chad swanzy

Youth Leader Blogs (Erik Ullestad)

2009-11-08T11:39:00.007-05:00

Erik Ullestad

Erik is a youth leader in Des, Moines IA. We usually don't pay attention to the bio's when we're reading other blogs, looking for ideas, or connecting with other people but I love a couple of things about Erik that he wears on his profile. First off he's throwing down I'll Love You Forever as one of his favorite books, likes all of the Star Wars movies, and also listed Hoosiers.

Here's an exert from one of his posts...

Saturday night I participated in the 4th annual Reggie's Sleepout...but it was the third time I had done something like it. When I first moved to Des Moines in 2003, the first youth minister to befriend me was Brent. One day, while sharing a cup of coffee, he shared an idea for a joint ministry event called a "Lock Out". This was a counter to the classic youth lock-in, where kids stay up all night playing ridiculous games and drinking too much Mountain Dew. It sounded like a cool idea, so I hopped on board.

On a chilly October night... READ MORE.

You can follow Erik's love for students on his blog or by catching up with him on twitter.

Erik's Blog

Erik on Twitter

Have a blog or can share the one you love to read for a future post? Leave the url of your blog and your favorite youth ministry blog in the comments. Or send me a tweet @chadswanzy.

SIT SOWN IF... (GROUP GAMES 48 OF 70)

2009-11-08T09:28:00.003-05:00

YL Playbook is a great place to grab some games. I don't know if we will ever become a superpower like the wonder twins but on my end of the "shape of a bucket of water" end of the deal I formed a slide above for this mixer game. I'm typing the directions here but giving you a link to YL Playbook so you can grab the mixer questions.

Materials:
list

Directions:
Ask the entire group to stand. Instruct them to sit down when the statement characterizes them and remain seated. Encourage them to be as honest as possible. If you have trouble because most are not sitting down, give them general characteristics (sit down if you are under 15, if you have on white socks, if you are in love).

THE QUESTIONS...HERE!

NEW SERIES RHYTHM

2009-11-06T18:32:00.003-05:00

4 – RHYTHM WEEK 1 – IN RHYTHM WITH GOD

Purpose: God has a rhythm that being in sync with will allow us when the time is right to shred a sick melody. How do you sync with God’s rhythm.

11 - RHYTHM WEEK 2 – IN RHYTHM WITH OURSELVES

Purpose: Let it soak in that God loves you. You don’t have to settle for thinking that you’re worthless and unworthy. We are talking about the wonder of God’s love and the confidence it gives us in his rhythm.

18 - RHYTHM WEEK 3 – IN RHYTHM WITH OTHERS

Purpose: Being in community with people who are in God’s rhythm gives you a chance to encourage others and be encouraged.

FREE GAME 2 Liter Challenge (47 of 70)

2009-11-05T14:21:00.005-05:00

We played this game last night. The game came from YLPLAYBOOK. I made the slide (click slide to make larger then save to desktop). Enjoy. Video for how we did it below directions.

Materials:
3 2-liters of pop

Directions:
Have three teams of two up front. Give each team a 2-liter of pop. The rules are that they can pass the 2-liter back and forth as they drink it. The first team done wins.

Middle School Band Represent!

2009-11-05T14:00:00.003-05:00

Last night we started a new series, "Rhythm." About five hours before the show our slated high school drummer called after coming down fast and hard with being sick. We called the next student drummer and he was committed so we called our junior high 7th grade drummer, Justin Burke. Justin has an incredible following on youtube, plays soccer really well, and then can show up after his game and do this below. Justin is also my pastor, John Burke's, son. Students are awesome.

would you be so twitter kind?

2009-10-29T11:56:00.002-04:00

If you are on twitter add me... @chadswanzy then, if you don't mind, add yourself to the list by clicking the pic below.

Preview of our Spooky House

2009-10-28T17:31:00.003-04:00

No, we're not going to accost kids with a Halloween gospel track. We're just gonna give them the best night of their life and scare their poop shute clean. Some awesome Costume Party and Haunted House fun.

Costume Party & Haunted House Preview from chad swanzy on Vimeo.

Good times before an event unfolds. Talking about work and loving on kids.

a slice of worship at the Gathering

2009-10-28T11:29:00.001-04:00

This is worth at least 3 minutes of viewing. Mostly because I want you to hear Andy's voice. This is one of our high school small group meetings I have posted about before. Enjoy. There's about 20-25 students here both in and out of camera's view.

