The least of these

Last night at youth group we focused on the sheep and the goats, emphasizing the difference between sheep and goats is their behavior - to flock together, or to be independent. Though I don't particularly enjoy this reading of Matthew 25 - it was such a great message about looking out for the least of these.

6:30-6:40 Gathering/Snacks (Youth Room)
Yummy snacks provided by a volunteer - and we had some extras leftover from a church event earlier in the day.

6:40-6:50 Opening game (Youth Room)
Choose 4 students, one from each grade and a handful of students each to be their helpers.
Give each student  a giant sweatshirt and a stack of balloons.
Each team will have one minute to inflate balloons, and then stuff their team mate with as many balloons as possible. All balloons must be inflated to proper size (5-8 inches) and must stay inside the sweatshirt to count at the end of the minute.
Then have a second contest to see who can pop their balloons fastest

This was great - very energetic - lots of fun - competitive without having to have prizes. The sweatshirts will be reused over and over again.

6:50-7:00 Joys and Concerns (Youth Room)

7:00-7:15 Ice Breaker – Human Bocce Ball (Fellowship Hall)
Student volunteers divide into two teams, blind fold participants. Send them into the middle of the room by instructing them to take a certain number of steps, in a particular direction, trying to get closest to a center point. Students pass on the number of steps when they bump into someone else.

There were two problems with this game: 1. not everyone could be involved. it would have been perfect if we had a smaller group, but with 40+ students there was a lot of watching. 2. it was too slow. we needed music to be blasting, and leaders who were energizing their teams. I let students be in control because there were so many students, but they wanted to win - not just have fun.

7:15-7:30 DEVOTION
Paraphrase Matt 25
Can you tell a sheep from a goat
Matt 25:40 - Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me
Looking out for Bobby
1 Corinthians 12:23, 26

I loved this talk. I loved the message and I loved the visuals. the students were all over this one, hanging by my words and often referenced in small groups.

7:30 Small Group
1. Introduce yourself and tell the group a little about who you are and what you like to do. (something that might surprise the rest of the group)
2. Go around the circle and talk about a time or space where you feel like you might be considered an outsider.
3. Go around the circle again and talk about times and spaces where you do have a lot of confidence and comfort.
4. What kinds of factors affect your comfort and confidence?
5. Who are some people in your life that might be considered the ‘least of these’? Who are the needy people around you?
6. What kind of resources have you been blessed with that you could share?
7. Has anyone ever shown you special honor (great mercy or kindness) when you needed it?
8. Jesus encourages us to consider the people who others forget about. Why is this message so important? Do you think it's particular to Jesus?
9. Do you think Jesus comments here to his disciples were surprising? Why or why not?

we had some great stories and affirmations in my group. we didn't talk as much about the challenges of looking out for the least of these as much as I would have liked. I think we could have left it a little more encouraging and convicting.

8:05-8:30 Prayer and Praise
I will call upon the Lord
I just wanna be a sheep
I have changed your name
Ritual - you are a child of God - holy and dearly loved, jesus loves you and so do I
You’re beautiful
Baby
Messiah

Why Am I Here?

Last night at youth group was our first night back of the year. It's strange that school started a few weeks ago, but it was our first night of youth group: one of the prayer requests was for midterms? seriously? anyway, this was the schedule with some notes about what worked and what didn't work.

6:15 Leaders arrive

Mostly okay. there was a handful of eager students who arrived at 6:00, the rest showed up between 6:30-

6:40 leaving those eager freshmen in suspense if anyone else was coming. a handful of leaders did show up early and helped greet upstairs - which was great!

6:30-6:40 Gathering/Snacks

Provided by a student and parent - delicious if not a little later than we would have wanted. one of the problems using volunteers is that you're not in control. I would have preferred the snacks arrive much earlier, but that's the way it goes.

6:40-6:50 Opening game and Introduction of Leaders (Youth Room)

We played a power point quiz which was a total flop... total flop, but it somehow achieved the goal of making the entire group gel together in a unanimous  - WAY TO HARD attitude. We tried to have kids guess mom's of celebrity families. whew! 

6:50-7:00 Joys and Concerns (Youth Room)

This is always a special moment of sharing when kids have the opportunity to be excited about each others lives and stand together with difficult problems. We did pray for our pastor's wife who recently had a stroke, and for a student who is receiving brain scans back this week.

