Part of the Glue

In June of last year I stumbled upon some videos from some students in our ministry on facebook.  They had created a little following from a talk show that they created using their webcam.  I spoke with them and encouraged them that perhaps they could use this show for greater purposes and offered to help them in this endeavor.  In august of 2009 we launched whatisyourproblem.tv, as well as a facebook page, a youtube channel and a video podcast on itunes.  At the time we weren’t totally 100% positive of the direction or the purpose but we decided to move forward.  Since doing the show and 22 episodes later we have created a following of more than 2300 fans on facebook and have really created a unique dialogue among this group of teenagers.  Each episode their is some comedy and towards the end we try to focus on a specific problem sent in from the viewers. During one month we ran an ad campaign on facebook that targeted teenagers in our area.  This campaign really helped to bring more fans, but overall the fans came from friends of our show.

Creating a talk show has been beneficial for several reasons. #1 it has created awareness of our student ministry to our community.  #2 it has helped teenagers in a very real and authentic way deal with some very real problems they are facing. #3 it has provided an outlet for our youth ministry to say that yes we too can have fun and cut up some of the time. #4 it has provided an outlet for several teenagers to use their gifts and abilities to further the kingdom in a very unique way

This weekend I got the chance to sit and hear from Michael Novelli, founder of www.echothestory.com speak about the practice of “storying.”  Novelli has been doing “storying” since 2004 and claims to be an experimenter who is trying to reclaim an ancient tradition.
Last year our youth ministry used this “storying” technique for a series we did that told the story of God from Genesis to Revelation. We creatively told the story in our large group setting and then practiced dialoguing the story in our small groups. The great thing about this method is that it really helps students to learn from the story instead of them learning several points you have prepared to teach them.  In august I flew to Mozambique with a mission group from our church to record a documentary of the trip.  During the trip we used the “storying” method as the content for the english speaking camp we held.  This method in my opinion is one of the best discipleship tools in the since that when students learn the story they learn the truth in a holistic way.  If you haven’t checked out “storying” you really should.

One of the things I remember hating about high school was being stuck in a class I knew I had no desire to learn about.  Being a creative person I really struggled with math/science courses and wished at some point I could focus more on what I was good at.  There is something about being a high school student where variety and options are important.  Teens at this age are almost considered an adult and are having to make more and more decisions and choices on their own.

Recently we had a meeting with several adults in our youth ministry who have been leading electives for our high school students on sunday morning.  We came to the conclusion that in the past “sunday school” had a bad connotation because it had the appearance of “school,” which meant boring and lectures. For nearly 8 months we have taken a different approach to teaching this age group by providing 6+ elective classes for students to choose from.  The elective classes last 5-6 weeks and then students come together for a month of lecture based teachings by one teacher.  The electives are interactive, discussion oriented, topic driven and give students the chance to decide what they want to learn about.   For our youth ministry, “Sunday Nights” is where our discipleship groups meet so we decided to provide an outlet during the morning that was not as deep and could reach students at an entry level.  Some of the topics consisted of Leadership, apologetics, film and faith, life after high school, evangelism, inductive bible study etc…I think there has been a lot of positives to taking this approach and letting students decide what they want to learn based on their particular bent.

Ever since I went to Africa this past summer God has been awakening me to his true power and my need for Him.  It’s easy sometimes to do ministry or my job with my own strength and not depend on Him or seek His direction.  Recently in our youth building we moved our prayer room from an area which was currently out of sight to a more prominent place in our facility.  A couple of our leaders decided that we needed to gather monthly if not more to pray for this ministry.  Organizing a prayer meeting is harder then you think, because a lot of times you have to deal with people’s schedules and convincing them prayer is important.  We finally came up with a time where we would meet the last Sunday of the month before our small groups and spend 30-40 minutes in prayer.  We sent out a mass email this week and just to remind our leaders we sent out a group text using tatango so they wouldn’t forget.  Prayer is one of the few things that can bring us together and unify us with one purpose.  The more we pray together the more our hearts and vision will be in the same place to reach students.   Prayer is kind of like glue in that it knits our hearts together as we seek God.

