Student Leader Weekly (1st Edition)

Brent Dongell, Paige Rouse, and Christian Boulton | Oct 14, 2020

Teen Trends

All over Tik Tok and Instagram are personalized and styled home screens. With the new iPhone update, teens and young adults are decking out their home screen over the past few weeks. As silly and non-productive as it sounds, this has been a way for Gen-Zers to express themselves. During this global pandemic and traumatic year, this might be a small way for teens and young adults to connect with others through expressing themselves. You can use this as a moment to ask questions and come alongside students toget to know a their personalities and preferences isntead of belittle their excitement.

 

Worship Song of the Week

Brandon Lake, the writer of the hit worship song This is a Move, has just released a solo album with Bethel Music called House of Miracles. Some of the songs on the album include I Need a Ghost and Just Like Heaven. The biggest song from the album is the one in which the album is named after. The name for the song and album comes from a mission that he and his wife have felt God has placed on their lives, which is to allow for their house to serve as a placed wear burnout and weary ministers can find rest and experience miracles. 

 

Game of the Week

One awesome team building game, called Team Architect, requires players to build the tallest free-standing tower as possible with the limited supplies that they’ve been given. Divide everyone into groups of 3-5, whatever you think will work best. Give each group a random assortment of items like marshmallows, uncooked spaghetti noodles, scotch tape, toothpicks, some paper, or anything else you can come up with. Just make sure you have something that can serve as an adhesive, even if it’s not tape or glue. Then, start a five-minute timer or whatever time period you need, and let your students get creative! During this time, watch how your students interact with each other. I bet you’ll learn a lot more than you realize just by watching them. Once the timer has gone off, see which group has the tallest free-standing tower. The winning group gets bragging rights and a possible career in engineering. 

 

Sermon Illustration

After a game full of great ideas and creativity on display, there was probably at least one group's tower either that ended up being pitifully short or crashing to the ground. Watching the buildings crumble might bring to mind Mark 3:24-25 when Jesus says, "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." If there was one group that struggled more than the others, the odds are that there were some people that weren't exactly on the same page. Show your students how a group that has any division in it won’t last in the long run. Everyone is going to have their own ideas, but the groups that did the best, more than likely, were the groups that incorporated the best of everyone’s thoughts. Building off of that idea (pun intended), Romans 12:4-5 says, “For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” The groups that performed well probably didn’t have everyone trying to build the tower at once. One person might have been handing out the tape while someone else was sticking the spaghetti noodles into the marshmallows, and a third person could have been the one building the structure. God made everyone with different gifts, and He wants to use our gifts for His glory. Encourage your students to embrace those gifts. Not everyone can build the tower, and if everyone tried, there’d be no one distributing the tape. If everyone was trying to preach to the crowd, who would be the one witnessing to "the one", counseling people that are struggling with issues, or helping to disciple the next generation of Christ-followers? Everyone has a part to play in God’s kingdom. 

 

Encouraging Thought

Being love through tough seasons is purposeful! It may have been difficult for you lately, but remember Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” This verse can keep us focused in ministry. It’s about doing what is good, what is right. It’s about continuing to pursue students that isolate themselves. It’s about continuing to raise your hands in genuine worship when you sense awkwardness because no one else in the room is. It’s about continuing to find leaders that will impact the lives of your students, even though you’ve lost count of how many times you’ve been told no.  Know that you are believed in and prayed for as you read this.

 

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