Got a solid response from this post yesterday so I asked the volunteer behind the student-led project to give me some insight into how the video was made and the process of making the video for the past few months. Here’s some of what he sent along:

The Landing video was made entirely by students for students. It started with an idea to get rid of the static image that advertises the landing in the Refinery common displays with something that was a little more catchy. We also wanted to try and redirect the thoughts some students have about the landing which is that its for “those” students and so we were aiming for the concept that on the outside we appear all put together but on the inside we can still hurt and have alternate feelings that we are dealing with. We wanted to emphasize the idea that you are not alone and you shouldn’t go through it alone and so the initial thought is groups that go deep and have a safe place to share at the landing but they can also discover that Jesus Christ is right there with them and they are not alone.

The project from concept to finish took us 3 months. We work on a volunteer schedule of schools and all their extra-curricular programs. These guys are definitely committed. They all have tons of after school programs and academically we have been making sure their grades have not been taking a back seat as a result of being a part of the ministry and they are all B average and higher students. So they work extremely hard. This is a learning ministry. None of these students knew anything about animation before we started and most had never been a part of a real film production, let alone organized one so it was a great learning experience for all of them. They had to organize the dates to shoot, allocate equipment and resources from other teams (we are a ministry with $0 budget so everything was borrowed). They had to find actors and rehearse choreography for the film, they then had to design the content which was shown in the hands, motion track both hands individually, frame by frame (there are nearly 2,000 frames which you have to do twice). Then again add the slide content  and then animate the signs in such a way that they have weight and appears that they actually live in reality and are not just digital. Finally they had to mask (cutout) the slides frame by frame to give it the effect of being held. They re-did this process about three times to get it to look right as they learned new and more advanced techniques along the way.

Finally we had Troy write and compose an entire original soundtrack for the piece. We spent several skype sessions together getting it just right before we went into the studio to record. We then had it mastered to make it sound really great.

As this project expanded we began to realize it could be used for more then just a simple ad in the Refinery Commons and had the potential to be used in a service (hopefully) and by other churches as they advertise their Landing program (super hopeful).

This weekend we played a new promo video for The Landing that was made entirely by students. It was incredible! Probably one of the best videos to come out of our whole church in a while honestly, I was blown away by how it was made. I’ve asked the volunteer who led the student project to share more about the making of the video which hopefully I’ll be able to post later this week, too. If you’re interested in learning more about The Landing program for your church, click right on over here.

Designed for junior high and high school students, The Landing give you everything you need to lead young people in making Jesus the foundation of their lives, avoiding or breaking cycles of dysfunction, and experiencing God’s incredible forgiveness and healing.

JG

The Landing is a program that meets every Friday night to help students who are dealing with hurts, hangups and destructive habits. I asked Dennis Beckner, the director of The Landing here at Saddleback (and youth ministry blogger), to talk through some of the frequently asked questions about the program to help hurting students in case it would be helpful to you if you use the resource kit/program or not.

Is there a parental release form for The Landing?
There is a parental release form in the curriculum kit. We, however, do not use it at Saddleback Church. The biggest reason is some students would actually get in trouble or have to reveal information to their parents if their parents knew they attended.

How much counseling training do your volunteer leaders have?
Our volunteers are not professional counselors. They are only operating in a layman capacity. We do not pretend to offer professional counseling through this program. Students also voluntarily participate at no cost.

Have you had any troublemakers or issues where you needed security at The Landing?
Another layer of security we have is our security team. Security team sounds like a big church thing. Of course a big church like Saddleback would have that. While our security team is great, they are mostly volunteer police veterans who act as consultants when we need a little guidance or help. They’ve helped us report some problems to the authorities when mandated reporting issues come up. They’re a great safety net.

How do you train your youth leaders to help care for hurting students? You can download a free 74-page document that outlines our training, application, and several resources we’ve created since before we got started until last August when we had our Celebrate Recovery Summit. You’ll find that and a wealth of other resources by going to my blog where I’m giving away a ton of free stuff. You’ll see several freebies, nuggets of wisdom and guest posts on the topic.

What was your main focus during your early trainings?
1. Here’s what Celebrate Recovery is. Here’s our vision for students in recovery. Here’s what volunteering will look like.
2. Mandated reporting. We had a police officer come in and explain California’s laws on who is a mandated reporter, what must be reported and how to report it. The police officer happened to be one of our High School ministry volunteers. He shared not only the law, but the heart behind why a youth worker would want to report for ethical reasons as well as legal reasons.
3. Relational ministry. We discussed the youth ministry angle, what to expect when working with students and how to be a relational leader. We also walked through the first night which happend 3 days after this meeting and gave out leader T-shirts.

For more information on The Landing and see if it might be a good fit for your ministry context, hit up the link right here.

JG

The teenage life is a huge time of transitions, from safety and security in their family to finding out who they are in school and life outside of the family. From a teen’s eyes, it might seem like an endless series of crisis events. And to make it worse, no two crisis could be the same. They can face anything from bullies to divorcing parents, failing grades to friends who cut.

As youth workers to see hundreds, maybe thousands of students a week, how do we interact, work with, and serve those students who are going through a crisis? There are three things that every situation will need you to do, regardless of the situation: you need to be ready for crisis to happen, we need to give them time and space initially instead of fixing immediately, and we need to see it to the end.

We will further address each of these this week, but here is a brief description of each:

Be Prepared for Crisis [read more]
Preparation of a crisis that could (and will) happen involves three things: leaving time in your schedule to give it your full attention, knowing the resources available to you to best handle the situation, and creating an environment that is safe to be open and talk with adults and others about their problems. These allow us to effectively and fully engage with the student, preventing deeper wounds being created from our own shortcomings.

