Last night at youth group we set our 6-12th graders Christmas Caroling in the community. This is also an annual tradition but in recent years we've seen less high school kids, until last night, when we had another strong showing. Part of the difficulty is that our youth group typically meet at 6:30 pm, which is late to begin caroling as businesses close and elderly people (our typical targets) are going to bed. So during this event we move the time up to 5:00 pm for a pizza dinner, then spend some time organizing into small groups and most groups are out of the door by 5:50, giving them a full two hours to carol.
We purposefully included 6th graders into our event last night in part because we've been trying to establish a 678 monthly group that gets together for fun and service projects. the 6th graders feel very young to high school seniors, but when we have enough people in total, you hardly notice the difference. To make this a success, I felt we needed to have some intentional mixing of older and younger kids in each car load, and then several cars traveled together on a specified route throughout the evening. So to begin with I asked each student to find a partner that they wanted to be with, and then I paired up these partners to make groups of 4 and 6. Several groups found themselves in packs of 3, which was acceptable and mingled with other 3-packs to form cars of 6.
We didn't ask the kids to sign up in advance, which is always very difficult, but worked out just fine. I did have 3-4 extra drivers, but they were happy to ride along and help sing.
To make this event over the top we also hosted a text message scavenger hunt while caroling. As a group they wrote down who was in their car and a cell number they wanted to have instructions texted to, and I sent about one instruction every 12 minutes. Last year I organized a picture taking scavenger hunt during caroling, but it was frustrating because some cars would spend too much time taking photos and make the other cars wait, so this year I tried to make everything able to do in a car while driving. It worked much better than the photos and still had some silliness involved. The scavenger hunt also allowed kids to have some reason to come back and share stories/creations/songs with each other.
All the groups were excited to begin with, but I would guess that only half the groups really followed through and participated. For various reasons (they were having too much fun, they felt too rushed, they were in nursing homes first and therefore unavailable to access supplies) some groups opted out, which was fine. The groups that participated, got really into it, creating a song, a craft made out of things found in their car, solving puzzles, singing Christmas songs... it was a good thing to do and didn't make anyone feel left out, only added fun when it needed to be added.
By far the best part of the caroling was hearing stories from each group as they returned. there were heart-warming moments, lots of laughter, and all kinds of sweet examples of the joy that our kids brought to nursing homes and shut-in across the city.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Gingerbread Houses
Last night at youth group we hosted our second annual gingerbread night at church. I carried this tradition on from my previous church, which allows teenagers to creatively tell the Jesus story using frosting, candy and graham crackers. In years past, this event was mostly built around learning the story of Christmas and having an excuse for kids to gather, create and share what they've made. This year, I wanted to focus a little more on stories, a theme that we've been exploring with our students (sunday school, senior stories, and next our confirmation classes), so instead of having each group create nativity gingerbread houses, I gave each group of students a different story from Jesus' life to be made into a diorama. The results are extremely creative and were loads of fun for the kids to make!
We began the evening by meeting in the youth room like usual. As we gather we always spend the first few minutes posing questions to the group and letting them share answers with each other while the leader pulls out clever answers or tries to engage kids who are more isolated. These are generally ice breaker questions in nature, just conversation starters to relax kids. We also have a counter full of ready snacks: capri-sun and bags of chips last night.
Then we moved on to the fellowship hall for games and the main event. as the students departed they were each given a playing card. I had presorted the deck (removing all face cards and then shuffled because we had less than 50 students). The random card they were assigned as they left would indicate two groups that they would be in.
Our first game was called Backtionary. I simple game where student form a single file line facing one direction. the person at the rear of the line looks at an image, then attempts to draw that image on the back of the person in front of them. this is continued until the front person received the image and draws it on a piece of paper. After all groups have completed their image, we reveal the real image and show off each team's drawing. laughter always ensues. For this game I initially placed each person in groups according to their suit on their card, then I invited adults to mix into each line - making even teams. The design was good, but there were too many students in each line. probably the ideal number is 6 people, most of our lines had more like 10-12, which was just too many because students got bored. after the first image, I decided to make things more interesting by introducing a series of images. It added a lot of energy to the crowd, but none of the students connected that I was actually drawing the nativity, a sheep, and a present (three elements of the Christmas story).
This should have been a great lead into our story time. I recapped teh game by saying that stories are so valuable: the help us connect, they are memorable, and they can be repplied later - which is why Jesus told so many parables. But sharing stories is hard, especially if you're using unconventional methods, which was the challenge. That's the message that should have been conveyed, but I think the smell of 50lbs of frosting was overwhelming and few understood the point of our first game or the gingerbread stories at this point.
