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Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 14

Message Title: Confessions of an Ex-Homecoming Queen (featuring Allison Murray)
Sermon in a Sentence: The pressures of life get in the way of students living the way God intended – authentic, real and genuine before Him.

Key Verse: The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 5 out of 10. The one-hit wonders with different speakers are hitting us in a nice groove this summer. Getting ready for a powerful fall and the new 40 Days of Love whole-church campaign.

Attendance: down 16% from last weekend, up 31% from the same weekend last year.
Service Length: 75 minutes
Understandable Message: A- Allison Murray, one of our 2-years interns, is finishing up her last weekend here on staff. She’s a great small group leader with a great story, so we took the chance this weekend to share her story with our students at our entry-level program. Because there were so many stories in her talk, the message was very understandable. We together agreed that she could have used more Scripture during the talk, but she did a great job keeping students connected with a great illustration and some interactive elements along the way.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: B/B+ Volunteers were actively involved at the tables and greeting students. Students led in the band, and handed out programs and pens as people entered. Students were on stage for the opening game and also one came up as an illustration during the message.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: B+ “Church is boring” went right out the window when we opened up with Rock Band on the Wii at the beginning. After a silly countdown video called Nobody’s Perfect, we selected some students to come and perform a random track. It was so fun!

Music Playlist:. We Shine, Everlasting God, Inside Out, Mighty to Save

Favorite Moment: I have two favorite moments this week! There was great power in the standing ovation the students gave Allison this weekend, a response to her small group’s love for her and the impact she has made here for the past 2 years. I also enjoyed the song/arrangment of Inside Out this week, I think it just hit me where I needed it, a moving moment for sure. Solid weekend.

Overall grade: B+

Add Comment August 5, 2008

Josh GriffinMore Posts 5 Reasons You Should Let Someone Else Teach Next Weekend

I’ve taken off the last 3 weekends from teaching after our Refinery Grand Opening and Save the Planet 3-week series. It has been such a good break! Here’s 5 reasons I think you should recruit some volunteers to teach for you all of the month of August.

it builds up your team – you might just have a great communicator in your volunteer pool and not even know it. Maybe there’s an adult with a great story that needs to be shared with your students. Maybe a few students just returned from a trip and they have a desire to share the impact the experience had on their lives. There might be an intern who could step up and develop that skill or giftedness. Either way, take a weekend off to develop someone else.

it helps students that learn from different teaching styles -you’ve found the groove in your personal teaching style – good for you! There’s only one problem: not everyone learns in the same way that you teach. Give your varied students some varied teaching styles and watch the unengaged light up like they never would when you’re up to bat. No offense, really.

it offers a difference voice and a different perspective - beyond teaching style, sometimes just a different voice causes people to wake up. And not only that, but a different perspective (older, younger, different race, gender, etc) can help shake things up as well.

it gives you a chance to take a break – why does the lead youth worker have to do all of the teaching? While it sometimes feels that the prerequisite for the youth pastor to be the primary communicator – primary doesn’t mean all of the time. Take a break for your own sanity and well-being. Another aside as I type this: it also gives you a chance to focus on the rest of the weekend program since you don’t have to spend as much time focusing on the talk.

it gives you time to gear up – you’ve got a big Fall planned, there’s the kickoff weekend to remember, too. And don’t forget about camp! Take some time and let others do some teaching up from so you can gear up to start out the new school year right.

JG

10 View Comments August 3, 2008

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 13

Message Title: Flooded (featuring Josh Pease)
Sermon in a Sentence: We’re sunk when we try to live on our own power because God wants us to do our good works through him instead of for him.

Key Verse: Jesus looked at them intently and said, ‘Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.’ Mark 10:27

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 4 out of 10. Pretty simple weekend, very few elements. One glitch in starting a video, but it turned into a funny bit.

Attendance: up 4% from last weekend, up 76% from the same weekend last year
Service Length: 70 minutes
Understandable Message: A Josh Pease used a story about getting his car stuck on a flooded street to illustrate how silly it is when we try to get unstuck in life on our own power while completely ignoring God’s ability and willingness to help. This was a strong message that was easy to understand and apply. Josh’s use of the illustration had two key attributes: it was memorable, it was immediately applicable to the student’s lives.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: B/B Volunteers were actively involved at the tables and greeting students. Students led in the band, and handed out programs and pens as people entered. Still noticed that many student leaders had isolated themselves to the separate balcony. A few students, however, stepped up.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: B The video of the cameras trying to keep up with Josh Pease at the beginning was very entertaining. It could probably be tied to the theme of the service, but I’m not sure that was the point. It seemed to be just an element of fun to reinforce the point that church doesn’t have to be boring; it can be fun.

Music Playlist: The Grateful, Salvation is Here, All I Need Is You Lord, Hosanna – Dominik dominated this weekend. He’s got great talent combined with a powerful passion for worship.

Favorite Moment: The most powerful moment of the night was near the end of Josh’s message. He finished telling the story of being stuck in the flood with his car. Nobody was around to help him. He didn’t want to turn to God for help because he was intentionally trying to keep God out of his life. The situation helped him realize that he can’t do everything on his own and that he needs God. The story of Josh reconnecting with God was powerful. The miraculous resolution to the crisis was even secondary to Josh’s telling how God had his attention and bonded with him in that moment.

