CONNECTIONS

Connecting with Kids

Kids dont care how much you know until they know you care.

1. Use their name.

Discussion Question Tips:

2. Look through their eyes and enter their world.

Children havent changed, but childhood has.

QUIZ TIME

The EQUIP Experience

1. Page 1 of 22. What is a tablet? Pill you take Mobile handheld device

3. What is a Wiki? Cooperative web application Shuttle bus in Hawaii

4. What is a phone? Device that has a long, coiled wire that you wrap around your arm while talking Device you carry in your pocket

5. What is History? Subject in school TV channel

6. What is GaGa? Singer Baby talk

7. What is Amazon? River in South America Online store

8. Who is the green giant? Shrek Big guy picking vegetables9. Who is Madden? Super bowl winning coach Video game

10. What is mail? Comes to your mailbox Comes to your computer

11. What is cut and paste? Something you do on a computer Something you do with scissors and glue

12. Wire-rimmed glasses? John Lennon Harry Potter

13. When do cartoons come on? 24/7 Saturday morning

14. Who is the star of Twilight? Rod Sterling Vampires

15. Who is Barney? Purple dinosaur Deputy

Discussion Question:How can we stay connected to the world of todays kids?

3. Know how to talk to them.

Dont look down at them.

Dont talk down to them.

Talk about their interests.

Connecting with Parents

No one has more influence in the life of a child than his/her parents.

2 key ways to connect with parents

1. 2-Minute Window

Here are some tips on how to maximize this time.

Look for guest service opportunities.

Be full of faith.

Be full of family.

Be full of fun.

2. Talk

Make a point to talk with parents outside of your volunteer environment.

In hallways

In worship

In Life Studies or Life Groups

In the community

As the opportunity presents itself invite parents to serve with you.

Table Talk

As a group, list some other ways you can maximize the drop-off and pick-up time we have with parents?

What are some other ways to connect with parents?

As time allows, have group members share a personal story about how connecting with parents has made a difference in their volunteer experience, or in the life of a parent or child.

Connecting with Each Other

GROW INGREDIENTS

Serve

Learn

Connect

Today, we are focusing on CONNECT. Heres what we believe

1. Life is best done in community.

2. Being a part of a SERVE Team that is intentional about connecting with each other in a relationship will help you grow in your relationship to God.

Iron sharpens iron. (Proverbs 27:17)

Serving is a form of discipleship we grow as we are doers of the word and not hearers only. (James 1:22)

We all need encouragement and can encourage others. (1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 3:13)

SERVE Teams help connect people with similar passions.

3. Meaningful relationships with the people you serve with is the glue that keeps SERVE Teams together!

So how can you create connections with others in your ministry area? Here are a few suggestions:

Commit to arrive in time to participate in our pre-service huddle.

Pray together,

Practice name-calling.

Calling people by their name boosts their sense of belonging.

Build bridges.

Party with each other outside of serving.

Spending time together without an agenda fosters closer relationships.

Be intentional about creating a family atmosphere.

Serving is about more than just teaching a class or changing a diaper or greeting a family or preparing a craft. It's about doing life together. It's about going through the good times and the bad times together. It's about supporting one another.It's about helping each other grow closer to Jesus.

Table Talk As a group, list some ways that your team currently connect with each other, either during your serving time, or outside your serving time.

What are some other ways that you can encourage each other in your spiritual walk?

What are some steps that you could take to invite others to join your SERVE Team and experience community with you?

Personal REFLECTION

Who are 2 people on your team that you will be intentional about connecting with this week?

Connecting with God

He appointed twelve that they might be with himand that he might send them out to preach.Mark 3:14

1. Special time.2. Special place.3. Special plan.a) Ask God to speak to you through His Word.b) Read and listen.c) Write it down.d) Talk to God. Confess your sins. Praise God. Who He is What He does Ask for your needs. Ask for the needs of others. Ask God to use your life for His glory.

Connecting to God Experiences

Prayer Experience One - The Wind of the Spirit

On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Acts 2:1-2

Stand in front of the fan and feel the wind blowing over you. Ask the Holy Spirit to blow into your life in a new and fresh way. Ask him to fill your life with His power as you minister.

Prayer Experience Two Knock on the Door

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.Matthew 7:7-8

Write down a prayer need and place it on the door. Ask God to answer the prayer. We will also be praying for your request this week.

Prayer Experience Three At the Foot of the Cross

He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left Gods paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.Isaiah 53

Look at the images of Jesus. Thank Him for suffering and dying for you so that you could be forgiven and healed