being jake wood

Weekly Teaching Series:

Another incredible Wednesday night… so much fun and so much that happened. We had 10 students make decisions to follow Christ… Yeah, 10! Transformed lives just get me EXCITED! This was my week back teaching after taking a break last week to have Caleb teach. I had a blast! You would think that after 12 years of doing youth ministry that it would get old… NOPE, it’s quite the opposite!
Early in the week we pumped up a special band that was coming to visit for 1 song on Wednesday. If you haven’t seen the video… well, it was hilarious! Here it is:

Facebook | Videos Posted by Twentyfour Seven: P3 BAND!!!! [HQ]

Message in a Sentence:

We find out who WE are, when we find out who HE is.

Element of Fun:

Of course we had the P3 Band live and played a crazy animal identity game… that was pretty similar to the LA riots in the 90′s.

This Week’s Scale of Difficulty:

7 out of 10. Lot’s of elements that came together for Wednesday night. Thanks to our amazing youth staff team and student leaders who make each Wednesday night possible!

Service length:

90 minutes

Attendance:

Up 150% from the same week last year.

Music Playlist:

Break Free
No Reason to Hide
He Loves Us

Wednesday Night Movie:

JW

Weekly Teaching Series:

What an amazing night! So many pieces are at work during a typical Wednesday night and our leadership team is by far the most incredible, dedicated leaders I’ve ever seen! I’m so pumped to serve with a group of men and woman who absolutely LOVE reaching teenagers for Jesus! It really shows every week!
This week we started our new 3 week series on identity and aptly named it “Identity Theft”. Tonight Caleb Kauffman or known around here as “Cub” spoke and did an incredible job sharing about who we are and who we aren’t.

Element of Fun:

Had a fun time competing against tribes with a yearbook picture game. We showed about 10 high school pictures of famous people and had tribes guess who they were. The funniest was “The Rock’s” high school picture… too funny!

This Week’s Scale of Difficulty:

5 out of 10.

Service length:

90 minutes

Attendance:

Up 142% from the same week last year… 13 visitor’s!

Music Playlist:

The Time Has Come
Living for You
Came to My Rescue

JW

Ministry can be very hard on pastor’s children. Your kids will hear you criticized. Your kids will watch you hurt. Your kids may see you wrongly strike back. Your kids might see your hypocrisy up close. Your kids might reject the church because you’re always there. Your kids may enjoy the extra attention when they are young and despise it when they mature. No matter how healthy your church is, a pastor’s kid will likely feel a different sort of pressure. Here are a few things we do to help our kids grow up in the fishbowl:

• We put the kids’ activities ahead of the church calendar. If my girls have a ballet recital on Tuesday night, either I pre-produce the message or have someone else speak.
• I try not to compromise my day off with church needs.
• I don’t talk about my kids in a sermon without their permission.
• Kim and I work hard not to talk negatively about the church.
• We live our private lives with personal devotion to Christ.
• We pray and talk about spiritual things with our children regularly.

JW

Weekly Teaching Series:

THE DIP: Part One

We began a new series this week called “The Dip”, and one of our youth staff members (Chris Fry) kicked it off. Chris did an awesome job and the students always love his teachings. We had 3 students make a decision to follow Christ and many more who received prayer. Overall it was an excellent night and a ton of fun!

Element of Fun:

We started a 2 week game series called “Helmut of Shame” where each tribe leader was brought up front and had to wear a bike helmut with a funnel attached to it. Each tribe was asked 3 questions. Whenever the tribe would answer incorrectly, the tribe leader had ice cold milk poured on them! It was lot’s of fun… especially when tribes where purposely missing questions just so they could see their tribe leader drenched.

This Week’s Scale of Difficulty:

6 out of 10. Everyone really pulled together to create an AWESOME service… we have a great staff of volunteers who put everything into it!

Service length:

90 minutes

Attendance:

Up 115% from last year

Music Playlist:

Living for You
Life Redefined
Wrap Me In Your Arms

Weekly Teaching Series:

VISION WEEK

Wednesday night was all about looking to the future. We talked about the past and talked about what the future holds for Twentyfourseven. It’s hard not to get excited when we talk about what 2010 holds for the students in this area. In order to reach this BIG vision, we asked every student to take the “One” challenge this year. The “One” challenge is to bring one buck every week for a year and focus on one friend that they will bring (not just invite) for the year. Students signed a commitment form that they posted on the prayer wall to remember. It was a very powerful moment to be a part of and I can’t wait to see the fruit from that challenge.

Sermon In a Sentence:

One buck. One Friend. One Year.

Element of Fun:

Played a upfront game where teams were given a glimpse of a celebrity picture and they had to guess who they thought it was. HILARIOUS! The highlight of the game was when Bill Clinton was shown and a student asked me if that was one of our presidents. Now I feel really old!

This Week’s Scale of Difficulty:

7 out of 10. It’s always a little sluggish coming back from holiday breaks, but overall the night went very well.

Service length:

95 minutes

Music Playlist:

Worship team BROUGHT IT this week! They closed us out with “Tear Down the Walls” and I could tell God was SHREDDING hearts and minds.

No Reason to Hide

Salvation is Here

Tear Down the Walls