Starting in January, our Sr High group will begin material called "The Gospel According to The Office."
As I stated in my December 2010 church newsletter article, this show is extremely popular with our students. So, we're going to use it to communicate the Gospel to them.
For part of the study time, we'll be using material from a group in New York City called "Mockingbird." To see what the lessons look like, go here, and click on the first link. We'll also be writing material for 5 or 6 lessons. Since there may be concerns about what specifically we'll be watching, below you'll find an episode list. And, since I cannot provide a copy of those episodes to everyone and their brother, I suggest that you visit NBC's website, find the "show clips" link, and watch a 2 minute overview of the episodes on question. You can also visit Hulu and watch full episodes there. As of right now (1:30pm on Wednesday, December 15) all of the seasons and episodes are there.
Here's the episode list that we'll be using:
Performance Review
Business School
Did I stutter?
The Surplus
The Coup
That's What She Said (this is NOT an episode, but a compilation video)
Christmas Party
The Chump
The Fire
Email Surveillance
Conflict Resolution
As funny as this show is, it is really, really, dumb. It is also, really depressing and accurately portrays life without God. To see some compilation videos that demonstrate the absurdity of it, go here and here.
Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Student Ministry Recaps
I want to apologize for not getting these up. I simply have not made this the priority that it needs to be.
Senior High Youth Group-Sunday September 12
Senior High Youth Group-Sunday September 12
- We had 16 students and 2 adults.
- We introduced the "Crazy Love" series by reading the preface and chapter 1 as a group. We spent some time talking about our inaccurate views of God and how those false views affect our relationship with God.
Middle School Youth Group-Wednesday September 15
- We had 13 students and 7 adults.
- Our second week in a four week series dealing with the bigger question, "Who is God?"....we talked specifically about the gifts that God has given us now. Our bible story was from Genesis 15 and dealt with the promise that God made to Abram in the Old Testament that Abram would be the father of many nations. During our small group breakout, we had an awesome time of sharing with our students about the way that God has blessed us with the opportunity for eternal life. Several of our students got very personal about what's been happening in their lives and we closed with those students praying. It was a pretty powerful night.
- We handed out a "Take Home" sheet for this week's lesson. You can find it off to the right on this page, just click on the "Middle School Take Home" link and download the 9-22-10 sheet.
From this point forward, these will be posted by Thursday afternoons.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Student Ministry Recaps: May 2-8, 2010
Senior High
May 2, 2010
Over the past few weeks we have been talking about music. We looked at scripture to see the different forms of music God directs us to use to worship him. We talked about lyrics in the songs each student listens to and how music is important to God. We also talked about worship and how worship is not just for Sunday mornings, but should be a part of our lifestyle.
We concluded the study this past Sunday using music to discuss believing in the truth and how the truth can set us free. From John 8 we talked about how Jesus was telling the truth but those listening didn't want to hear or accept what he was saying. The students were challenged to hear the words of Jesus, accept his truth and not be a slave to sin.
We will begin a study on the different denominations and what they believe on May 11th and give the students some fundamental foundation of the Christian Church. We will not be meeting on Sunday May 9th so students can celebrate Mother's Day.
Middle School
May 5, 2010
Topic: Don't All Good People Go To Heaven?
The Point: Jesus Is My Only Hope.
Takeaways:
1. We can follow all the rules and be good, but it doesn't necessarily get us into heaven. (story of the rich young ruler from Mark 10:17-27)
2. Jesus will not chase us if we do not so what He says..we must be obedient to Him.
Next Week : ?
The Point: Jesus Is My Only Hope.
Takeaways:
1. We can follow all the rules and be good, but it doesn't necessarily get us into heaven. (story of the rich young ruler from Mark 10:17-27)
2. Jesus will not chase us if we do not so what He says..we must be obedient to Him.
Next Week : ?
E-Klub
May 5, 2010
Wednesday night we had a cadet challenge, we ate like astronauts. Since there isn't any gravity in space food flies through the air when released. So we took marshmallows and tried to get them into the mouth of our partner by throwing them. It was a lot of fun. There were some that even made it into mouths.
