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HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 43
Weekend Teaching Series: Sunday OLD School (week 2 of 3)
Sermon Title: Spy Game
Sermon in a Sentence: The Old Testament story of Joshua and Caleb gives us principles to live by still today – be courageous, stand alone and remember that God is faithful.
Key Verse: Numbers 13
Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 6 out of 10.
Attendance: Down 4% from last weekend, up 52% from same weekend last year
Service Length: 67 minutes
Understandable Message: My goal with the talk this week was to tell a story from the Old Testament and draw out principles for students to live out in real-life today. This week was a personal one in the series because it was about Joshua, after whom I am named. I started talking about spying out the Promised Land and how Joshua and Caleb were courageous and had to stand alone even when they were outnumbered. The end of the story we talked about conquering Jericho and the faithfulness of God. Had all sorts of images and a few video clips to help make the connection to the story. Students were given a little card with Joshua 1:9 on (pictured above) it as they left, and during the final service of the weekend students got to take home a block of the cardboard wall we built as a tactile reminder of the series, too.
Volunteer/Student Involvement: Students and volunteers ran the video control room, made some of the template slides for the screen and manned the lights, sound and camera. We’re still to thin on adult volunteers, but the ones we have are doing a great job of connecting with students in the youth room.
Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We played a great game called Is It In The Bible? where we displayed some intriguing passages of Scripture on the screen. We also had excerpts from the Lord of the Rings and Narnia books, and students had to guess which was actually a Bible passage and which wasn’t. It was great – students couldn’t believe that the story of the bald prophet and she-bears was in the Bible. We used Poll Everywhere again (the NYMC conference 1-month use hadn’t expired yet) so it was super fun to involved the crowd and not just the contestants on stage.
Music Playlist: Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho (fun jazz-style opener), Run, Came to My Rescue, Awesome God
Favorite Moment: The weekend was fun – I loved baptizing 3 students after one of the services. Seeing some parents and some great small group leaders there reminds me that this is working, lives are being changed.
Next up: Sunday Old School – Week 3 [Ruth]
View More: conference, life groups, saddleback hsm, simply youth ministry conference, small group leaders, symc, volunteers, weekend in review, youth group meetings, youth leader training
Josh – Thanks for how you break out your outline. I blog about our HS Small Group every week, but I like your format and what you include. I think I’m going to rip it off – just send me written notice first if you’re going to sue me for borrowing your blog format. Thanks for the new ideas…