Weekend In Review 5/20/12

Awaken Teaching Series: The Book - How To Read The Bible (week 6 of 8)

Message Summary:  R.E.A.D. the Bible.  R = Ready Yourself, E = Explore, A = Ask Questions, D = Decide what to do in response to this scripture.  If we approach scripture this way, it will show up in our lives.

Fun Stuff:  Doing push-ups and your mouth to move checkers into a stacked pile was pretty entertaining for our Ultimate Showdown game.

Worship Setlists: First Service - Like A Lion, The Stand, How He Loves
                          Second Service - Like A Lion, Rise and Sing, Like An Avalanche

Video Elements: Watched the rehearsal/music video for The Digital Age singing "After All"  Awesome song.
More importantly, we played a video of Christian comedian Michael Jr. asking random people at a mall to finish well-known scriptures.  It was eye-opening.

I Won't Soon Forget:  During second service, Todd decided to invite everyone to take communion when they were ready during the last song, "Like An Avalanche."  Made for an intensely cool moment.

Up Next: The Book - Living The Book (week 7 of 8)

Weekend in Review 5/13/12

Awaken Teaching Series:  The Book: The New Testament (week 5 of 8)

Sermon Summary:  The New Testament has 4 main sections.  The Gospels are like a biography of Jesus and the world around him.  Acts is a history of the church.  The Epistles(or letters) are a good source for instruction and information on Christian living.  And Revelation is a vision of the end times.  We can look at this in the way a person comes to believe and become a Christian.  They seek to understand who Jesus is, they find a church home, they discover what it means to live a Christian life, and at some point consider their ultimate destination.  

Fun Stuff:  We started a series of challenges called "The Ultimate Showdown."  This week, two contestants had to pull a dollar from their wallet and sit on it.  First to do so got to keep both dollars or trade them for candy.  

Worship Setlists:  First Service - Like a Lion, Came To My Rescue, Arms Open Wide.

                           Second Service - Break Free, Take It All, From The Inside Out.

Video Elements:  Tried out a new 10 second countdown timer and intro music.  Used a bumper video for the Ultimate Showdown game.  

I Won't Soon Forget:  Too often, new faces end up sitting by themselves.  That didn't happen this Sunday!

Up Next:  The Book - Reading the Bible (Week 6 of 8) 

Weekend in Review 5/6

Awaken Teaching Series:  The Book: The Old Testament (week 4 of 8)

Sermon Summary:  This week we took a look at the Old Testament.  Even though some people would consider it outdated and maybe even worthy of being thrown out, it's just as valuable today as it's ever been.  We compared it to an old chest, full of so much value.  The stories, the history, the guidance, the picture of God, and so many more things that you find in the Old Testament are invaluable and so worthy of our reading and studying them.

Fun Stuff:  We played a game about apples in honor of Apple Blossom weekend.  

Worship Setlists:  1st Service - Song of Hope, Mighty To Save, Surrender

                           2nd Service - Your Grace Is Enough, Mighty To Save, From The Inside Out

Video Elements:  Started the service off with a video of Awaken Worship's "You Are God." (http://awakenworship.org/)

I Won't Soon Forget:  We regularly have new faces in second service, but not nearly as often in first and yet first service had several new faces this week.  When students are willing to get up early enough on Sunday to be at church by 8:45am, I'm always impressed!

Up Next:  The Book - The New Testament (Week 5 of 8)

Weekend in Review 4/29

Awaken Teaching Series:  The Book: What's It About? (week 3 of 8)

Sermon Summary:  "God made everything perfectly, we messed it up, and Jesus fixed it."  Not a bad sentence to sum up the story of the Bible.  And the best part is, that sentence should make us want to know more.  And the only way to know more, is to open the Bible and read.  We talked about the way the Bible teaches us, corrects us, and prepares us.  The closing thought for the week was, "The Bible...it's only useful if it gets used."

Fun Stuff:  A game about famous villains and archenemies from movies, tv, and books gave us quite a few laughs.

Worship Setlists:  1st Service - Everything Glorious, Glory To God, Came To My Rescue
                           2nd Service - One Thing Remains, Like a Lion, Jesus Paid It All

Video Elements:  Showed "The Book" bumper video one last time because we had so many visitors who hadn't seen it.  Also showed a humorous parody video of an ad for the wii fit.

I Won't Soon Forget:  We had to pull out extra chairs and there simply wasn't much extra space second service.  I believe the 38 people in that service are the most we've ever had in that building at once.  It was a little tight.  What a great problem to have!

Up Next:  The Book - The Old Testament (Week 4 of 8)