EVERY TUESDAY

RUNDOWN

7:00 PM Students show up and leaders engage students in conversation.
7:15 PM Food is served and students continue with laughter and conversations.
7:45 PM Someone starts yelling... "5 Minutes!"
7:50 PM Students move into the main room for worship. Lyrics are typed on handouts.
8:00 PM Students worship and pray.
8:30 PM Students break into small groups throughout the house for Bible study.
9:30 PM Groups close and are dismissed.
9:59 PM The last student leaves.

PROPAGANDA

One of my leaders spontaneosly generated some more "propaganda posters for our high school small groups. These are legit and I thought I'd share.

THE ENLISTED POSTER

Here's a poster I put together to create interest in our high school small groups. I have shown the final product then attached a blank for you to tweak. Enjoy contents below. Click to enlarge then download.

THE SONG EMANUEL

MINUTE MARK: 1:05
"VERY FIRST LINE OF THE SONG WAS WRITTEN AS IF GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE WERE WAITING FOR JESUS TO COME... REMEMBER THAT?" Sings the song... "OHHHH... THAT'S SO SICK!" KIDS CHIM EIN AND SING..... WONDERFUL SAVIOR WE LOVE YOU.

a slice of worship at the Gathering

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.

How we raise student leaders.

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.

Student Ministry in Holland

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...

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

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 - 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)

NEW TMINUS DEMANDS from the BOSS & the LADY

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

This was so incredibly successful...

We gave our small groups a break for the summer but promised to meet once a month for a mini-reunion under the guise of an event we would host on Tuesday nights called "TMINUS." The premise is that we would post instructions and info 48 hours from tminus on our website. The depth of student response and readiness is in the hands of the kids. We created viral incentive to spread the word by making our first tminus a competition between groups. They got points prior to the event for recruiting incoming freshmen, texting me, bringing visitors, well... see for yourself...

T-MINUS “Showdown & Shindig”

Let’s have a little competition to settle the best of the best. Points will be awarded for various events throughout the night. This will be a Gathering group vs. Gathering group Showdown. “The Gathering… you know who you are!”

Where to Be: Lakeline Mall Foodcourt no later than 7pm! (but we will not stay there… after party for this night will be at AVERY RANCH pool so have your parents pick you up there.)

What to Bring: Digital Camera, towel & swimsuit (for the after party… don’t wear your swimsuit to the mall) 

What will happen? All you need to know is that you better be there and you better bring it. This is a team competition night and we’re going to tell you how to start off with mega points before the real competition begins.

    GET POINTS NOW!

    - The Gathering group that has the most members present “at or before 7pm” gets 20000 points. 

    - Another 10000 points awarded to the Gathering group who comes in themed out team attire.

    - Any new person there who has never been to a Gathering is worth 2000 points for the Gathering group that brought them.

    - Any incoming 9th grade student who you bring is worth 2000 points. (Somewhere, someone you know has a list of all the 8th grade students from middle school going into 9th grade.)

    - 500 points for every text I get that tells me… 1. Your full name 2. Who your Gathering leader is. ***Only one set of 500 points per phone number… so tell your friends they better text me!*** TEXT 954-643-5992

    - 10000 points for the first Gathering group to text me who their student leader is for this competition. 8000 for the second, 6000 for the third, 4000 for the fourth, 2000 for the fifth. Text me who they are and who your Gathering adult leader is.

    The clock is ticking. Prepare for fun. You now have 48 hours….

The next thing we did was post this video on facebook six hours before the event.

When the kids showed up they competed against each other in a video scavenger hunt at the mall. Here is my list for them. The leaders did such a great job. The kids had a blast. Afterwards we went to my neighborhood pool and my hook-up at Chipotle dropped free burritos for us and the kids. It was just a great time of hanging with kids and loving on them. Oh yeah... the list.

 THE BOSS’ DEMANDS

Take a group picture of everyone sitting on one bench outside at the front of the movie theater entrance. 10000

As many pictures of someone on your team shaking a stranger hand. Only one photo per stranger. 2000 per stranger

Cram your team in a photo booth then take a picture of it with your camera. 30000

Bring back one of either one of these items (business card, brochure, or promotional piece with a store logo) from as many stores in the mall as possible. 1000 per item (one item per store)

Get one member of your team to try on a pair of Chuck’s then take a picture of it with your camera. 15000

A picture of Jacob from the movie Twilight. 40000 points

Get a group of three strangers to simultaneously play an air guitar, air drums, and air vocals at the same time then take a 40icture of it with your camera. 20000

A picture of Harry Potter. 5000

Have everyone put on a pair of sunglasses then take a picture of it with your camera. 10000

 Have two people from your team do pushups in front of GNC then take a picture of it with your camera. 15000

Take a picture of a member of your team with a sales rep from the following stores; Macy’s, JC Penny, Sears, & Dillard’s.  20000 per store Must be able to see nametag with logo.

