I am very excited about this new series I have been writing for Wednesday Night Live in January. One of our biggest requests that we receive is to discuss other faith systems (right after the end times, of course). I had wanted to do this last spring, but unfortunately could not. Now I can. I will be posting all kinds of videos from the lessons, once the series is done I am going to float it over to studentministry.org to see if Tim can use it as a Freebie Friday giveaway, and there is even the very real possibility that we will be broadcasting the lessons live on the internet through CorryFirst Online Church (As of January, our church’s official online campus)!

So here is the trailer to whet your appetite:

Curious what we’ll be looking at?
Paganism/Wicca, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism & Hinduism.

Lots of stuff. Friday I journeyed to Ohio with the family in tow for my brother’s wedding (I officiated).

Saturday we came back to PA in a little bit of snow just in time to catch the second half of Saturday Night Football (Not pleased with the results).

Sunday morning we were in church for the second service and for Abby’s Sunday School Christmas program (She was adorable).

Sunday afternoon I had three post-High Schoolers over for some surprisingly revealing conversation, some Biblical insights, some Halo action and dinner (Mmmm… Subway).

Sunday evening I was bowling with my Senior High Guys Journey Group (Man I have not been bowling in forever).
BONUS #1: Two lanes, unlimited people, two hours, and two large pizzas for under $50!
BONUS #2: I was able to see the Steelers emerge triumphant over the Packers! WooHoo!
BONUS #3: Video from the evening!

After that I went home, put the kids to bed, had some popcorn and enjoyed a couple episodes of The Office with Kelly, and watched as my Fantasy Football team benefited from Brett Farve’s bad night against Carolina. But not before capturing Abby being artistic…

A couple weeks ago in Sunday School we explored the passage from Luke 3 in which John the Baptist warns people to prepare the way for Jesus. As an exercise, I split the group up into multiple smaller groups, and gave each group a task that they were to think trough and share with each of us the necessary steps to prepare that task. The tasks ranged from baking a cake, to going hunting, to playing a basketball game and more. The goal was to have them leave thinking through the question “What do I have to do to prepare the way for Jesus in the world around me?”

I caught some video of the group I assigned the task of changing a tire. It is quite humorous.

Set List: No music tonight.

Prepwork For the Evening: Prepared message, created H20 Action News, prayed, Charged video camera, but didn’t clear enough space on the memory to record all of the message.

Lesson Topic: The Story of Christmas.

What We Did: While standing in the snow by our dumpster, I shared a loose adaptation of the birth account of Jesus from Luke 2, placing the girls in Mary’s shoes, and the guys in Joseph’s shoes.

Scripture Used: Luke 2.1-20

Positives From the Evening: Being out in the snow and the cold really gave our teens a chance to experience discomfort as I shared about Mary and Joseph’s discomfort. It really had a deeper impact being able to tie the conditions of the stable to the state of our dumpster. There was a lot of interaction with students discussing the message once we were inside.

Negatives From the Evening: Running out of storage space for video was a downer. The night felt… disjointed and almost… shallow.

Results From the Evening: Many of the teens seemed to really gain a new perspective on the birth account, and the few who said that they already hold that perspective did learn new things to appreciate (like Mary’s real age when she gave birth to Jesus, and some Jewish cultural norms that modern American Christians tend to be ignorant of). All in all there seems to have been solid seeds planted to help our teens not take this season for granted.

Student Involvement: Students participated in discussion and voted on the movie for next week.

Next Week: Christmas movie night. It should be interesting, since the movie selected by majority vote was The Nightmare Before Christmas…

Last week I shared about a special WNL that involved interactive stations. Yesterday I shared a little more about some of our teens’ encounters with God during the night. Today, I share a little tip or two about how to maximize your impact in your teens’ lives after an event or program that uses such a setup.

When using a station that asks teens to share their thoughts in an anonymous fashion, you should respect privacy. Otherwise you could damage your connection with your teens. However, as much as you want to offer anonymity to free teens to express themselves, we could be doing more damage than support at times. So here are a couple of tips to help you figure out who writes what.

