This year in Main Street we’re trying to get the students to memorize the New Testament books of the Bible. A couple of Sundays ago, we printed the names of all the books of the NT on posterboard placards and had many of the students participate in holding them on the stage and we all recited the 27 books found in the New Testament.
source Vimeo
On Sunday, January 22, 2012, myself and 4 middle school boys preached a sermon together on the Bible. Eli, Hunter, Brady, and Nils participated in sharing about the historical reliability, truth, contents, and other proofs of Scripture.
It was a fun experience for the students and me… and I hope it was educational and challenging for the congregation @ Hayward Wesleyan even though it wasn’t “normal”!
Manuscript [2.07mb, pdf]
Audio file[6.76mb, mp3]
Video link [coming soon... @ vimeo]
source YouTube
**other media elements in the sermon are copyrighted**
(you can “listen” to them in the audio, or you can “view” them in the sermon video)
I give “presentations” on a regular basis. My audience is children and middle school students. If I haven’t done my homework or thought through a plan, I’m toast!
This is a clever video that depicts the essence of why some communicators FAIL in their presentations:
HT Youth Leader Stash
source YouTube
On Monday, December 12, 2011, I “retold” the Christmas story in LIVE action with the students @ the Junior Followers Christmas Party.
It was a lot of fun for the students to play Mary and Joseph, baby Jesus, shepherds and angels, animals, and wise men.
In my experience, doing this kind of storytelling with children really helps to cement the details of the story as well as engage their imaginations and involvement!
source Vimeo
For the last 4 years, we have recorded and archived the teachings during Main Street. The main reason we do this is to provide ideas for other children’s ministry teachers and parents on create ways to “teach” and tell the stories of the Bible. You can view most of the videos @ vimeo.com/jdmavis (you’ll see many other videos there as well). We’ve made this audio only podcast available for those who don’t want to watch a video on their computer, but to download and listen on a portable device.
Main Street Teachings walks students through the stories of the Bible chronologically. We try to teach simply and concretely (specifically for our audience: children). We also try to teach and embed the stories of the Bible and the character of God they reveal into the hearts and lives of students.
Our hope (my hope) is that by subscribing to the Main Street Teachings podcast, you’ll be strengthened in knowledge of God’s Word and challenged to live out His ethic to the world.
Subscribe to Podcast via iTunes
Subscribe to Podcast via Feedburner
This is one of my favorite TED talks. Kathryn Shulz not only speaks to “being wrong,” but also tells great stories that are true to the human condition. Perhaps humility in our thoughts and experiences is the preeminent characteristic instead of wrong or right, fallibility or infallibility.
Our thoughts and actions as followers of Christ should be what truly illustrates to the world what God’s intention of humanity. Watch and let me know.
About this talk:
Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong. But what if we’re wrong about that? “Wrongologist” Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just admitting but embracing our fallibility.
source TED.com
A while back I heard about a sermon on silence in which a teacher did not say a word. On the screen behind him, the slides “spoke” the message about silence. It’s teaching about a topic using the very construct of the message itself. That combination of intentionality in content as well as delivery can be very powerful in communication.
Blaine Hogan did just that in the video below, entitled “Be Here Now.”
source Vimeo
On Sunday, August 14, 2011, I preached a sermon entitled: “What’s the Point?”
The message had to do with what’s the point of being a Christian, a “Gospel-Person” as we have been saying lately. It fleshed out the Gospel in narrative form rather than a bullet-list. The conversation ended up swirling around Galatians 2:20 and how the YOU is gone/dead and CHRIST is in/alive. The implications of the Gospel are staggering… exciting, but definitely staggering.
A statement was also made about the Bible: “The Bible is about God continually working to fix this world through his kind of special people in order to make his kind of world.”
Have a listen… enjoy!
What’s the Point? (7.32mb, mp3)
What’s the Point? (78.2kb, pdf)
The Pirate Who Tried to Capture the Moon, by Dennis Haseley (available used through Amazon)
This summer we have been teaching through the books of Daniel (6 weeks) and Esther (6 weeks). It’s been light and fun (for the summer), yet still deep and meaningful (because we are interacting with God’s Word!). Here are the links:
There are:
