Youth Lesson: Burn us Up

Below is an old lesson I taught in August of 2008. If you are looking for a lesson on faith and need some ideas to jump start your train of thought, hope this can be of help.

We’re talking today about faith to do what God says.

Lots of great examples
David vs Goliath
Jesus in garden

But TODAY Abraham and son Isaac

Gen 12
Isaac is foretold as the one whom blessing comes through

VOLUNTEER: ACT THIS OUT

What would be your dream car/truck?
God says:  I gave you this dream for a reason and you are going to use this for my glory.
Great things will happen because you have this car, I WANT you to have this.
I want you to get in this car, will you do that?
I want for you to drive it along the coast will you do that?
Now roll down the windows and crank up some tunes.
Now drive your car up a rocky mountain.
When you get to the top get out of the car and set it on fire.

Gen 22

God is asking Abraham to give up his most prized thing, his son, the one whom the promise was to come through. It didn’t seem to make any sense. Kinda makes God sound like He’s going back on the promise. Abraham figures God will raise his son from the dead and he complies. Whatever was going to happen, Abraham had faith.

God holds the future
Abraham didn’t forget the promise, He just knew the one whose word was good
Not uncharacteristic for Abraham
God told him to move out – he did
God tells him to kill son – he was about to!

Play song: Holy is the Lord by by Andrew Peterson

Parallel to Jesus
Was nervous in garden but had faith this was His father’s will and was right

God may be asking you to do something simply to test your faith. You may get back whatever it is you would be giving up, and if so great! But if you don’t you should trust God that He has greater things in store. We should act as though we trust God whether we get something out of it or not, whether or not it makes sense to us.

Daniel 3:8-27

Burn us up!

You know there are a lot of people out there singing songs, making movies, trying to act like their big and bad. They lie about crimes they never committed, talk about all their women and the people they say they shot up. They try to look tough by putting their faith in themselves and really their “selves” are just fake! Cardboard cutouts that you can knock over if you put them to the test.

It takes a real man, takes a real woman, to stand before a king and say “Burn me up. God can save me, but if He chooses not to I will STILL burn for him!” To sacrifice our lives, even give up relationships with those closest to us, children, siblings, parents, friends. That’s the kind of sacrifice we should be willing to make for God, and even if it doesn’t make sense when God asks it, I promise you it’s worth it!

R. Travis Crocker

Student Family Minister – Beaufort FBC

Associational Youth Director – ABANC

traviscrocker@beaufortbaptist.org     252-269-0578

Monitoring your kids internet activity

Over the years, parents have come to me with the question of how they can protect their kids from things on the internet. Meanwhile, the kids themselves are less keen on mom getting advice of that sort from the youth minister. I tell them that if they don’t have anything to worry about it shouldn’t matter. And ultimately, the most important action a parent and child can take is to have the kind of covenant relationship where Biblical values are passed on and lived by. Any checking up after that is ensuring the covenant is not broken, and is not replacing the coversation that must take place before any monitoring is done.

Here are the notes from my most recent “MySpace Class”

The question: How can parents check into what is going on with their youth on MySpace?

This raises another question that must be attended to first; where does a parent draw the boundary between privacy and responsibility? That depends on the parent and the youth. I personally believe that whatever policy you pursue with your youth, a covenant should be clearly communicated with reasons as to why you are doing this, out of care and protection, rather than your youth finding out inadvertently. Better to communicate love than to let them attribute your actions to snooping.

Whenever a youth adds a friend to their page, their page is visible to all of that persons’ friends. In other words, whatever you share with Sally you’ve now shared with all of Sally’s friends. The argument for privacy becomes mute when you’ve already shared your information with the rest of the world. Some parents have used this fact to their advantage by creating their own page and being added to their youth’s page. Provided the youth is not secretly operating another page under another name or social networking site this can be a good policy. It also means you are connected with all of their friends. That can be a good thing. I have also seen it be a bad thing. A stepfather who didn’t like a boy in the youth group made threats against him online and statements against other people.

There are methods of monitoring the online activity of your youth. Then there are numerous ways of subverting those methods. Below I have outlined some of the methods for monitoring, methods youth may take to cover their tracks, and how you can come back with the upper hand. Ultimately however, we cannot play games forever. The only for sure thing is that youth adapt for themselves the biblical values that you have passed down to them, not merely because it is their parent’s faith but because it is their own.