• Compare handwriting - We use a sign-in sheet to track attendance. In larger groups, this might not work so much, but in a smaller setting it works great. This allows you to have a sample of handwriting to compare a note to.
• Watch Casually - Don’t hover over where your teens are writing (you will make them clam up), but keep a casual eye on where teens are writing their thoughts on the poster, or where they are sticking their Post-It note to the wall. Make a note of it and check on it later.
• Check-In – Walk up to the wall that is being used and glance over what is posted frequently. It will show teens that you are interested, and it will allow you to familiarize yourself with what is written and with where teens are writing their thoughts.
• Talk to your students – The most important part of follow-through. Sometimes the things that they share can be brought up casually in conversation. Sometimes it will require you to be creative, or to set up a special appointment to chat. But make sure that you don’t just sit on what your students have shared. Talk to them about it. Engage them in their thoughts, let their hearts speak. You may find that your relationships with your teens, your ministry itself, will grow dramatically.
• Remember not to jump ahead - Sometimes your conversation will not go smoothly. Remember that every teenager is different, and they may not be willing to open up right away. Keep investing into them, keep showing them that you care, and keep living your life as an example for them to see Christ at work in the world.

Last week we hosted a couple of interactive stations for teens to explore Advent on their own. (You can read about it here). The third station asked two questions. What are you waiting for this Advent season? and What do you think God is waiting for this Advent season? Teens then wrote their answers on a Post-It note and stuck it to the poster that the question was written on. The question about what God wants was fairly… Sunday-School answer-esque:

• Nothing. God has everything
• Not sure
• Unconditional love on earth
• Peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind
• Peace
• Peace and happiness on earth
• Love, peace, hope and Prayer
• Unconditional love, peace, hope, happiness and joy
• His children to come home

It was the other question that raised my eyebrow and broke my heart. What do our teens wait for this year?

• Things to go right
• Some peace and contentment
• For my family to be happy like we used to be
• More of an understanding of my future and God’s plan
• Peace in my heart
• For my father to try to get along with the person who is close and dear to me and for my family to have joy
• For my mother to be the mother that I need now and a sister that will really love me for who I am
• I’m waiting for me and my family to get along better and me and my mom to get closer because I am always left out
• My family to come closer and have Christmas dinner
• For my family to get along and to be at peace with one another
• I am no longer sure

Our teens (and yours, I am sure) are broken and hurting. They are coming from family situations that are less than ideal, searching for love, and several of them are simply looking for parents who can model an upright life for them. Someone that they can look up to and lean on to teach them how to become solid adults.

Please pray for our teens (and for yours as well). Ask that God will use us as shining examples in their lives. Ask that He will provide opportunities to show them real love to them. Ask that in the end, we will not see ourselves as their saviors, but simply as Your hands and feet here on the earth, here in their lives.

I’ll share a little more tomorrow…

Tyler, one of our students (who wants to pursue student ministry as his vocation) guest-stars in this week’s Jump Start, sharing his method of making sure that he spends time in Scripture regularly.

Here’s the last H20 Action News for 2009. Hope you like it!

Set List: A couple of instrumental Christmas carols  (performed by TSO) with guiding questions on the screen, How He Loves video(David Crowder*Band) as per student requests to sing more.

Prepwork For the Evening: Prepared EasyWorship schedule, procured supplies for stations, set up stations, created H20 Action News, prayed, prepared short message on Advent/Christmas and some guiding questions to debrief the evening.

Lesson Topic: Advent.

What We Did: We had a brief discussion about what Advent is, then used 3 prayer stations to invite teens to encounter God in a different way. One station had candles for each of the four weeks in advent, and students were invited to light the candle that symbolized what they are asking God for (peace, love, joy, hope) this season. Another station asked them to interact with the Christmas narrative from Luke 2 and to place themselves in it by physically placing paper cutouts of themselves by which characters they identify with the most. The last station simply asked what they are waiting for this Advent, and what they think God is waiting for this Advent. (Ideas from these stations come from Rethinking Youth Ministry).

