Youth Ministry YouTube Recommendations

http://www.youtube.com/godrox
http://www.youtube.com/tfneditor
http://www.youtube.com/youthspecialti...
http://www.youtube.com/thatjustinguy
http://www.youtube.com/chooseshalom
http://www.youtube.com/xbox360fanboy131
Ignatius: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLGLBVSpBzY

The rest of our trip in Lebanon

Day 2



Days 3 and 4

A day in Lebanon

A bit about our trip and the Lebanese food we've enjoyed...

Free Christian Children's Talk 6 - Humpty Dumpty

So I've just got back into doing children's talks in church since the new minister started back in September. Was a bit nervous but people seemed to enjoy this one so here it is for all to read/share/use etc...


Who knows of any nursery rhymes?
Let the children give a few answers

There are lots of different nursery rhymes, but I want to talk about one in particular, it's Humpty Dumpty. Can you say it with me?

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the King's horses and all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again

Excellent! I wonder does anyone know what Humpty looks like?
Let the children answer, they'll hopefully know the answer is...

...an egg! Yes he looks like an egg! I have one with me here. I didn't have Stewie as an aide at the time but he wanted to help today...



And what happened to Humpty when he fell? He cracked! So let's crack this egg (be sure to do this into a bowl or something and not just the floor!)



Oh dear! Look at poor Humpty! He's not in a good shape at all is he? I wonder how we could get him back together? What do you think the king's horses and king's men tried to do to fix him?

Allow a few answers - I got some funny ones including sellotape, superglue, masking take, staples, blu-tac and magic!
If you have time you cold try and get the egg back in the shell and try to stick together to show how difficult this is



I don't think we can do it. But you know sometimes we can be in messy situations that seem hard to get out of, a bit like poor Humpty. Maybe you've fell out with a friend over something and it seems there's just no way to sort it out, or maybe you're having trouble at school and it seems no one can help, or perhaps you've done something wrong and you don't know how to fix it. We can all get into hard and messy situations like Humpty from time to time.

But we're not like Humpty are we? We're not eggs! We're people and even better we're God's people! And when we have problems we don't need the King's horses or the King's men, because we have God who is the King on our side! When we ask him for help and allow him to help us, the King will get us out of the sticky messy situation we're in

Free Christian Children's Talk 5

I hesitated about posting this one because its rather personal to our church, but the morning I did this talk in church the convenor for our vacancy was leading the rest of the service and asked me for the details so she could use it in her own churches the following week so it seems right to post it for others to use seeing as it has been reused already.

You'll see as you read this that you'll need to rewrite it slightly but it shouldn't be too difficult.

I've a picture on the screen and I have the actual thing in my hand here, can you tell me what animal this is?


It's a kangaroo! They don't have boxing gloves like this one normally but can anyone tell me which country you'll find kangaroos in?

Let kids have guesses

In Australia! It's very far away from here, you can see on this map.



That blue country at the top in the middle is where we are and the blue country in the bottom corner is Australia - all the way on the other side of the world from us.

I want to tell you about one of the bigger boys in our church called Mark who was in Australia in January taking part in the Youth Olympics shooting some arrows in the archery.



And he came back with 2 of these toy kangaroos, and he came back with 2 of something else too!



TWO GOLD MEDALS! One for the individual mens and one for the mens team! And it wasn't easy because everything was working against him
- Mark was sick and not well when he was in the final
- He was far from home with no family to support him
- He was competing against the junior world champion
- Who also was an Australian so the crowds were cheering on that boy instead of Mark
- The boy Mark was against was 3 years older than him
- And it was tense in his final shot because the Australian was 9 points ahead, so Mark had to shoot a 10 which is a perfect bullseye!

Talk about pressure! But instead of paying attention to all those things and worrying about them, Mark looked straight to the target and focussed on that. He was so calm and so cool that he was able to shoot a 10 and win! He kept his focus.

I want to read from Hebrews 12v1-2
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. " (NIV)

Did you hear that? "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus"? Just like Mark was so focussed in the target not letting anything distract him we also need to be focussed on our relationship with Jesus and not allow anything to get in the way of that.