Neil Cole Biblical Community

2009-10-23T10:51:00.002-04:00

Neil Cole at Gateway for our Leadership Advance Conference

The topic... multiplying leaders through biblical community

This was a great weekend and this talk was the first talk in the leadership weekend.

Advance Leadership Weekend Friday Night from Gateway Church on Vimeo.

middle schoolers talking about throwing up

2009-10-18T23:36:00.001-04:00

I had this audio so I threw it over a random footage of oil and water. Enjoy as our middle school kids talk about throw up.

THROW UP from chad swanzy on Vimeo.

At the middle school deepen service we are currently having a discussion on the life of Christ. To generate conversation and create an environment of participation we open up with deep thought provoking discussion on things like throw-up. Tonight's passage eventually became Mark 10:4. Enjoy!

How we raise student leaders.

2009-10-09T10:03:00.005-04:00

I wrote the following email to a student pastor from California who was asking about our high school student leadership.

Her question, "What are you using for student leadership training with your group?"

Kristel,

I wish I had an organized series of steps and progression of points to share with you. As I convey this just know that it is by memory and if needed I will be happy to explain anything that your interested in knowing more about.

We do leadership training in the context of community.

When I came here 17 months ago the Uprising had one service to reach out to seekers and believers with. My observation was that we were not doing both really well because our energy and program was try to meet students in the middle. We had no small group paradigm at that time.

One night in May of 2008 I made an announcement at the end of our Wednesday night show that I would be upstairs in the church office hosting a five minute meeting for anyone who want to go deeper in their relationship with God and be given the chance to lead as a student. So that you know, about 90% of our students come on their own. Their parents are not members of Gateway.

About 20 kids showed up in the conference room. I explained to them that during the summer my wife and I were going to host a Gathering on Tuesday nights. There would be food, worship, and then discussion over the Bible about how you lead a small group of your peers. I told them to spend the week deciding if they wanted to do that and that I would get in touch with them about what time and how to get to our house. I let them off the hook as well telling them it was totally okay if it was something they weren't sure about.

So we started with seven students. Every time we met I told them our plan.

1. I'm gonna teach you about Biblical community.

2. In September we're gonna launch small groups.

3. You're gonna lead your peers in discussion.

4. Adult leaders are gonna shepherd the group and you but the small group moment is yours.

5. We're gonna grow the house to about 35-40 students then multiply into another house.

6. When we multiply you need to have taught another student what I'm gonna teach you so they can lead at teh next house.

During the summer I followed this progression...

1. First night... Defined the community and created an environment of high expectation as well as safety and security for them to grow in. Told them to read the book of I John for next week.

2. Second night... Discussed verses that stood out in I John. Had them draw a life map and then share that life map with the group. The life map was a pivotal moment for the core as they had to explain pain and life progression to the group. The we moved to Acts for the next week.

3. We discussed Biblical Community. Broke into groups by gender. Confessed sin to each other and paired them into accountability partners.

4. We discussed passages on how to read the Bible. Taught them how to journal.

5. We discussed passages on prayer. Taught them how to pray using ACTS acrostic... adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication.

6. We discussed the great commandment and the great commission. Had them right down friends at the uprising and in their school they would begin to pray for and bring into the community.

7. We did a service project. They made about 300 sandwiches, place them in bags. Went downtown handed them to the homeless and spoke with them as they gave food.

8. By this time they were hooked. Right before our launch we were sitting at about 15 students. When we launched officially they had already been talking to their friends.

9. We taught them how to generate conversation with their peers and how to ask questions.

10. We took communion and prayed the last week before our launch.

We launched and started with about 25 students at one house.

I started a Facebook fan page for the group where I could celebrate and provide updates to them. We gave them the lesson the week before so they could study it. We paired student leaders with adults so they could bounce their questions off of them. The house had 3 cells for girls and 2 cells for the guys. By November the house had an average of 37 students. I divided into another house in January.

We met in that house as a group. Prayed for the house, new leaders, divided the kids, had worship and launched that house like you would a church. It is very important you weekly tell the kids that they will multiply so they don't get cliques.

We changed one thing after we launched. We told them once a month we would unite both homes for celebration, prayer, worship, and stories. We still do that except that one month is praise and worship, then the next month is service.