Software Monitoring
•    You can use software to monitor the keystrokes, screen images, and every piece of data that goes on at your computer
Circumvented by: Separate user accounts created by the youth
Parent prevention: Set yourself up as the administrator on your computer and select that other users cannot change system settings

Circumvented by: Use of a proxy server that masks the activity of the user
Parent prevention: disable proxy sites as a keyword through your software. Set up an account through OpenDNS.com so that anything that gets past your software will not make it past the computers that connect you to the internet. Think of it as another wall of defense.
Hardware Monitoring
•    Plug a device into the USB port on your computer that automatically monitors and blocks content on your computer
Circumvented by: unplugging the device
Parent prevention: if you notice that the logs you are reading have large gaps in them, you at least know that your youth is hiding something
Parental Control through Operating System
•    Set up your internet browser and your operating system (XP, Vista, Mac) to block questionable content
Circumvented by: youth installs a separate browser and/or operating system and browses from that
Parent prevention: browse for “cache” and “history” files and you’ll find a plethora of content from whatever has been viewed. Look for programs that speak about dual booting, boot sectors.
Peer to Peer file sharing
•    Used to pass files and information directly between persons with a minimum of servers and somewhat under the radar since a web browser is not used
Parent prevention: disable program installs or monitor through software monitoring. Programs typical utilize the Gnutella network and include BearShare, Limewire, and others. Look for variants on the BitTorrent protocol and Instant Messaging programs such as AIM, ICQ, and Adium.

Again, these are techniques to help you protect your youth from dangerous activity. They should never be used without a Christ centered covenant with your youth. Snooping is not the answer, laying out an agreement that is Biblical is. These are to ensure that the covenant is not broken, as temptation is often close to overpowering in the hormonally saturated an media ravaged mind of a teen. As the theory of the panapticon illustrates, sometimes just knowing someone is watching is enough to stave off temptation. And in a generation already known for it’s social awareness and connectedness, there will always be

How to make bright green fire: An idea for your VBS and more

We are adding a little twist to our youth VBS tonight that I wanted to share with others who might wish to do the same.

The Lifeway Outrigger Island Curriculum (the best VBS Lifeway has put out that I’ve seen,) calls for a reenactment of Jeremiah 36 where the king burns the scroll that Jeremiah and Baruch have presented to them. We are going to have youth throw in cards with the commandments they have not kept. Where we depart tonight is that we will have a second bowl full of bright GREEN fire. Since green represents life, we will have youth decide what particular commandment they will work on observing that they haven’t. The green fire will represent the fire of God inside of them and their placing their cards in here will represent giving it over to God.

So how do you make green fire? Take a teaspoon of boric acid and mix it with about a cup (at least) of HEET antifreeze. You can get both of these items at Walmart and inexpensively. Mix the boric acid with the HEET for about 30 seconds and light it. The eerie green glow is something you just have to see! And I’m sure our youth will be enthralled with it tonight as well

Youth are selling themselves on craigslist

For any of you who deal with youth, this is important news to be aware of and to communicate to youth parents.

CNN has a video up now on their site, (included here as a youtube video,) detailing how young girls are selling their selves to prostitution on the popular free classifieds site Craigs List. The video even goes into their motivations and police intervention. Though the footage is from the west coast, we are not immune over here to the same thing happening.

Click below for the video:

Youth Game: Underground Church and Subliminal Scavenger Hunt

We are doing something interesting with our Underground Church game that I wanted to share with other ministers.

Background for Underground Church:

Underground Church is a fun game like hide and seek but more intense that opens the door to discuss persecution of the early and current church and talk about the value of faith that we so often take for granted.

In underground church you assign “persecutors” for every 5-7 youth present. They wait outside of the room for 4 or 5 minutes. During the first two minutes the remaining students are the “congregation” and elect a “minister” who will hide somewhere in your church and not tell anyone where they are. During the remaining two minutes, the congregation members must hide and try to find the minister at the same time. When the four minutes are up the persecutors run in. Their job is to find the minister first and win the game. The congregation members’ job is to find the minister first and win the game. If the persecutors find the minister, he/she must admit they are the minister. If the congregation members find the minister, they must all gather around them and announce they’ve won so everyone knows the game is over. If the persecutors find a congregation member other than the minister, they place them in “jail” where they cannot leave until tagged out be a free member. Only one person at a time can be released, with 10 seconds before another can be released. In that 10 seconds the freed captive is untouchable. Persecutors cannot guard the jail.