Scripture Used: Luke 2.1-20

Negatives From the Evening: There were a lot of negatives tonight. Most of our crowd rolled in late. One teen was flipping switched in the circuit breaker box to turn lights on in the gym and wound up turning off the power to that entire wing of the church, thus necessitating me to restart all the equipment in the Youth Room and redo a couple of EasyWorship elements. A couple of our more “mature” teens breezed through the prayer stations, seeming to get nothing out of them or put anything into them. Abby was her tonight and at one point she became the center of attention during my discussion on what Advent is and explaining what the evening looked like. One student asked me before we started why Wednesdays aren’t as fun as Fridays (Friday Night Flood)

Positives From the Evening: In spite of the negatives, the evening wrapped up really nicely. During the debrief I discovered that many of the teens got more out of it than I would have expected, placing themselves in the shoes of the nativity cast, praying for hope and peace, and asking God to bring them healing from family brokenness. We weren’t scheduled to sing anything, but I was begged to sing something (hence using the Crowder video on the fly). After the session was over I got to have some deep conversation with one teen in particular about her past and present, and her less-than-ideal family situation (as well as her bout with contemplating suicide and drug addictions). A much better night than I anticipated.

Results From the Evening: The Positives say it all. I do not know whether or not all of our teens went home having collided with God tonight, but I can say that many of them did.

Student Involvement: Students led themselves through the stations and shared their thoughts.

Next Week: A service in the snow…

BONUS: Pics from tonight

Tonight’s Friday Night Flood had a different feel to it. It was a really great night on a lot of different levels. I personally got to have a handful of good conversations (one of which took place as  I dropped a student off at his house. He had a friendship break up over something trivial and needed to talk/vent). We had another student share her testimony. I have seen her go through several major ups and downs since moving into town, some good choices, and some bad. But in the end, she has turned back to God to direct her path, and even though her choices have not always been the greatest, she does realize that she needs to be under His guidance. (I may have video of this on Monday evening. I really hope to, but I told her if she is uncomfortable sharing it on the web that I will not post it).

On the negative side of things, we had a couple of teens who had a little too much sugar and were a bit rambunctious. But the gym being open finally helped out with that. There was a small group of teens who would rather stand outside in the cold than help put a few tables and chairs back up before they left. (This always seems to be a problem). But the gym being open did diminish the cafe atmosphere we have been running the past several weeks. We also had to have a student leave for the hospital with some medical issues. Nothing life-threatening, but serious enough to warrant the trip.

But more positives from the evening. We welcomed a possible new addition to our adult leadership corps. He has a passion for working with teens to young adults, and really seemed to fit in right away. He’s already committed to plugging in next week!

All in all, a good, solid night of ministry. I am looking forward to next week already…

BONUS: Here’s a quick little video of the challenge tonight that I took with my BlackBerry. Oatmeal, Pantyhose, and spoons. What more do you need?

This is the fifth part of a multi-part series that walks you through the necessary items to craft an effective Announcement Video, based upon my experiences, my successes, and my failures.

Tons of useful information and experiences that I crammed into one short(?) series. I hope that it has been useful to you and to your ministry. Today I wrap it up by sharing some video hosting options for your videos online, and a couple other ministries that create video announcements.

Video Hosting Sites:

• blip.tv: I use blip primarily for all of our videos with H20 for a couple reasons. First, if I upload in quicktime format i can distribute it to iTunes for free as a podcast. Ever episode is included in our iTunes podcast as soon as it is uploaded. I can also cross post to YouTube with a single mouse click. Individual videos and playlists are embeddable anywhere online. You can also track fairly detailed statistics. People can download a copy of your video directly from the site, either the flash that is posted, or the original video that you uploaded (and you can upload multiple formats). Completely free to you, but you can pay for an account that enables you to have more options. Our Blip Channel. Our iTunes Podcast.
• Vimeo: I use Vimeo exclusively for our video announcements. While not as advanced as blip is, it has a beautiful player and you can create a personalized channel (check ours out). You can cross post from blip to Vimeo if you have paid for a Pro account on Vimeo. Videos are embeddable anywhere, and you can create a widget to stream all of your videos. Free to you, but you can pay for a Pro account. Our Channel.
• YouTube: The biggest, most popular video hosting site on the web. Everyone knows it, and everyone knows where to find it. Nice, embeddable players, but they are STRICT with their copyright regulations. Our Channel.
• Social Networking Sites: Facebook and MySpace (and I am sure others) offer video hosting. They are nice to use, and are embeddable, but I rarely use them myself. I already embed the videos from the other sites on our MySpace page and link to it in our Facebook group.

Who Else makes Video Announcements?

• Tim Schmoyer. Tim creates video announcements and posts them for his group. He uses many of the same distribution sites that I do. He also has some very helpful insights on creating video announcements here and here.
• Josh Griffin/Saddleback. Saddleback uses a lot of video in their ministry, and Josh posts a lot of it for us to see.

