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Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 176

Weekend Teaching Series: You Own the Weekend: Tesoro HS (series finale, week 5 of 5)
Sermon in a Sentence: We all have sorrow, pain but God turns it into joy and hope.

Service Length: 66 minutes

Understandable Message: Tesoro High School juniors Chad and Ryan spoke this weekend with a great video testimony from Gabby in the middle. They did an incredible job teaching about how pain is universal but through the love and power of Christ was can be filled with hope and joy. They team-taught through 3 stories of the Bible – the healing of the blind man, the woman at the well and Peter denying Jesus. Both speakers also referenced the Canis Majoris star (Latin translation meaning Big Dog) and how God is infinitely bigger than all of us and His ways are far beyond ours. Really challenging talks from incredibly articulate and passionate students.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend they brought in the band Shoot Up the Cat (a local band made up of Tesoro students) and played a couple of great videos as well. You can see their Hot Rod promo video here and the No services for Easter video here. They also had a ton of greeters, lots of great decorations and overall a lot of fun!

Music Playlist: Jackie Wants a Black Eye (Shoot Up the Cat cover), You Hold Me Now, Amazing Grace, It Is Well, Your Love Never Fails

Favorite Moment: I love the sheer number of students involved – it is one of the my favorite things we do all year – students who normally sit now serve. The decorations team, the T-shirts, banner, greeters, band – so much of is was so good this week and for the whole series. So proud of our students!

Up next: OFF (Easter weekend, everyone goes to big church)

Add Comment April 6, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts The Youth Group Photo Wall

There is something incredibly powerful about photos in your youth room – this idea is as classic as can be but we recently revived it in HSM and the results are really great. Instantly a wall that has been ignored forever becomes full of life again. We’re even working on a way to print out a few pictures each week so the wall is always alive – kind of like a Facebook album that is consistency updated.

Anyhow – simple, cheap idea (probably cost about $5 for glue, $20 in pictures, and the time Travis put into it) that is really a hit in HSM right now!

JG

3 View Comments April 5, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Tesoro Own the Weekend Promo Video

Last weekend of the You Own the Weekend series – Tesoro is going to OWN it. So excited – here’s their promo video that’s been on Facebook.

JG

1 View Comments March 26, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Promotion Calendar/Schedule for Summer Camp

This year we’re trying to be as intentional as possible when promoting our summer camp. Registration opening is just around the corner – thought I would post the schedule that some of our team came up with and we’re hoping to go by this year. Would love to know best practices/ideas that are working for you getting students to camp, too!

Registration Opens April 14/15
- Posters/signage
- Stage announcement/video
- Text message blast (include parent camp list from last summer)
- Business card as students leave
- Email to parents
- Facebook page / Instagram flood
- Big church bulletin announcement

Postcard Mailer May 1st
- Postcard to current Life Group students

Invitation Mailer May 8th
- Letter to incoming freshman
- Letter to graduating seniors
- Facebook / Instagram flood
- Last year’s Summer Camp promo services

May 12/13
- Announcement/video in services
- Facebook push again
- Text Bomb
- Parent monthly newsletter push

Summer Camp Friend Challenge May 19/20
- Bring a friend to camp challenge (design what that look likes)
- Big Church bulletin tear off card
- Camp video with friend challenge twist played at weekend services

Pull Registration Report June 12th
- How many in each grade are registered?
- Do we need to push one grade over the other?
- Text Bomb
- Facebook blast

All weekends after June 12th:
- Stage announcement
- Facebook blast
- Text messages throughout the week
- Instagram

Registration ends July 8th

July 10th: Parent Meeting & Leader training
· Leader training/dinner 6-7:30- team colors announced, cabin lists handed out
· Parent/student meeting- all payments due, cabins assigned, rules/guidelines given, packing list, general camp info

JG

Add Comment March 22, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 175

Weekend Teaching Series: You Own the Weekend: Capo Valley HS (week 3 of 5)
Sermon in a Sentence: What is missing in your life?

Service Length: 63 minutes

Understandable Message: This week students took turns sharing about their life change from Jesus Christ. The message was taught by several students that told stories about when they first came to know Christ, and experiences where they grew in their relationship with Him. There was a clear theme through the weekend (what is missing) and the image of the puzzle piece and they walked people through the discipleship process from accepting Christ, to small groups, to growing in your faith, serving, etc. Clear, classic message that invited students to commit/rededicate their life to Christ.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Capo is the smallest representation of our student ministry (of the 5 schools we chose to do You Own the Weekend), but they sure showed up in full force. So proud of them with great decorations, gobs of energy, a great skit, lots of greeters and great T-shirts. I loved their little takeaway of a puzzle piece people could come get from the stage during the last song – they’ll be a great reminder of the weekend/message for many days to come.

Music Playlist: Streetlight, How He Loves, Tear Down the Walls, Avalanche, Hold Me Now, You’ll Come

Favorite Moment: I love walking into our student room and being greeting by a giant inflatable Cougar. The Capo High School mascot head was posed in the front entrance of the youth room and it looked EPIC. Combine that with a ton of great students greeting, it made for a perfect setting for students to be welcomed to church.

