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Josh GriffinMore Posts 4 Free Songs from Cluster of Students

Merry Christmas Everyone

Cluster of Students Christmas present to all of Saddleback Kids and Students Ministries of Saddleback. C.O.S. recorded 2 Christmas Songs and 2 new worship songs. We pray and hope you will be encouraged and that this season of Christmas music would encourage you who Jesus is. Enjoy!

JG

Add Comment December 13, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Wordle Affirmation Picture Frames

Today the HSM Team and I are away at a fun day as we get near the holidays. We do it every year – I call it the State of HSM, but it is really a time of fun, stories and affirmations. I wanted to show you a fun affirmation we’re doing today that I think is easily transferable to your ministry and something you might consider doing in your group.

We collected 10 words people used to describe the selected person – you could do this in a variety of ways – slips of paper, email, whiteboard, sign in sheets, etc.
Collect and compile them into a document
Drop them into Wordle.net, words are sized according to the number of times they were repeated
Print the final rendering on photo paper, then frame and reveal

Jessica had this great idea and the final product is nothing short of fantastic. I posted one here as an example. So easy and so powerful!

JG

Add Comment December 13, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 205

Weekend Teaching Series: Instalife (series premiere, week 1 of 2)
Service Length: 70 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we used the app Instagram as a backdrop for a new series in HSM. This week we focused on jealousy – how Instagram brings out the best and the worst in us in that area. We talked about jealousy from Jesus teachings in Matthew 6 and had lots of fun along the way. One of my favorite weekends in HSM in a very long time – I think a good message, great game, fun look/feel and super relevant and easy to connect with our student’s world.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We played a brand new game called InstaHack – where we bring someone on stage and have them log into their Instagram and then spin the wheel for us to various terrible things to their pictures, followers and feed. They could also win $5 Starbucks giftcards if they were extremely lucky. Super, super fun, crowd died at the right points, and the contestants were always a good sport. We also had lots of student greeters and a fun Christmas rap video.

Music Playlist: Silent Night (Taylor Swift version), Go, Joy to the World, 10,000 Reasons, Your Love is Strong

Favorite Moment: During one part of the talk I called out one of our students (I had his permission, more or less) and talked about #selfies. It was a great moment that I loved and

Up next: Instalife (week 2 of 2)

1 View Comments December 11, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Doing Youth Ministry Well

I liked reading Justin’s post 5 Things You Need to Know in Doing Youth Ministry Well - thought it was some good stuff for you all to check out today. He’s got 5 good insights there, here are a couple to get you started before you run over to his site for the rest:

Be all in- Go all in. Get involved. Break the awkwardness of you being one of the only adults in the room. You know, the students know it, just jump in and break that awkward wall down. Greet them, get involved in the games, the worship, the message. They are watching you whether they know you or not and will determine if you are the real deal or not within two seconds. Is it going to be weird? Probably at first, but once they see you go all in, they will be right behind you.

Be real- Students are the best B.S. detectors I know. They can easily sniff out someone who is not genuine from the start. Don’t try to be the “cool” person because they are not interested. What I have found in doing ministry is that student respond best to any adult leader when they are open, honest, and real. You will not have every kid there liking you, but there is at least one kid that needs to hear your story and how you handled it that will help shape their spiritual life. Students will come to you once they know you are a “real” person.

JG

1 View Comments December 6, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts InstaLife Series Arc

Excited to start a new series in HSM next weekend called InstaLife – it will use Instagram as a backdrop to teach biblical truths. Pretty excited about the series! I like it when we create an “arc” or journey we are hoping to take students through both in each message and the series. Here’s an overview of the next two weeks:

InstaLife: Jealousy – Wanting Someone Else’s Username
Being jealous shows that we are not satisfied with what God has given us, that what we have is not enough. The Bible tells us that we need to be content with what we have because God would never forsake us and leave us with nothing. In order to go head to head with jealousy we need to become more like Jesus and less like ourselves. We need to stop wanting and ogling what everyone else posts through Instagram.

