This morning, I am starting my day in one of my newest favorite places; Chick-Fil-A. Specifically the Chick-Fil-A in Washington, PA. I am trying to create a few NEW habits, 1. taking more time to actually sit, study, and write, 2. watch my calorie intake, and avoid the expense of too many visits to Starbucks. Chick-Fil-A is local, inexpensive, and offers a quiet place with free wifi where I can sit, think and write. Has I shared in Monday's blog post, Taking Control of What I Can Control, I am attempting to be intentional with my life, my ministry, my dreams, and my family.

Now here I am with a breakfast burrito (440 calories), a glass of water (0 calories); which together only cost me $2.75. Free wifi, a quiet atmosphere, great worship music playing in the background, and time to sit and write. And it has occurred to me that a number of weeks have passed since a posted a ministry recap.  So today's post is being written to share some of the things we have been doing in our ministry. Welcome to this weeks Weekly Ministry Recap!

Yes, it's been quite a while since our last recap, and much has happened. We have hosted a super successful first-time winter retreat with the new group. We took 44 students and 10 adults to a local camp for a great weekend of winter fun, minus the snow and cold. We've made it through our first Holy Week and Easter at the new church. And we've survived our first congregational meeting. It's actually hard to believe it's March 31st.

​But let's talk about what has been happening more recently. Here is this weeks run down.

High School Ministry :: Tuesday Night
Game Time: Wiffle Ball in the Gym
Snack: Chips & pretzels, Juice, soda and water
Announcements: We had 2 announcements
  - OneWay 2016 Dodgeball Tournament [ CLICK HERE ]
  - 30 Hour Famine coming up in April 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
Teaching Message:
  - MADE, Week 3
     - Knowing Your S.H.A.P.E. (We'll talk more about this later.)
Total Student Count: 16

Junior High Ministry :: Wednesday Night
PSC Camp Night
Game Time: Scatterball at the end
Snack: N/A
Announcements: 
  - OneWay 2016 Dodgeball Tournament [ CLICK HERE ]
  - 30 Hour Famine coming up in April 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
Teaching Message:
  - Special Student/Parent Night announcing our Summer Camp Dates and Plans
Total Student Count: 25 / Parent Count 4 

Let me share with you a little bit of our recent series, MADE.
​
First, our MADE series for the High School Ministry. This was a great series. Simple to put together, but it came off pretty powerful, and I'm excited to where this might lead us as a group.

The point of the series was to get students thinking about ministry, and how to use their gifts and talent to serve within the student ministry, church, and community. We started by looking at 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 and illustration of how the Church body is like the human body; many parts making up the whole. There is a fun little video on YouTube.com that we used as an into. It's call Mr. Potato Head Theology. (You can find it here; https://youtu.be/FeFdByvk5uo.)

​Week Two included a look at Spiritual Gifts. I made use of a website that I have found super helpful in dealing with Spiritual Gifts. The site is, SpiritualGiftsTest.com, which offers a great explanation of the gifts and an easy Spiritual Gifts Test that only takes about 5 minutes to complete. Of course when teaching Spiritual Gifts, you want to be aware of your church's doctrinal stand, as there a number of differing opinions as to the usage of Spiritual Gifts in todays church. Another great resource I've found helpful is Matt Chandlers sermon series on Spiritual Gifts. Matt is the teaching pastor at The Village Church in Texas. You can find his sermons among their podcasts.

We spent our time looking at the Spiritual Gifts that are listed, talked about them briefly, and then encouraged the students to take the Spiritual Gifts test online and bring in their results.

For Week Three we utilized Doug  Field's S..H.A.P.E. materials which helped students realize how they can bring the Spiritual Gifts together with how God has uniquely shaped them with their talents and abilities, passions and experiences, to DO ministry. We had the student begin filling out their S.H.A.P.E. Inventory that night.

