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A couple of years ago one of my small group Bible study students asked me to hold him accountable in a few areas of his life. One of them was physical fitness. If I was going to hold him accountable for fitness, I also needed to get fit. I trimmed down by 40 lbs in [...]

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I’m leaving on Sunday for a week-long mission trip with our high school students. My mind is already thinking about what I need to pack to make sure this is as pain-free as possible. I’ve learned to pack as lightly as possible. It’s easy to over-pack and take up more room than I need. It’s [...]

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We’re getting ready to take our students to New Mexico for a week of serving on an Indian reservation. I’ve helped with our Spring Break trip for about 10 years. On year 3 or 4 I stumbled into what turned out to be a brilliant idea. I’ve used it ever since.
I got tired of Wednesday. [...]

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F39X5w7MQhU]
We have a water canon outside the Refinery building at Saddleback Church (what church doesn’t?). Here’s a video they shot of some unsuspecting attendees getting a little blast from our water feature. Good times.

Filed under: Just for fun, PDYM '09 | No Comments »

Our high school ministry has used this for the past couple of weeks. It’s super cool. The teacher will ask the crowd a question then have students text in their answer or vote. Everybody can see in real time how the crowd feels about an issue, struggles with a topic, etc. It’s a great way [...]

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I’m sure this video will soon be posted all over the Internet. It’s incredibly awesome. My friend Jake makes these videos for conferences. Their always super funny. This one, however, while funny, also has an amazingly encouraging message reminding youth workers why we do what we do.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vUyObQxV_o]
Here are other videos Jake has done:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqiMBx3uklY&feature=related]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x21qytxKsoo&feature=related]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ0gb-ve18s&feature=related]

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A few years ago I put together a video scavenger hunt for my small group guys. We broke into 2 teams. Armed with a video camera and a list of items to capture video of, they went off to film as many of the items as possible. There were also bonus points available for over-the-top [...]

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Big Picture Principles:
1. God has the leaders, you just have to find them
- God cares more about your youth ministry than you do. You just have to look for them in expected and unexpected places
– Remember Marv? 70-year-old volunteer
– Students recruited him
– “You know Marv loves you, don’t you?” – kids lined up for it
– [...]

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Thursday night of PDYM I got to have dinner with a bunch of guys from the conference. Good times. For many in the group, it was the first excursion to the sweetness of Chipotle.

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