We recently finished a series for our youth ministry called “Evidence.” For the series we created 3 videos that showed students being asked difficult questions in a holding cell type atmosphere. We wanted to cause students to think and really evaluate their ability to defend their faith. We used a real lawyer and had fun in the process. I hope you will enjoy this one.
Evidence | Christ in your life from LYF on Vimeo.
1. its free except for the webcam so you don’t have to rent buildings or provide food
2. students are already on the internet so why not capitalize there
3. students can focus easier since their friend is not right next to them hitting them with something
4. new tools such as tokbox, mogulus or ustream make it feasible and possible
5. it may help certain students who have a difficult time speaking in a group to participate easier through the chat box
6. because the internet is a mission field and youth groups are taking online mission trips
7. it provides another touch point in the middle of the week where students can connect with other believers and be equipped to live their faith out in their schools.
8. because its fun to ban students in the chat room when they start to gossip
9. because tony steward believes this is revolutionary
We had a vision casting meeting this past weekend with all the leaders in our youth ministry. I got the chance to present to our team information about our fairly new website www.lyf.net. We created this website to tell better stories not necessarily to give calendar dates although that is on there as well. If you visit the site you will notice video stories of how students are able to get_connected – go_deeper – on_mission and in_leadership. We also have written stories published where students share of how their lives were changed. Once logged into the site you can access online groups and see the stories inside those groups. I challenged our team to help me tell stories. I asked them to upload their pictures, submit their stories and to participate in helping us tell a better story. I truly believe what organizations need the most is not a powerful marketing campaign, but an arsenal of real authentic contagious stories.
When it comes to using technology in a youth ministry it can get expensive real fast real quick. Below I have listed 3 affordable solutions in my opinion that youth ministries of any size should consider using.
By far the best way to plan and organize your services is through Planning Center Online. This service allows you to schedule people, upload files, and have a place were multiple people can organize the content for your next worship gathering.
Pro Presenter in my opinion is the best option even for smaller venues when it comes to displaying songs and media on a screen. Pro Presenter gives you the ability to key words over moving backgrounds without a lot of lag. You don’t even have to have a switcher to do this when you use Pro Presenter. Oh and did I mention they just released an app for the iphone.
Tuggle is a youth ministry management tool that is so much fun you might mistake it for a social network. Tuggle allows you to build a safe online community and have the tools to really connect with your members.
I have been trying to lead youth media teams for roughly 2 years now. I have failed alot and in someways have been successful. I think one of the reasons the teams have failed in the past is due to a lack of clear expectations and goals. It’s easy for a band to practice every sunday and then play later that night and be able to quantify that experience. It’s rather difficult however to quantify a team that creates projects one week and does nothing the next. I sat down with our student media team today at lunch and we finally decided to set some clear sustainable expectations and goals for our team.
Expectations
1. Be a team that is always learning (1 hour a week minimum)
a. students can come into the office and observe or work on a project and learn the craft of film-making
b. students can tag along during shoots and learn things such as holding a boom, setting up lights or running a camera
c. students can also learn outside or at home by creating projects or training on lynda.com
2. Be a team that produces projects as a team (1 project a month)
a. students are encouraged to create a project by themselves with minimal assistance
3. Be a team that thinks long-term
a. currently we are working to create a short film this summer which means working on the script, storyboard and pre-production now.
Our staff has been enamored by the common craft show for quite some time. We decided to take this idea and create our own stop-motion video that would creatively engage our audience this past Sunday.
Friendlist from Sugar Creek on Vimeo.
I had the opportunity to attend the 5th annual San Antonio Independant Christian Film Festival this weekend. Being this was my first year to attend I did not know entirely what to expect. A lot of people have asked me questions about the festival and were rather curious so I thought I would review the festival right here .
The Audience: I’ll be honest and say that I was shocked at the number of families that were at this event. If you think about it though, this really is a great family event even if you aren’t interested in making films. Letting your children see films that portray Christians in a positive light and letting them be exposed to a theological worldview through the medium of film can be a powerful learning experience. This may be the best field trip you could ever take your family to.
The Filmmakers: The filmmakers at this festival were made up of a broad array of storytellers. Several films were produced by families that joined forces. One film was produced entirely by a church and some films were produced by individuals and even teenagers as old as 14 years.
The Bootcamp: While I didn’t get to attend the academy this year I heard that nearly 500 students and professionals gathered together to here from industry professionals that were paving the way. The academy was held during the week, while the festival was held during the weekend. The bootcamp is something I wish they had when I was in high school. Something of this caliber can be a great catylist for aspiring filmmakers who need some guidance and wisdom.
