Soulies Youth Community had a killer time at KYCK this past weekend! We camped onsite, it didn’t rain! Andy, Nat, Bel, Michelle + Nick from St Faith’s Night Church served us by cooking up some sweeeeet food. St Paul’s Castle Hill band CITY SURRENDER were tight, energetic and encouraging as they lead 2200+ young punks in song. Finally, Malcolm Gill and Sam Chan gave, in my opinion, the best series of talks I’ve heard at KYCK. Solid, intertwined, bold, biblical and engaging.

See below for more pics, and tweet summaries of each talk:
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We’re doing it again this year. Read about last year’s one. Watch last year’s one.

Read a bit about this year’s one here or on souliesunderground.com

We will also be attempting to live stream it from 7pm (Sydney time) Thursday 5th April.

Over the past 2 days I preached 7 times at Trinity Grammar (in Sydney’s Inner-West) for their Easter Mission. Tiring but worth it. I spoke on the Rich Ruler from Luke 18:18-30, it was impossible for him to do anything to inherit eternal life. How is it possible for anyone to inherit eternal life? Through trusting in what Jesus has done to make the impossible possible, Luke 18:31-34. Peeps were challenged and heard the truth of Jesus.

I was really impressed with the chaplains at the school and the way in which staff in general supported the mission. It was compulsory for all high school students to attend the program. But we also had a good number of new students come along voluntarily to the lunch time Christian group. I spoke on Luke 18:9-14 and urged people to respond to Jesus by saying “have mercy on me, a sinner”. There are some solid Christian students in the school, and I’m praying that they will keep reaching out to their often hard-hearted peers with the good news of Jesus.

Here is the runsheet:

Student leader welcomes
Chasing Light played 2 songs
Speaker interview
Spoken Word vid: Why I hate religion, but love Jesus
Student bible reader
Talk
Film Clip: ‘My Prayer’ by Chasing Light
Chasing Light played 3 songs
Student leader outro and invitation to lunch group

Chasing Light were loud, energetic, engaging and good at pointing young crew to Jesus. It was great to work with them. Their film clip ‘My Prayer’ (above) tied in really well off the back of the talk.

See below for another song of theirs and the Jeff Bethke ‘Jesus>Religion’ vid.
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For the final week of Mission Month at SOULIES we have each year group running a BREAK IT DOWN event (your year group, your friends, doing your thing). Here are some ideas I’m passing on to leaders for preaching short evangelistic talks to their crew.

While it’s not the only approach, preaching from one verse can be a memorable way to give a short talk encouraging people to consider Jesus. It’s worth spending time understanding the verse in its context first and then working hard to explain the ideas that the verse presents.

Here is a useful method for preparing Bible talks

See below for 5 verses packed with gospel punch. I’ve got a few ideas under each passage on possible ways you could package a talk. I don’t have any illustration ideas, or intro/hooks. If you’re preparing a talk, let me know if you need any further ideas or feedback. Preach Jesus.

See below for verses and ideas:
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This year in SOULIES Youth Community we are kicking off term 1 and term 3 with a ‘Mission Month’. My hope is that the young punks in our community are happy to invite friends along any week of Soulies, and they do. But the thinking with the Mission Month is to give some explicit opportunities to bring friends to hear about Jesus. Hopefully that will then create some momentum that will continue on. Here’s the promo postcard:

I think it has been well received. Praise God for those who have responded to the gospel over the first 3 weeks!!

Here’s the promo vid for Feb.

Involved in youth ministry? In what ways are you seeking to encourage young punks to share Jesus this year?

1000 bonus points if you can name the beach in the photo…

Click here for other youth ministry posts.

Lots of action in Manly at the moment with the Australian Open of Surfing. Soulies had a sweet night at St Matt’s Manly last night with other youth groups from around the Northern Beaches. Dave Hanbury & band with solid worship set. D-Cype breaking it down with some phat beats and Trinitarian rhymes. Mike Doyle preaching Jesus to over 500+ young punks.

More pics and vids below:
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I’m keen to write more frequently on Youth Ministry related topics. Last year I began writing some papers, but couldn’t sustain them. I think I’m ready to share a bit more in the way of strategy and youth ministry thinking. Are you involved in youth ministry? What type of posts would you find helpful? I’ve got some blog drafts ready, but keen for input.

The above pic is from SOULIES Summercamp.