Some other rules I’ve outlined particular to us:
1) No diving from the balcony or baptismal pool
2) No hiding in bathrooms
3) No hiding in the closets where we store gardening equipment (ouch!)
4) Don’t play with locks or bar doors
5) Don’t remove any items from any rooms

New addition: Subliminal Scavenger Hunt

Okay, that’s underground church but recently we kicked it up a notch with a “subliminal scavenger hunt.” We set up the premise that the Christians crash landed in a restricted nation where missionaries are persecuted. They have been shipped to this location where they will be brainwashed into not being Christians. Fortunately, a few Christians escaped and modified the brain washing videos with their own subliminal messages. These messages contain hints on where to find pages of the Bible you will smuggle out. Here is how to construct your own video:

Browse YouTube for videos like the Dharma brainwashing video from the TV show LOST. You will find several clips with subliminal messages already in them. You may have to edit out one h__ word. Next, if you want to add a little fright, search for the “Cursed video” from “The Ring” movie. You will have to edit out some of the scarier parts! Now, if you have any Christian HARD rock videos gather them up to. Download the YouTube videos (google download YouTube to find out how,) and put all of that into your favorite video editing program.

Next, hide passages of scripture on little pieces of paper throughout your church in the day time and take pictures of their locations. Drop these pictures at random throughout your strange little video at 1.5 to 3 seconds a piece depending on how challenging you want to make it. Now when your youth go to jail, they can watch a “brainwashing” video that actually gives them hints on where to find the Bible passages for smuggling. Give them a reward at the beginning of the next round like extra hiding time or a get out of jail free card.

For an example of some files I am working with click below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gar6JyV6800
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bTvAUVPyLI

Let me know if you’d like some help with this, have questions, or would like a copy of the DVD I’ve put together.

Grace and Peace,

R. Travis Crocker

Student Family Minister- Beaufort FBC traviscrocker@beaufortbaptist.org

Associational Youth Director – ABANC 252-269-0578

Web site tools: Tuggle

Provide your youth a Christian alternative to MySpace built specifically for ministry. Click here.

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Web site tools: Event Wax

Schedule events, get a list of who is coming, and take payment online. Click here

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Web site tools: Series of Tubes

At
stubes.net, you can create your own virtual channel of clips from
YouTube and other places which is handy if you are trying to offer
youth clean videos to watch as an alternative to the filth out there

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Youth resource online

thesource4ym.com

Lots of great youth resources there

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Implementing media in your youth ministry

Chances
are, you’ve seen some of the filth on tv and in the music industry and
wanted to offer some alternatives to your youth. It is difficult to get
someone to turn from something if they don’t have anything to turn to

There
are doubtless countless ways to implement Christian media into your
ministry and I’d love to post below any suggestions you’d like to send
me. But for now, I’d like to offer up the model that my church is
working with and perhaps all or part may be useful to your needs.

Interlinc

Interlinc
is a quarterly subscription service that sends you a HUGE box of the
latest Christian music along with accompanying Bible studies that use
activities and music while remaining scripturally responsible.  Each
box also contains at least one DVD which could be about evangelism, a
documentary on finding God in a tragedy, just about anything. You get
large posters of Christian music groups to plaster all over the youth
room, information about upcoming concerts and conferences, and other
little goodies (if you ask nice they’ll give you a free t-shirt when
you signup but you have to ask.)

Cost
is about  $320 a year for the regular box and you have the option of
mainstream music or edgier stuff like Christian rap and hard rock. To
get both, you can sign up for the “Works” package for about $500 a
year. If you want just the Bible studies and about 10 songs you can get
a “Basic” plan for $34.95 a year and just download extra songs from
iTunes as you need them. I use the “Hot” box because my youth love
Christian rap and the hard rock has actually seen some sucess too.
Plus, we use up those CDs as incentives. For an example of one game I
did on navigating lifes’ obstacles, click here and no I don’t get paid for the endorsement

Point System

In order to encourage students to establish habits that will stick with them, we offer points for certain things.

Fill out the Christ journal each week:  375 points

Brought a friend who is not from another church: 400 points

Assisted on a service project through our church: 500 points

Memorized the scripture for the upcoming Sunday school lesson: 250 points

First one at the youth meeting: 50 points

The
Christ journal is the Student Life Sunday School journal that
corresponds to that weeks lesson. I am also implementing a “Who Want’s
to be a Millionare ” game where they can earn points by answering
questions about the devotions that week. I will be doing that randomly.
To get the powerpoint files that you can alter the questions in, click
below (this file originally hosted at egadideas.com)

EGADMillion.zip

With those points, they have the chance to win things from the Interlinc box.