Let's pray

Dear God, We're sorry for the times when we forget to put you first and are distracted by other things. Help us to be focussed on you and your plan for our lives. Help us to give you your rightful place as number one. In Jesus name, Amen.



If you plan to use this I'd love to know!

LifeHouse - Everything

I first saw this being performed at the MAD weekend in Coleraine back in October and remember quite vividly how moved I was by it. So when one of the girls in the Girls Brigade suggested performing it for the display I was excited to hear that it had impacted her so much that she was still thinking about it almost 4 months later!

Here it is for you to watch -

Free Christian Children's Talk 4

It's been over a month since I posted here and I've felt bad about it, yet the longer I left writing a new post the more I felt it had to be something good. It's bizarre the effect blogging can have on you.

With our church being without a minister we have had lots of visiting ministers each Sunday which hasn't allowed me to do children's addresses during the service until recently and here's what I said:

"I have some pictures of different characters here that I want you to tell me who they are. Here's the first one....



...it's Wallace and Gromit. Great work, let's see the next one...



...it's Bill and Ben. A lot of the grown ups will remember watching them when they were young too! Who's next?



...it's Bob the Builder, excellent. And here's the last one...



(the children will probably not know this one, they didn't in my church and I didn't expect them to, so I said....) .... you don't know? Do any of the grown ups remember who this is? Yes, it's Morph. Morph was a little plasticine man who lived amongst the pens, pencils and paint brushes of an artist and he gets into all sorts of mischief, mostly caused by his friend Chas. Let's watch one of the cartoons...

(I had a DVD lined up to show but the guys on the screens couldn't sort it so next time I'll use one from YouTube)

Morph was a very popular character and he must still be today because do you know what I got for Christmas? I got a 'Make Your Own Morph' set. It came as a box with some blocks of plasticine and instructions on how to make him. Would you like to see how my Morph looks? Ok here he is...



..What do you think? Does he look like the real Morph? Well the instructions for making him were really easy looking but when it came to it there's a lot of detail and attention that has gone into making Morph. It took me a couple of hours to get him right! I really wanted him to be just right.

You know when God made us He thought very carefully about how you should look, how you would think, what you be good at and even who your family should be. He didn't stop there though, you see when I made my Morph I put a lot of care into making him, but since then he's sat on my desk at home not doing very much. God didn't just make us then leave us to get on with things, He wants to be a part of our whole lives, he wants to put even more care and attention into our lives, but for Him to do that we need to talk to him and allow Him to work in our lives.

We should tell Him what we’re thinking about, what we’re happy or sad about, what we’re worried about – anything, He wants to hear it all. He promises to always be there for us, listening to our prayers and helping us everyday."

If you're using this talk, please let me know.

Images found through a google search - sorry I can't be more specific. The only exception is the photo of my morph which is obviously my own

hurting

The past 3 years at the Youth Ministry Summer School there has been a lot of focus on teens suffering more hurt and pain than they have in the past. The first 2 years we had Chap Clark who wrote Hurt and Deep Ministry in a Shallow World as one of the keynote speakers. Marv Penner, who wrote Help My Kids Are Hurting: A Survival Guide to Working with Students in Pain was a key note speaker at the last Summer School. So each summer school has featured a lot of discussion around the subject, leading us into the thinking that as youth workers we need to set up communities for young people to feel loved, accepted, valuable and worth something. I have to admit that at each discussion on hurt and pain I was struggling to relate personally because I couldn't remember going through anything similar myself.

When we were in the airport on our way to Egypt a few weeks ago I couldn't help but have a look in the book shop. I'm not much of a reader usually but on holiday I read 2 or 3 books - I ended up reading 4 books and got halfway through another. I left the shop having bought 2 extra books to take away with me, one of which was called Loose Girl. It's a book about the author's struggle as a teenager and beyond to feel accepted and loved. She journals how she discovered a way to be accepted, loved and attractive was to use her feminine powers over men. In a search for attention and love she went down a path full of meaningless one night stands and emotionally unsatisfying relationships. Ultimately using and being used in order to fill a void.

