Weekend Teaching Series: What I Wish I Knew in Junior High (week 3 of 5)

Sermon Synopsis: This weekend I had my favorite guest speaker come teach at our 5 services … DYM co-founder and our youth pastor at Mariners, Doug Fields! He taught a simple statement, “What I Wish I Knew in Junior High – serving is better than sitting” and taught students about serving. He shared some great pictures from his junior high years and how serving has shaped his life. It was a great talk that ended in an application where students could fill out a response card to serve in 4-5 areas of the church. So good!

• Service Length: 64 minutes

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: This week we used the sequel to the popular Where’s the Ball game and this was soccer edition and it crushed. Some questions are stronger than others but they’re all great and some are so unlikely they elicit a laugh. This week in the first game slot we played Where’s the Ball: Volume 2. Again a total blast – the ingenuity of youth workers never ceases to amaze me! We also tried something new in the 2nd game slot – a new DYM discussion-focused resource called Space Thoughts. I think the element got better through the course of the weekend services, but the idea wasn’t really a game with a prize, but for students to get to know each other better in circles and friendly debate some fun questions.

• Pre-service music: Spotify Mariners JH Playlist
• Countdown Video: Trivia Time 5m Countdown Video
• Worship Set List: Echo, Praise You

Student Involvement: This week we had a full tech team of junior high students and they ran Sidekick.TV (which is included in DYM’s gold membership) for both the Pick Me [to pick random a student who checked in for the service] and Wheel of Destiny [to select their prize] – we also had a couple students greeting at a few of the services, something we’re really trying to build up in the fall.

Favorite Moment: This weekend the church janitor revealed his next creation – a Summer Camp promo animated video! He previously made the amazing Llama Countdown video (now available on DYM as well) and it made me SO proud. He’s SO talented! I’m hoping his stuff blows up on DYM and he can support himself someday with just his amazing creativity. I loved it! Easily my favorite moment of the week.

Up next: What I Wish I Knew in JH (week 4, Bella speaking)

Weekend Teaching Series: What I Wish I Knew in Junior High (week 2 of 5)

Sermon Synopsis: Holiday weekend! When the 4th of July happens on a Sunday … argh. Painful! But … we managed and ended up with a solid weekend. My “wish I knew” from junior high was about trust, and how we are constantly trust-building or trust-busting with our parents. Told some fun stories from my teen years and used a tall Jenga set as an example of trust being difficult to build and maintain but so simple to lose. Students easily resonated with the object lesson, and I felt like it really help carry the talk.

Service Length: 66 minutes

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: We introduced our students to a brand new game on Download Youth Ministry – Where’s the Ball?  simple game where students have to guess which ball is the real one from funny Photoshopped pictures of athletes playing various sports. It is SUCH a simple concept and yet … totally crushed. Kids loved the game, some were easier than others but helped them stay in a bit longer which is OK as well. As always we welcomed in new students with the Impossible Shot, and also played a fun game with no real answers called In My Opinion: Summer Edition from one of my good friends Todd Pearage. Kids played along, we had some watching live online as well, and they could put their answers in the chat. All in all solid program, made super easy by DYM. Not sure how I ever did youth ministry before them!

Music Playlist: Let Go, Lion and the Lamb

Favorite Moment: I had to “find my talk” – it wasn’t coming together super well but we have 5 services over the course of the weekend, so was able to kind refine it on the fly and felt like it was finally good by the 4th try. Hey, it happens! And it sure did this weekend.

Up next: What I Wish I Knew in JH (week 3, Doug speaking)