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| Sight + Sound: An Unbeatable Combination |
By Jeff Slack
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Creating an atmosphere both in the youth room/facility and around the youth room/facility to convey the heartbeat of the youth ministry is important.
Color choices, decoration themes, and the way chairs are positioned in the room make a difference in what the students feel when they are in that room. For our leadership team, touching students’ five senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell) is a starting point for the atmosphere we are trying to create.
Having been a Youth Leaders Only member for almost twenty years, I’ve had an amazing resource (that covered both sight and sound) in the Music Video Loops (MVL). Having grown up in the MTV generation, music videos were not the tool I initially had any interest in utilizing within ministry; but my interest grew as I watched kids start to engage with each other about the contents of the videos. Another interesting thing that began to happen was that MTV moved from primarily a music video channel to a reality-show station. Consequently, music videos became more interesting now that kids had no everyday diet of MTV videos
to overwhelm and desensitize them from this media form.
When I first came across the MVL with the accompanying Bible studies, I saw the video as primarily an accompaniment to the study. Soon I realized that the video was a great resource to utilize as students were coming in and filing out of the youth room. We already had music playing (provided by our Youth Leaders Only membership), but the MVL was music with the addition of video. Sometimes the video had a storyline, sometimes it was concert footage, sometimes it was just the band playing; the styles were mixed up enough to always keep the students interested. Since the MVL videos always have various genres represented, students can always find something they like.
Kids began to ask to borrow the MVL DVD’s. They would watch them all week and bring them back the following week (most of the time). Many times I would hear stories of the videos being loaned out to friends and passed around amongst groups of friends. This resulted in our creating a music and video library that we would allow students to check out CD’s and DVD’s that we would get in our Youth Leaders Only membership. This opened up the opportunity for our students to experience Christian music on a greater and deeper level. We occasionally lose our discs, but most students bring back what they borrowed and they are appreciative that we make these resources available.
But the main point in all this is the atmosphere. The atmosphere conveys engaging
technology. The atmosphere of generosity lets a student know that he or she can take this video DVD or music CD home to watch and listen to it. The atmosphere created when videos are used to accompany or illustrate a Bible Study is one of engagement. The music videos are tools that help us build an atmosphere that is inviting to students.
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