White Elephant

Last night at youth group our students were organized into house groups again. Four houses across the city hosted the groups of 6-10 students (collecting about 33 students and a dozen leaders).

The house group plan included a white elephant gift exchange, Bible study based on the visit from the magi in Matthew 2, an activity about the 12 days of Christmas (guessing what those gifts could be and then making up their own ideas), and then a picture challenge of each group posing through the 12 days of Christmas. The house groups have been working really well, and this was no exception. This is the fourth house group of the year, and here are some conclusions that I've made that will guide us in the future.

1. Consistent leadership has been key. I think the more that our leaders have been involved the better their leadership has become. not every leader reads the guide ahead of time, or even has things planned out and prepared, but the students have adapted to the leaders strengths as the groups have developed. I've seen the leaders connecting better outside of the groups as well. With a large group such as ours, it can feel overwhelming for leaders who are trying to get to know a different group of kids each week. These house groups have given leaders a focus group of kids to connect with and then platforms for the leaders to discover their roles, use their gifts, and engage other kids.

2. Changes in the house group location each month means lots of communication! Each house group has changed locations almost every time they meet. This is great, kids want to host, they want to show off their houses and invite others... but it's also a challenge to get everyone directed to the right location - facebook events have been key - and postcards each week have also been integral!

3. Even with texting, facebook events, facebook messages, bulletin announcements, parent emails, weekly reminders and postcards, we still had students show up to the last house group without a wrapped present to exchange (fortuantely I supplied 2 extra gifts per house group just in case). But this amount of communication is too much to sustain long term. I think we're operating in a communication overload world, so I need to find ways to make our communication more powerful and direct instead of just a mass communication.

4. Cliques are good. Well, groups of students who feel like they belong to each other and provide safe circles of friends are good. Exclusion is bad. Our house groups have created some very strong identity in our group - which is great for kids who haven't felt like this is a group for them yet... but when the groups become so strong that they no longer are welcoming others in - then we have a problem. This is a borderline issue right now in our group. One that we'll have to bring to the surface, remind everyone of our values and then encourage them like crazy to use their cliques as springboards into new relationships within and outside of our group.

5. The picture challenge, followed by a posting on facebook, has been crucial to the groups feeling like they haven't missed 'it' each night. it's probably also leading to strong/competitive groups, but they have definitely been a huge win for our group.