be in youth ministry and honored to serve with an incredible team. I opened up the message by reading through Ephesians 6 and the whole armor of God. Then I asked them for testimonies on each of the parts of the armor of God:

Helmet of Salvation: testimonies or trusting Christ, baptism, etc.
Shield of Faith: stories of spiritual growth, etc
Shoes of Peace: testimonies of forgiveness, restoration, reconciliation
Body Armor of Righteousness: stories of turning away from sin
Belt of Truth: share a truth or confess a lie you’ve been living or believing
Sword of the Spirit: share a verse that has been meaningful to you this summer

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we played the HSM Summer Camp highlight video and made a couple of callbacks to awesome videos from camp. The Amp Up Song, Krispy Kreme (Haters Wanna Be Me) and The Other Direction all made appearances. Such a fun, overpowering weekend!

Music Playlist: Here for you, What Would I Have Done, All I Am Christ in Me, We Are The Free

Favorite Moment: For sure hearing students stories. So, so strong.

Up next: Worship Together Weekend #2

Add Comment August 2, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 137

Weekend Teaching Series: How to Raise Your Parents (series premiere, week 1 of 3)

Sermon in a Sentence: A good relationship between parent and teenager is built on trust: trust for your parents and trust from your parents.
Text: Proverbs, Ephesians 6
Service Length: 61 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend I had the chance to introduce the topic of trust as the foundation for a healthy relationship between teenagers and their parents. It was also the start of the series, so had some fun setting up my experience as a kid/teenager in my home. Lots of fun stories, and an object lesson about trust where I had a clear tube of colored water that sprung leaks as the parents lost trust in their teenager. We talked about trust-builders and trust-busters – students hopefully walked away with a clear understanding of how important trust is and how to build it between them and their parents.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This week was a super tight program that included a fun opening song, a couple videos about upcoming events (HSM Summer Camp and Killball) as well as a funny video about parenting and trust. Clean, direct program, with lots of students involved greeting, cameras, band, control room, creating graphics, etc.

Music Playlist: Not a Child Anymore, Freedom is Here, You’ll Come, Your Love is Strong

Favorite Moment: The opener this weekend was written by McKenzie – it was about parents and how they are crazy and don’t trust their teenagers. At first, I was worried about the song’s message, then when the band got to the last line, it was a total payoff and super sweet. Incredibly creative and a beautiful tribute to parents masked in what really is going through a teenagers mind. Brilliant, I’ll post video when I can find someone who recorded it.

Up Next: How to Raise Your Parents (Doug Fields speaking, week 2 of 3) [read the whole series are here]