Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Youth & Young Adult Sabbath School Planning

Chad Bernard

Brenda Siebold

Youth & Young Adult Sabbath School Planning - Part 1

Dear Lord, thank you for the opportunity to come and worship you this morning, and to dialogue, and to get into your Word.

What does communication with your best friend look like?

I want you to think about that question for a few seconds and then in your groups I'd like you to actually talk about this, discuss it.

I'd love for someone, if someone in the room wouldn't mind either sharing what they stated or sharing what they heard.

What does communication with your best friend look like or maybe sound like or any of the above?

The things we came up with is it's a comfortable conversation.

If it's a best friend, we share things that we probably wouldn't share with other people.

It's more frequent, you touch base more often.

And you listen, you're interested in what they have to say so you can help them out.

I'm not, by the way, I'm not questioning you.

For me, none of my best friends live near me.

It's always texting or messaging, but it's never a, hi, how you doing?

It's just, you just jump into the conversation.

You don't have like the flowery, like we used to write letters, you know, dear Jim, you know.

It's like it's 1 continuous conversation you've been having for the last couple years.

I might have been a considerate of my best friend.

1 of my friends, if the phone rings and I can't get to it, and then I call her back and I say, I'm sorry I didn't answer your call, I was doing such and such, or I was on the phone with Bethany or something like that, and she'll say, it's okay, our friendship is like that, I know you'll call back.

You can just hang up and they're like, yeah, yeah, it's not that bad.

We know that we're connected to each other.

You know, reading each other's minds, I mean, you know what they're thinking.

That's another thing too that's interesting.

Can you, are you like the people you're really close, can you read their minds in social situations without speaking?

And this is really interesting in our society today.

You're like, oh I wasn't, I didn't mean that, it doesn't matter I was offended.

So you don't know exactly how their emotions are or how their voice or phrase are lowered.

So you are like instantly, what do they mean?

Right, and we're not even talking about the times where you text stuff you didn't mean to text because Siri misspelled it.

1 time my dad texted me something that was very inappropriate.

He's like, I'm so sorry, I never said that, you know.

I'm like, sorry dad I didn't figure you'd say that.

I think it has given me pause to send a text because I start texting and I start thinking that.

Like, hey, what is that person gonna think?

Because I'm a big jokester and so if I put a joke in there, they might take that as literal.

And I don't know if I can get a JK out quick enough.

But this day and age, it's just weird that you have to be ultra sensitive to what you're saying.

Because of what somebody else is gonna perceive.

But Conrad, like in your best friend, it's almost like they're biased towards you.

They're always giving you the benefit of the doubt.

So you know, like, ah, that's not what I meant.

Because They're just so comfortable and so safe in their relationship, you know?

Youth & Young Adult Sabbath School Planning - Part 2

Dear Lord, thank You for being our God, and thank You for wanting not only to listen to us, but to speak to us as well.

And so Lord, we ask that You would be here, and Lord, inspire us on how You would have Sabbath school be taught, and Lord, may there be really good discussion, and may our eyes be on you as our prayer in Jesus name Amen.

So this is really funny we we were having a conversation, hey come on in good to see you all, we're having a conversation yesterday after class, and just talking about Sabbath school and the goals of Sabbath school.

And I said to Brenda, I said, let's leave the chairs up the way they normally have it and let's just see if anybody says anything.

And Sherry walks in, Sherry gets to here and goes, oh, guess we're going traditional chairs today, right?

And then Tanya and Ken, you were like, I saw you, you were like, where are we gonna sit?

But no, this is kind of interesting because something as simple as how you arrange the room really changes the dynamic, right?

So if you don't mind, forgive me, some of you just got, you don't have my problem, but I have to kind of wiggle myself into these things.

But if you don't mind, we're gonna restructure this classroom, but I wanna ask you a question.

What is it that you want to accomplish in your classroom in Savvy School?

What are some of the goals that you have that will help you determine how you set it up.

So what are some of the goals you might have?

Me goal, I always have is to make sure we knowing what they've learned today, did they learn it?

Okay, okay, so, man, that's, okay, that's fantastic, Sherry.

So there's the, I want them to understand this knowledge.

You have them communicate their thoughts about what we're discussing with me, but if I'm up there and they're lined up like this, it's like you sit there and shut up and you listen.

Okay, so you want communication to happen.

So let me ask you right now, I mean, communication is happening, but you know, This type of style, and I'm not looking to attack or rip on anything or anyone, but this type of style, what is it set up for?

Like I'm gonna talk and you're gonna listen.

No, So you really have to say as a teacher like what am I looking to do today or this this week this coming Sabbath what do I want to have happen and then based on that you set up your classroom.

1 of the terms that are used is, it's called a nudge.

We're nudging you to create relationship in a small level and then a larger level.

So when you're in those quads, those groups of 4, and then some added, there was a desire that you would make a connection with each other, right?

So if, and here's what I'd like you to do, this is our assignment this morning.

Because I'm not here to tell you there's only 1 way to set up your Sabbath school classroom.