All of this is leading us to the recruitment of students for our new Student Ministry Teams. I am also organizing the materials in a way where I can share what we did and used. When it's ready, I'll make it available here on the blog.

Over all, it's been a great week. I have a lot of things that I am working on as I get ready for our summer activities. Tomorrow marks the beginning of my 8th month at our current church. It's been great to be able to take this first year easy, just observing and learning as I go. It's something I plan on writing about later when I finish this first year, because it's really the first time I've come into a church and hadn't initiated a lot of change.

Hope your ministry is going well!

​- jay

Happy Thursday, and thanks for stopping by the blog today. As we do every Thursday, I'm sharing this weeks student ministry activities.

This week turned out to be a short week. After welcoming our high school ministry on Tuesday, we ended up canceling our junior high ministry on Wednesday night due to a snow storm that blew in  doing the rich hour. We are located in an area where the roads (especially some of the back roads) aren't always easily traveled. And one of my policies is to never willingly put a student or their family in a position of risk or harm. So I usually lean towards caution when considering whether or not to cancel a ministry event. Wednesday was such a night. The snow fell fast and the road turned gross pretty quick. So no youth group.

But we did meet with our high school students and had a great night. Our numbers are beginning to rebound after the holiday break. This past Tuesday we had a pretty good turn out.

High School Ministry :: Tuesday Night
Game Time: Jedi Dodgeball
Snack: Klondike Bars, chips, soda, water, coffee drinks
Announcements: We had 3 announcements
  - Winter Retreat, February 26-28, 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
  - 2016 Winter Jam, January 30, 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
  - After Dark, February 5, 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
Teaching Message:
  - The Jesus Centered Life, Week 2
     - Jesus and His Parables
Total Student Count: 18

Junior High Ministry :: Wednesday Night
CANCELED DUE TO SNOW STORM
Game Time: 
Snack: 
Announcements: 
  - 
  - 
  - 
Teaching Message:
  - 
Total Student Count: 00

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check in next week and see what we're doing.

A question for you...
What are your winter weather cancelation policies? Share in the comments below!

- jay

One of the things I am trying to do this year is to utilize Instagram as a means of communicating with our students. So just for fun, here are a few of the Insta-Messages we sent out this week! To see any of our Insta-Messages live, follow me at, @jayhigham. (I'll follow you back!)

We're back! Another new year, and another fresh start for our student ministry. This past week we jumped into 2016 with both feet! I'm excited about what God is doing, and how He is leading us to doing something new.

Both groups this week kicked off new series. The High School Ministry launched a 6 week study utilizing the Jesus Centered Life materials put out as part of the LIVE Curriculum, published by Group. And our Junior High Ministry started the LIVE Junior High Ministry curriculum.

So let me just run down this past weeks student gatherings for you.

High School Ministry :: Tuesday Night
Game Time: Volleyball (we had a smaller than usual group out this week)
Snack: Cupcakes, chips, soda, water, coffee drinks (we're so healthy)
Announcements: We had 3 announcements
  - Winter Retreat, February 26-28, 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
  - 2016 Winter Jam, January 30, 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
  - After Dark, February 5, 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
Teaching Message:
  - The Jesus Centered Life, Week 1
     - Who Do You Say I Am?
Total Student Count: 12

Junior High Ministry :: Wednesday Night
Game Time: Steal the Bacon (we went old school on our students)
Snack: Cupcakes and drinks
Announcements: We had 3 announcements
  - Winter Retreat, February 26-28, 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
  - After Dark, February 5, 2016 [ CLICK HERE ]
  - A Baby Sitting Service Opportunity
Teaching Message:
  - Who is God? Introduction Week.
Total Student Count: 38

Later next week I plan on sharing why I decided to go with the LIVE Curriculum, along with some thoughts on how we are planning to use the materials with our students. So be sure to check in next week!

Thanks for stopping by.

What are you teaching as you start the new year? Share in the comments below!

- jay