We learned that we can not live with out reading the Bible everyday, just as we can not live with out eating everyday. Where the food nourishes our bodies, the Bible nourishes our spirit. We acted out a short story from the Bible. Jesus came to visit sisters, Mary and Martha. Mary sits near Jesus listening, Martha is busy cleaning. She gets angry and tells Jesus to make Mary start helping. Jesus tells her Mary is right where she needs to be. We need to do the same, stop and learn the Bible, love the Bible and live the Bible.
Next Wednesday is our last Wednesday until September. We will find out what happens on the SS Intrepid, make a craft and have a fun snack. The children have been working hard learning all the books of the Bible. Next week we will see how many more have made that goal.
Friday, March 26, 2010
High School/Middle School Youth Group Recaps, March 21-27, 2010
High School Youth Group--March 21, 2010
Topic: The second week of discussion of the book, Dateable: Are You? Are They? has been awesome. Our students are learning about relationships, character and recognizing lies that have been told to them, their friends, themselves and even those they may have done to others. We talked about how our actions are important and what our actions say about us and how they make others feel. How if their friends ask them to lie for them, they will lie to them. It's great seeing our students talk honestly, openly and looking at their own relationships and expectations.
Take away: We need to be truth-tellers and truth-hearers in our relationships with others.
Next week: We continue this study next week with talking about their appearances, revealing clothes and physical boundaries.
A quick reminder....we will not be having Youth Group April 4th Easter Sunday. We want the kids to enjoy that celebration time with their families.
Middle School Youth Group--March 24, 2010
Topic: We talked about our need to trust God when He tells us to do things. We talked about the example of Jonah, found in Jonah 1.
Take Away: God wants us to be obedient to Him. As He asks us to do things, and we do them, we learn that He is trustworthy. We cannot simply say that we love Him with words and then not do what He asks.
Next Week: We'll be talking about Jesus' desire to heal us, using several stories of Him casting out demons.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Youth Group Recaps: January 31-February 6 2010
High School:
This past Sunday was the final week of our "What is the Bible?" portion of our study on Discipleship. We are using the last night of these topics to answer the questions that the students have. We talked about the following questions:
Middle School:
Steve Novak, one of our youth leaders, wrote this week's recap for middle school night.
This Wed night began as a review of last week. We talked more about God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and more specifically what God did to Lot's wife when she looked back. Was it appropriate, too harsh, just plain weird, or something else. The responses were again pretty amazing, nobody taking the easy way out. All the answers came an explanation with even asking them.
We talked about God being merciful and just in the things he does. We did an activity that called for aluminum foil to be smeared with Crisco. We had the students write their thoughts about God's character on their pieces of foil. There was..loving, grace, perfect, holy, understanding, serious, nice(more than once)..to name a few. I thought it was a good exercise. When that was done, we wiped off part of the foil to represent a distinction between a fuzzy description of God and seeing Him more clearly. Note: a mirror was originally intended to be used, and the point may have been hammered better, but this got everyone involved.
Finally we split into small groups. Unfortunately there was not enough time to finish all the discussions we were having, but they were good discussions..some new and some from earlier in the night. And the question of the night was an honest one which I feel is awesome...Who wrote the books in the Bible? I am just pleased how comfortable the student was to ask that question?
E-Klub:
Finally, an addition. Moving forward, we'll be posting a recap of our Children's Ministry program (e-Klub) on this recap. This week's recap is written by Corie Novak, our Children's Ministry Team leader:
Tonight's lesson was from Luke 4:22-30
"The Jews were angry when Jesus claimed to be the Messiah and warned them of the consequences of their sins. They tried to throw Jesus off a cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and escaped." (this is the "point" from the lesson guides)
There was a bit of singing in the beginning, a "fun fact" that was given and there was welcome time where the kids went around and high fived friends. Tonight there were two kids chosen to help with the skit. They held up a "boo" card and a "cheer" card. The children then listened to the Bible story on CD. When the narrator talked of the crowd all the children were to boo. When the narrator talked of Jesus the kids were to cheer.