But I'm going to give you a goal, and then you guys decide how we set up the classroom this morning.

Because I hope that this is going to be very interactive and helpful for you.

Yesterday was just a straight up simulation.

And then the next 3 days, today will be what to do before the class begins and talking about the logistics piece, logistical pieces.

Tomorrow will be how do you function as a teacher during the actual Savva school class.

And then Thursday we're gonna talk about what happens after Savva school.

Because what happens from 1030, 1040, or whatever, until the following week, really is going to determine, I believe, your success.

My goal is that we would be able to dialogue, to have conversation.

There are some things that we wanna share, but I wanna do it in a way to where we're all engaged, we're all able to see and communicate with each other.

Do you feel like this is conducive to seeing each other and watching each other as we communicate?

Okay, so what would that look like to you?

I just want to figure out how we can make it work.

Yeah, so this is kind of the advantage you might have as a teacher because if no 1, now follow some of this logic here, we'll move these over here, just you can you can look at this logistically and go okay you know that somebody's gonna need to go the bathroom right so like how easy is that to have happen so you might you might do things like remove this so that there's an easy path.

Also, this is if you're comfortable as an instructor, you like, I can stand at the center and that's kind of a different dynamic as well.

But if I'm wanting to communicate that I am so another thing too that I'm thinking is if I want people to know each other Now probably in all of your your classrooms in your your sabbatical classrooms I'm guessing for the most part you're gonna know 90% of your kids I'm guessing.

There'll be that occasional guest that shows.

But if you're wanting to know each other's name, I heard that the most beautiful sound to anyone's ears is their name, Jeff.

No, that might not be true to you but when people tell you their, they know your name that's a positive thing.

Now that can be really really difficult especially when you meet more and more people.

Just recently I had a fantastic conversation that I was hoping to get credit for but at the end of the conversation it was thank you so much Mike you've been fantastic and they hung up I'm like so I called my brother I'm like you had a very amazing conversation.

So if I'm wanting to have this type of dialogue, then this would be a good setup.

So it's all depending on what you want to do.

If I want to be able to access people quickly, would this be the best setup?

Well, if you want to see each other's names, that's what you're talking about.

Well, as a facilitator, I'm gonna need to be in a situation, I'm gonna be able to need to move.

Some people, some people like that super awkward.

You don't want them looking at you from all angles Or not, I don't know.

Some people don't like to look at someone's backside while they're talking, so figuring that out too.

Youth & Young Adult Sabbath School Planning - Part 3

Dear Lord, thank you very much for the opportunity to meet again today on a Wednesday.

It's hard to believe it's half, can't believe it's halfway over.

Inspire us and Lord may it translate ultimately in young people making decisions for you.

So Lord, just guide in that process is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.

There's this philosophy I think you have to have when you're teaching Sabbath school, and that is It's not a 1 day a week thing.

And so once you establish your team, like you got your squad, like this is our leadership team here, and then our leadership team over here, and you have your crew and you're meeting together, here's what I found.

You're just so attractive and nice and I'm just gonna wanna spend more time with you.

And oh, I gotta be, you know, the more that we act like Jesus together, the more we're gonna be like, this is awesome.

Now every now and then you're gonna run into people like, this is not awesome, and pray that the Lord, you know, sends them another way.

But the point is like, once you spend more time with each other, you're gonna enjoy it.

So anyway, there's this conversation that you have once you're getting Sabbath schools clicking, you start talking about, hey, well, what could we do in the community?

Ellen White says that Christ's method alone, if you just did what He did, you would have success when reaching the people.

And he did something really, really simple.

He didn't meet like, hey Kelly, how are you?

I noticed that you did this and you're wrong.

You know, He didn't create prejudice, he removed prejudice.

And so then once he mingled with them and they knew that he wanted their good, then he did something really interesting.

Like, oh, hey, I noticed you had a need, Len.

He didn't be like, oh, you know, the reason why you can't walk is you're fat, you know, type of thing.

Like he said, not that you are my slim brother.

Not that you are, but you follow what I'm saying?

You know, like he was, he sympathized with them.

And then he went like, when people help you and they're kind to you, you you they win your confidence and that's what she says in the quote she's like you know you you want their confidence and then after all of that happened he said you should follow me and they were fine doing it.

Now we read stories like of course he did, he gave fish sandwiches to 5, 000 people who wouldn't want to follow that.

But I'm saying at a lower level, have you not experienced that?

Haven't you had friends that you, or people you met, you met their needs and you're just super awesome to them.

And the next thing you know, like they'll do whatever you wanna do.

Because they just, people want those type of people in their lives, right?

So, because of that philosophy that came birth to from the youth department of this term called field work.

It's a process where you learn how to meet new friends in the community by meeting their needs.

Say, I don't know you, but I want to meet your needs.

Be your friend." And so we started this conversation, had this process.

So today I thought it would be good to show you a process that could maybe help you during the week.

Now this is a process, it's not a product.

I'm not gonna say we're all gonna sell widgets and that's how we're gonna win people to Jesus.