DVD: 4,000 points

CD: 2,000 points

Poster: 1,000 points

Miscellaneous Items: usually 500 points

Rent from library for one week: 100 points

After
a CD has been sitting around for a while I start to decrease the points
necessary to earn it. You can try to decrease the “price” of each CD by
100 points for every CD that is acquired or drop them however you need
to based on group interests, age of the CD, ect.  Inevitably you’ll
likely see some CDs fly off the shelf while others sit there
indefinately. That’s normal (unless this happens for all of them and
maybe you need to switch from Mild to Hot or vice versa in your music
selection.) One thing I am starting to do is use swapacd.com to
purchasse some used Christian music for $3 and change with no shipping.
Yes it’s legal because you are buying someones’ old music CD and they
get credits to earn someone elses used CDs. You can even try and trade
some of your outdated music for new music. I’ve tried to trade in some
old discs from the 80’s for some things from last year but no takers
yet.  You can buy 3 “credits” on their site for about $10 good for 3
CDs. They operate a sister site too for used books if you want to trade
in that used curiculum for something more current!

If
you live in the right areas you may be able to get a box of goodies
each quarter for free. No it’s not as good as Interlinc but as someone
who works with youth I’m sure you agree that when it’s free it’s worth
a look. Go to youthpastorperks.com and look for a participating store
in your area. The closest one in our Association is in Wilmington. If
you happen to be in their community, you can get a free box of CDs,
demo CDs, posters, ect., on a first come first serve basis.

With
the DVDs I bring in some outside resources. What you get with the
interlinc box is more for teaching a Bible study and that’s great to
have on hand when you need it. But I also buy used DVDs of Christian
movies on Amazon for around $10 a piece shipped. If you’re a Netflix
subscriber you can sometimes grab a good deal from their site too. We
have a movie night for the whole church, entertaining and outreach,
once a month. Parents bring baked goods to sell which we sell with soft
drinks and any other fundraising we can slip in like photo calendars
and car magnets. At the end of the night, we give away the movie to
whatever youth wants it and has the points saved up to earn it. Now
you’ve involved the whole family because they’ve watched it together
and probably will again if you do this. Some movies we’ve tried you may
want to look into are: The Ultimate Gift, Evan Almighty, The Second
Chance, The Nativity Story, End of the Spear, and Facing the Giants.

There
is of course the music DVD that comes with the interlinc box. This is
great to play when youth are entering Bible study, especially if you
project it onto a wall as large as you can. A really cool option to do
is to rip the contents of the DVD onto your computer, put your
announcements into little VH1 style bubbles or boxes, and overlay that
on top of the music videos. Of course this requires time and the right
equipment. That is a much easier trick if you have a program like
MediaShout. If you haven’t forked over the massive amount of cash for
that program, but you use a mac, just use iMovie and go get some cofee
while it processes the video.

Moving
on to other media, nothing shouts youth culture lke a web site! You can
get one from Lifeway but you WILL be overcharged for a plain web site.
The cheaper and more effective way is to register at godaddy.com for a
domain name (this would be www.yournamehere.org)
and a web hosting account (think of this as real estate where you will
set up shop.) Once you’ve got all that done, buy a program like Adobe
Contribute and follow the onscreen directions to 1) Create a new
connection 2) Enter the settings given to you by godaddy.com which are
ftp address, ftp password, and username. Contribute will let you choose
a template so all you have to do is replace their text and pictures
with your own and hit publish! (If anyone would like more details on
setting up a web site I’lbe happy to post another more detailed article
with screenshots.)

Third Party Add Ons

A friend of mine just tipped me off to Tuggle
which is a ministry specific alternative to MySpace that keeps you in
touch with your youth and even lets them sign up for events. You can
limit your network to only those you invite in as well. Another service
worth mentioning is Event Wax
that lets you schedule events, take signups and payment, all online.
Finally, if you have any videos of your youth consider putting them on
YouTube under your youth groups name so long as you have first aquired
legal permission from the parents and youth (for an example form click
below and scroll to the bottom of the document.)

AnnualPermissionFormCluster.doc

If
you only want to do pictures, check out Flickr which lets you post a
lot of pictures for free and an unlimitted amount for only $25 a year.
For photo slideshows, see Animoto.com which gives you online previews
for free and downloaded files for a few bucks.

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