By May of this year we had on average 55 students in community. We broke for the summer but only met once a month. We relaunched last month with our two original homes and added a college house for our exiting seniors.

We will repeat this pattern of raising up leaders and multiplying houses. I gave our adult shepherds of these student led communities the book, "The Be With Factor" by Bo Boshers to help them mentor their student leaders. Leadership is by weekly interaction with those students in the backdrop of community.

I can't tell you enough how this revolutionized our program. Life on life is better than any curriculum I've ever used and this is my 15th year of vocational student ministry. The Bible and Biblical community is the only way to go.

If you have questions let me know.

Chad

I forgot to tell her that as soon as we did this we were then in turn able to go all out seeker in our wednesday night show.

Current Series "DATE-MARE"

2009-09-30T08:48:00.001-04:00

Date-Mare begins Sept. 30th 2009 at Uprising McNeil. There are a lot of creepers out there but worse than that there are creeper scenarios that you need to run from. Over the next four weeks we're gonna make sure your relationships aren't riddled with fear.

Week 1 "Too Serious Too Soon!"
Week 2 "They'll Love You When You Do!"
Week 3 "Looks Good To Me"
Week 4 "I Can't Be By Myself"

lawn chair night at the uprising

2009-09-09T12:54:00.002-04:00

September 9th at the uprising is lawn chair night. You bring two lawn chairs, one for you, and one for a friend you invite. It's just like we like it... relaxing and chill. Starts at 7:30 pm. Share this video with your friends. If you don't have a chair we have some.

zombie bloggin...

2009-09-04T09:36:00.002-04:00

I'm feeling like this blog is just a trolling mindless online corpse. If it's coming to you in a reader you can severe it at the neck and not miss too much. Horribly sorry about the lethargy.

I guess I'm saying that there is a lot going on but I hardly have time to write. It forces me to give you the uber quick highlights of what I'm thinking.

1. I have been on the job at Gateway for about 16 months.

2. Moving from a church with small groups to a church of small groups is a tough transition.

3. The questions asked of me are totally different. Example: How many students attended at each service? vs. How many leaders and students are in a small group or triad?

Cool stuff...

1. 16 months ago there were 25-30 middle school students... tops, today there are 140 to 150. We had 35-40 high school students today about 95 to 100. The entire community went from 55-70 to 235-250.

2. We have four times the amount of small groups and leaders for middle school then we did 16 months ago. Some of which are high school and college age students who have raised up in leadership.

3. Our high school program had no small group community... today 55-60% of our global attendance is in weekly small group community.

4. I have seen our leadership community grow and unify around building a ministry focused on relationships and being Jesus to students.

5. We do not get high school students from Gateway. We just don't have families with high school kids yet. Our church and community is so young. 90% of our high school kids come on our their own and their mom and dad are not attenders at Gateway.

Other thoughts...

1. It is was so much harder to pop the 100 attendance bubble for middle school than it was for me to pop the 200 attendance bubble in my previous church.

2. Being a high school pastor is totally different than be a high school director. At our previous church I directed about 150-180 high school students but I had to live vicariously through leaders. Here I am getting to be on the front lines but at the same time preparing and pushing our leaders to be the shepherds as our high school program goes over 100.

What it all means...

1. I see us hitting 150-180 middle school kids and having 125-150 high school kids soon.

2. I need more leaders.

3. My staff... me = only one full time. Jon = middle school pastor is 5-8 hours part-time. Andy = campus ministry director 15-20 hours part time. I have volunteers every where else for small groups, worship, admin, events but I'm gonna need a full time middle school director soon.

So this zombie is out. Pray for me as I troll through Austin and the interwebs looking for students!

Current Series "HACK 2 SKOOL"

2009-09-03T17:33:00.001-04:00

WEEK 1 - STRESS

WEEK 2 - STRESS FREE FRIENDSHIP

WEEK 3 - A, B, C'S OF DECISION MAKING

The kids you lead...

2009-08-10T14:53:00.003-04:00

I saw the two pictures at the bottom of this post on Facebook today. It was posted by a student I led 10 years ago in Colorado. Brad graduated from our ministry and left to attend school at Liberty University. Today he and his family are leading a church plant in Denver. One year ago today within the first month of that plant Brad and Haley watched their baby girl breath her last knowing her next breath would be her first on the other side of this world.