As I read this book I couldn't help but think about Summer School and my own experiences of wanting love when I was a teen. I was reminded of times when I felt desperate for a boy to notice me, not just as someone else in the crowd but as someone special. I remember thinking that if anyone ever did want to be with me that I would have to be someone different than who I am so they would like me. I was insecure and rejection made me feel more insecure. I identified with the author in her quest to work out what it meant to love and to be loved. I identified with her as she dealt with her insecurity and compared herself to other girls. From reading magazines, watching TV, seeing movies and more back then I thought love was about feeling loved and thought nothing about returning love to that person too. I thought about how all this made me feel unattractive, unloveable, unaccepted, useless and worthless. Yes, I had friends who cared about me, but this still didn't make me feel like I could be loved. Thankfully I'm past all that insecurity and am a very happily married woman - though I still have my insecurities but they're not related to feeling loved or valuable anymore.

Thinking through all this helped me to identify more with what we have been talking about for the past 3 years at Summer School. It's helped me think more about how I as a youth worker need to get alongside young people and show them a God who loves them and cares for them as they are and not who they think they need to be or act like. It has helped me to see more of how God has created me and is using me to do His will and show His love. I can see more of how He's using me and my flawed humanity to serve others.

Blast from the past

Because of the change in our holiday plans I was able to go to church with my Dad again and visit the church I grew up in. I was so excited to see everyone again, but also cos my Dad brings Wine Gums to church too.

It was strange, because it felt like I'd never been gone, but at the same time so much had changed - kids had grown up, there were more regular family services, there were new groups, new people (and new babies!). I miss my home church a lot, and now I've been back for a visit I miss it more. Please don't interpret that as being unhappy at Bannside because I am happy, and I'm excited about things to come - we'll be officially without a minister this time next week meaning we can start looking for someone new. I'm excited about potential, I'm excited about change, but I know the journey to change will be long and hard.

Imitation

I recently saw this video on YouTube and I have to say I was well impressed by this little bird's skills of imitation. You have to watch it to understand and to believe it.




As I watched it I got to thinking about how as Christians we're supposed to be imitations of Christ which then lead me into a whole line of thinking for a youth talk or childrens' talk. I'll not be posting that talk just yet - need to flesh it out a little more first but I thought I'd share the video for those who may be interested in creating their own discussion or Bible Study or talk of some sort using

I shouldn't have said anything

So I'm back from Summer School where I had a really great time, full of great fellowship and teaching. I've come away with lots to think about and work on implementing in our own youth ministry.

In getting ready to go away I wrote a post about the end of summer and yesterday I was leading the congregation in prayer, introducing it with the words "we're approaching the end of summer". I really shouldn't have said or wrote either of these things because I can't help but notice leaves falling off the trees and other signs of Autumn. Normally I'm not bothered because I love the beauty of Autumn but having not really had any real summer this year again I just don't feel ready for it all.



It got me thinking about the changes we go through in life and how often changes of season come without us being ready for them, even if we have known about the change coming for a long time. I remember being in university knowing God was calling me into a full time youth work job so after university I spent a year at Belfast Bible College preparing for full time ministry, but when that year was up and I got a job I still felt unprepared and a little overwhelmed. Looking back on that time now I can see how God was using my struggle to make me stronger, better prepared for things to come and to make me more dependent on Him instead of me.

I don't feel ready for Autumn, not just the changes in nature but the change back to the routine as our church organisations start up again. I haven't had time to prepare much for it yet or to think through programme much yet but I need to remember God is using this time of change and unpreparedness to make me stronger, better prepared for things to come and to make me more dependent on Him instead of me.

The end of summer...

..... is now taken over with the Youth Ministry Summer School run by the Presbyterian, Methodist and Church of Ireland Youth departments in Ireland. This is the 3rd year of it's existence but it seems already to be "the norm" for me. So tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'll be leaving Rob and Stewie (and Boomer - my sister's hamster who we're looking after while she's on holiday) to look after themselves for a few days while I swot up on youth ministry once more.