Up next:You Own the Weekend: El Toro High School (week 4 of 5)

Add Comment March 20, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts “Learn to Love” by The Cluster of Students

A song written for the 40 Days in the Word campaign (we called it The Book in Student Ministries). So good!

JG

2 View Comments March 16, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 174

Weekend Teaching Series: You Own the Weekend: Mission Viejo HS (week 2 of 5)
Sermon in a Sentence: You matter to God.

Service Length: 60 minutes

Understandable Message: Students this weekend shared through spoken word, speaking and a testimony. It was fantastic! They shared about how God made each of us unique and how He wants to use our personalities and talents to further the kingdom. They centered the weekend around You Matter to God, but emphasized the “you” in that statement – how God has given us unique spiritual gifts, experiences and talents for Him. I loved the perspective of a creative God giving us each our own “us” that is to be used for Him. Good message!

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: One of the students served as a DJ during the countdown, and students created a video and a spoken word to introduce the theme of the weekend as well. They had tons of great decorations and created a really fun welcoming environment. They had the school mascot running around and lots of school spirit. Love love loved it, I’ll try to post pictures later this week.

Music Playlist: Kings and Queens, Your Love is Strong, Burning Ones

Favorite Moment: It was all incredible! Honestly, I loved the decorations most this weekend – students took pictures of practically everyone from their high school and had them developed and put all over the youth room. On each of them was written “You Matter to God” so if you were visiting this weekend you could find yourself hung up around church. Super, super cool.

Up next: You Own the Weekend: Capo High School (week 3 of 5)

Add Comment March 14, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts You Matter Spoken Word

So proud of our students this past weekend in HSM at Saddleback. Students from Mission Viejo took over for You Own the Weekend – no adults took the stage, it was completely student run! The video above features one of our students performing a spoken word she wrote called You Matter. Strong!

JG

1 View Comments March 13, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 173

Weekend Teaching Series: You Own The Weekend (series premiere, week 1 of 5)
Sermon in a Sentence: Love God, love others.
Service Length: 65 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend was the kick off weekend to our annual “You Own The Weekend” series. During this series, each of the 5 major high schools in the area gets one weekend to “own.” They are in charge of everything from the control room to the podium! The first school to kick it off was Trabuco Hills High School, and they blew it out of the park! They focused on the first and second greatest commandments: Loving God, and loving others. They first taught on loving God, using a student speaker. He focused on how loving our God is and why/how we love in return. They then taught on loving others through the use of a speaker video (composed of 5 students sharing their thoughts and scripture). They spoke about how us loving others is only possible because our love of God. They also spoke about how and why we are called to love others! The whole weekend was brought home by a student sharing their testimony, as well as a TEACHER FROM THEIR SCHOOL sharing his story over video. It was so cool for the students to know that there is some at their school that supports them and wants to talk with them. It was a great weekend and an awesome kick start to the series!

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: Well, since it was Trabuco Hill’s weekend, there was a lot of school spirit decorations, as well as decorations that fit their “love” theme (which were just clearance Valentine’s day decorations. Boom.). There were also a couple great parody videos made by some of our talented video students.

Music Playlist: Perfect Love, Your Love Never Fails, Learn to Love, and My God is Love.

Favorite Moment: The whole weekend was a giant highlight for me because one of my favorite things is seeing students using their gifts and abilities to serve the Lord. It is great having opportunities like “You Own The Weekend” because they require so many different kinds of gifts and gives us the chance to mobilize a lot of students.

Up next: You Own The Weekend [Mission Viejo High School] (week 2 of 5)

(this post was guest written by Colton Harker, student leadership coordinator in HSM)

Add Comment March 12, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 172

Weekend Teaching Series: The Book [40 Days in the Word church-wide campaign] (series finale, week 6 of 6)
Sermon in a Sentence: How to Study Your Bible

Service Length: 82 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend was the conclusion to The Book, our student version of the 40 Days in the Word church-wide campaign. In the finale I wanted to help students learn how to read the Bible, but took it from the opposite angle with the message being titled, “Don’t Read The Bible” which got some great reactions. The idea was that if you read the Bible, it will change you completely. I also asked 3 students to share how they read the Bible as well, so it wasn’t just a pastor telling them they should but they could hear from students who were doing their best to read and live out the book in real high school life.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we played a get to know you-type game where we put 2 contestants on stage (in this case Travis and Justin – two new guys on the team) and put up a random fact about them where students could text in who they thought the fact was about. We used polleverywhere.com, with a custom background so it looked much slicker than their default results template. The winners got a Twinkie shower which was hilarious and over the top, too. We also had a fun video or two to round out the night. So fun!

Music Playlist: We Shine, God Above All, Love to Learn, Amazing Love, Divine and Holy

Favorite Moment: I always love students sharing on stage – gives such credibility to the talk. The whole place got so focused when students took the stage. Way to go Sofie, Brad and Paula!

Up next: You Own the Weekend: Trabuco Hills HS (series premiere, week 1 of 6)