miracles

Last night at youth group might have been the perfect strategic night ever. we're only three weeks into our youth group year and as we're getting settled into the rhythm of the year we dove into the topic of miracles. I also used this opportunity to encourage kids to come and hear about our new mission trip destination next summer. These two fit together so beautifully!

I don't always like to go after topics like this early in the year, but being persuaded by a leader to focus on the book of John this year - the story of Jesus first miracle in chapter two is difficult to avoid. So after our normal ice breakers and a good game of Chicken on a hill the teenagers headed into the youth room for our large group.

I began by showing this video about miracles and then we began a Bible study. I did fail to have students pick up Bibles as they entered the room so I tried to read slowly, but I wish they had their Bibles.

I walked students through the story pausing several times to ask questions and get responses from the students. We focused on Mary's faith in this story - her ability to believe that Jesus could/would do something because she had prior experience with God's miracles. And contrasted our own faith and the disciples faith until they saw the miracle.

It was a great study that led to very good conversation in small groups.

We concluded the evening with worship and during worship I revealed our summer plans by recapping the miracles story and our own need to see God do amazing things so that we could have faith to see more miraculous things.

Strategy was great - evening felt awesome!The number of kids who come is so stable - it's just the frequency of kids that really drives me bananas! We had 42 students - of course 7 of them were new and the number of kids who were back from week 1 was back up... it's a little crazy - but probably a good subset of what's going on in churches as well. good numbers, less frequency.

sacrifice

On our second night of youth group for the year we had 41 students. 30 had been here the week before, 11 were new, and 20 students didn't come back for week number 2. 

I try not to look at numbers like this for any reason other than to reaffirm in my head and heart that each week we have a dramatically different group of students. The small groups - while we're trying for better consistency this year - are still changing each week. It also means that our group takes a little longer to settle in each week, the transition times are a little delayed and the conversations can be a little off balance with some people feeling very comfortable and others not at all. 

Our opening is going very smoothly. the spotify playlist is very welcoming, and our technology quizes were great. I'm very happy with the joys and concerns part as it gives us a chance to be honest, serious and prayerful early in the evening. each week we've had students share big things with the group which is really cool to have in our group.

Human foosball was great - 10 minutes of energy and silliness but I did a horrible job leading it. I should have moved into the fellowship hall before we got into our lines. instead, we made groups of 4 and walked in, but by the time we transitioned into the fellowship hall the groups were separated, confused, and we had lost some of the momentum.

the transition poll was nice to have - 40 texts is plenty for the group. 

the lesson was great. we used the brick testament to tell the story of abraham and Isaac - then discussed Jewish ideas about sacrifice until Jesus shows up - keying on the passage from John: Behold the lamb.

That led us into great small group conversations about sacrifice.

Gathering + Snacks

Opening Game: Powerpoint quiz game

Joys and Concerns (+ Introductions of Leaders)

Ice Breaking Game: Human Foosball

Transition poll - If you were stranded on a deserted island, what one item would you bring?

John 1 Lesson - 1:29 - The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

Small Group conversations

Worship

in the beginning - of the year

Last night at youth group we began our year... and we're off and running. 49 students and 13 leaders made for a very full youth room, loads of energy and very powerful evening.

Some news things for our group this year will include:

technology - we've installed a big screen TV and computer in the main youth space which allowed us to open the evening with spotify songs (thanks to some great lists made by YoungLife), a powerpoint trivia warm up game, youtube clips during our large group, and some interactive polls (polleverywhere.com).

small groups - we always have small groups to debrief our experiences, but this year we are establishing permanent small groups that will meet each week. We experimented with this last year during house groups and I think our group is both large enough to support them, diverse enough to need them and craving depth enough to appreciate them. So a few weeks ago I sorted leaders into teams to lead small groups and we had kind of a draft for the students. Last night they found out who and where they would be each week during small group and began those great conversations.

So the evening unfolded as planned:

Gathering + Snacks

Opening Game: Powerpoint quiz game – hipster slang

Joys and Concerns

Ice Breaking Game: Train Wreck  

Poll (What's the hardest part of being Christian? - getting up on Sunday mornings)

Large Group - John 1 Lesson

Small Group Sorting

Small Group conversations

Worship

To make Trainwreck even better we had categories which helped them think of ideas and move our conversation from the summer towards how we see ourselves. I didn't know if we could play this game for 20 minutes like we did, but every once in a while I paused the game and had kids talk with their neighbor. that and the categories really helped hold their attention and the game didn't get tired.

The lesson was great! I worked hard to scorre the message and we talked about the choice that we make with a mirror - to reflect ourselves and see our flaws or to reflect others and the light of God. the youtube clips aren't perfectly smooth from powerpoint, but it wasn't distracting because I used them at the beginning. since the talk was focused on reflections I handed out mirrors to each person as they left as a reminder.

Small groups really focused on how we see ourselves, our reputations and the ease and difficulty of being who God wants us to be - a total win in all the groups!

And then we closed everything up beautifully during our worship moment by writing on the backs of the mirrors: you are a child of God, holy and dearly loved, Jesus loves you and so do I. it's a phrase that Marilyn Sharpe uses and we adopted it into our group last year. we close the evening by saying those words to each other, they were perfect to write on the back of a mirror.