HSM Weekend in Review: Volume 13

Message Title: Flooded (featuring Josh Pease)

Sermon in a Sentence: We're sunk when we try to live on our own power because God wants us to do our good works through him instead of for him.

Key Verse: "Jesus looked at them intently and said, 'Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.'" Mark 10:27

Weekend Scale of Difficulty: 4 out of 10. Pretty simple weekend, very few elements. One glitch in starting a video, but it turned into a funny bit.

Attendance: up 4% from last weekend, up 76% from the same weekend last year, up %24 from the same weekend two years ago
Service Length: 70 minutes
Understandable Message: A Josh Pease used a story about getting his car stuck on a flooded street to illustrate how silly it is when we try to get unstuck in life on our own power while completely ignoring God's ability and willingness to help. This was a strong message that was easy to understand and apply. Josh's use of the illustration had two key attributes: it was memorable, it was immediately applicable to the student's lives.

Volunteer/Student Involvement: B/B Volunteers were actively involved at the tables and greeting students. Students led in the band, and handed out programs and pens as people entered. Still noticed that many student leaders had isolated themselves to the separate balcony. A few students, however, stepped up.

Element of Fun/Positive Environment: B The video of the cameras trying to keep up with Josh Pease at the beginning was very entertaining. It could probably be tied to the theme of the service, but I'm not sure that was the point. It seemed to be just an element of fun to reinforce the point that church doesn't have to be boring; it can be fun.

Music Playlist: All I Need Is You Lord, Hosanna,
Dominik dominated this weekend. He's got great talent combined with a powerful passion for worship.

Favorite Moment: The most powerful moment of the night was near the end of Josh's message. He finished telling the story of being stuck in the flood with his car. Nobody was around to help him. He didn't want to turn to God for help because he was intentionally trying to keep God out of his life. The situation helped him realize that he can't do everything on his own and that he needs God. The story of Josh reconnecting with God was powerful. The miraculous resolution to the crisis was even secondary to Josh's telling how God had his attention and bonded with him in that moment.

Overall grade: B+

Saddleback Refinery - Free Lunch Fridays Started Today

Today from 12:00 - 3:00 Saddleback Church's Refinery (Student Ministries building) was open to students for free lunch and games. What I loved about this event was the lack of programming. The program was to feed students, let them play the games and let staff and volunteers get to know them.

I met some incoming 9th graders, some older students who are totally tied in but I hadn't met before, and several students playing pool and shuffle board. It's so incredibly easy to meet and talk with students in this setting.

The highlight of my day was talking to a former small group student of mine who graduated a couple of years ago. He's had a little bit of trouble in his life and it was good to see that he's on the right path now. We caught up on life and recaptured some of the closeness we felt back in the day. It was awesome.

Free lunch Fridays happens every Friday until the end of July from 12:00 - 3:00. It's a great event for volunteers and students alike.

Dennis Beckner
My web page
My Twitter

Pictures of Saddleback Church Refinery

Here are a few pictures I took of the Saddleback Church Refinery the other night. There's so much more to see. The food area is still being completed. I'll get pictures of that when it comes closer to completion.

This is the gymnasium (AKA Wildside (Jr High) room)
____________

This is a blurry picture of Kyle setting up the marque for open house. This will normally have the name of our current high school series. This is the entrance to the theater where the high school ministry meets. Pictures will come later of the inside.

____________

This is the 1/2 court basketball court.
____________

This is one of the many ministry-related walls in the Refinery. This particular wall currently is dedicated to the Global Soles Ministry. Students collected over 30,000 pairs of shoes to be distributed around the world. The goal is to collect 50,000. They're well on their way. There are several ministries highlighted throughout the Refinery. More pics to come later.
____________

This is another ministry-related wall. One of our recently-graduated students competes in the X-Games and has won many awards. He and some of his fellow competitors have formed a ministry called Riders For Christ. They travel around doing motorcycle stunts and sharing the gospel. They're having an amazing impact.
____________

This incredibly dark picture is of the ping pong table in the game area.
____________

This is obviously one of our pool tables. What is not so obvious is that the student on the right is playing his pool cue like a guitar. We're still trying to help him understand how this game is played.

You'll notice the clocks in the background on the wall. That is another one of the ministry walls dedicated to missions. Under each clock is a picture of students in a different part of the world for mission projects. The clocks are set to the local time of each country the pictures represent.
____________

This is a gigantic fan that hangs above the Refinery's game area. It's a super cool design element that adds to the feel they were going for.
____________

This is a bike I saw sitting behind the Refinery Sunday night. I thought it was kind of funny so I took a picture of it. You may be able to see some red writing in the bottom picture. It reads, "Jesus loves me... more than he loves you." I laughed when I saw it.
____________

This is one of the waterfalls in front of the building. There are a couple more smaller ones off to the right of where this picture is taken.
____________

This is the baptistery which is situated beside the waterfall in the picture above. The first baptism took place last Sunday night after the open house was over. It was amazing. Next weekend we will have our first baptism open to the student ministry.

I Love Youth Ministry, Part 2

Tonight the Refinery at Saddleback Church opened for the first services. The Refinery is the new building on campus for the Wildside (Jr High) and High School Ministry. It will also be used on Thursday nights for CRAVE (College Ministry).

I attended both High School Ministry services. The first one had a good number of students. The second service was a full house. It was amazing. The staff did not disappoint. They had some good stuff going on during the service. It was the first week for the incoming freshmen so they had some fun welcoming them. Doug Fields knocked it out of the park with his message.

My favorite part of being in the Refinery tonight was being in the game area. It was super easy to connect with students. I started a game of pool with a one guy. As more people came to hang out, I turned it into a 2-on-2 game. Then another came to watch so I had him take my place while I stood there watching and talking to them while they played. They were all horrible at pool so we got to talk until the service started. They never did finish the game.

Something else I love about this building is how easy it is to spot kids who are alone. Now that we have the games going on, it's easy to get them involved or for them to feel involved by watching what's going on instead of sitting by themselves waiting for the service to start. The effectiveness of our ministry just jumped exponentially with this new facility.

This building was designed for ministry to be done in many ways. Lives will be eternally impacted for generations to come because of the vision of Saddleback Church and the generosity of its members. I'm honored to play a part in it.

Dennis Beckner

The Refinery (Saddleback Church's Student Ministry Building)

Worked there again today helping get it ready for the big opening weekend. Today I saw the fancy Starbucks-style coffee machine being wheeled in. Woo-hoo!!! This place is going to be amazing. Yesterday after I left they mounted these amazing murals on the walls highlighting different student-led ministries.

That's such a great way to:
1. Promote ministries
2. Show that students can do anything they set their minds to
3. Build up the students who step out to do something

The only bad part is that one of the murals has a typo. Yikes! That's gotta hurt a little.