Knowing Brad and what this day was a year ago floors me. His faith has not wavered. I know it is outside of me. It reminds me that every student I lead will face life in all of it's beautiful moments and even it's harder ones. We are challenged to create disciples and Christ followers. Is this not the most incredible privilege ever? I'm not worthy. God be praised and lifted above everything.

Student Ministry in Holland

2009-08-10T14:23:00.002-04:00

Today I got to sit down Nynka and Yohan. They are on a two week trip touring churches and having conversations about youth ministry with leaders here in the states. There next stop is Saddleback so I got a chance to set the bar for Doug and Josh before Nynka and Yohan arrive.

We were able to share with them how we create environments for non-believing students to come to that engage them where they are at and connect them with Christ. At length we talked about our house communities and student led small groups we host through the Gathering.

On their end it was interesting to hear their points of pain and what they are faced with. It reminds me that universally Satan loves to take teenagers and tell them they are worthless, unworthy of love, and hopeless. He also loves to wrap them up in crippling pain through addiction and abuse forcing them to grow callous to God and defensive, reluctant, even bitter towards people who want to help.

Nynka and her team are connecting with students in Holland and are networked with churches to reach out to broken and hurting kids through relationships and caring adults.

At the same time Nynka is challenged right now to get the team and program simplified. "We have too many programs." The temptation to do everything is always present. The reality is that you have to choose to do two to three things really well as opposed to doing a dozen to thirty things marginally. For us it's creating relational community and helping students take next steps spiritually.

It was cool to learn and share at the table today. I now hand them over to Doug and Josh.

Ashley asks...

2009-08-08T01:03:00.004-04:00

I got a comment asking me to explain how we choose music for our Wednesday night program for high school students. Basically, I pray and think through the coming year and topics relevant to the audience. I have two environments with two different purposes at the Uprising.

Our biggest environment for taking steps is Wednesday night. This is where Christ followers are encouraged to bring their friends. We also encourage them to start with the relationship first, and then bring them to an event to crack the ice, or to one of our regular mid week shows. If that isn't working we also feel Younglife is a great place to start.

The second environment is our student led small groups that meet in homes throughout Austin where there is always good food, worship, and thick Bible study.

I believe Ashley is asking about our Wednesday night program. Once I've wrestled through the topics that make sense to anyone over a semester I take the teaching schedule and share it with the students in the band. They go back and dig into the latest songs for pieces whose lyrical content describe the tension or purpose within the topic.

We usually shoot for a leading cover song. The students have selected everything from G-n-R to Devil Wears Prada. After the first song they will execute fast paced anthematic worship songs. This is just a preference so please don't put a verbal beat down on me. We have physically seen fringe kids and seeker kids walk out the door with nervousness on their face if we get too contemplative, slow, or introspective. We will do slower paced worship but it will be much later in the school year after we have relational leverage. So the pace is fast and the transitions are quick. They will then do one last cover song which is always a secular band right before the talk. The lead singer will introduce the song and tonight's topic describing the lyrical energy and then give students a chance to contemplate the big question in the song or the feeling being portrayed.

Our thick, deep, and contemplative worship is student led but done at our Tuesday night house Gatherings. You would see a jimbay and an acoustic at every house.

So, here is our talk progression for the fall. It includes August so they are brainstorming now the rest of the year. I will let you know what they come up with.

See if you have any ideas yourself.

2009 FALL TEACHING CALENDAR

AUGUST

12 – SEND ME SERIES WEEK 1 – IN MY HEART

Purpose: Students need to know that God commands them to share his story with others. So what holds us back from being courageous? What does it matter? In this talk we go beyond motive to moving our heart toward seeing people the way Christ sees them.

19 - SEND ME SERIES WEEK 2 – IN MY ACTIONS

Purpose: How do you love people at school? Do people see and hear things from you that point to Christ? In this talk we take steps toward being intentional about the opportunities we have to share who Jesus is.

26 - SEND ME SERIES WEEK 3 – IN THE THINGS AROUND ME

Purpose: We want to help students think through all of the opportunities and relationships around them and learn how to use those situations to move people toward Christ.

SEPTEMBER

2 – HACK TO SCHOOL WEEK 1 – HACKING STRESS

Purpose: We’re going to learn how to deal with school stress at school from academic to social.

9 - HACK TO SCHOOL WEEK 2 – HACKING STRESS FREE FRIENDSHIPS

Purpose: We want to help students both have and be the kind of friend that is a stress reliever.

