THE STAND

Last Sunday was a very exciting time around good ole' LakeviewCC. We launch our new youth service/ministry called THE STAND.

Doors open at 5:15 for free food and hang out time. We have several game tables and seating areas for people to hang out. At about 6:00pm the service starts with videos, skits, worship, and I preach. For the first week, it went extremely well! I cannot thank God enough for what He has done. We had several guest (who don't have home churches!!!) and they felt our warm atmosphere. Here are a few pics :)

Our entire idea is to create a safe, comfortable atmosphere, where youth feel loved and accepted! Praise God for working through THE STAND!!!!

Media; Some free, some not

I was in the market today for some new and updated media to use with our youth worship services. I found some great countdown clips over at WorshipHouseMedia. I also found some great stuff at Igniter Media. I settled on the IgniterBacks Vol. 2. It includes 10 countdown clips, 20 motion loops and over 90 stills. All for $80. I thought it was a pretty good deal considering stills go for about a buck a piece and motions for up to 10 a piece.

So there you go...2 wonderful sites you may or may not have known about for high quality media.

Then I followed a link over to a site called Vine Resources. While you'll find much less here, it is all still very high quality and it is all FREE. Not to mention, these are resources coming from a student ministry that uses them specifically for their own series' of messages. So, if you're like me its a double benefit of 1) using their ideas as well as 2) using the media. It's good stuff.

I hope this is useful. Are there any other good resources you've been using for media or stock photos?

Series Planning

I'm spending a chunk of this week brainstorming and planning our 707 gatherings (our main programming time) for the rest of the school year and into early summer. Today I'm in the brainstorming process, taking down any and all ideas, thoughts and possible themes. I'm curious if any of you have had success with any specific themes, focuses (foci?), topics or sermon series. I'd love to hear your ideas. I'll post some of my brainstorming as well as the process going along.

UPDATE: I wanted to go ahead and throw out some of what I've been thinking about. Comments, additions, thoughts all welcome.

Topic: "Religion Sucks."
a. Busyness (why waste time with religion?)
b. In-authenticity (based on book Messy Spirituality, why hide our human side? Masks.)
c. Breaking the Stereotype (Christian or Christ follower? We're often seen as narrow minded, rule loving, hypocrites. Lets shake things up a bit)

Topic: "Apologetics"
a. Why Apologize?
b. Does God Exist?
c. Problem of Evil
d. Reliability of the Bible

Topic: "Other World Religions"
-under construction

Topic: "Unlikely Heroes"
-Lesser known OT characters. Under construction

10 Questions: Ministry

This is taken from Craig Groeschel's blog. Craig is the founder and senior pastor of Lifechurch.tv and one of the church leaders/bloggers that I subscribe to. He periodically uses the "10 Question" format and I felt that this one was worth passing along.

1. Are the people closest to me in ministry lifting me higher or dragging me down?
2. How have I intentionally developed the leaders around me in the past week?
3. Am I speaking transparently with at least two other close trusted friends on a weekly basis?
4. Am I submitting myself to the correction and coaching of at least two mentors?
5. Am I holding a grudge against someone?
6. Am I speaking well of other ministers?
7. Am I falling for the temptation of comparing, complaining, criticizing or gossiping?
8. Are my words and relationships characterized by words of faith or negativity?
9. Do people enjoy being around me or am I often “down”?
10. Have a made at least three new ministry friends in the last year?


What about it? Do you find any of these particularly insightful to your life/ministry/experience? I'm definitely lacking in more than one of these areas, yet can really see how piercing questions like these, although difficult (personally, see #'s 2,3,7), have the potential to push the ministry I'm involved with into the next level, making it less and less about me and my skills and more and more about equipping others to invest and involve themselves in ministry.

Just stuff to think about and keep in mind while we're out "doing ministry."

Randomity

Hey friends,

I came across 2 links today I thought I'd kick around. The first;

A church in Daphne, Alabama recently had a cookout called the "Beast Feast and Wild Game Supper" (i'm not making up the name and yes Zach, this does sound exactly like something you would do). All apparently had a good time with the exception of 8 people contracting e. coli! yikes. Just a reminder to us all in church leadership that we probably need to check cooking credentials no matter how much your sr. high guys beg to use the grill. can you say "liable"?

The second;

I'm a regular reader of Tim Stevens' blog. He is the executive pastor at Granger Community Church near South Bend. They're big into the cutting edge worship experience and have just launched a huge multi campus campaign for their congregation. Anyway...while I'm not totally sold on the mega church vibe, they do a great job of really utilizing culture in the church context. He has just published a book regarding that topic called Pop Goes the Church and I'm looking forward to reading it. If you're like me and would like a chance to win it instead of buying it, check this out.

Other than that I hope everyone is doing well and that you find this holy week a god touched and personal time of renewal.

Lots of Change and Lots of Learning

Not having posted in a few weeks, a lot has been going on here at Covenant. Some fun things, some not so fun. I'll begin with the latter.

Our Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC) made a recommendation to our Methodist hierarchy (District Superintendent and Bishop) that our church seek new leadership for the coming year. This essentially means that they want a new pastor. Following the UM tradition (i suppose), we as a church have given authority to our SPRC and place our trust in their leadership, and that being the case, can't validly question the leadership they then provide.

It's tough though. Our attendance is up. Many church programs are gaining in momentum as new and old members are taking ownership of them. Things really seem to be going very well here. And then "we" request new leadership. I know there are things going on in the background of church politics, but this is really a test for me, and for much of our staff and congregation.

All that to say I am recognizing this as a learning experience. While its really sad to have to see a great pastor/leader/mentor/friend go, I'll get to see first hand how a "changing of the guard" goes down in a church setting. It will be different working for a new pastor, just as I was really feeling that my relationship with our current pastor really couldn't have been more supportive or encouraging. I would like to ask for your prayers for our church, for the congregation, for Steve (the current pastor) and for the new pastor that will be announced very soon. It's a tough situation but I have to believe that just because we as humans make certain decisions God would let us go from his grasp. He's still got us and I know He'll take us to wherever we need to go next.
____________________________


Alright, now a few quick fun things.
1) We bought a new sub woofer for our youth praise band/sound system. 800 watts and wow does it fill out our room. We only had to mains previously and after listening to the band last night with full sound, its hard to believe we ever went w/out it.
2) We're having a Lenten Brunch and Easter Basket Auction this coming Sunday. This a youth sponsored event where we are in charge of the brunch all morning, and then there is a silent auction for some amazing Easter baskets that people in the congregation put together and donated. All money going to our sr. high mission trip in July. I'm psyched.

NEED YOUR HELP!

I have been mating with a couple other youth pastors in the community. We all share the same ideals about youth ministry. In the south (Bible Belt) we have a HUGE problem of "MY church is better than your church." It is nothing like I have ever seen up north. So here is what me and these two other your pastors are trying to pull off. We are going to have a big rally with all our youth groups together once a quarter and then have Mission Mondays a few Mondays this summer to get all of our kids together. Mainly to show all of our kids that we are all on the same team and to show them other Christians that go to their schools.
HERE'S WHERE YOU COME IN!!!
What are some ideas you have to help this go smoothly?
Do you have any ideas for a name for these rallies?
What are the red flags we may encounter? (theology doesn't count, we are all on the same page)

Thanks for your help!!!
Love you all :)

-Z