Sunday is a big day for most churches….hint it being sabbath and all.  A lot of times we focus so much attention on Sunday we ignore the rest of the week at least in a programming since.  Now with the advent of things such as facebook pages and blogs…content can more easily come into the homes of students more than once a week.  For our series that started last night called TRUE LYF we created a documentary that follows various students in our ministry and challenged them to do various spiritual disciplines.  These documentaries ended up being pretty long (30 minutes) so we decided to show a highlight clip at church and the full versions each day during the rest of the week on the facebook page.  We also decided to develop a devotional guide for students to follow the same challenge the students in the video had to do.  The benefit to adding these extras in this series is that it really allows the message to come home where life really happens.

You can check out the facebook page HERE and watch the promo below.

In our youth department we have been experimenting since the beginning of summer letting our high school students pick what they want to study on Sunday mornings.  Recently I got an opportunity to teach a class on film and faith in which we watch clips of a movie and then draw out spiritual meanings in the film. The first week we talked about 1. being able to use films as conversational tool with non-believers and 2. being able see spiritual fingerprints in culturally relevant films that can allow us to experience God in new ways when we start looking for themes of redemption and metaphors in these films.  This Sunday will be the third week of the class as we look at good and evil in the movie “The Dark Knight”.  I have found that doing this series has been something the students have enjoyed and has really helped me to look a little closer at some of my favorite films.  Here is the syllabus for the class.

5 week Outline
Pirates of the Carribean 2 (the power of metaphor)
Dead Poets Society (coming of age)
the Dark Knight (good vs evil)
End of the Spear (Christian films and their message)
Hotel Rwanda (true stories)

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a podcast as a guest with Tim Schmoyer.  I spoke about unleashing student artists and gave some practical ideas on how to do just that.

In reality unleashing student artists can be a pretty time consuming thing.  One of the things Tim mentioned on the podcast was that it would be a lot of work to have students helping with the production of his videos.  This is probably one of the biggest hurdles I have had to overcome is knowing that involving students on almost every task is nine times out of ten more work.  Despite knowing this the reward is huge knowing that I am able to help future artists by giving them opportunities to help and fail now.  Artists are so important in telling God’s story in a creative and captivating way and we as the church have an opportunity to raise up artists and propel them into areas such as the business world, hollywood and even the church.

Every third Wednesday of September See You At The Pole takes place at campuses around the nation.  This is a great opportunity for not only students to pray for their schools, but for churches to encourage students to see their schools and friends as their mission field.  Below is a video we shot at a local school for syatp this year.  We weren’t pleased with the videos syatp offered and decided to make our own.

I started reading the “Hole in our Gospel” several weeks ago and it quickly became one of those books I couldn’t put down.  Author Richard Stearns also President of World Vision tells a very personal and gripping story of a modern rich young ruler that when heard the call to sell everything and follow Christ did just that.  Richard’s personal story of leaving the life of a successful CEO and journeying with World Vision for many years is a story of calling and ruthless trust just as much as it is a story of understanding the entire Gospel.   Throughout the book Richard, like Dallas Willard author of “the Great Omission,” makes claims that Christians and the church are often guilty of portraying a gospel that is incomplete.  While this may not be a new idea or viewpoint with the resurgence of countless books (oftentimes too liberal to be taken seriously) in this camp in the last five year, a book like this one is needed in a time where the left can’t be trusted and the right is often missing the point.  Stearns seems to have a way to somehow bring these two sides together and call us to action without throwing our theology out the window.

As I was reading this book I began to think about poverty and the poor and an upcoming trip I will take to Africa in a few weeks.  I can’t help but to feel a burden and desire to stop thinking about poverty and do something.  My hope is to tell stories while I am in Africa with my camera and like Richard help Christians in America who are incredibly blessed begin to see the verses in our bibles that have holes in them and to be obedient to this call.

Churchkreatives.com launched earlier this month.  Church Kreatives is a multi-contributer blog by church creatives for church creatives.  In addition to posting on partoftheglue I will regularly be posting on church kreatives….so come check us out and join a community of creative christ followers

ChurchKreatives