These are just a couple. Is there anyone else out there who makes video announcements? Care to share your sites/videos?  Is there anything that I missed in this series that should be gone over?

This is the fourth part of a multi-part series that walks you through the necessary items to craft an effective Announcement Video, based upon my experiences, my successes, and my failures.

Before I wrap this section of the series up, I have a couple more creative issues to throw at you before moving on to hosting options tomorrow.

• Add Bonus Material: While it is necessary to remain on task about the announcements in your video, don’t be afraid to add in a few bonus features to add value that brings your teens back, something that will make them want to find it online and watch it at home. I currently include a devotional element each week. I use my weekly Jump Start, usually a little bit condensed for time that ties into that week’s lesson topics. Once a month I offer a texting/trivia challenge to our teens, with a small prize involved. Once a month (or with a little less irregularity) I share a fun YouTube video that made me laugh (with proper credit given, of course). Don’t be afraid to add something in.
• Don’t Chain Yourself to a Style: Over the years, the format of my videos has changed drastically. In Indiana, the format changed every week. Here at Corry First, I settled very quickly into a groove of From the Laptop, in which I (or teens, or action figures) sat in front of my laptop’s webcam and did something creative to share the announcements. That evolved into the H20 Action News when I realized that From the Laptop was getting stale. Teenagers (and we adults as well, if we’re honest) tend to lose interest in something that is the same, week in and week out. So we need to keep it fresh, keep it engaging. Recently I have experimented with a new format for the Action News (late-night talk show and clip show).
• Be Fair and Honest: If you use material that someone else created, give proper credit. If you don’t, you will be engaging in what is essentially theft (copyright restrictions say so), and putting forth a poor witness to people. (A lot of my older videos broke this rule, and I need to go in and change this). But also important in this item, if you use audio that is copyrighted, and the owners tell YouTube to shut it down, the entire audio for your video will disappear. Oops! Do this also with other videos that you will post within your video (YouTube video of the week). When I use other YouTube videos, I give the title it is posted as, the author/poster of the video and the url it can be found at. This past week for the first time ever I got a notice that a video of mine includes copyrighted material (my YouTube video of the week).

Next time I’ll wrap this series up with video hosting options, and a couple other Youth Pastors that create video announcements for their groups.

BONUS: My earliest published Video Announcement

Had another Hot Topic last night. At the end of Hot Topic Nights we invite a representative from each discussion group to share their findings with everyone else, effectively teaching the group. Here’s the finale to last night’s Hot Topic Night.

Thought I’d share some photograffy from the good o’le Texas. I got caught up with all this design stuff that I forgot the roots of the blog. Anyhow, here are some from some spots around town. More to come soon! Here I back with more urban Texas photograffy.

Set List: Days of Elijah (Robin Mark), Shadows (David Crowder*Band) was planned, but I broke a string so couldn’t finish the set.

Prepwork For the Evening: Prepared EasyWorship schedule, PowerPoint slides, created H20 Action News, prayed, chose topics, recorded and posted videos of leftover topics.

Lesson Topic: Hot Topic Evening: Why do people think Christians are perfect and what can we do to change that? Is purple (Physical Affection) bad or is it good?

Scripture Used: 1 Peter 1.13-16; 1 Thessalonians 4.3-7; 2 Timothy 2.22; Philippians 4.8

Positives From the Evening: Conversations really flowed tonight, for both groups. The girls group had a rabbit trail that led them to some really deep conversation about broken homes and the success (or lack of success) in their parents’ marriages. The guys had some interesting conversation, even going off on the tangent of whether or not one can lust after their wife. There were a couple of new faces tonight and one of them was not afraid to share her groups findings at the end of the evening. At least 50% of our teens present tonight come from (what I can determine) are largely un-churched backgrounds.

Negatives From the Evening: The guitar string breaking during Days of Elijah was a problem. We always seem to need more time for discussion. We could use another leader or two present.

Results From the Evening: I really love these discussion nights. It gives our teens a voice and allows them to discover things for themselves. The side tangents, though potentially distracting, are where the real heart came out (especially in the girls’ group), which has led to some discussion between Kelly and I about what we can do to show some of our teens from broken homes some tangible love, and how we can invest into them in solid ways.

Student Involvement: Students participated in discussion, ran EasyWorship, ran the video camera and shared at the end (effectively teaching the group).