Then using the same card they were given earlier, students found themselves according to number and sat down at a table. Leaders mixed into the tables, providing at least one leader per table. This was excellent! most tables were really well mixed and the leaders were able to choose where they ought to sit based on their relationships with students. really good!
I reserved some leaders for photos and to help distribute candy/frosting and then I explained the purpose - to learn a story about Jesus and then retell it was gingerbread materials. Each group was given a different story which they first read aloud, then talked about for a few minutes. I think the competitive nature of the event took over here and some groups didn't do diligence in reading the story or talking about it. I should have given each group a few minutes before I released the supplies - next time!
Then there was about 50 minutes of activity as each group created their dioramas. I played Christmas music and used the microphone to add a few icebreaker questions to the evening.
Then we placed all the stories for display, cleaned up and had each group share their story, and how it might be relevant for someone today. this instruction was on their instruction sheet, but many groups hadn't really discussed how the story might apply, so I put students on the spot and drew out answers as they showed off their diorama.
I was surprised how little our kids knew these stories (all of which are basic Jesus stories) and how difficult it was for some groups to discover how the story could be reapplied into today's life. BUT it was such a good exercise that I allowed it to persist, taking up the rest of our evening. It was an excellent end to the evening.
Today, the day after, I setup the dioramas in our church library with simple description of each story and invited people to try to match the stories with the dioramas. I hope that as staff and parents gather this week they'll enjoy our gingerbread sets as much as we did!
We began the evening by meeting in the youth room like usual. As we gather we always spend the first few minutes posing questions to the group and letting them share answers with each other while the leader pulls out clever answers or tries to engage kids who are more isolated. These are generally ice breaker questions in nature, just conversation starters to relax kids. We also have a counter full of ready snacks: capri-sun and bags of chips last night.
Then we moved on to the fellowship hall for games and the main event. as the students departed they were each given a playing card. I had presorted the deck (removing all face cards and then shuffled because we had less than 50 students). The random card they were assigned as they left would indicate two groups that they would be in.
Our first game was called Backtionary. I simple game where student form a single file line facing one direction. the person at the rear of the line looks at an image, then attempts to draw that image on the back of the person in front of them. this is continued until the front person received the image and draws it on a piece of paper. After all groups have completed their image, we reveal the real image and show off each team's drawing. laughter always ensues. For this game I initially placed each person in groups according to their suit on their card, then I invited adults to mix into each line - making even teams. The design was good, but there were too many students in each line. probably the ideal number is 6 people, most of our lines had more like 10-12, which was just too many because students got bored. after the first image, I decided to make things more interesting by introducing a series of images. It added a lot of energy to the crowd, but none of the students connected that I was actually drawing the nativity, a sheep, and a present (three elements of the Christmas story).
This should have been a great lead into our story time. I recapped teh game by saying that stories are so valuable: the help us connect, they are memorable, and they can be repplied later - which is why Jesus told so many parables. But sharing stories is hard, especially if you're using unconventional methods, which was the challenge. That's the message that should have been conveyed, but I think the smell of 50lbs of frosting was overwhelming and few understood the point of our first game or the gingerbread stories at this point.
Then using the same card they were given earlier, students found themselves according to number and sat down at a table. Leaders mixed into the tables, providing at least one leader per table. This was excellent! most tables were really well mixed and the leaders were able to choose where they ought to sit based on their relationships with students. really good!
I reserved some leaders for photos and to help distribute candy/frosting and then I explained the purpose - to learn a story about Jesus and then retell it was gingerbread materials. Each group was given a different story which they first read aloud, then talked about for a few minutes. I think the competitive nature of the event took over here and some groups didn't do diligence in reading the story or talking about it. I should have given each group a few minutes before I released the supplies - next time!
Then there was about 50 minutes of activity as each group created their dioramas. I played Christmas music and used the microphone to add a few icebreaker questions to the evening.
Then we placed all the stories for display, cleaned up and had each group share their story, and how it might be relevant for someone today. this instruction was on their instruction sheet, but many groups hadn't really discussed how the story might apply, so I put students on the spot and drew out answers as they showed off their diorama.
I was surprised how little our kids knew these stories (all of which are basic Jesus stories) and how difficult it was for some groups to discover how the story could be reapplied into today's life. BUT it was such a good exercise that I allowed it to persist, taking up the rest of our evening. It was an excellent end to the evening.