We then divided into 4 small groups, each with 1-2 adult leaders. Two small groups then travel to different centers together. The activities we do in our centers revolve around the story from the beginning of the night. Tonight's was on trusting. We had Snack-It Cafe, where the children got to make ice cream sundaes, they read the story directly from their Bibles. We had Games, in one game they played the children put a stack of pennies on their elbow and predicted how many they could catch by flipping their arm down. The other kids had to decide to trust their prediction or not. The second game the kids paired up and stood facing each other, on one side of the room. On the other side of the room their was a child with a small pool noodle. That child was going to toss the noodle at the ones with their backs to him/her. They had to trust that their partner would move them in the correct way in order to not get hit by the noodle. The last center we did was Surprise Station. The children tried to solve brain teasers and had to trust the teacher to give them the correct answer. The first on was to take six cups placed in a row. Fill three with water and arrange in this pattern:empty, empty, full, full, full, empty. With moving only one cup change the pattern to full, empty, full, empty, full, empty. The second was trying to balance a Bible on top of a piece of cardboard. This would be a fun activity to do at home with your child.
Our ultimate lesson the kids took home tonight was that they can ALWAYS trust in Jesus, no matter.
This past Sunday was the final week of our "What is the Bible?" portion of our study on Discipleship. We are using the last night of these topics to answer the questions that the students have. We talked about the following questions:
- How do we know the Bible is true when compared to other religions?
- Where is the original Bible?
- Did dinosaurs and people coexist?
- What about things like “The Chronicles of Narnia”? Are they inspired?
Middle School:
Steve Novak, one of our youth leaders, wrote this week's recap for middle school night.
This Wed night began as a review of last week. We talked more about God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and more specifically what God did to Lot's wife when she looked back. Was it appropriate, too harsh, just plain weird, or something else. The responses were again pretty amazing, nobody taking the easy way out. All the answers came an explanation with even asking them.
We talked about God being merciful and just in the things he does. We did an activity that called for aluminum foil to be smeared with Crisco. We had the students write their thoughts about God's character on their pieces of foil. There was..loving, grace, perfect, holy, understanding, serious, nice(more than once)..to name a few. I thought it was a good exercise. When that was done, we wiped off part of the foil to represent a distinction between a fuzzy description of God and seeing Him more clearly. Note: a mirror was originally intended to be used, and the point may have been hammered better, but this got everyone involved.
Finally we split into small groups. Unfortunately there was not enough time to finish all the discussions we were having, but they were good discussions..some new and some from earlier in the night. And the question of the night was an honest one which I feel is awesome...Who wrote the books in the Bible? I am just pleased how comfortable the student was to ask that question?
E-Klub:
Finally, an addition. Moving forward, we'll be posting a recap of our Children's Ministry program (e-Klub) on this recap. This week's recap is written by Corie Novak, our Children's Ministry Team leader:
Tonight's lesson was from Luke 4:22-30
"The Jews were angry when Jesus claimed to be the Messiah and warned them of the consequences of their sins. They tried to throw Jesus off a cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and escaped." (this is the "point" from the lesson guides)
There was a bit of singing in the beginning, a "fun fact" that was given and there was welcome time where the kids went around and high fived friends. Tonight there were two kids chosen to help with the skit. They held up a "boo" card and a "cheer" card. The children then listened to the Bible story on CD. When the narrator talked of the crowd all the children were to boo. When the narrator talked of Jesus the kids were to cheer.
We then divided into 4 small groups, each with 1-2 adult leaders. Two small groups then travel to different centers together. The activities we do in our centers revolve around the story from the beginning of the night. Tonight's was on trusting. We had Snack-It Cafe, where the children got to make ice cream sundaes, they read the story directly from their Bibles. We had Games, in one game they played the children put a stack of pennies on their elbow and predicted how many they could catch by flipping their arm down. The other kids had to decide to trust their prediction or not. The second game the kids paired up and stood facing each other, on one side of the room. On the other side of the room their was a child with a small pool noodle. That child was going to toss the noodle at the ones with their backs to him/her. They had to trust that their partner would move them in the correct way in order to not get hit by the noodle. The last center we did was Surprise Station. The children tried to solve brain teasers and had to trust the teacher to give them the correct answer. The first on was to take six cups placed in a row. Fill three with water and arrange in this pattern:empty, empty, full, full, full, empty. With moving only one cup change the pattern to full, empty, full, empty, full, empty. The second was trying to balance a Bible on top of a piece of cardboard. This would be a fun activity to do at home with your child.
Our ultimate lesson the kids took home tonight was that they can ALWAYS trust in Jesus, no matter.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Youth Group Recaps: January 24-31
What a great week! We had an awesome turnout for both high school and middle school youth nights. God is working in both groups! Don't forget about the take home sheets! They can be downloaded from the link at the right. Help us help you by asking your kids about their progress each week!
