What goes into planning Fresh Air each week?

In this episode, Mr. Hilliard shares the planning and purpose behind each Fresh Air service, from setting clear goals and choosing meaningful themes to shaping the final message. We discuss the challenges of speaking to students, and ensuring each element works together with intention. Join us as we reflect on what it takes to create Fresh Air experiences that are thoughtful, purposeful, and leave a lasting impact each week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:16

You're listening to Beyond the Bell, a student-produced podcast from Mount Pisca Christian School. I'm Avery Hicks, and this podcast is a space where students, teachers, and the whole community can connect. Here we believe every person has a story to tell, and we want to bring those stories to life. In this episode, I will be speaking with Mr. Hilliard, the Dean of Spiritual Life, about what goes into planning our fresh air services each week. This episode will give you a new perspective on the purpose and preparation behind every service you experience. We'll explore what goes into shaping each fresh air, from selecting themes and topics to the understanding of how each message speaks to upper school students. We'll also talk about the team effort behind the scenes and the role students play in bringing each service to life.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

And quite literally just take a breath to reset, to um recalibrate where we're at in our faith, but also just as a community. So we try to carve out a space, a time each week where the goal is for us to just have an experience with each other in community by looking towards the Lord every time we get together.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

How do you determine themes for each series and what to talk about?

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yes, this is great. So this school year we're focusing in on 1 John 3, 1, which is how we picked our spiritual theme for the year, which is belong. And so as I was thinking through where could we go with that with chapels this year, it all stemmed from that verse. What does it mean to belong? And so we've talked about God's love that he's lavished upon us, as we see in 1 John 3, that he would call us children of God. And so this idea throughout the whole year, we sort of have been touching on different parts of that main theme of belonging. And so I always pray through Lord, what is what is it that students that need to hear and would maybe connect with? And so that's that's sort of how we um look at each series. Obviously, try to think of things that um will connect with students right where they're at as a ninth, tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grader.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

How do you personally approach planning and preparing your talks from choosing the passage or theme to shaping the final message students here?

SPEAKER_00 3:20

This is good. Um people would say just open the Bible, flip open to a page, and then just talk about that. Put your finger down, but that's not the best planning. Um so I always try to think uh personally, I start with prayer. Um every every week I sit down and take some time to just ask the Lord, what what do you want us to talk about? Lord, what is a passage that you want us to focus on? What is a big truth that you want us to unpack together? So it really starts it starts with prayer, and then um from there finding a passage that will um really open up for our theme that we're talking about for the day. Um as far as choosing those, um I try to hit a little bit of Old Testament, a little bit of New Testament, so kind of jump around so students can uh get some variety from the passages, but really um, and this is this is just for my heart, I don't want to choose a topic that then we just go find a verse that supports that topic, but like what is what does God's truth say that we can then talk about? So start with whatever biblical truth is there and then and then break it out to create something from that.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

Uh, how do current events or things happening within the school influence chapel messages?

SPEAKER_00 4:36

So the world around us moves at you know a million miles an hour. There's always things changing around us, and I know our upper school students are very in tune with all the different things that are happening. It can be chaotic to even keep up with. But I always think through um maybe some current events. I don't want us to focus in so much on the you know the negative things that are so easy to fall into with current events, um, but it is relevant. Like, how does God's word, an ancient book, stay relevant with what's happening in our lives today? I think that's a big question that maybe students ask themselves, what are we supposed to do with this Bible that is you know thousands of years uh old? But how does God's word play into the things that I'm dealing with today in 2026? And so I always like to try to keep a little pulse on what's happening in the world around us, not to not to say, hey, we gotta we gotta make sure we're keeping up with everything that's going on, because that's impossible. We can't keep up, but we can stand on truths that last uh for forever. We're talking about eternal truths that we see in scripture. So I want to be able to think through how do we keep God's word relevant in our situations today.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

How do you tailor messages specifically for upper school students?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

This is a challenge, Avery, because I'm a little bit old. I'm getting old. Okay, so trying to speak the language of a high schooler can be a little difficult. Um, as I'm sure high schoolers know, even talking to their parents, like there's there's things that that high schoolers talk about and know about that old people like myself still have a little have a little trouble, um, trouble really understanding. Um but um I think where where this really um really is important is that okay, we're reading a chapter in in the New Testament or Old Testament, and we we learned a lot of stuff from it. But a teenager is asking, what do I do with that? Like I might have learned something in the talk, but then what's what good is that knowledge? What is the practical application of it? So um I feel like if we can learn all the knowledge in uh in a chapel talk, that's a good thing, but it's not necessarily the best thing for a teenager. Can I learn and understand God's relationship with me through his son Jesus? But then what do I do with that? Like, how do I put that into everyday life? What's the application? So I always try to think through what is what is a teenager, what does a high schooler need to how are they gonna apply this in their life? Because that's really what I I will say we all ask that question, but I think teenagers specifically say, what can I do with this? What's the application for me in in my life right now?