Today, the day after, I setup the dioramas in our church library with simple description of each story and invited people to try to match the stories with the dioramas. I hope that as staff and parents gather this week they'll enjoy our gingerbread sets as much as we did!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Christmas Gifts
Last night at youth group our students were amazing. They love service projects. (I know this is true, I say it often, I think of it often, but it doesn't always permeate everything I do.) Last night our students met at church and pooled money, then went to Target and purchased gifts for residents of the Handicapped Development Center.
There are few traditions that haven't changed since I arrived here last May, but this tradition is golden! One of our adult leaders works at West High School and every year they sponsor gifts to residents of the HDC. Our leader takes a few of those names and we spend one youth group night buying gifts. The students really responded well in numbers and in support.
Since we were traveling away from the building, we gathered in the narthex (front lobby) instead of the youth room. Our church is quite large, and fortunately has several large gathering spaces, but I thought it would be much easier for adults and for us as we added late kids, if we just began in the front gathering area. After a few minutes of mingling, I asked everyone to get into a large circle and we played Jello. It's a sweet game, lots of silliness, lots of kids acting crazy and making each other laugh with goofy actions, and we play it several times a year so most of the students are familiar with it. Actually it's the type of game that I always keep in my back pocket, just in case we need to burn 10-30 minutes and know that we'll be doing something fun. This night though, it was easy simple and we didn't play it in full, just enough to get the energy up.
After a few minutes of the game, I asked the kids to break into groups according to their age (just like house groups). We had few seniors so I recruited a few freshman to join their group, which was a great fit! I had asked them each to bring a little extra money to contribute, and once they were in groups I distributed leaders and began to give instructions: pool your money, look at the description of the person you're buying for, and then head out.
Since this was a traditional event with many of the leaders knowing the basics the simple instructions worked out great. We had an abundance of leaders, and several drivers that I recruited that ended up riding along just for fun. But you could tell that everyone was involved and interested the entire time. Each group pooled between $75-$150 and the church chipped in $20 for each group. That meant the kids could really get some great gifts and could really feel good about their ability to help. Having the extra leaders is also great because many of them helped with the cash flow!
Once we returned to church we headed downstairs where wrapping stations were set up and kids wrapped all their gifts. I had meant to have kids share what they bought with each other, but one group was slow getting back and so we didn't really have that opportunity. Instead we sang some Christmas carols and enjoyed an easy evening of hanging out. It was great!
There are few traditions that haven't changed since I arrived here last May, but this tradition is golden! One of our adult leaders works at West High School and every year they sponsor gifts to residents of the HDC. Our leader takes a few of those names and we spend one youth group night buying gifts. The students really responded well in numbers and in support.
Since we were traveling away from the building, we gathered in the narthex (front lobby) instead of the youth room. Our church is quite large, and fortunately has several large gathering spaces, but I thought it would be much easier for adults and for us as we added late kids, if we just began in the front gathering area. After a few minutes of mingling, I asked everyone to get into a large circle and we played Jello. It's a sweet game, lots of silliness, lots of kids acting crazy and making each other laugh with goofy actions, and we play it several times a year so most of the students are familiar with it. Actually it's the type of game that I always keep in my back pocket, just in case we need to burn 10-30 minutes and know that we'll be doing something fun. This night though, it was easy simple and we didn't play it in full, just enough to get the energy up.
After a few minutes of the game, I asked the kids to break into groups according to their age (just like house groups). We had few seniors so I recruited a few freshman to join their group, which was a great fit! I had asked them each to bring a little extra money to contribute, and once they were in groups I distributed leaders and began to give instructions: pool your money, look at the description of the person you're buying for, and then head out.
Since this was a traditional event with many of the leaders knowing the basics the simple instructions worked out great. We had an abundance of leaders, and several drivers that I recruited that ended up riding along just for fun. But you could tell that everyone was involved and interested the entire time. Each group pooled between $75-$150 and the church chipped in $20 for each group. That meant the kids could really get some great gifts and could really feel good about their ability to help. Having the extra leaders is also great because many of them helped with the cash flow!
Once we returned to church we headed downstairs where wrapping stations were set up and kids wrapped all their gifts. I had meant to have kids share what they bought with each other, but one group was slow getting back and so we didn't really have that opportunity. Instead we sang some Christmas carols and enjoyed an easy evening of hanging out. It was great!
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