Meeting Report – Page 2

11Sep 2011 by Average Youth Guy No Comments

The Joy of Serving

My new church does lots of things right. One of them is their emphasis on reaching out into their community. Today was one of 3 "Labor for Your Neighbor" Sundays for the year. The idea is for Sunday school classes to get out into the community and do service projects. I went with the senior high youth class to a local assisted living facility for senior adults with varying degrees of memory loss. Interacting with those senior adults was a truly rewarding experience for the residence (I am guessing) and for the students. But the big joy for me was getting a chance to get to know the students. Serving together is one of the greatest ways to tear down walls and strengthen relationships in a group. Today I was…

03Sep 2011 by Average Youth Guy No Comments

A Fresh Start at Storytelling

Meeting Report, Youth Ministry Ideas

I know I haven't been writing lately, but two weeks at my me job and I am still trying to figure out where all of the rooms are and how to get to the sanctuary without going through the basement. As I am trying to get my head around all of the traditions, meetings, expectations, and just general stuff that goes on at this new place I have been teaching some lessons that I have taught before. This actually makes me very excited because on Sunday nights I am storytelling my way through the Old Testament again. I really think I am wired to teach this way. I like creative things and preaching and helping students who learn in different ways (and all of that is included in this study…

27Jan 2011 by Average Youth Guy No Comments

Teenagers

Meeting Report, Youth Pastoring

Is there anything more wonderful and excruciatingly painful as working with teenagers. They are so full of life, so ready for new experiences that you can't help but be excited when you spend time with them. At the same time trying to follow their moods, whims, and attitudes is just exhausting sometimes. Tonight was a pretty good night for us. We had a large group of new people show up (mainly because of a boy) and one of our key leaders who has been out to be with her boyfriend brought him this week so we had a big crowd. Of course that means that I had an activity planned that would work out better with a smaller group, but we pushed through and had some good, if ultimately shallow,…

18Jan 2011 by Average Youth Guy 2 Comments

Teaching Interaction

Meeting Report, Youth Pastoring

After my disappointing lesson last week, during which no one seemed to want to answer even the simplest of questions I am still wrestling with how best to approach tomorrow night. A large part of me wants to just go back to large group sermon style teaching with an occasional game or group activity thrown in. I will feel good about myself and I can justify it by saying that I am speaking in a language that the students understand. But that really isn't the case. I can put on a good show, but that doesn't mean that the students really interact with the text. I can preach and hold their attention, but that doesn't mean that they are wrestling with the truths presented, or really seeing them as truths at all.…

28Dec 2010 by Average Youth Guy 2 Comments

Lego Ideas

Meeting Report, Object Lessons, Youth Ministry Ideas

I want to have a huge lego building event at my church where teams of students work together to transform our youth room into a habitable lego dwelling, at least for a few days. I have many students with piles of legos from their younger days, so getting the blocks isn't a problem. Here is where I need some help. How do I get all of the blocks back to the rightful owners? I need a simple, fast way to identify all of the blocks, who they belong to, and an efficient way of getting them back to their owner. I have pondered this for a couple of days and my best solution so far is just to sell all of the blocks at a yard sell and divide the…