High School
This past Sunday night, we talked about WHY we should study God's Word as people who want to be followers of Jesus. Specifically, the reasons we taught are:
Middle School
Last night, we talked about God's character, and how He always keeps his promises- the ones we want kept and those we choose to ignore. The story we read from is found in Genesis, and deals with God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We talked about how God deals with man's sin, and we had questions about why the earthquake happened in Haiti and many other DEEP questions.
Each week the leaders are amazed at the thoughtfulness and depth of the questions. We are going to make a slight adjustment over the next few weeks to allow for more of their thoughts and questions.
A slight programming note, next week I will be gone for middle school night. I begin graduate studies at Indiana Wesleyan next week, and need to travel there for a few days for their integration process. Steve Novak will be leading the lesson time next Wednesday.
High School
This past Sunday night, we talked about WHY we should study God's Word as people who want to be followers of Jesus. Specifically, the reasons we taught are:
- The Bible tells us the truth
- We should know what it teaches firsthand and not depend on others to explain it to us
- Personal edification (growth)
- To help others
- Points us to Jesus
- God's Word to us
- To know God better
- To avoid error.
Middle School
Last night, we talked about God's character, and how He always keeps his promises- the ones we want kept and those we choose to ignore. The story we read from is found in Genesis, and deals with God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We talked about how God deals with man's sin, and we had questions about why the earthquake happened in Haiti and many other DEEP questions.
Each week the leaders are amazed at the thoughtfulness and depth of the questions. We are going to make a slight adjustment over the next few weeks to allow for more of their thoughts and questions.
A slight programming note, next week I will be gone for middle school night. I begin graduate studies at Indiana Wesleyan next week, and need to travel there for a few days for their integration process. Steve Novak will be leading the lesson time next Wednesday.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Youth Group Recaps: January 17-23 2010
High School Youth Group- Sunday January 17
This past Sunday night, we answered the question, "What is the Bible?". Using the Take Home from the previous week, we talked about common attitudes and thoughts about the Bible itself, as well as the experiences of our own students studying the Bible. What we learned is that there is a great deal of frustration within the lives of our students when it comes to reading the Bible on their own. It appears that, outside of the Take Home sheets, none of our high school students spend any time in scripture on their own. While this is very disconcerting, as a ministry team we feel 100% confident that our focus on discipleship is the right thing for us to be doing right now. While we cannot force our students to spend time in God's word, we can be faithful in proclaiming it to them. After talking about these issues, we spent time dissecting 2 Timothy 3:16, which says that, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching , rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...." We broke down each of these 5 things and talked about what they meant and what they did not mean. We ended our youth group time in small groups, praying for one another.
Coming up next is the question "Why should we study the Bible?", and then we'll be spending time on their questions. At the end of this particular subject, we will give our students a tool to get them into their Bibles in a simple and practical way.
Middle School Youth Group- Wednesday January 20 2010
Due to the weather cancellations, our middle school youth group did not meet. Next week, we'll be talking about Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt, as detailed in Genesis 18:26.
This past Sunday night, we answered the question, "What is the Bible?". Using the Take Home from the previous week, we talked about common attitudes and thoughts about the Bible itself, as well as the experiences of our own students studying the Bible. What we learned is that there is a great deal of frustration within the lives of our students when it comes to reading the Bible on their own. It appears that, outside of the Take Home sheets, none of our high school students spend any time in scripture on their own. While this is very disconcerting, as a ministry team we feel 100% confident that our focus on discipleship is the right thing for us to be doing right now. While we cannot force our students to spend time in God's word, we can be faithful in proclaiming it to them. After talking about these issues, we spent time dissecting 2 Timothy 3:16, which says that, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching , rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...." We broke down each of these 5 things and talked about what they meant and what they did not mean. We ended our youth group time in small groups, praying for one another.
Coming up next is the question "Why should we study the Bible?", and then we'll be spending time on their questions. At the end of this particular subject, we will give our students a tool to get them into their Bibles in a simple and practical way.
Middle School Youth Group- Wednesday January 20 2010
Due to the weather cancellations, our middle school youth group did not meet. Next week, we'll be talking about Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt, as detailed in Genesis 18:26.
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