SPEAKER_01 7:32

What challenges come with speaking to a large group of students?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

I like this question, Avery. Um so sitting in the room, if I'm up on stage or another speaker's on stage sharing a message, you're looking around, and there are people, there are students from all over the map in their in their lives, like where what family they come from, where they've lived, the the culture they've grown up in, and then you got folks, students all over the map, which is great. I love this, that there's people who are like very experienced in their relationship with Jesus, like they've been walking with Jesus for a long time. And there's those who are just kind of barely putting their toe in the water to kind of see what's what is Christianity all about, what does it mean to follow Jesus? Um, so I think one of the challenges is how can how can I or whoever's speaking speak to all those different areas of faith? And I think that's a challenge because I don't want to necessarily speak to the student who has been walking with Jesus the whole time, like since they were two years old, and they they know the verses, they know the passages, they know the truths of of some scripture. I don't want to speak just to them. I also want to speak to another person who's like, can I trust the Bible? Can I even maybe take a little step of what is this whole Christianity thing? So the challenge is how can in the room of so many people, how can I, how can we talk to everybody in the room? I feel like that's one of the biggest challenges that I've always had with speaking with large groups, because the the word the Bible speaks to everybody. I'm I'm a believer in that, but sometimes you gotta just challenge ourselves to make sure we're communicating that word clearly to everybody in the room.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So how do you build the flow of a service from worship to message to closing?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I hope this is somewhat evident. We don't always succeed every fresh air, which is alright. Um, but I talked to Mr. Darnell, who's an amazing um our worship leader for our fresh air band. We talk to him, I kind of say, hey, you know, Mr. Darnell, we're gonna be talking about this subject coming up um in the next series. Would it be possible to find some songs that talk about this theme or go along the lines of a passage that we're gonna be reading together? And so I sort of kind of plant a seed with him as he's working with the worship music team. Um, and then from there, I I always try to think, you know, from the community building, whether it's a game or you know, interactive activity, to the songs, to the message, can can we have like a a clear a clear theme. I don't know if that's the best way to put it, but a clear theme of like, hey, we talked about this thing even in the game, which sort of leads into the songs we sang and which leads into the the the passage we're reading. So if I can try to streamline that, I always try to, and like I said, I don't always hit the mark every time, but that's the idea so that when a student walks away from the day, they can think, oh yeah, I remember this theme because we talked about it in several different ways and hit hit the idea and topic to flow the service really well. Um yeah, that's that's kind of what we do.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

So, how do you hope students walk away from each service?

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Yes, so um with that with that name fresh air. I always I pray this for every single fresh air. Get up early on Thursday mornings to pray for all the chapels, um, whether it's middle or high school or lower school. My hope is for high schoolers that we we enjoy an experience with meeting with God. And so for everybody, that's gonna look a little different because for one student, having an experience with God means, oh man, I feel like there's this big change I need to make. Like I've been thinking about this, and that message or that song connected with me, and I experienced something where I need an action step. For for others, the fresh air might be I just needed to pause and think about God and to remember his goodness, remember his love for me, and that's a breath of fresh air for somebody. Um and then the ultimately I hope that we can all walk away from each service just enjoying the fresh air. And that's really what I say at the end of every every fresh air. I don't know if you've caught it, Avery, but I try to say at the end of each service that we have together, hey, go and enjoy the fresh air, enjoy God's presence, enjoy experiencing Him until we meet again for the next time. But yeah, those are some of the things I love about Fresh Air, the student experience that we get to do as a community every single week, which is just a really special thing that I enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

As we close out today's episode on our fresh air services, we're reminded that every part of the preparation process matters, from setting clear goals and choosing meaningful themes to shaping a final message that connects with students. Planning with intention helps the service flow naturally and keeps the focus on what students need to hear. All in all, speaking to students isn't always easy, but when we meet them with authenticity and purpose, fresh air becomes more than a weekly gathering. It becomes a moment that challenges, encourages, and stays with students long after they walk out the doors.