What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna teach you a process how to take your team, your Sabbath school class, your leadership team to go through this process and when you're finished you're like hey this is perfect for Onaway because what's perfect for Onaway is probably not perfect for Ithaca and definitely not Holly or Holland so it's going to be different but the process if you follow it should give you that same great product.

We're gonna need, Teacher Brenda, we're gonna need to pass out some sticky notes.

And we're gonna do a little activity that's gonna be somewhat, it's intentionally, what's the right word, light, okay?

With the intention of you, just to teach the process, and then once we're done with the process, you got a particular color, there you go.

Once you have the process down, we're then gonna do it from a ministry perspective.

Okay, so this is what I'd like you to do.

And oh, yeah, let me let me set the stage.

And this is kind of a to create a somewhat of a safe zone.

I believe that every idea should live for at least 60 seconds.

Then you can take your knives and just stab them.

But but I mean, like, if someone comes up with an idea that you think that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, don't say that, give it 60 seconds and then it'll probably die at itself.

But we want to be able to just share any idea and to be able to process it.

So everything should and then and then yesterday remember we talked about the power of the word and?

So when someone comes up with an idea, a creative idea, instead of going, no, no, no, no, no, or let me tell you why it won't work.

You've ever been in a meeting with somebody and they just wanna tell you why it won't work.

I've had, and Jeff, you've probably had this experience.

You have people that are asking you to help them, and you go in and go, okay, tell me your experience, they tell you everything, and you start to tell them an idea, and they go, they're very confident that they know that anything you're going to present is not going to work.

So you end the meeting going, well, continue to be frustrated.

Because what's the definition of insanity?

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, right?

You, and then both sides, and then we'll let you go.

Youth & Young Adult Sabbath School Planning - Part 4

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the opportunity to get together this week and discuss important things.

And Lord, I just thank you also that we have this group, that each person that is here, Lord, has such a desire to work with the youth, I thank you for that.

We pray, Lord, that we will stay connected to you through the Holy Spirit, and that that connection will help us connect to our young people.

We pray for patience when we work with difficult ones.

We pray that that, your love will shine through us as we work with young people.

Be with us now today and help our discussions and help us to learn from each other and from you.

Okay, so I don't know if you noticed, but we kind of switched the days.

Yesterday was supposed to be in class time and giving you ideas, and today was supposed to be what happens after, and that's what we did yesterday, because they switched the canoe trip.

So today we're going back to what happens in the classroom and in the Sava School room, and ways that we can, I have the 3 C's up here, ways we can connect with our young people, ways to communicate, and what we learned on the first day is communication is two-way?

So ways that we can communicate and they're comfortable communicating back to us.

Do you ever find it difficult to connect to young people?

And maybe some are, I mean, obviously some are easier than others to connect with, but sometimes there's some that you're like, man, I just can't seem to connect with that person.

And maybe you're not the person that is going to connect.

So if you have other people in your class, in your Sabbath school, maybe the other person connects better.

You know, you not always, I mean, you see that with everybody you're with.

You connect better with some people and not as much.

So if it's difficult for you to connect, maybe find someone else that can connect to that person and that youth, that young person, and get them to connect.

You know, it's gonna be, you gotta be creative, right?

So in order to connect to our youth, we need to understand our youth.

Do you, has any of you guys, have you figured out that when it comes to nominating committee, that oftentimes this is the most difficult position to fill?

Working, oh I can't do that, I can't work at that age.

Every church I've been in, it's been, we can't find anybody to work with the youth The church I'm at now Didn't have a like a high school age to have a school for 5 years They either stayed in early teen or they jumped them up to young adults.

So when we came there, it's like, where's the class?

And they said, you know, it kind of goes in waves where they had a lot of high school age and then not as many and then you know it kind of goes in waves.

So they said you know we just didn't really have that age.

Well we they went and did a survey and found out there were I think 15 to 20 high school age kids at that time in the church.

So we started a young adult, or we started a high school age, it's 9 to 12th grade.

We have probably 15, well probably now it's up to 20 because we just had a bunch of eighth graders coming in.

So there's probably an average of 20 kids that come in.

And 1 of the big problems when I asked why was, well, we don't have people that want to do that age because they don't understand them, they don't connect.

You know, these – Yeah, there's a fear.

Yeah, and like we were talking about on Monday, it's like they would say, well, I can't talk to kids for an hour.

We're not preaching to the kids we're facilitating, right?

Okay, so in order to connect, we need to be more observant.

We need to learn, study, get on there and say, what are young people liking today?

That will help you to understand because it is different.

And a lot of times I hear, oh, kids today, you know, they're doing this, they're doing this, they're doing this.

We need to stop condemning and we need to start connecting.

Because if we just say, Oh, you know, those kids, they're on their cell phones all the time.

That's not going to, they're not going to feel welcome at all.

Generation Z, I think that's the name of it.

Let me just give you a couple examples and then we are going to be sharing today too.

Series

Youth & Young Adult Sabbath School Planning

Youth & Young Adult Sabbath School Planning - Part 4

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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