7:00-7:15 Ice Breaker – Chicken on a Hill (Fellowship Hall)

beginning the year with a classic game like this is critical. the kids groaned with excitement, but by the end of the game everyone was laughing!

7:15-7:30 Why am I here devotion (Youth Room)I wanted to model a faith story on the first night - so I didn't hold back and laid out a great story about stealing a street sign when I was in college. I coupled that message with the story of Joseph and his brothers concluding with Genesis 50:20 - God intended it for good. Then we challenged the kids to think about how much of our actions happen for a reason.

·          

7:30-8:05 Small Groups sorted by grade the first night

1.  Share your name and an experience or a story when you’ve thought:  ‘why  am I here’
2. Looking backward, in the last 12 months what are some events that you didn’t’ expect but had an impact on your life?
3. Looking forward into the next year what are some events that you hope or will possibly happen that will have an impact on your life?
4. Thinking about the story of Joseph, do you think God planned to have Joseph’s family betray him?
5. Are there any parts of Joseph’s story that you can relate to in your life?
6. What’s your current family situation like? Is it similar to others here in our group or to Joseph’s?
7. Do you think God had a hand in your family situation? Are you part of your family for a reason?
8. If you could look ahead in your life to know the result of your decisions (good or bad) and what your life would look like in 10 years, would you? Why or why not?
9. What kind of an effect would/could this youth group have on your life or this year?

8:05-8:30 Prayer and Praise

We invited the new youth choir director to join us for the evening. He brought his bass and added some depth to our singing - which was awesome. With our drummer on a box, a bass, and a couple of guitars we really rocked the campfire circle by singing Lean on me, Prince of Peace, Forever Reign, Hungry, and Light the Fire. 

I'm going to try to keep track of our song choices better this year so that we don't get too stuck in a rut.

Of course we ended with our typical ritual blessing - you are a child of God, holy and dearly loved, Jesus loves you and so do I.

Bonfire

Last night we closed our year of youth group with our annual cookout and bonfire. Great attendance and I think we honored our seniors and welcomed our incoming 8th graders well. It's hard to host the final event of the year on Mother's Day. We did have a good turn out though, it helps when it's a special event I think.

6:00 Dinner - was good we lit the charcoal grills at 4:45 and would have had time to grill everything with two grills going, if we didn't have a grill catastrophe. microwaved/boiled hotdogs instead... burgers worked though.

6:40 Cleanup and announcements - two leaders stayed inside to clean up

6:40 Ice Breaker – the Partner Gamble

Choose a partner and take a place in our circle.

Hold hands with partner so that you know who you belong too.

Round operates like this:

1. Learn their names, grade, school…
2. Share a random fact
3. Gamble on the question – the incumbent makes a guess and the challenger says higher or lower.
4. The winner stays, the loser leaves to find a new partner

Great game for our kids. lots of laughter and fun. Definitely a repeatable game.

7:10 Partner Ultimate Chicken in Vanderveer

You and your partner will be tied together in order to play, only using one arm a piece.

Can only hold the chicken for 10 seconds… leaders are judges

Fun, but a failed game. we only played for about 5 minutes. the legs were too frustrating and funny to be effective. I added a few extra chickens when I realized that it wasn't going to work. and then ended the game shortly afterwards.

7:30 gather at bonfire for drinks and devotion time

Senior Wisdom - we asked questions and the seniors, standing in a line answered one word at a time. was a great way to honor the seniors and have some laughter. 

Singing

Devotion about Josh 1:9 - choosing to look at your life transitions with confidence or fear. then transitioned into Pebble in the Pond where I invited kids to come forward adn mention the name of someone who has made a splash in their life, given them confidence.

the wilderness

Last night at youth group we had really wonderful conversation led by a very courageous faith story. This was our final senior faith story of the year and the young man sharing has been through a lot of dip and turns in his faith over the last few months. When we spoke a few weeks ago in a coffee shop we both came to the conclusion that if I had asked him to share in the beginning of the year his story would have been wholly different. As it is, with graduation looming, some disappointment realized, some difficult expectations laid on him by parents, and some deep reflection, my student found himself deep in the wilderness for this faith story. But after we talked several times and worked our way through his story and what wilderness looks like, I think he gave a very authentic talk about having doubts about faith that propelled our students into a very engaged discussions.

