The folks over at Mars Hill in Seattle have offered up a FREE 30-minute short film called "Good Friday" which depicts the last hours of Jesus' life leading up to the crucifixion.  The film runs about 30 minutes, and it is pretty gritty and bloody, to be quite honest.  You can definitely see the "Passion of the Christ" influence, but this one is of course shorter and in my opinion more accessible.

This could be an option for you if you do a Good Friday service for your students.  Just be sure to send home notice about the film's content to parents/families before you show it.

You can watch and download the film at whokilledgod.com.

- Tim B.

Love this!  You can pick up a copy at Sermon Spice.

- Tim B.

Wow!  The last few weeks have been a blur.  It seems like it's been one thing after another as our family has been through illness after illness (this week it's chicken pox with Grayson!) and at the same time ministry and church life chug ahead at full steam.

I did want to take a second and talk about a great opportunity I had last weekend.  I spoke at a youth retreat called "Remade" at a Great Wolf Lodge north of Cincinnati for a group of about 35 middle and high school students.

It was a super-short (less than 24 hours for me) but fantastic experience.  I spoke at three sessions (Friday night, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon) on the idea/topic of God's desire to remake our hearts and our lives.  The sessions looked like this:

#1 - We are broken.  Romans 3:9-18.  Focus on our need to be remade.

#2 - We can't fix ourselves.  Mark 10:17-22.  Focus on the foolishness of the question "what can I do" to be remade and our inability to fix ourselves.

#3 - Jesus can and wants to remake us.  2 Corinthians 5:16-17.  Focus on the only true way to be remade - in Christ.  Special emphasis on not just God's ability to remake us but His desire to do so.  Only a great love for us can explain that.

Worship was great - led by Isaac Pitman from Apex in Dayton, Ohio - and I think one of the big strengths of the weekend was how well the theme came together, from music to media to message.

It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to adapting the sessions in to a series here at FBCCS soon.  I'll share with you what comes out of that on here!

- Tim B.

Shot this video at youth group for our pastor's "Bridging the Generation Gap" teaching series.  If you'd like a copy of it to use, comment this post and I'll send you a download link!

- Tim B.

Awesome song, awesome video!

What a great (hilarious) reminder for those of us in YM.  Love it!

- Tim B.

This weekend one of my favorite events is happening - the Simply Youth Ministry Conference!

Trisha and I have been to two SYMC's, but unfortunately have missed out the last two years because of - you guessed it - money!  But you have to love the people over at Group and Simply - they've found a way to keep those of us who can't make it to the conference feel connected from home, and more importantly, for free!

If you head over to simplyyouthministry.tv on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday there will be live streaming of the main sessions.  Here's what we have to look forward to:

Friday Night (7:00): Doug Fields, the Skit Guys, Shane and Shane


Saturday Morning (9:00): Louie Giglio, Rick Lawrence, Tim Timmons


Saturday Night (7:00): Doug Fields with Ruth Haley Barton, Shane and Shane


Sunday Morning (9:00): Rick Lawrence, Tim Timmons


Sunday Night (7:00): Doug Fields with Glen Packiam, Skit Guys, Shane and Shane


Monday Morning (9:00): Rick Lawrence, Doug Fields, Tim Timmons

That's a lot of great content to look forward to, plus the SYMC team has promised some other live streaming surprises along the way.

If you can't be at SYMC, this is the next best thing.  See you online!

- Tim B.