We had an AMAZING celebration tonight to conclude year 1 of The Landing (Celebrate Recovery for jr and sr high students). – One of our students made a year-in-review video – We did a trivia game about facts from The Landing – We gave away T-shirts as prizes and explained the importance of wearing them [...]

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1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1. Ask, “Who wants a Starbucks card?” 2. Pick somebody to come get it. Keep that person with you in front of the group. Say, “This is your card. You didn’t do [...]

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I’ve used this illustration twice now. Both times I’ve seen lights go on in the minds of students. This illustration can be used by any teacher by changing the points of pain to reflect your own life. 1. I ask, “If this building burned to the ground and everything is going crazy, how is it [...]

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Tonight I had my small group pray for a kid in our church named Chase. He was run over by a car and came very close to losing a leg. To put some action to the prayer, I had my guys pass my iPad around the room to make this video for him. Paul, one [...]

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Tonight in my high school Bible study we were talking about worship and how sin can interfere with it. After all, the original sin is what separated us from God in the first place. Our key verse was Romans 12:1: “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to [...]

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This week I was counseling a student about some recurring issues in his life. He was pretty bummed about his lack of progress in spite of his deep desire to change. This was a great opportunity for me to explain the difference between commitment and decisions. We make commitments all the time: – I will [...]

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This week our small group lesson was about developing habits that would lead to spiritual growth. One of the biggest barriers to spiritual growth is our preoccupation with things that distract us from God. The best way I could think of to help this sink into my students was to have our small group in [...]

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27 years ago when I was, a couple of weeks before my 14th birthday, I started making these time capsules. I was always intrigued with the passage of time. Several times I would gaze at the time capsule in the small town where I grew up. I thought it would be cool to save some [...]

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I’m doing a video series about temptation called The Invisible War with my high school small group students. The series was created by Rick Warren. In the lessons, he talks about how Jesus quoted scripture in the face of temptation. I thought if that was what worked for Jesus, then we should follow his model. [...]

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Tonight at The Landing, we played a trivia game to illustrate the stress in our lives brought on by things we won’t admit to. It worked out pretty well. Supplies needed: – Random props of various sizes (we had about 50 – ranging from a straw to a huge stuffed animal to cinder blocks) – [...]

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