6:30 Gathering

during our gathering I pump the room full of music from spotify and we provide snacks. This week the music was good, but a litttle loud.

6:40 Ice Breaker guess the identity

Using powerpoint images of celebrities I animated the slide show so that celebrities appeared through the disolve feature. I then adjusted the timing to be 30-60 seconds per image. It makes a pixilating reveal of the photo perfect for students to guess. It's always surprising to see how quickly some students are to recognize faces. (I even included one of our senior pastor, which was guessed surprisingly quickly)

6:45 Joys and Concerns

My favorite was "there are few concerns tonight". In actuality I struggle with the pastor care part of this. Often I know about things that the students don't know yet and keep myself from mentioning them. There are always many more concerns than are listed.

6:55 Large Group

We played a short game of charades, divided into three teams, each team had one minute to get through as many words as possible. simple, fun, lots of laughs.

7:10 Bible Story

I shared the story of the Road to Emmaeus with the students. it fit perfectly with the faith story and set up a nice framework to wonder about how God is near us when we don't realize it.

7:15 Faith Story

Was really well done. my senior was funny and serious. He is well respected in our group even if he doesn' come all that regularly. it was a powerful story because he really chose his words wisely and made them count.

7:30 Small Groups

Kind of our last small group of the year, I made one small group all seniors, one all freshman and the other two were mixed. The freshman small group I also added two Juniors who were seniors which really helped keep the conversation on track.

8:10 Worship

In chains

Last night at youth group we talked about being in bondage.

6:30 Gather outdoors with Music

Our church has a beautiful front yard, flat enough to play in, with an outlet nearby. So we can play some games, gather with music and greet everyone as they arrive. It was nice to begin outdoors on such a beautiful night.

6:35 Capture the Flag with Spies

The game worked well. I used a pack of cards and distributed people into teams based on red and black cards. There were two queens in the stack of numbered cards that I used which represented a 'spy'. Once during the game the spy could switch teams. it meant that the defenders of the flag were also a little wary of each other not knowing who was the spy and who was really defending. Game one was great, a spy took the flag and scored. then we redistributed cards and played again. one spy was caught, the other never appeared. we ended the game when it got rowdy. definitely a good twist to a good game. don't forget the jails next time. I forgot to explain them (and they were critical for the night... whoops)

6:50 Snacks and Acolyte Video

on a beautiful night, we bought ice cream and frozen popscicles. when we came inside the snacks were available. it was a good decision. I liked the format. though the game was not as inclusive if someone came late, it was a good opportunity it worked fine.

6:55 Joys and Concerns

lots of good prayer requests. I think students really look forward to the chance to share with each other. the challenge is keeping everyone together and listening in the midst of sad stories that invoke further questions from friends and laughter when we rejoice. it's a good ritual for our group though.

7:05 Dan’s Talk about Prison

Pastor Dan spent a week in a maximum security prison in Louisiana a few weeks ago. He shared what it was  like to enter and engage in that community for a week. He did a great job explaining what normal looked like for them and how life was felt in prison.

7:30 Small Group – as people we often feel imprisoned in different ways. Whether that’s at school, or in life, because of our friends, pressure from parents, or how much money we have. Tonight in small groups we’re going to reflect on Dan’s story about prison and think about how to find hope in our own lives of captivity.

I think the small group conversations were well received. They were serious and interesting. I only caught glimpses, but small group leaders seemed pleased at the end.

8:10 Closing Worship

We closed with a few songs about being in captivity to different things: Blind Man, Messiah, Baby, and In Christ Alone. We always close our evening saying "you are a child of God, holy and dearly loved, Jesus loves you and so do i". It's another ritualistic action and always fits with the theme of the evening. I introduce the ritual each night with different words, last nights was the easiest. I reminded everyone that they are in captivity. we are all enslaved to one thing or another. we're broken, but God calls us to claim one another in love. claimed as God's children, not rejected, but accepted by God and by us. 

   

Bad Things

Last night at youth group we touched on the topic of evil in the world. It was a timely topic because of the recent bombing in Boston and it fit in well with the verse that our high school senior had picked out as well: James 1:2-8.