Giving Them Time And Space, Instead of Fixing Anything [read more]
Our first reaction to working with students is the desire to fix what they are facing because of any three things: we need to quickly fix their crisis so we can face our own, we are uncomfortable with the pain, or we assume that we know what the whole story is that has led to this crisis. But if we give them the time and space, this will allow them to work through their emotions (no matter how hard that is) as well as establish a deeper relationship between you and the student.

Creating A Comfortable Environment For Students [read more]
So many crisis are never told to an adult because of the fear that they will be judged, ignored, or rejected because of the problem. Yet, we can create a safe environment for them to share their hearts with us instead of hiding it away by developing deep and authentic relationships that start with sharing your own hurts and wounds from your past, regularly telling students that adults in the church are hear to talk, and consistently preach and teach on the tough topics like suicide and bullying.

Jeremy Smith is a 26-year old youth pastor at the Air Force Academy chapel, working for Club Beyond, and attending Denver Seminary for his Master”s of Arts in Counseling Ministries. He has been involved in Youth for Christ for eight years – check out his blog at Seventy8Productions.

This week during the end of the first message in the Secrets series, I challenged students to take a courageous step and share their secrets. I gave them a few options for where and how they could share it, here they are:

RemedyLIVE
RemedyLIVE is a ministry that helps students deal with their secrets. They’re basically an internet TV ministry for students. I’ve got some good friends over there that are doing some great stuff for students (online confessional booth, anonymous texting chats, powerful web shows, etc.) Really worth checking out as a youth worker to see if it would help you with your hurting students, too.

MyBrokenPalace.net
Another online ministry I’m excited to point you to is MyBrokenPalace.net. Seems like this one is newer (and local to us). Same kinda thing – great videos, a prayer wall and online confessional.

The Landing
The Landing is the Celebrate Recovery program for students. This program runs every Friday night at 7pm in our church and specializes is helping students deal with their secrets, addiction and pain. This week as a special connection to the Secrets series they’re hosting an open house to welcome curious students.

JG

I’ve been posting the results of a new member survey from our church that gives some incredible insight as to why people choose a particular church. Here are #6-10, if you missed the first half of the series:

Introduction

#10 – Special Events and Activities

#9 – Availabilty of Church Near Our Home/Location/Campuses

#8 – Missions

#7 – Different Styles of Worship

#6 – Small Groups and Discipleship classes

Here’s reason #5 from a Top Ten list of why people join our church … I’ll post another each day this week!

#5 – Pastoral Care
The top 5 reasons are what matter most in this survey. If you want to know why people stick in your church, these will be it. At #5 this week – pastoral care. In short, if people are cared for, they’ll stick around. If you help someone through a tough time in their life, the stronger the connection is between them and the body. A wise man once said, “they’ll never care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” If this is true – time spent caring for people is critically important to faithfulness. It brings up some great questions: do people feel cared for in your church? Are you empowering tons of volunteers to do ministry? Are the people doing pastoral care, or just the pastor?

Youth ministry application: You can create a lifetime fan and a loyal follower of Jesus by walking through a tough time with a student or his/her family. Some of the best ministry moments happen when you’re in the thick of life: sitting with a pregnant daughter about to tell her parents what happened. Showing up when someone close to them passes away. Counseling them through a relational crisis.

Show up in people’s lives and people will show up in your church.

JG

Doug Fields is joined by his wife, Cathy Fields, Amanda McGuire, and Megan Hutchinson for a special episode where the discussion and questions revolve around marriage, family and ministry. Special Note: We apologize for audio issues in this episode, but the content was so good we decided to post it anyway. Everything has been resolved for the next episode.

JG

Can’t afford to take your volunteers to a conference this year? Looking for some youth worker training during the Christmas slowdown or to kickoff the New Year? Lots of great options on sale this week at Simply Youth Ministry. Check them out now!

JG

A video we used to tell the stories of 3 students this this weekend in HSM’s services. Love celebrating he amazing changed life through Christ! What is The Landing? Glad you asked – details here.

JG

Journaled a little bit last week about pastoral care – how we’re called to care for the wounds of the students that have been entrusted to us as youth workers. In the setup we’re launching soon, we’ll have a 3-pronged approach to helping students with the hurts in their lives. Here’s the breakdown:

Small group leaders
One of the most effective groups of pastoral care volunteers in our ministry are the small group leaders. Students that have taken a step beyond the entry-level program of the weekend service come to experience being known, loved and cared for. When they have a problem (or a celebration, for that matter) they most often turn to “their pastor” – a title we’ve quick to award these amazing leaders. The majority (that part isn’t represented well in my Moleskin drawing above, sorry) of struggles and issues are addressed personally and directly here.

Pastoral care volunteers
This is the area where we have a great opportunity to build, we don’t have this yet so I’m talking in more ideal than real. What if there was a team of adults who pray for, counsel, guide and respond to students in need? If a student doesn’t have a small group leader, or needs more than what that leader can provide, we have a response. When a student is looking for prayer on the weekend, there’s a place for them to go. When they finally get up the nerve to call or Facebook, someone is quick to respond back.

The Landing (check out this program in detail here)
On the other end of the spectrum there are kids dealing with major life issues perhaps considered to be “above the pay grade” of the care team or their small group leader. And while we hope leaders know they can take on anything, we want to offer a program with specifically trained and called volunteers who’ve “seen it all” and can help coach and love these students through recovery. That’s where The Landing comes into play – a Celebrate Recovery for students that is available every Friday night of the year.

How do you care for students? Just thinking out loud today – hoping it triggers and idea to care for your students, too!

JG