hsm weekend in review | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 145

Weekend Teaching Series: 11 vs. the World (series premiere, week 1 of 3)
Sermon in a Sentence: The disciples were ordinary with varied personalities but called by God to bring the Good News to the world.
Service Length: 71 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we kicked off a new series about the disciples called 11 vs. the World. It was a short prep week because of our annual staff retreat, but I had the idea of using the GLO Bible app on the iPad to help teach the lesson from a very visual and historical perspective, as well as turn the corner for application and practical challenges for this week. It was a big departure, but I think it worked well. I opened up talking about great teams, and talked about the unlikely team that Jesus put together to spread the Good News to the World. We spent a little time on each of the disciples individually, and ended with the Great Commission as Jesus was setting them up to go on without Him.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend (to help celebrate the 4th of July) we played “Know Your America” with Uncle Hayward (one of our summer interns) and had some fun USA trivia for an iTunes card. Even on a down holiday weekend we had good student involvement.

Music Playlist: The Time Has Come, Forever Reign, Burning Ones, Tell the World

Favorite Moment:Using the GLO Bible iPad app this week to teach was really fun – and aside from it crashing once and me having to furiously rebuild a presentation, it was absolutely incredible. First, because I love technology and the geek inside of me loved it, and second because it is fun to present the Bible in a new way to High School students. Cool stuff, I’ll try to share more on that later this week.

Up Next: 11 vs. the World (week 2 of 3)

1 View Comments July 5, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 144

Weekend Teaching Series: Promotion Weekend (1-off)
Sermon in a Sentence: What I wish I knew in High School.
Service Length: 75 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend the message was taught by all of the HSM Staff. Each of us got on stage and did a short introduction of ourselves and what we did on the team, then taught a single point about what we wish we knew in High School. Subjects ranged from identity, friends, evengelism, purity, the importance of Scripture, etc. It flowed surprisingly well having different personalities on stage – made me happy that our team is so diverse in every way. God uses a ton of different people to come together to minister to all types of students. Awesome.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: The weekend had a strong element of fun and lots of student involvment. We had a fun bit up front called “The Freshman Olympics” and played a couple of fun games up front with the incoming 9th graders versus the seniors. We also had a great video-that-turned-into-a-live-performance rap that helped promote summer camp. Lots of students involved greeting, hosting the game, singing and band. Even had a freshman lead one of the songs. Go Brad!

Music Playlist: Summer Camp is Going Down (opener), Rise and Sing, You’ll Come, Holy Holy Holy

Favorite Moment: I love that we can go from a hilarious opener to a powerful worship song at the end with lots of great content inbetween. For sure the highlight has to go to seeing all of the potential of these incredible freshman entering youth group. Pumped.

Up Next: 11 vs. the World (series premiere, week 1 of 2)

Add Comment June 28, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 143

Weekend Teaching Series: Senior Weekend (1-off)
Sermon in a Sentence: Change is about the only constant in life in and after high school – but never forget that Jesus remains the same yesterday, today and forever.
Service Length: 69 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend the just-short-of-graduating seniors took over the weekend. We had a great mix of students who helped plan the service and a couple of great speakers. Shell was up first – and talked about her battle with cerebral palsy and how God sees her as beautiful and beloved. It was incredible, she was wonderful and each service and completely inspiring. Makenna shared her testimony next, sharing vulnerable moments from her freshman year through graduation. Then Collin got up at the end and shared about the constancy and eternality of Christ in an ever-changing and fragile world we live in. Super clear message, very appropriate as these seniors head off into the great unknown.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend was completely student run – so we had a great Muse opener and a couple of great hosts to do announcements up front. Senior greeters, senior band, seniors helped throughout the weekend.

Music Playlist: (2 more songs I don’t remember), House of God Forever, Take it All

Favorite Moment: My favorite moment came at the end of each service when I got to pray over the seniors. This is their last official service (though they are welcome to attend through the summer). It was a powerful moment and a great way to mark their time in HSM and ask God’s blessing on their future.

Up Next: Promotion Weekend (the freshman are coming in hot!)

Add Comment June 21, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 140

Weekend Teaching Series: Stories (1-off)
Sermon in a Sentence: Real-life stories of life change from core kids who are making a difference by serving and sharing their faith.
Service Length: 62 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend was all about students sharing their stories. We typically do a couple “stories” weekends a year, but this time we concentrated on students raised in Christian homes that were living out their faith. I’ve noticed from time to time that when we ask someone to share, they have a great story – drugs, alcohol, messed up home, etc. So this time we looked at the core kids who have typical Christian, even stereotypical environments to be raised in and used that as a basis to encourage their peers in their faith. The result was an extremely positive service that had great messages about sharing your faith, getting involved in ministry, purity, sportsmanship and more. Really terrific.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we had lots of student greeters and students running the band, lights, cameras, sound, etc. They program included another push for HSM Summer Camp, and a interview with the lady who runs Saddleback’s food bank. Solid program that clocked in right at the hour mark.

