Last night at youth group we were rained out of our initial plan of doing service projects and forced inside to have fun all evening with games and Bible study. Fortunately I was able to plan a little ahead on Sunday morning and things worked out well. Here's what we did and what worked:
We began the evening by having kids decorate a wooden cross with their name as they entered the youth room. This worked out great! it gave kids something to do as they entered the room and the leaders an excuse to talk with kids. A basket of sharpies and some leftover crosses from an event earlier this year were great supplies and easy to pull out. We used these crosses later, which were actually key rings, when we decorated a wall-sized map of our town by placing the crosses wherever we lived.
After a few minutes to gather, I called everyone's attention to a few announcements concerning the next coming weeks and then laid out the plan for the evening. I've always found this helpful for students to know what they'll be doing, what to expect. Then we moved into the fellowship hall and immediately into groups of 10 for an icebreaker called hula head. This wasn't a great transition, I should have waited until everyone got into the room before I told them to get into groups and I could have mingled them up a little more, instead the kids were mostly with their closest friends in big groups of 10 or so. Leaders did a great job of jumping into groups and making sure that there was at least one leader in each group. We played four rounds of hula head, which basically uses hula hoops to pass around the circle without using hands, while all holding hands. Hula hoops over the head, two hoops going in opposite directions, everyone going through the hoops... just silly physical activity with lots of laughter and excitement!
Next we moved to tables and played a game called speed friending. kids were seated at tables in a circle and were paired up with someone across from them. The group got one minute to find as many things in common with their partner, and the most unique things that they had in common, then as the leader at the end of a minute I asked for volunteers to share their most unique items. Everything from favorite episode of their favorite tv show to both playing in a tribute band. The creativity was excellent! after each round I asked the inside circle to move a random number of chairs to their right insuring new partners, names, and new things in common. The chairs and tables were critical for this game. I've done it before with confirmation kids, but without chairs the kids get confused easily about who belongs to who. It also worked well because kids sat down at tables next to their friends, so they were meeting people across the table who they didn't really know.
Next we headed back to the youth room for one of the most dangerous and awesome games in youth ministry: what would you do if... in this game each participant writes a 'what would you do if' statement on a note card, then we pass cards and everyone answers the statement on the back of the card. Finally, after a good shuffling of cards, leaders redistribute cards and answers are read aloud in a special way. the first person reads their 'what would you do if' question, and their neighbor to their right reads the answer on their card. Since the answers are mixed, they end up with some ridiculous statements and answers. my favorite from last night: Q - What would you do if you lived with Ian. A - I would trade it for a cat. The game does have lots of craziness and it's difficult to get kids to stay quiet long enough to hear answers, but the kids eventually pick up on the game and want to hear. It's dangerous because there can be some risky answers or insinuations. But kids are pretty good at recognizing sketchy answers and amending statements so that nothing comes out wrong.
Then we broke into small groups by age group. With a group our size, age groups are important to get into every once in a while, even though we broke the largest age group into two groups. There is a good sense of camaraderie in the ages and I think kids need to see their peers in order to have some conversations. In this small group we began with another ice breaker game which asked kids to pull out a random object from a bag and tell a story about themselves that the object made them think of. I sat with seniors and the game was hilarious. Great stories. That led the group into a conversation about seeing God in everyday life situations which was an awesome conversation to have with our small groups referencing the message translation of Romans 12:1-2). Even with 30 minutes in small group, some of the groups didn't get to the Bible study portion (too long in the stories) which is a little frustrating, but a reality, especially with so many students all still figuring out the rhythm of youth group.
We closed the group with some great singing, prayer and then a short closing about how we see God in our everyday lives. I referenced the map during closing, which was now decorated with crosses for everywhere the kids lived. The visual of the crosses all around the city is a powerful reminder of how we do see God in everyday life. Not bad for a rainout plan that I made a few hours before youth group :)
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