Student Leader Weekly 2.5

Brent Dongell and Christian Boulton | Oct 04, 2021

Teen Trends

While we celebrate how God can be glorified through multiple mediums and tools including social media, it's important to know that studies have pointed to the potential dangers of Instagram/Facebook posting in regards to a teenage girl's self-esteem. Documents from Wall Street Journal have revealed that Facebook knows the Instagram app is damaging for teen girls showing that 40% of Instagram users are 22 or younger and that 32% of teen girls say that when they feel bad about their bodies, Instagram makes them feel worse, while another 5-6% tracing suicidal thoughts are traced back to Instagram use. Since Facebook is planning to create an Instagram version for users 13 and younger, this is important to keep in mind for students' overall well-being.

 

Song of the Week

Hulvey is a newer rap artist on the scene. His songs have a great flow, and one of his most recent songs tells a part of his story in the song, "Can't Tell It All."

 

Game of the Week

Camp Game Idea: This may not work for every group, but our team knows of at least one one church camp who currently purchases squid at their local grocery store and plays a game of ultimate frisbee with squid instead of a frisbee for those who are wanting to consider risking a new gross spin on an older game.

 

Sermon Illustration

Consider the example of someone getting lost in a 13 inch computer/iPad screen or 50 inch tv with no awareness of what is happening around them. This may even remind you of the gorilla basketball experiment from over 20 years ago where many participants miss the gorilla walking directly across the screen while completely focused fully on the task of counting the number of times the ball is passed between players. Like 2 Cor 4:16-18 suggests, is it possible that if our schedules are too full and focused on the world and the temporary things right in front of us like a TV, that we may completely miss the bigger picture?

 

Encouraging Thought

This picture of two jars reminds us that parents have over 3000 hours a year (about 8 hours a day) to teach their kids about Christ, while the church on average has 40 hours a year if they are with their Christian community for only an hour a week (not including holidays). Value the moments you have with your teens and empower families when you can. You're doing awesome!

 

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The vision of the Student Leader Weekly is to empower high schoolers (alongside adult leadership) with practical ministry ideas.

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