16 - HACK TO SCHOOL WEEK 3 – HACKING STRAIGHT “A” DECISIONS

Purpose: Let’s face it school is a landscape of deathtraps and possible pitfalls. Let’s learn a few tips from God’s word about making decisions that will keep you from them.

23 – HOMECOMING HOEDOWN

30 – DATE-MARES!!! WEEK 1 – GETTING TOO SERIOUS

Purpose: Students often get into dating trouble when they get too serious with the opposite sex. Why is this sometimes a bad thing and how do we avoid it?

OCTOBER

7 - DATE-MARES!!! WEEK 2 – THEY’LL LIKE YOU IF YOU DO

Purpose: There is a lot of frightening pressure out there to haunt your life with giving away everything you’ve got physically. Learn to avoid this date-mare.

14 - DATE-MARES!!! WEEK 3 – LOOKS GOOD TO ME

Purpose: Sometimes they look good from afar but they are far from good. What are some outward signs in the opposite sex to make sure that who you’re thinking about dating is the true them.

21 - DATE-MARES!!! WEEK 4 – FOR REVIEW

Purpose: To wrap up all of the date-mare talks.

28– COSTUME PARTY

NOVEMBER

4 – BUILT TO SHRED WEEK 1 – IN RHYTHM WITH GOD

Purpose: God has a rhythm that being in sync with will allow us when the time is right to shred a sick melody. How do you sync with God’s rhythm.

11 - BUILT TO SHRED WEEK 2 – IN RHYTHM WITH OURSELVES

18 - BUILT TO SHRED WEEK 3 – IN RHYTHM WITH OTHERS

Purpose: Being in community with people who are in God’s rhythm gives you a chance to encourage others and be encouraged.

25 - NO UPRISING (HIGH SCHOOL)

DECEMBER

2 – CHRISTMAS TALK (NO TITLE YET) WEEK 1 – THROUGH OUR EYES

Purpose: We don’t want to miss the meaning of Christmas so at the Uprising we will talk about what we’re so quick to get excited about at this time of the year and how that might mess up our chance to get the most out of Christmas.

9 - CHRISTMAS TALK (NO TITLE YET) WEEK 2 – THROUGH GOD’S EYES

Purpose: We want to share with students why God’s response to our pain with his son is so important to understand.

16 – CHRISTMAS PARTY

23 – NO UPRISING (HIGH SCHOOL)

30 - NO UPRISING (HIGH SCHOOL)

the trouble with the $ex talk

2009-08-03T10:53:00.003-04:00

The rhetoric in church to help non-believers absorb what they are about to hear from the pastor about God's view of sex is unfortunately based on the wrong assumption. The assumption is that all the world thinks that "Christians" shun sex and lace it with guilt, shame, and threats of God being upset about it as if it were evil. Leaders hope that if they can diffuse that negativity and then help people understand God is for sex then it will allow them to express God's boundaries. They hope the air in the room will be a buzz with people saying, "What? God is for sex? What, he created it?"

The trouble is that non-believers out there don't see what they think we see. They see lots and lots of people claiming to be God followers doing whatever they want with whoever they want. Local radio hosts in Austin recently discussed the best places to pick up women. The best place... church and not for reasons you would assume. The problem is that the lines between a non-believer's view on sex and the believer's view on sex are relatively the same. The buzz in the room is, "If that's true then why did the guy that invited me here just trample all over that boundary last night?" In the spirit of looking at the beam in my eye I want to convey that I am not being judgemental and critical but instead attempting to help us in youth work. We get to attack this head on but the work is so much harder than making an awesome lesson. Let me explain.

I want to say that if you don't have authentic, deep, and Biblical community at the core of your group then you're not going to realistically be able to talk about anything. Kids need leaders to not teach them the lesson but actually living the lesson with everything they have and everything they've got. The beauty of community is that it is secure, real, honest, and loving. The truth can be heard and presented with accountability. This means you will have to be in your leader's lives and start with them first. They are the ones that can influence and strengthen the boundaries of truth throughout the community. Help them wrestle out of their temptations, give them community, love them enough to lead them well, and then be honest yourself with your own struggles. If it's easy for your leaders to live duplicity with church and the world it will be even that much more easier for students to do the same.

The mental and spiritual channel switching that people can do today with the drop of a hat is too much for us to think we can overcome with a mass talk to a general audience we will never see throughout the week. Just some random thoughts. Thanks for reading.

