Elevate Student Ministries » Jesus

The Car Lot

Shawn Michael — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 17:57:51 +0000

Just a head’s up, there may not be a lot of students (or any at all) at Catalyst Discipleship tonight. That’s because this week is the community-wide VBS-Alive and several of you are plugged in, serving and ministering. We think that’s AWESOME and are rooting for you! God’s gonna do incredible things through you this week — we know it!

In the case that there are students at Catalyst this evening, we’re gonna be looking at the parable of the shrewd manager from Luke 16:1-13. Check it out in this modern-day retelling of the story…

If you can’t be at Destiny tonight, whether you are serving at VBS-Alive or not, consider reading through this parable — you can do it online HERE — and thinking through these questions.

1) Are we supposed to look at this story as an example of what to do… or what not to do?

2) How can the church be more creative in advancing God’s Kingdom?

3) What is our student ministry doing to be “shrewd managers” of God’s Kingdom?

[video enclosure]

Jesus TXT’s

Shawn Michael — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:26:01 +0000

ht MPT

Sacrifice (“Man on Fire”)

Shawn Michael — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:08:07 +0000

This ending scene from the movie “Man on Fire” is a brilliant illustration of Christ-like sacrifice. John Creasy (Denzel Washington) gives his life so that Pita Ramos (Dakota Fanning) can have life, just as Jesus’ death gave us life.

ht YLPlaybook

[video enclosure]

Awkward Questions About Jesus

Shawn Michael — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:35:37 +0000

Reminds me of some Wednesday nights at the rally services…

Good Friday Service 2009

Shawn Michael — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:10:30 +0000

This has been a long time coming (a month after the event), but I think that the wait was worth it. My friend Aaron Malsbury, student pastor over at Canyon Lake Church of God, and another guy (Aaron’s friend) filmed the event with three different cameras so it took a little bit longer to edit. I’m so glad that we’ve got such great footage. What an amazing evening it was…

{video enclosure: “Good Friday Service 2009“}

Also, watch the two student human videos in their entirety on Blip.tv: “Opposite Way” and “Everything I Do (I Do It for You)”

Videos from the Good Friday Service

Shawn Michael — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:11:36 +0000

No, not the highlights video… that one’s still being “cooked up” by one of my friends who shot the footage. To tide y’all over until the highlight reels rolls, here’s some of the other videos we used at this year’s Good Friday service. We started out with this interesting and visual look at Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness…

…here’s a short video highlighting the words of Psalm 22…

…and an amazing video featuring Vicky Beeching’s “The Wonder of the Cross”…

Above All Else

Shawn Michael — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:00:19 +0000

Probably my favorite worship song of all time… “Above All Else” by Vicky Beeching…

Visit Vicky at vickybeeching.com.

The Best Nativity Story Never Told

Shawn Michael — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 04:20:55 +0000

Mr. Bean is hilarious! This makes me laugh every time I see it — so funny!

You Are My World

Shawn Michael — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:19:27 +0000

A brand, spankin’ new video from Washington Projects…

Jesus… is my everything… the reason why I sing…

Dave's Hope

Shawn Michael — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 04:54:43 +0000

Some of you know and are familiar with my friend, Dave, who comes and visits us at Destiny somewhat frequently. He’s a good guy that’s been in the hold of an alcoholic addiction for several years; he’s also been burned by the church, as a result of his addiction. I’ve been trying to build a relationship with Dave and show him that not all Christians are like the ones he has experienced in the past. I want to show him, as best that I can, that God will always love him and welcome him with open arms, no matter what.

Ever so often, Dave makes his way into one of Destiny’s Sunday morning services. He came in at the end of the service this Sunday… drunk. He was looking for me. He wanted to tell me about his past three months. He had been in some type of community program and had successfully been sober for 103 days! I was quick to celebrate his success, but he was also quick to admit his failure. He said that he lasted for about four days after he got out of the program — then he went back to his bottle.

He invited me over to his house to look at a collage that he had put together during his sober period at the center. He told me that this was created by the “real Dave”. I asked him if I could take a cell phone pic and share it with you. Here it is (click to see it larger)…

I was pretty blown away by the intense imagery. Several of the pics in the collage are of Dave, himself, from a very young age up to present. He labeled the middle section his “black hole”, representing his decent into alcoholic and it’s oppression. You can see where he took the word “decisions” and scrambled it to symbolize the confusion and hopelessness he feels. You can also see that he thinks it’s time for a change and that the key to his hope, he thinks, is in heaven. As you can guess, we had some good conversation today about his hope.

On the prayer walk we did with students two weeks ago, we stopped just outside of Dave’s residence and prayed for him as a group. Several of the students have already met Dave and have been praying for him. Several other students are now jumping on the bandwagon as a result of hearing the others pray for him. As we were holding hands in a circle there, one of the students mentioned the creek that runs next to Dave’s property reminded him of the cleaning, purifying power of the Cross. The picture he was seeing in his mind’s eye was that of every troubling “stone” in Dave’s life being washed away. I teared up at that.

Will you join me in praying for Dave’s hope? He’s searching. He’s REALLY trying to free himself of his demons. I believe that his “stones” are some day going to be washed away. I’m praying and hoping for sooner than later.