This year Marv Penner and Kenda Creasy Dean will be the keynote speakers. I'm quite excited to hear from Marv about family ministry as that's part of my role in Bannside and something I really want to develop more. Mind you I'm also real excited about meeting with other people who love working with young people too.

I'll be back in a few days but I'm sure I'll be way too tired to post for a few days!

You spin me right round....

...though maybe not with this worship. Yes I'm sure God is pleased with this worship, but I'm not sure I could praise by singing this and being able to focus on God too.



HT to me in my small corner

Mega Quest

This week our church is running the annual holiday bible club for primary school kids. The past few years I've always felt a bit panicked about it and rushed about prep at the last minute. This year for the half hour before we started on Monday I stood in the middle of the hall and couldn't think of anything else that needed done and it made me panic that I may have forgotten something. The thing was that this year I was much more organised than the previous 2 years. Maybe it was experience or maybe it was that I have become better at planning my time but either way my lack of last minute panic made me panic anyways. Funny isn't it? Perhaps next year I'll have learnt from this and won't be panicking.

We've been using a resource called Mega Quest which we've mixed a little with Desert Detectives. Monday we covered the story of creation, Tuesday we looked at Moses receiving the commandments and today we heard the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. Tomorrow is the disciples on the road to Emmaus and Friday is about what heaven will be like. We're basically covering the Bible cover to cover - something which some of the parents have really appreciated this and how a couple of the kids have been asking where other Bible characters fit into the story. A couple of the younger kids are experiencing worship led by a band playing songs they know for the first time and they've been excited about this - one was asking his mum "will the big boys and girls be playing the fun music again today?" It really excites me that kids are engaging and are excited about what we're doing and it excites me to see what God is doing through our club in these kids' lives. Another thing I'm excited about is how our young people are getting involved and gaining leadership experience through it all too. I need to work on ways to continue developing and using the talents they have and finding ways they can serve God more.

I came across the cartoon on Geek and Poke and couldn't help but add it in here.

If people were like fonts....

I'm posting this geek type video because I'm in the middle of Tech Camp and feeling the need to extend the sharing of geekiness to my blog. Someone (sorry can't remember who) Twittered about this video. So very funny, a lot of thought went into this.



It's day 3 and we've been having a great week so far at camp. On Monday we did some filming and editing and went out on a photo scavenger hunt round Belfast - you can see the photos from that on our Tumblr Account. Yesterday we focussed on the internet. We reviewed some church websites and discussed what was good and what was bad about them, then we set up the tumblr account, set up a uStream and a Tech Camp Blog. And today we're working on some animation and making little cartoons which I'm sure will appear on the blog at some point soon.

I'd better head on now though and get some juice and biscuits sorted for break. Ciao!

Tech Camp

I can't believe it!!!! Tech Camp starts on Monday! For the past week I've been sorting out little bits and pieces for it but still feeling that there is loads to do..... like cleaning out my car for a start! I'm really hoping and praying that it all goes well this year, it's my first year organising everything whereas in the past I came as a leader and helped out in whatever way I could. But I'm really excited about what we'll be doing, which I don't want to reveal here for fear it may spoil it for our campers but I promise there will be a Tech Camp 08 blog which I'll add a link to during the week.

I'd best get back to getting this prepared!!!! But keep the camp in your thoughts and prayers please!!!

Different busy

When I get to May/June things seem to slow down that little bit as the young people are doing exams or enjoying the sunshine, more people are heading off in their caravans for the weekend and organisations are closing for the summer time. I enjoy this time in youth group because we don't plan anything really and just have the time open as a drop in and decide what we want to do when we're there.

July is when the busyness all kicks off again and a lot of people in the church don't understand and think surely all the organisations have stopped, what exactly do i do with my time? But this is a time when I'm cooped up in the middle of planning for the Holiday Club for the children, running weekly events for our youth, planning for a youth camp called Tech Camp run by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland as well as preparing for Autumn (and even next summer!) and this year preparing for our minister retiring in September. There really is a lot to be getting done

I have to confess that this must be my favourite time in the year because I love the change in pace, the change in the attitude people have over the summer and the fact that I get a little time to myself to think through and plan properly for everything, whereas the rest of the year I feel so rushed from running between one meeting and the next.