The Location: The festival was held at the Henry B Gonzalez Convention center and is located on the riverwalk itself….enough said about that….absolutely beautiful
The Workshops: I’ll be honest and say I only attend 2 sessions and out of the 2 sessions I attended I left halfway through both of them. I think I would rather hear from some of the experienced film-makers talk about the making of their films or something really practical/tangible.
The Films: I had the opportunity to see 15 short films and 4 feature length films. As a filmmaker and as a Christian I walked away from the weekend with alot of respect towards the people that produced these films. I was blow away at some of the things that these filmmakers were able to do without a huge budget, crew or even professional actors. With that in mind and being a fellow filmmaker I want to be honest and fair in the following critiques.
Feature Films:
1. the Secrets of Jonathan Sperry – This film was produced and directed by Rich Christiano. I went up to Rich later that week and thanked him for making a film that showed creative discipleship. This film was my favorite the entire week. Shot on super16 the cinematography is beautiful and the casting was superb. This coming of age drama shows an older gentlemen creatively engage with middle school students as he shows them what it means to live the Christian life in a practical and inspiring way. Towards the end of the film we see the students take ownership and begin to lead by themselves. This film will open in theaters in September of 2009. In my opinion every church that can afford to should help support this movie by sponsoring a theater.
2. Fireproof – produced by Stephen Kendrick of Sherwood Pictures. Stephen said after the film that if this film helps lower the divorce rate in America by just 1% this film will have helped countless families and children from having to endure the aftermath of such a thing as divorce. After hearing that and hearing that Kirk Cameron volunteered for free to do this film I was blown away by the passion and heart behind these guys. Kendrick shared with the audience how they would constantly be in prayer and would get theses God-ideas while shooting that ended up being their favorite parts of the film.
3. A Widow’s Might – This film was produced by Huemore Productions. Although I liked the film and enjoyed the overall story I felt this film fell short. The plot was mediocre. I struggle with this in my own filmmaking so I can’t say I’m not guilty of this. Films that lack irony and that lack the ability for you to believe that the conflict is worth the conflict in my opinion lack a certain power that other films possess. I would have liked to see the widow packing up her things or having to live out of a car or something drastic for me to believe her situation was worthy enough to make a movie about it.
4. Pendragon – produced by two families I was shocked what they were capable of doing despite a budget and despite not being hollywood. While I did enjoy parts of the film I have to admit the acting was a hindrance to this film being truly great.
Short Films – Out of the 15 short films I experienced only a few of them really stuck with me. There were several shorts and documentaries that lacked any cinematography and several films I kept asking myself how they even made it to the festival. I was really encouraged by Crown Financials Vision to take short films around the world in similar fassion to the jesus film movement and impact poverty driven areas through the medium of film. Crown showcased three shorts and of the three the story of Abraham and Isaac was my favorite. It reminded me of reading Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and was stunning to see on film. I was also encouraged to see some of the films from Modern Parables. These films make for great discussions and can be used in tandem with bible study material. One of my favorite shorts this year was stained which was also the winner of the 168 hour film festival in LA. This short gives us a powerful metaphor of what its like to be in sin and then to be given new life.
Tonight I was fortunate enough to lead my first ever online bible study using tokbox. The study was targeted towards teenagers in our youth group. In total we had roughly 8 or 9 students attend the online meeting. The meeting went great and I’m pretty sure we’ll continue to meet. Here are my notes from the meeting…
1. webcams aren’t for everyone – this technology may still be a ways down the road before it is something everyone owns and uses
2. being prepared is a must – leading a discussion can be intimidating without actual people there in the room so having good questions and material saved the meeting in my opinion
3. start earlier – we went from 9pm- 10pm next time I think we will aim for 8:30pm-9:30pm per their request
4. build community because an online bible study can feel impersonal I challenged our group to build community through using twitter, facebook and connecting with others throughout the week
5. takeaway I gave the challenge to most of the students in our group to write a story for the website
We finally launched the new sugarcreek.net website today at my work. This site has been in development for nearly a year and was created using drupal 6 content management system. Be sure to check out some of the creative videos here that are on the site. Even though we launched the site, there is still a lot of work to do before the hard launch hopefully in February.
This weekend I will be heading up to the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival. The SAICFF is in its 5th year and this year Stephen Kendrick of Sherwood Pictures and Kirk Cameron will share with the audience about the making of fireproof.
Here are 4 things I hope to take away from the experience
1. see new and upcoming short and feature films that are being produced by fellow Christians
2. be inspired to puruse my aspirations to create short and feature films
3. connect with other film-makers who I might be able to colloborate with in the future
4. here from Stephen Kendrick on just how he focuses his church to create films
Will you be there?
