HSM Youth Ministry Blog

Matthew 25:35-40 (CEV)

³⁵When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me, ³⁶and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me."  ³⁷Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, "When did we give you something to eat or drink? ³⁸When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear ³⁹or visit you while you were sick or in jail?"   ⁴⁰The king will answer, "Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me."

Sometimes it is hard to show God that we love him. We might worship and sing to him; we might pray and say it verbally; but how do we actually show it? Jesus gives a really practical teaching to his followers, saying, “If you are loving, kind, caring and giving to others, then that is the same as doing those things for me.”

A few times a year, a group of teenagers from my local church, Thrive Community, go into a Sydney nursing home to sing, talk and even pray for the elderly. These older folks rarely get visitors and are forgotten by society. Many are sick and in their last months of life. Imagine how it impacts them when teens take time to love them and show them that they are valuable! Imagine their faces when the singing starts or a young one prays for them. This is life at it’s best – a true sign of loving Jesus.

Imagine the impact if youth ministries everywhere were to do similar things!!??

Dan Hardie

Why not check out our range of booklets for new Christians or searching teens!?

Or perhaps you teach scripture in high school and want to lift some of the heavy workload? Why not try our widely used range of High School Ministry workbooks?!

Contact us for free samples today!

info@hsmresources.com.au

We're stoked to be part of it for another year, giving hundreds of kids the scriptures through the Little Book of Help and pointing them to our new online scripture tool, Verse First. Our hope is that those who respond to God will be given the scriptures in a format they can understand, and that as they come home and take first steps in faith, they'll get help through the Facebook app which will send a daily scripture to their newsfeed.

Pray that these events will have a great impact and bring life change to many!

You can "like" the latest daily scripure app for teens at, Verse First

RULE 1: Keep it Simple -

The best litmus test to see if your message is simple and clear is to ask, "In one short statement, what am I preaching on?" Last night, my goal was to define wisdom as "Making today's decisions with tomorrow in mind"... Simple, easy to illustrate and straight out of Proverbs. "Study today and you'll be glad tomorrow; save today and you'll benefit tomorrow." Easy! But I had this internal battle where one part of me wanted to keep it simple and clear, and the other part wanted to give them more meat, to make it deeper and bring more scripture. So I broke the first rule, and in hindsight, it wasn't even deeper! I just gave more, and sometimes, less is more.

RULE 2: Go shorter, not longer -

In my effort to bring a solid meal of Scripture, I blew out the time I wanted to preach... and about half-way through, I lost a section of young people (absolutely devastated). They got distracted. I didn't hold their attention. I was preaching enthusiastically about Israel and how similar we are to their foolishness, but the teens were gone. They weren't catching anymore of what was shared. And what's the point of preaching deep if they aren't even listening!? So I live and learn...

RULE 3: Share stories and be funny -

I used to think that being funny and sharing stories was over-rated... "How is being funny or sharing stories even close to solid Biblical teaching?! We're not performing monkeys who are there to entertain kids! We're there to teach the Word!" I still believe all that, though last night I forgot that unless young people are actually listening, you may as well be preaching to empty seats (many churches are doing that). I noticed a huge difference between last night and last week when our young Youth Pastor, Jesse, was energetic and really funny, which kept teens with him as he mixed powerful scripture with fun stories. Last night probably wasn't as bad as I'm saying, but I feel disappointed that I forgot to change it up, to have fun and keep them with me. I need to learn from Jesse!

One of my favourite scriptures is Ecclesiastes 12:10 -

"The preacher taught the plain truth and did so in an interesting way".

That's our mission! Hopefully the blues go soon and I can shake off and prepare better for week 2!

Dan Hardie

Why not start each facebook session with a scripture verse!? Verse First will have a daily scripture that is chosen with a young people in mind. It gives us the opportunity to connect with God before we connect with everyone else!

Imagine thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of young people reading God's word through Facebook each day!!???

That's our dream and mission...

"LIKE" it and "SHARE" it here.

And let us know what you think!!

Christianity is often mistaken as the "great rule-book that will curb youthful enthusiasm" and yet as I read Scripture, I keep finding this theme written and modelled;

"Get out and enjoy your youth!"

"Make the most of life!"

"Be passionate about what you do!"

"Make a different in the world!"

So often, we try to put the clamps on our teens for fear that they'll be wild or party too hard or experiment in the wrong thing, but we often fail to give them an inspiring alternative! I'm stoked and amazed by those young guys in our own youth ministry who get out and absolutely live full tilt. I'm seeing young people shooting for Olympic Gold, running Exoday events in their schools; making new and exciting music; heading into nursing homes to tell old-folk that they are loved by a younger generation; trying new stunts and just loving their sporting or musical or schooling endeavours.

One of my mantra's for life is simple: Live with passion!!

Check out our Verse First (sneak-preview of our new facebook app) verse for today:

 ⁹ You who are young, make the most of your youth.
   Relish your youthful vigor.
   Follow the impulses of your heart.
   If something looks good to you, pursue it.
   But know also that not just anything goes;
   You have to answer to God for every last bit of it. Ecclesiastes 11:9

LOVE IT!!

Dan H

Amped for the new "Verse-a-Day" tool for Youth, coming within the next few days and opening our leadership coaching arm! YEW!!

Email us at info@hsmresources.com.au for any information you need or ideas you might have!

Blessings -

The HSM team. 

 HSM is run off the generosity and prayer of a bunch of incredible supporters, whom we are eternally grateful for!

If you believe in HSM and would like to become one of our regular supporters in finance and/or prayer we would love to hear from you!

We have a supporter campaign which is known as the 10/10, which is:

10 Minutes of prayer support & 10 Dollars of financial support.

This could be something you commit to weekly or monthly or however you choose!

Thank you for your constant support and belief in this ministry!

Blessings,

The HSM team.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford.

At HSM we are about doing life and ministry “together” people.

It’s so important that we don’t forget how integral we are to each other’s successes rather than getting caught up in competitiveness and comparison.

Ministry and all of life is a neutral playing field and we are all on the same team.

Celebrate wins together.

Support and encourage in the losses together.

(In fact support and encourage each other all the time.)

“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity” – Ps133:1

SO, we're keen to hear from you!

Share with us who you're working with, someone you'd love to give God's word to and what would help you to do that. Need something on forgiveness? Would you want a booklet that brings comfort? Are you a youth leader who wants a New Christians pack for those who respond to God?

Let us know your need by either commenting here or write to dan@hsmresources.com.au

Let's partner together in spreading God's Word