However I'm sure once I'm in the middle of September with all our organisations starting up again I'll probably be at the point where I'm glad to have the structure back again! In the meantime I'm just loving the summer!!!!!


Photo sourced from SXC

A wedding to remember

A few months ago on twitter a comment popped up from marramgrass saying "So many people keep asking me to shoot weddings, I'm starting to wonder if I should stop saying no out of hand." and a brief twitter conversation began where in summary I suggested he get a youth group to pose as a wedding party and then link it into a Bible study on Christ as the groom and the Church as the bride. A few days after suggesting it the cogs started turning in my head and I thought....

1) I could make a whole series of wedding related Bible studies out of this
2) There's bound to be some children's address potential too and most importantly.....
3) This could be a great end of year bash!

So about a month later after all this thinking I fired an email off to Mr Marramgrass who was keen to give it a go too. We set a date and the next time I met the youth group I announced it and had volunteers to be the bride and groom thus unofficially engaging them to be married in 4 weeks time. Now a lot of people have laughed at me for having had a brief engagement myself and trying to plan a wedding in such a short space of time but thankfully there wasn't as much planning for this one given that we already have a church, have halls for the catering etc, the date was set and I was ready to just wing it. The bride got a little carried away in the planning and had gone to the props department in school to try on about 12 different dresses out of the 30 or so they had (the local wedding dress shop had donated them all) and picked one and nearly each time I was speaking to her since there were conversations about how she would do her hair etc. In contrast most of the guys were wondering what food there would be lol.

Well the big day rolled round and pretty much everyone had a job, there was the bride and groom, the "minister", the organist, the father and mother of the bride, bridesmaids, best man, dj, father of the groom and me the caterer who also doubled as the mother of the groom. It was all pretty thrown together with "vows" written at the last minute and the praise and reading being sorted about half an hour before we began.

It was hilarious, the most surreal wedding I've ever been to. Well it's just funny when the bride and groom give each other jelly shaped rings vowing:
"With this ring I promise to make your finger sticky, I promise to laugh at your jokes in your speech when no one else does and I promise to eat your share of the cake"

After all that craziness we posed for some photos then went to eat and dance the night away! It was a fab day which they've been asking to do again ever since! I think I'll wait a couple of years to plan another one. in the mean time enjoy some of the fab photos Mark took for us.







The guys all waiting on the girls.... what else is new?


Here come's the bride at a million miles an hour!


This is one really casual minister...


The bride and groom....


.... you would think they actually liked each other!


Hitting the dance floor


The Wedding cake I made that was devoured in a matter of minutes


Everyone together


The plan is to prepare a series of Bible studies for the group over the summer so they will be ready in time for the Autumn when we start back again.... and maybe sneak in a few children's addresses about it over the summer.

Free Youth Bible Study 2 - Clay Pot

As we're coming into the summer and the tone and speed of youth group slows down due to the warmer weather, exams, families going caravaning etc I decided to take an idea that Duffy Robbins had shared at summer school last August. He spoke about a youth worker (whose name escapes me but if anyone knows please fill me in!!!) who took a large clay pot and broke it into lots of pieces, gave a piece to each of the young people in his group to decorate then glued it all together again.

When I handed out the pieces they were rather confused but loved the idea of expressing themselves also once we'd finished decorating we got to play some rounders outside in the sun.

I took all the pieces home and spent all of the following week gluing it all back together again but it turned out real well -











The following week we had a relaxed casual Bible Study and used the pot as a prop.

Click here to download the Bible Study

If you're using this please get in touch. I'd love to know where and how it's being used - just because I'm curious.

George Street

I was emailed this YouTube video for some encouragement - just in the middle of a time when I really need it - but I was just in awe of this story. I suppose we may never know the impact we've made on others but this man was very fortunate.