We began the evening with normal ice breakers and Joys and Concerns, followed by a few group games. We moved to the fellowship hall, stood in a circle and played "My name is ________ and I pass the ball like this..." It's a simple name game but given the variety of kids each week, it's a good reminder of all of our kids' names. Next we tried to play Go Tag... but it flopped badly! it's supposed to be a game of tag where everyone squats in a row, each person facing an opposite direction. As the runner is being chased, the tagger is supposed to be able to tap the shoulder of anyone in the line and take their spot, making a new tagger. But it just didn't work with our kids. We probably had too many students (our numbers were around 40) and the game didn't make sense. We'll try again if we have a smaller group.

Recognizing the flop, we quickly changed games. I told everyone to find a partner and elbow up. Then we played elbow tag and I pumped in some music. hilarious fun. lots of energy, it's a simple and intuitive game and totally redeemed my failed Go Tag.

When we returned to the youth room I introduced our senior, read a short Bible passage and let him speak. He was very good. He told the story of his life in kind of a mediocre faith until a mission trip to Arkansas helped him connect and make church his own. among my favorite quotes: "you don't always notice God unless your looking for him" and "I used to think that religion was all hell, fire and brimstone, but it's really all about you. If you want to connect with God, you can!"

Small groups wrestled with some questions about James 1 and about why bad things happen to us.

Faces of Denial

Last night at youth group we did too many things. actually more specifically I planned two great experiences together that should have been separated. First we gathered, broke the ice with a game called group machines and then spent about 20-25 minutes in the sanctuary filming a lip dub. Then we had a very intense discussion based on Peter's denial as I presented 4 faces of denial that we might wear. Those two events should have been separated - in fact, probably should have been their own night.

Group machines was great. We had smaller numbers probably because of the beautiful weather, but that meant our machines were quick and funny. Here's the list of machines that we had our groups act out:
Train
Helicopter
Submarine
Carousel
Roller Coaster
Excavator
Blender
Newton Ball Machine
Gumball Machine
Ferris Wheel
Coffee Machine
Automatic Doors
Castle Drawbridge
Monster Truck
Garbage Truck
The goal of the game was simply to get our kids moving, brainstorming, and active so that when we went upstairs to dance for the video we would be excited... and it worked. the kids were energized by our game and the video shoot too much longer than I expected.

Now about this lip dub. I watched a video clip of an acolyte training video and thought we could do it too. so I rewrote words to the song That's What Makes You Beautiful and a few weeks ago I sat down with a student and recorded it. Last Wednesday we invited confirmation students to dance in the video, and then we invited high school kids on Sunday. Today I'll be editing, can't say how it will turn out, but it was a lot of fun dancing in acolyte robes!

The faces of Denial was based on John 13:31-38 and John 18 25-27. After our video shoot we went back to the youth room and I spoke about Peter's denial and my own denials. in particular I mentioned 4 faces of denial that I wear: the scarecrow, the clown, the chameleon, and the thief. I remember these faces from when I was a kid, there was a skit about them. While I couldn't find the skit or rewrite it, I did present each of these faces and then kids broke into small groups to discuss them. Great discussions in most groups about different ways that we deny Christ and they also added a few faces to our list.

1. A Scarecrow. I puff myself up and pretend that I know who God is and what’s really going on in my life. I may look like I know what I’m doing, thinking or saying but I’m full of it. Full of straw with a face and smile that claims I’m doing and saying things that I think are right. There are doubts and fears that I don’t want others to know about because then I might not seem as strong. I might look weak. They might take advantage of me or not respect me, or not like me. And when it comes to my relationship with God, I do the same thing. I pretend like the answers make sense. I appear like I know what I’m doing or thinking. I act like I’m a strong Christian. I look like I know how to pray and be close to God. But, in reality, I’m just posing. That’s what a scarecrow does – poses.

2. A Clown. A clown makes his living by being a distraction. A clown makes jokes about things that are serious. A clown craves attention and smiles and laughter from others, and never seems to let serious things enter the conversation. I am a master of deflection. I know how to dance. I know how to avoid the serious tones of others and make light of the situation. I know how to do enough tricks that no one really sees me, the pain that I have, or the scars in my life. They don’t know who I am or what I think. They just see my act. In this way I deny Christ. I don’t let God be in control of my life, because I’m in control. I don’t let God be a serious influence in my life, because I’m not serious. If I’m not serious maybe the bad stuff won’t seem so bad. I’ll just take my mind off of it. After all, a clown is good at distractions.