A picture of Edward Cullen. 500000

Place all of your team in a human pyramid then take a picture of it with your camera. 40000

Take a picture of one of your team members washing their hands at Bath & Body Works. 2000

A picture of one of your team members in front of a Troy Aikman jersey. 2000

Bring back a chicken nugget. 20000

Bring back a lock of someone’s fresh cut hair fro a salon. 25000

Bring back as many receipts and movie stubs as you can. 1000 per item

A picture of three of your team members underneath Dumbo the flying elephant. 20000

 A picture of five of all of your team sleeping in one bed. 25000

A picture of three of your team members riding on a merry go round. 10000

A picture of one of your team members riding on a riding lawn mower. 25000

Take a picture of all of your team members laying flat on their back together somewhere in the mall. 35000

Cram everyone into one bathroom stall then take a picture of it with your camera. 50000

Place one of your team members on a boat then take a picture of it with your camera. 20000

 A picture of each of your team members with chopsticks in their nose. 5000 per team member

Bring back a chik-fil-a straw. 1000

Take a picture of one of your team members giving a stranger a piggy back ride. Must have stranger’s permission. 50000 per stranger

Bring back a packet of mayonnaise. 1000

Have one of your team members sing to a stranger and hold their hand then take a picture of it with your camera. 35000

 Have someone pose reading a Twilight book then take a picture of it with your camera. 15000

Disturbing Video my High School kids are getting on Facebook today...

Students... I got this disturbing video today in an email. I think you better go to http://www.uprisingnews.com and read every single word. Looks like it's gathering groups vs. gathering groups.... most points wins.

I don't know. I'm just saying.

HS Small Group Baptism

We host student led small group gatherings in two locations in NW Austin. Each location holds 20 to 25 students. They meet for food, worship, and then break into smaller groups for Christ centered discussion. Once  a month on Tuesday night both groups unite for worship. This month we met together for members of any group who had not been baptized yet to go ahead and take the plunge. At this service we had eight high school student take that step, one small group leader, and my own son Cameron.

I wish I had audio of the worship as it was unbelievably stunning. The video below reveals a peek into the evening. It is long and you may find yourself fast forwarding through it. For those of you at Gateway it is worth the full ride.

For more info visit the Uprising.

Need a low budget youth group event idea for July?

Last year I took me and my familia to the 7-eleven down the street on "free slurpee day." That's when I realized, too late I might add, that I should do as many 7-eleven's in the area that I could as an activity with a small group on free slurpee day. I'm sharing this goodness with you and mocking up a flyer for the tentative all small groups on deck social. You can get a map of your available 7-eleven's here as well as strategize a video contest here. I would charge the kids a buck a piece just to cover gas. After that go get as many free slurpees as you can, enjoy the road, and the conversation with your group.

maybe we did it too well...

We use Facebook to communicate with our kids about events and news for our student ministry services and our small groups. Yes we have a website for those who don't have a page but for the most part all of our kids are on FB. We shoot video, use fan pages, wall to wall, groups, as well as broadcast our services live on Facebook. If you want to know how to do that it's pretty easy. Just drop me a line. Anyway, in one of our regular announcement shorts we decided to do the old cheesy behind the back skit. It's subtle maybe too subtle because it wasn't until two day later after posting it that kids realized what was going on. 

Speaking of Facebook... let's be friends.

the gathering important announcement from chad swanzy on Vimeo.

letter to the audience

Last night because of a winter storm watch we were forced to cancel our small groups in all of the homes. Instead we shifted gears and set up equipment in my house in order to do a small group Gatheirng online. Myself, my wife, and three other leaders sat in the living room and spoke with our community that we blitzed that day. We let them know that we were going to be there online and that the Gathering would happen via our live streaming site we started four weeks ago for our high school service. 

It was a great night of discussion. Students were bolder with questions and comments because of the pseudo anonymity. It was very interesting as it unfolded. Anyway here is the letter I wrote the next day to our community and if you're interested the post below this one contains the video we blitzed our kids with on Facebook and our student site hours leading up to the event.

In this letter I detail how many people watched and where they came from.

