guys night

So last night we had our jr. high youth group. I'm not sure if everyone was still tired from the all nighter or what, but we only had 4 students show up! At first I wasn't sure what to do, my game needed at least 10, we had 4 leaders there, and the room felt big and empty. I tried to be as excited as possible about the 4 that were there (oh they were all boys and all 4 of us leaders were guys). So we watched some videos and had some fun, and then one of my leaders suggested we play "Have you seen my goat?" It's a dumb game where people sit in a circle with one person in the middle, and the point is people have to change chairs and if you are stuck without a chair you're now in the middle. With only guys playing it gets a little intense. It honestly reminded me a lot of boy scouts. And then I thought yeah it's like we are teaching these boys how to be men...then I thought, WE ARE teaching these boys how to be men!

I had plan to talk about some other topic, but I felt like the Spirit said, "Talk about what it means to be a man!" So I abandoned my previous topic and we sat around and worked out way through 1 Tim 4:12 and talked about the difference of being a boy and being a man.

It was a really good night! :)

(See numbers really don't matter)

Why I do what I do

So tonight I had HS youth group. I was excited about tonight, yet also was sort of dreading it. I had planned to share the gospel tonight and give an alter call. Alter calls used to be one of my favorite things to do. But now working with the same kids every week, it's hard to want to do them. I know where different kids are and know their struggles. Yet I know how important it is to do them.

So tonight's message was just pure gospel. I presented Jesus as the only way, and talked about how He is also the only one is is "Good." I talked a lot about how if you are not perfect you cannot go to heaven. Half way through a kid I have been praying for a long time raised his hand and said, "So what you're saying is I'm going to hell?" And I had to say, "Yeah, if you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus you are going to hell." That's so rough to tell that to someone. At first you might feel like a jerk, but really you'd be a jerk if you didn't tell them!! So after my message I gave the alter call and 6 guys asked for forgiveness and gave their lives to Christ. And yes the guy who had the realization of going to hell was one of them.

This is why I do what I do. It's worth all the time where you wonder if anyone gets it. It's worth the dumb conversations when kids are trying to sound all philosophical yet really aren't. It's worth everything I do! So there's a par-TAY goin' on right now in the heavens! Praise my Heavenly Father and Praise be to the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Good night to be a youth pastor!!

Course for the 1/2 Marathon

Check out the course I get to run on sunday!!

Click Here

Launch of the New Website!!

Finally it is here!

I have been working on this for the past few months, and without further ado:

www.johnmichalhinton.com

Please share this with anyone who would like to see/book a magic show! Let me know what you think! :)

new found discovery/resource

I show around 2-3 dumb youtube videos every youth group. I have been using vixy.net which works well, but has some weird logo at the end of the clips. For some reason on thursday when I went to download a video vixy was down. So I did a search for other ways to download youtube videos. I found KeepVid.com. I love this site--simple, easy, and no dumb logo. I will use KeepVid from now on!

new video i made last night

The video quality was only ok due to lighting, but still I think it turned out well!

Crossroads Aug 10, 2009

Topic: #1 Love
Main Verse: Mark 12:30 & Luke 14:26
Attendance: Way Below Average (New orientation!)
Message: B+
Game: N/A

Tonight went ok. Attendance was way down due to new student orientation at the schools. Also, we only had 1 girl, so she felt a little out numbered. There were not even enough students there for me game, so instead I decided to give them more hangout time, which in turn gave us leaders more one-on-one time--always a good thing.

I started the night by doing Blistered so as to have some fun, and then we had worship that went pretty well for the kids sang along tonight! I think I might have heard more kids sing tonight with only 6 then when we have 40 some high school students! :)

The message was inspired by a message I heard from Francis Chan. I didn't steal his stuff (not that I'm above that) but it definitely was his messages child. It was just simple truth of how we must not put anything above God, and that it should be oblivious to others what our # 1 is.

Good night, maybe I just didnt' feel much energy so I'm just down on it.