Next Week: Something interesting that I am working on for Advent.

Bonus: Check out the four remaining videos from the Hot Topic Box and weigh in with your thoughts on YouTube.

This is the second part of a multi-part series that walks you through the necessary items to craft an effective Announcement Video, based upon my experiences, my successes, and my failures.

Okay. Get ready for the basics of your video. This is all of the nitty-gritty that you will need to know to succeed at creating great Announcement Videos that will leave a deep impact on your students (or at least help them to remember the announcements better). Here are the technical aspects of crafting a great Announcement Video.

• Start With a Quality Camera: When I first started, I was using an old JVC GR-SXM240 VHS-C camcorder that Kelly had from before we got married. The quality was decent, but the transfer process was long, and it only recorded one channel of audio (thus all of my videos were mono). I since have moved on to a JVC  Everio-G HDD camera. The quality and transfer are both much better, but it captures into a format that I have to render into a different format in order to use it with our editing software. I have also recently gained access to the church’s new Canon XL2 Mini-DV. I can capture the footage directly to my hard drive (or to digital tape and capture later with virtually no quality loss) and edit from there. I have also heard of announcements filmed on a Flip Mino or other smaller device that turned out great. All this to say that your video quality is an investment. The more you can invest, the better your videos will look. But don’t break the bank on it. Video Announcements should be a small portion of your ministry.
• Start With a Quality Video Editing Program: I started on Windows Movie Maker, which is very user-friendly, and the end product is good for most formats and settings (as long as you use Windows). Currently I use Sony Vegas Movie Studio, which is a bit more complex than Windows Movie Maker, but nowhere near as difficult as Adobe After Effects can be. There will be a learning curve on any software you use, but that curve should shrink as you use it more often. You should not have to spend a lot of time on the editing process for an Announcement Video, so find a software quite that you understand and are comfortable with using. It should make your job easier, not more difficult.
• Know Who is Watching: In our area, High-Speed internet is not incredibly common. In fact, a lot of our teens still have dial-up internet access. Keeping that in mind, I try not to have our videos run too long, so that we don’t have teens waiting hours for a video to load. Each of our Announcement Videos shoots to be around 7 minutes in length. It provides us adequate time to communicate our information and still keep it fresh.
• Start With Great Lighting: Don’t keep your audience in the dark. Make sure that you spend a little time reading about 3-point lighting, and if you are filming outside, make sure that the sun is behind you, otherwise you run the risk of having a silhouette giving your announcements.
• Know Your Format: Something I’ll touch more on later when I talk about hosting, but different sites (and different programs) require different video formats. Is it WMV? MPEG? Quicktime? How you display and share your video will determine how you render it.

That’s it for the technical side today. Tomorrow, look for the Creative side of things.

This year over the Thanksgiving break, H20 hosted our first (hopefully) annual Turkey Bowl football game. Taking the footage from that, I spliced it in with this week’s announcements and devotional. Take a few minutes and enjoy! (By the way, the other “older” guy in the video is my brother-in-law).

This week in our Journey Groups, most of us focused on the fact that teenagers (and young adults) have a lot to offer the church. Using 1 Timothy 4.12 (which I have used before in Jump Start, but it was filmed with a webcam, so I ran with the opportunity to improve upon it), this week’s Jump Start encourages teens to not be put down because of their age and inexperience, but instead to live their lives as an example to the older members of the church.

Baietii care-l sustin pe Gucci nu vor ca acesta sa-si piarda si swagga` pe care o avea inainte de a intra la inchisoare , cu toate astea , baietii scot la iveala piese mai vechi , si anume piese dinainte ca Gucci sa fie cine este in momentul de fata , H2O , Georgia si Peep Da` Swag se numesc piesele , puteam face o comparatie intre atunci si acum legata de calitatea pieselor , si sa nu uitam #FreeGucci .

Previous/Anterior Young Jeezy Feat. Gucci Mane – Trap Or Die 2 (Remix)

Via: TCC .

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200系ハイエース用　「タイヤ＆ホイールSET」　サイズ・銘柄別で探しなおす15inchホイールのみ195/80-15　　16inch225/60-16(最安値タイヤ）225/60-16(NASCAR TIRE)215/65-16(YOKOHAMA)215/65-16(TOYO)17inch215/60-17　HIACE PAGE TOP18inch225/50-18