NEW TMINUS DEMANDS from the BOSS & the LADY

2009-07-27T16:12:00.000-04:00

T-Minus at Lakeline Mall bring money for dinner in the food court. Small group team challenge starts at 7:00pm ends at 7:30pm (not the same as last time.) Have parents pick you up at Brushy Creek park at 9:30 pm. Wear close toed shoes, shorts or clothes to play hard in. http://www.uprisingnews.com

Summer Camp

2009-07-25T13:29:00.004-04:00

Gateway had never had a summer camp when I showed up 16 months ago. We made a lot of changes to create energy and environments for students to lead and experience life change. I want to say that the term branding, although secular, is something to take seriously when you're building a ministry. Getting kids to identify and take personal ownership of their community is a very powerful thing. Facebook has been an incredible way for us to communicate and reach out to all of our kids. Even though we have uprisingnews.com, the reality is that facebook is our website... seriously.

By the time we came to camp we had built a reputation that what we said would happen. So when I told kids we were going to give them the best week of their life we delivered. I was so pleased that our very first summer camp ever ended up taking 117 students and 18 leaders. Two years ago I got to take over 250 Flamingo road HS students to Tennessee and then the very next week our team took over 230 MS kids to Southwind in the Fl. panhandle. That was a record for FRC still waiting to be broken for an off campus camp and because of this first year run at Gateway I truly believe I'll get that chance, Lord willing, to load up that many kids again. I love camp. It was phenomenal. The band Courrier also did a great job of worship. We saw about 30 kids take a step toward Christ through salvation. Here are a few highlight reels.

900th post & Student Band

2009-07-25T13:23:00.002-04:00

Three weeks ago before we left for camp our student band was asked to play in the main auditorium. I did announcements that day and got to pitch Gateway's first ever camp. It was a blast. I was proud of the kids and all that has happened over the last year. We have seen so many decisions, kids taking steps, and team related things unfold. We have also doubled to tripled in size depending on the weekend. I'm stoked for even better things to come from God. Here are the songs as seen through the lense of the projector that day so forgive all the lyrics.

not dead just busy...

2009-07-21T10:26:00.003-04:00

Friends,

Don't you hate the blog post that you have to write to explain why you haven't been blogging? Well, this is one of those. I'm not dead and I have much to say so stay tuned and don't give up hope. I have been stacked and jacked with to-do stuff. Our fund raising banquet raised $21,000 for student ministry so I'll tell you about that later. Gateway's very first student ministry summer camp was off the charts! I had to go and two camps in one week. We had middle school on one track and high school on a seperate track. Take a look at our rundown for both camps. Courrier was our worship band for the week and they did awesome. I'll be posting all this and more. I love all of ya and miss our interaction online.

P.S. Pray for my beautiful bride. She is in Arizona at Younglives camp taking care of the babies of teenage moms so that those moms can be chased and pursued by Younglife staff inorder that they can hear about Jesus just like any high school kid should be loved.

This copy is hard to read but if you click the link below it will take you to a larger version that can also be printed. Have fun and if you have questions let me know. chad.swanzy@gmail.com or @chadswanzy.

Camp Schedule Ms & Hs

For the record...

2009-06-29T00:03:00.004-04:00

My Facebook... lets be friends.

My Twitter Page... connect the dots la la la la.

Our Student Ministry Site.

Our Fundraising Site for Students.

My Tumblr... Pictures and Video hardly any words.

Gateway Community Church... My Iglesia

My Prayer for Banquet...

2009-06-27T11:06:00.003-04:00

My pre-banquet thoughts...

“Dear Lord,

Give us the teenagers that we may lead them to Thee. Our hearts ache for the millions of young people who remain untouched by the Gospel and for the tragically large proportion of those who have dropped by the wayside and find themselves without spiritual guidance. Help us to give them a chance, oh Father, a chance to become aware of thy Son’s beauty and healing power in the might of the Holy Spirit. Oh, Lord Jesus, give us the teenagers, each one at least long enough for a meaningful confrontation with Thee. We are at best unprofitable servants, but thy grace is sufficient. Oh, thou Holy Spirit, give us the teenagers. For we love them and know them to be awfully lonely. Dear Lord, give us the teenagers.”

Jim Rayburn founder of Younglife & friend to anyone who leads youth to Christ

BANQUET SITE