The EQUIP Experience

CONNECTIONS
CONNECTING WITH KIDS
Kids dont care how much you know until they know you care.

1. Use their name.

Discussion Question:
What are some tips for remembering kids names?

2. Look through their eyes and enter their world.

Children havent changed, but childhood has.

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The EQUIP Experience

QUIZ TIME
1. What is a tablet?
5 Pill you take
5 Mobile handheld device

8. Who is Madden?
5 Super bowl winning coach
5 Video game

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

9. What is mail?
5 Comes to your mailbox
5 Comes to your computer

3. What is a phone?
10. What is cut and paste?
5 Device that has a long, coiled wire
5 Something you do on a computer
that you wrap around your arm
5 Something you do with scissors
while talking
and glue
5 Device you carry in your pocket
11. Wire-rimmed glasses?
4. What is History?
5 John Lennon
5 Subject in school
5 Harry Potter
5 TV channel
12. When do cartoons come on?
5. What is GaGa?
5 24/7
5 Singer
5 Saturday morning
5 Baby talk
13. Who is the star of Twilight?
6. What is Amazon?
5 Rod Sterling
5 River in South America
5 Vampires
5 Online store
14. Who is Barney?
7. Who is the green giant?
5 Purple dinosaur
5 Shrek
5 Deputy
5 Big guy picking vegetables

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

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The EQUIP Experience

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.

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The EQUIP Experience

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.

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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.

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The EQUIP Experience

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.

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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?

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The EQUIP Experience

CONNECTING WITH GOD

He appointed twelve that they might be with him
and 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.

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The EQUIP Experience

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.

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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

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