Overall grade: B+

(this report was written by HSM volunteer Dennis Beckner)

Add Comment July 29, 2008

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 12

Message Title: Confessions of an Ex-Gangster (featuring JPetty)
Sermon in a Sentence: Gossip hurts people to a greater extent than we realize, so we must take godly steps to avoid it by talking in a way that praises people and honors God.

Key Verse: “Gossip separates the best of friends.” Proverbs 16:28

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 3 out of 10. Our easiest weekend in the Refinery yet, just a few elements. Programming for last week’s PDYM Conference was complex, so by comparison this weekend was a breeze.

Attendance: down 10% from the previous weekend, up 57% from the same weekend last year
Service Length: 71 minutes
Understandable Message: A- Petty used a story about his childhood “gang” to emphasize the way we treat people and “beat each other down” with our actions and words. He pointed out that he we gossip out of revenge and insecurity, but it’s a huge deal because it wrecks friendships and shows we don’t trust God. Petty challenged us to be like his friend Wally, who found the best in people and countered the gossip when others talked poorly of them. Griff ended the service with, “Petty was an ex-gangster; we hope you’ll become an ex-gossiper.”

Volunteer/Student Involvement: B/B Volunteers were actively involved at the tables and greeting students. Students led in the band, and handed out programs and pens as people entered. We were expecting a jump in student leadership, but many student leaders had isolated themselves to the separate balcony. A few students, however, stepped up.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: B The PDYM Student Leadership highlight video at the beginning was exciting; we hope it will draw more students to attend next year. Scotty dressed up like a gangster and did a rap on stage that made the crowd go wild. We had a gangster game and used the Interactive Church remotes to answer questions; the students enjoyed that.

Music Playlist: The Time Has Come, Breathe on Me, Grace, You Never Let Go

Favorite Moment: In the middle of Petty’s message, he asked the question, “Have you ever had a relationship that was hurt by gossip?” He asked people to respond with their Interactive Church remotes with either “A. Yes” or “B. Not yet.” About 80% responded “Yes,” powerfully illustrating just how prevalent and painful gossip can be. Petty talked very personally with the students and connected on a deep level.

Overall grade: B+

(this report was written by HSM summer intern Kyle Cleveland)

Add Comment July 23, 2008

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 11

Weekend Teaching Series: Save the Planet (3 of 3)
Message Title: Broken Planet, Broken People
Sermon in a Sentence: A look at how the world is messed up because of sin and how people are messed up, too.

Key Verse: Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. Romans 5:18,19

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 6 out of 10 – we made significant changes to the original order of service after the 4:30 service that really helped flow and energy.

Attendance: up 13% from the previous weekend, up 73% from the same weekend last year
Service Length: 67 minutes
Understandable Message: B+The message was really the classic story of Jesus coming to save the planet. This weekend focused on the spiritual aspect of the series theme, clearly showing the curse of sin and God’s plan for forgiveness. The whole point of the weekend was a celebration of salvation and extending an invitation to others to experience God’s love.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: B/A- There weren’t any volunteers on stage this weekend, but they were actively involved in the crowd and at the tables. Several sat in the balcony as well, helping first time students feel welcome. One of our adults did several paintings on stage this weekend as well. Students led in the band, and handed out programs and pens as people entered. I’m expecting student leadership to really jump after this week.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: B Most of the fun was in the message – we wanted this week to feel epic as the ending to the series so we left some of the game-type stuff off the radar this week. There was still plenty of fun in the message/welcome and the environment was cool.

Music Playlist: Meant to Live (cover), All Because of Jesus, Louder Than Creation, Rain Down

Favorite Moment: We had 3 paintings on stage this weekend, to represent each of the 3 weeks of the series and the progression of the story. Check them out here – so cool.We had students text in response to the invitation – we celebrate the students that accepted Christ. Yeah! Changed lives is what it is all about.

Notes: The Bottles for Bibles campaign got off to a strong start with 750 bottles collected. This weekend took place just before the start of the PDYM Student Leadership Conference is this week.

Overall grade: B

Add Comment July 18, 2008

Josh GriffinMore Posts HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 10

Weekend Teaching Series: Save the Planet (2 of 3)
Message Title: Caring for the Environment
Sermon in a Sentence: God’s first instruction to Adam was to care for creation. We should do the same.

Key Verse: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 2:15

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 7 out of 10. Every week we get new bells and whistles as the building nears final completion. We purchased some new HD worship backgrounds this week that looked really sharp, too.

Attendance: up 8% from the previous weekend, up 66% from the same weekend last year
Service Length: 64 minutes
Understandable Message: B+ Part of my goal was to “reclaim” caring for the environment from the far left. My heart behind this talk is that it was God’s idea to care for the planet, and it is about time we started to take that seriously.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: C/C Students filled in a few roles this week – but it was a pretty staff driven weekend. There was a fun student video called “10 ways to save water” that played really well and we did have some students checking out different roles they could fill in the future.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: B The fun was basically within the message, we played a clip from Wall-E and at the beginning had a person riding around the stage in an electric scooter.

Music Playlist: Everlasting God, Breathe on Me, Wonderful Maker, God of Wonders

Favorite Moment: Easily my favorite moment was having a student come on stage and break a cinderblock on stage that represented the way we treat the earth. It was a fun (if dangerous for the first row and for the guitars on stage – doh!) moment in the service that I think was very memorable.

Notes: For a 4th of July weekend, I couldn’t have been more pleased with the turnout and the tone of the weekend. We kicked off the new Bottles for Bibles campaign this weekend as well. Go HSM!

Overall grade: B