InstaLife: Being Fake – Look Behind the Filter
We post pictures online for everyone to see. We will post pictures on this app to allow other people to get a little glimpse into our lives. Many post pictures of the life they wish they had or pictures from only the good parts, giving the false perception to everyone who sees it thinking that you are just fine and dandy when in reality you are truly hurting. It is time to stop pretending that everything is okay and come to Jesus get out from behind the filter.

JG

Add Comment December 6, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Winter Retreat Highlights

Got back from an incredible weekend up in the mountains here in Southern California. We took our students on our annual Winter Retreat. Thought I would share a few of the highlights -

We stayed 2 nights up at Mile High Pines Camp – no snow, but nice and cold this time of year.
Ron Merrell was our speaker. We had him 2 summers ago at camp and loved him, had to bring him back.
Student-led workshops (30 minutes each, students could pick 2) were also really strong. Students prepped really well for them and did a great job.
Simple music – just a guy and a guitar. SUCH a great change of pace.
It was incredibly fun to honestly sit back and watch our volunteers really pastor our students. At this simple 48-hour camp volunteers drove pretty much everything.
We’re developing a pretty strong sense of story. Whenever we gathered together the leaders the first question we would ask was looking for stories, and we were never disappointed.
Fun to have some longevity! Been doing camps for quite a while now – fun to have old friends there every year as leaders, and break in some incredible new rookies as well.
The event broke even! Woohooo! We didn’t lose money!

Great weekend for sure. Are you doing Winter Camp/Retreat this year?

JG

Add Comment December 4, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 204

Weekend Teaching Series: UFC Weekend w/Mark Munoz (1-off)
Service Length: 82 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we invited Mark Munoz, an incredible Ultimate Fighter, to come share his story and testimony for Christ with our students. He talked about his upbringing, how God used painful situations in his life to shape his journey into wrestling and how God is using him and his influence to further God’s Kingdom. Really fun stuff, spoke to a ton of students who came just to see him and left with a new relationship with Christ.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This weekend we had a fun musical opener, a couple of quick videos (one we ripped from YouTube and one promoting Winter Camp) some great songs and not much else to give time for the speaker.

Music Playlist: Survival Song, We Are the Free, Hosanna, With Everything

Favorite Moment: Mark Munoz did a good job speaking – but was INCREDIBLE doing question and answer and hanging with students afterwards. He is one of the most accomplished fighters in the UFC, and is humble and completely likeable. He isn’t on the “speaking circuit” but I promise you he will be because God used him in big ways in our ministry!

Up next: Worship Together Weekend: World AIDS Day (1-off)

Add Comment November 30, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 203

(this report was written by Justin Knowles – check out his blog here - I was in Dallas speaking at the YS Convention)

Weekend Teaching Series: #REALTALK (Week 2 of 2)
Service Length: 78 minutes

Understandable Message: This weekend we were so excited to have Sean McDowell back at HSM for a second week. We got to ask the question “How can a loving God send a good person to Hell?”. I know right? A tough one. But Sean tackled it with power and with grace. Our students ate it up as they listened to him explain how God does not want to send anyone to hell, but they willingly choose to reject Him and His Word. That there is no such thing as “good people” because we all are sinners and are messed up, but God sent His Son to save us. It is awesome how he went about such a tough topic, yet really popular topic as well. Sean killed it.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We had a fun video to promote our Winter Retreat for our students in small groups that was a huge hit. Also, a few weeks ago we had a competition to see which class could bring in the most canned goods for our PEACE Center. Our freshmen class one and as a prize they got to record an anthem song and shoot a video with AC (HSM staff member) and we played it for all to this this weekend. It was amazing.

Music Playlist: Yours Forever, Overcome, Tear Down The Walls

Favorite Moment: After all of the services, Sean was bombarded with students asking more questions about hell, the idea of hell, and why God would even make hell. It was awesome just to sit back and listen to Sean answer these really tough and honest questions with the love and tenderness as he did with our students. It made me realize how smart he is about these tough questions and was a great reminder why we got him to come and speak. LEGIT!

Up Next: Special Guest Speaker: Mark Munoz (Professional UFC MMA Fighter)