Our Student Lead Series Process & Timeline For Students To Follow

When I worked at Saddleback they introduced me to a series called YOU OWN THE WEEKEND where they gave up their services to high schools where students from those high schools owned every aspect of the service. From planning, budgets, running the event, what game, the band and teaching. I fell in love with watching students ownership of their church and inviting friends from school to come to be a part of it. (You can buy the YOU OWN THE NIGHT pack on DYM HERE)

We have been running it the last 4 years at CCV and it’s been one of my favorite series all year long.

Students began planning at the end of January and we are currently right in the middle of the series right now (April).

For the info meetings to get things rolling, the following is what I went over with each school and then what I gave to each student speaker once they were picked to teach by their peers.

IMPORTANT YOU OWN THE NIGHT INFO

Goal and vision:

For students to run and organize a CCV Students service specifically for their school to reach students who are far from God and bring them near to God. In a nutshell, this should be a school rally on steroids and Jesus. Everyone on your campus gets an invite.

Things that need to happen if you are going to be a part of the planning team:

Your team has to follow the deadlines for when things are turned in otherwise your school does not get those things.
You need to be committed to the meeting when your team decides to meet. This only works if you are consistent and commit to your meetings.
You will be requiring to meet 2 times a month until April, then it needs to switch to every week so you can make sure all things are in order.
Your CCV Students Staff member has final say over EVERYTHING you do. You will plan and organize with the help and guidance of a staff member and nothing happens without their approval.
Point people will be decided by CCV Staff. These are people where CCV is considered “home” and they are consistent on Wednesday nights, in a community group and serving somewhere at CCV.
This is a school outreach, so invite people from your school the meetings and get them involved. There are so many skills on your campus, get people to use their skills to help you pull off a great night.

Important Things To Have Turned In By When:

In the month of February:

Speaker Picked and have a meeting with your CCV Staff Member
List of people for the band and contact info for band members emailed to [email protected]
List of songs you are hoping to sing for your night emailed to [email protected]
Have someone assigned to each committee
A few event ideas should be ready to be pitched to your CCV Staff Member

First 2 weeks of March:

Band and songs should be locked in by Jamie Alfonso
Band members should be turned in and set to go… approved by Jamie Alfonso
The game picked and who is running it
Order of service should be done and turned into your CCV Staff person… printed out
Look and feel should be set… if you need things printed, this would be the meeting to turn in anything to [email protected] to get printed

Last 2 weeks in March:

Should be putting finishing touches on your service.
Your event should be fully planned and approved and shopping and ordering of things on Amazon should be complete.

Week of your school’s night:

Need to meet the week off with all the head of each department (Preferably Monday) to go over Planning Center for service and go through the run-down of the event.
This meeting is to go over any last minute things that need to happen for that week.

Speaker Notes:

Justin must approve speaker
Speaker will need to write out message essay style and turn in first draft two weeks prior to school’s night.
Speaker will need to turn in revised message transcript one week prior to school’s night. This allows us enough time to make slides for the message.
Justin/CCV Staff has the right and ability to deny, edit, adjust any content that will be taught from the stage. Just know that going into it.

Event Notes:

The event needs to be chosen and approved 2 weeks before the school’s night.
Event list of items needed to be bought for the event needs to be turned in a week before the event.
All event items will need to be bought with your CCV Staff Member with the church card. They will help organize it with you the night of.

YOU OWN THE NIGHT – SPEAKER NOTES

Speakers…

First off, thank you for being willing to teach the word of God to your peers. It could be a little daunting to get up in front of your friends and be open about your life and teach them the truth of Jesus. I know that God is going to use you and your story to reach friends who maybe would only step foot into a church because their school is putting something on. I love it.

With that said, teaching is a big responsibility. This is not something to be up in front of everyone and shine in the spotlight but should have a somewhat heavy weight in the realization that because of the words coming out of your mouth could change someone eternity. You are communication the truth of the Gospel in which has the power to change lives. That is a big deal. So if you are a little nervous, good. You should be. But I also know when you study God’s word in preparation for the message, he will guide you in the direction of what your friends need to hear so they will respond to the Gospel of Jesus.

I wrote down a few notes for you as you are prepping to keep in mind:

Speaker will need to write out message essay style and turn in first draft two weeks prior to school’s night.
Speaker will need to turn in revised message transcript one week prior to school’s night. This allows us enough time to make slides for the message.
Speakers will go through the ME-WE-GOD-YOU-WE teaching process in their message.
Outlines for messages are due 1 month out from the time you speak.
A rough draft is due to Justin 2 weeks before the week of your service so edits can be made.
The final draft is due the week prior to your school’s week.
Justin has the right and ability to deny, edit, adjust any content that will be taught from the stage. Just know that going into it.
Speakers are to schedule a one-on-one with Justin to begin the message writing process and outline.
Start with the Bible first when coming up with stories. Scripture should drive content, not the other way around.
Self-deprecating humor and stories ALWAYS work better than saying how “awesome” you are”.
Be personable. Be real. Don’t be fake or surface-y. You want people to know how Jesus has changed you and you cannot do that if you are not being real with some of your struggles or thoughts.
Be in prayer. If you have not prayed through your theme and what God is trying to teach through you then you have made it about you, not Jesus.
I am here to help. I want to help this be the best message you can preach!
I am proud of you and know that you are going to kill it.