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HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 41
Weekend Teaching Series: None, this is a 1–off in-between series
Sermon Title: Why We Sing
Sermon in a Sentence: We sing to center ourselves on the King. We honor God with our lives as worship of Him, the song is just the beginning.
Key Verse: Psalm 95:6
Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 4 out of 10
Attendance: Up 0% from last weekend, up 56% from the same weekend last year.
Service Length: 80 minutes
Understandable Message: We opened with a clip from The Lion King where Josh Pease pointed out a giraffe in the background on the scene that wasn’t worshiping the new baby cub lion that was presented to the crowd. All of the other animals were bowing except this guy. What was going on? It set up a great analogy to us reacting to King Jesus. He talked why we sing, where it is found in Scripture and explained the things that people do when they sing (eyes closed, hands raised, etc.). He also made sure to be clear that singing wasn’t exclusively worship, that worship is much bigger, in that it is the way that we worship and walk God throughout the week as well as at church.
Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students ran the lights, cameras and the control room. Volunteers greeted and hung out relationally with students before, during and after the services.
Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This was an experiment for us – I believe in the evangelistic power of singing and a worship service, but this was the first time the weekend looked more like a praise and worship night than a typical weekend service. The sermon was split up into small sections, with songs mixed in between. The clip from the Lion King started it out great, and a clip from a Muse concert (to demonstrate the emotional power of music) was also great. Students in our Creatid ministry built a huge 25×10 ft banner across the stage that was tied to the message.
Music Playlist: The Grateful, Blessed Be, Surrender, The Stand, Center, The Grateful (reprise)
Favorite Moment: I loved seeing our students sing out to God with incredible passion. My prayer is that this week they offer their lives to him as well.
Next up: I’m headed to the Group Youth Ministry Conference this week. Petty will teach the story of Elijah in our new 3-week series, Sunday OLD School.
View More: conference, relational ministry, saddleback hsm, weekend in review, worship, youth group meetings
Wow, what a great start to that message! I’ve never noticed the giraffe… such a great illustration! Way to go Pease!