Music Playlist: The Earth is Yours, Like an Avalanche, With Everything, Beautiful Things, Your Name High

Favorite Moment: I think my favorite moment was the students sharing and how positive the message was from the weekend. Everyone has a story – it was great to hear how God is working in our core students lives and to have them as an example to other students. So good.

Up Next: Communion (1-off)

Add Comment June 1, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 139

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

Sermon in a Sentence: Real-life parents answer your real-life questions. Each service will be completely different!
Service Length: 76 minutes

Understandable Message: This week we tried a first in HSM – the parent panel. I’ll post more later about my learnings on how to run a good panel, but for now, I’ll just say it was awesome. We had parents commit to at least 2 services if possible, so we had different parents throughout the weekend. It was incredible to hear their heart and passion, as well as their vulnerability and love for their kids. We had some parents, who I introduced as not perfect by any means, but that loved Jesus and loved their kids. It was awesome. I have almost 500 questions that students sent into us during the 4 services, excited to do a series of posts on them in the future – I think they will be super insightful for youth ministry or even parents themselves.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We had pretty straightforward programming this weekend – lots of student greeters and student leaders running the night. We had a video testimony about trust/parents featuring a Life Group leader, Blair Wilson, who really messed up as a teenager – that was solid, too. Tons of student involvement with students texting in their questions to polleverywhere.com which we moderated and pushed to the screen.

Music Playlist: Dancing Generation, Mighty to Save, Sing Sing Sing

Favorite Moment: The parents were incredible. They made the services – and I loved the unpredictability of each service. You didn’t know the questions, you didn’t know the answers – so each service was unique and honestly, really interesting. Oh, and using my iPad2 to push the questions students had texted in right on to the big screen was techno-fun, too.

Up Next: Stories (1-off)

3 View Comments May 24, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 134

Weekend Teaching Series: Jesus (series premiere, week 1 of 3) [read about the series arc here]

Sermon in a Sentence: Jesus was more than a historical figure, He is the Redeemer, Healer, Son of God.
Text: Luke 17 – Jesus and the 10 Lepers
Service Length: 64 minutes

Understandable Message: This series was designed to focus on the life and death of Christ with a grand finale on Easter weekend. The series began with me teaching about who Jesus is and who He isn’t – with an expanded section on Jesus the Healer. My hope was that the event from the life of Christ and the thankful leper would come alive this week and remind students to be thankful and express their worship to God through thankfulness. It also included a strong invitation for salvation.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We played SYMC’s latest music video Stay Classy as the opener, and one of our staff did a dramatic reading/slam poetry of Rebecca Black’s infectious viral song Friday. Had a little summer camp promo video as well. Really fun, brisk programming this weekend.

Music Playlist: The Earth is Yours, Mighty to Save, His Name is Jesus, Majesty

Favorite Moment: This was a really fun weekend – we had a new song written by a student this week that was absolutely incredible. It was called “His Name is Jesus” and fit the message/weekend so well. Talented beyond words. Wow.

Up Next: Jesus [guest speaker: Doug Fields, week 2 of 3]

Add Comment April 15, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM’s Cover of Mumford & Sons’ The Cave

I mentioned in our weekend in review for services last weekend that we did a cover of Mumford & Sons’ The Cave. Here’s the video of it! Maybe the first time we’ve ever had a banjo used in a service, too. Ha!

JG

2 View Comments April 8, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 133

Weekend Teaching Series: You Own the Weekend: Celebration (bonus week 6 of our 5-week series)

Sermon in a Sentence: Unity is the key to unlocking the power of the church.
Service Length: 62 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend students from all of the different school (excluding the top 5 schools that each had a weekend service of their own) combined forces to pull off the finale weekend of the You Own the Weekend completely student-run services. They did a fantastic job this week using a combination of student testimonies, a spoken word piece, music and a solid skit. It was a great effort and I wrapped up the message of unity with an 8-minute video on the subject with both a look back at the series and a look ahead to what was next.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: The weekend had awesome decorations and an amazing group of students welcoming at the door and in the crowd. Giant UNITY letters across the stage, great energy when you walked into the room. It was a very fun weekend of student involvement, and a very positive environment.

Music Playlist: The Cave [Mumford & Sons cover], Rise and Sing, Take It All

Favorite Moment: I watched this weekend as one particular student got up from her seat with her regular friends in the first few minutes of the service and went to sit with another girl who was completely alone in the row in front of her. It was an incredible moment, our student leader had no idea she was being watched and was an incredible servant. Love it!

Up Next: The Real Jesus [series premiere, week 1 of 3]