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)