Students & Leaders, Last night was a fun time for me and the leaders who were able to extend our Gathering to you at home during the bad weather. This mornign my wife and I have noted those of you who talked about how much you liked it. You may not know this but for the last four weeks we have been streaming live over the internet our wednesday night services at that same website. The thing I liked about last night and that I have a vision for is happened as a result of Nina. Nina sent a note to all of her friends in Kansas and out of that response Miranda joined our Gathering last night and was able to participate. Later that night I checked our sites statistics and during the viewing time we had one participant from each of the following states; Kansas, Missouri, Colorado, South Carolina, & Florida. We had 36 unique visitors form Texas. There were hits from San Antonio, Cedar Park, Round Rock, Austin, Houston, Georgetown, & Liberty Hill. They came to our page from Facebook, my blog, Gateway Church, our student site as well but what I want is to see them come to our services because of you. Maybe they are having a hard time coming to a physical church. The live service is a great way to break the ice and let them see what you see every week. In the future we have had discussions about offering vodcasts for things you want to talk about that we would host late at night for 30 minutes, or to do re-broadcasts of our best services that you could watch online with your friends. I know this sounds weird but it is simply a tool. It is not the only way to introduce your friends to this community but it is a way that, picture this, knows no boundaries or limits. They can come from all over here in the states, the world, and who knows what will happen after that. Last week eight people watched our talk about pain and addiction and we haven't even begun to really promote the online service. I wanted to share with you what I am thinking and what I see as an opportunity. Thanks for taking a risk with me last night and trying this out. When we do this in the future I see it getting only better. I also see we need some chat room rules to just keep us focused but we will figure it out as we go. If youhave any thoughts or ideas let me know what is on your mind in respect to this topic. Have a great day... Chad

first gathering multiplies

So, this past week marked a small milestone for the Uprising. When I came here in Aril of last year, to Gateway, the high school ministry was sitting about 35-45 in average attendance. Wednesday night was the only collective expression of opportunity for high school students outside of activities and retreats. So, in June I started the Gathering, our small groups environment. We met in our house every Tuesday for food, worship, and then student-led small groups. We started at first with seven. I spent three months teaching them accountability, spiritual growth, how to pray, read the Bible, basics. By August is was around 15-20 in attendance and at when school started I picked 5 student leaders and empowered them to start leading the discussions. That group grew to an average of 41 students in attendance by November and as I conveyed them from the start, as soon as it reached that number we would multiply. We added our second Gathering and have 2 group now of 20 students to a home, with adult mentors, house leaders, and student leaders for the groups. There are about 3-5 groups per Gathering. The goal is to have four Gatherings by the end of 2009 with 30-40 students in each with a total of 120-160 students in community. Yes we still have Wednesday nights as a tool for outreach outside of their daily life. Here is a short video I sent kids on our Facebook page.

THE GATHERING MULTIPLIES from chad swanzy on Vimeo.

the Gathering (our HS small group community)

Below are a few shots I took last night of the Gathering. The Gathering is our small group community for high school students at the Uprising. We meet at 7 pm eat, worship, and then break out into student led small groups throughout the house. 

In this picture and a little bit not pictured in some places are 39 kids. Our adult leaders (eleven last night) break out with the students in small groups but do not lead them. They are there to back up the student leaders and mentor the groups that break out. I have nothing to do with this but the groups are so strong. They pour over the passages and topic in community and really dig in. Discussions voluntarily last among students for an hour and a half to two hours. Last night kids were still here until after 10 pm.  

Our next step will be to find a new house and meet there for a month so kids can get used to it. We will then multiply or break the group off and send one group back to my house. With two groups they will need new student leaders and a few more adult mentors but then it will lead eventually to doubling the students in community. We will keep doing this until the next phase to be discussed later. I just thought I would share this beautiful thing with you that God is doing. This group in the picture started in June of this year with just five kids. Thank you God.

59%

This past Tuesday was kind of a cool milestone. We had 59% of our high school Wednesday night attendance in a small group. Six out of every ten students at the Uprising were plugged into a small group with a student leader and an adult caregiver. That's really exciting to me.

student led small group pep talks

Below is a video of myself giving our high school student leadership a pep talk before they get ready for our student led small group community. I try to keep it short and simple. We do this every week and my hope is that it will help them see themselves in all of the potential that God is giving them.

The production value is extremely low but the kids seriously don;t care in fact it seems to aid authenticity. Just my thoughts.

 

SOUL REVOLUTION FOR HIGH SCHOOL

Gateway Community Church is going through a series called Soul Revolution. It's an 8 week study of how to connect with God more deeply through the 60/60 experiment. Sounds weird right? Well basically during a 60 day period participants will set their cell phone, watch, or timer to go off every 60 minutes during the day. When the timer goes off it reminds the participant to reconnect with God in either prayer, reflection, or observation of what God is doing around them. During this time once a week participants connect with a small group or running partner to talk about the experience their observations, and spiritual movement. 

This discipline is extremely hard. It is not for those who just want to jump on a bandwagon. It reveals a lot of junk, some hurt, sin, and spiritual negligence. By connecting with God every hour during the day for 60 days participants begin to experience God move in incredible ways.

Last night at our High School Student Led Small Groups we launched out into the experiment. I have about 45% of our average attendance participating in this series. I am excited for these students and anxious to see what happens. You can learn more about it here and here. If you are interested in having some of your students participate down the road let me know.