3. A Chameleon. I blend. I change my appearance. I know how to look the right way and say the right thing so that no one really even sees me. I am in tune with my surroundings and who I surround myself, because I am a master of camouflage. My subtle head nods and my mouth moves: Yes, I think so too. I agree. But I have no idea. I don’t want to stand out. I jump from group to group, friend to friend, stranger to stranger imitating what I see. I don’t want attention, or arguments, or piercing questions. That is too dangerous. Best to blend in. And in this way I deny Christ. I don’t want to ruffle the feathers of others, or sound stupid, or look like I don’t belong. It is best to keep my questions to myself, to live with the choices of my group. I’ll just change groups if I need to anyway. I’m good at that. Because I’m a chameleon, a master of camouflage.

4. A Thief. Because I know that the most important thing in this world is me. Ultimately the choices I make are made for myself. Even when it appears that my intentions are pure, and my actions are right. I know better. I’m stealing. I’m stealing because I’m getting more than I give. I won’t offer my feelings, thoughts, and my ideas. I take them, I keep them all to myself. I’m greedy and selfish. And I do the same to God. I only take. I’m don’t like the hard parts, so I skip them. I like the parts that are all about me, so I use them. I use God for my own benefit. I’m not going out of my way to help someone else, because I am more important. That’s what makes me a thief. 

Kids added the 'D' Student - who only does the bare minimum, the Hypocondriac who always has a list of excuses why they aren't involved, the Insurance Agent who is only involved in case something bad happens, and the Judge who criticizes instead of loves.

This morning I posted a question to our facebook page about denying Christ and posted all 8 faces from last night... the conversations were cut a little short by time, but I think it's deep enough that we can revisit them again.

Stationary Soccer

Last night at youth group we heard another senior faith story. In honor of her faith story and her passion for playing soccer we also opened with a fun game called stationary soccer. The game is played a lot like foosball (everyone is appointed to stand in places on the board like a foosball table, but they must remain stationary the entire time. the ball is actually a blindfolded person who is spun around until dizzy and then asked to walk in a straight line. As the ball person gets close to a stationary person, they were allowed to redirect them with one hand for one second.

The game was great. We played two rounds, changing up where we stood each time, and were definitely done after two rounds. Choosing the right volunteers to be the ball is critical. We needed people who were not shy, and would be okay being a little jostled. it was a confusing few minutes for the ball, but they each had a really good time. I setup the game board ahead of time by putting masking tape on the floor in an offset checkered pattern. next time I would have put just  little more space between the tape spots because it was difficult at times to get the ball from one row to the next. Because we didn't know how many people we would have, I set up the game board all over the room and then arranged people and the goals after everyone was setup. Also - loud fast paced music was critical for the game - it helped confuse the blindfolded person and entertain the kids who were not close to the ball.

Of course safety was a major concern, so I had a team of adult leaders keeping the balls in play, and with our size we had three balls on the court at all times. pretty fun!

The faith story was also wonderful. Our high school student did a great job of relating her story to our teenagers and giving them a lot of hope and confidence. She spoke so positively about our youth group and the relationships there, it made me glad that we shared the story. I chose Proverbs 27:17 for the verse before she spoke because much of her story revolved around the conflict and constant encouragement that she and I shared before she got involved in our youth ministry. as Iron sharpens Iron...

We used her story to branch into a discussion about friendship and encouragement for each other, using a handful of verses to guide our discussion: Proverbs 27:17, Genesis 2:18, Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, and Philippians 2:19-21.

Easter Vigil

Last night at youth group we spent 90 minutes participating in a contemplative Easter Vigil... whew!

Technically it wasn't an Easter vigil because we didn't wait until Saturday night, but since our congregation celebrates Palm Sunday by reading the passion story at the end, it felt like it still worked well. We did use the ELW as a base format for our evening: making the Christ candle, using the processions and 4 scripture passages, concluding with reaffirmation of baptism and communion. It ended up a great service and I was really pleased with the concentration and focus from our teenagers. I'm not always a contemplative spirit, but I know that some of my teenagers are so this was a great way to feed them spiritually.

We began the evening with our normal gathering time followed by a game of "what would you do if..." I thought we would have a smaller group since some of our school were still on spring break, but we still had a really full group so I was glad that I had picked a game that was easily expanded for the size. Unfortunately we began by all sitting in a circle but as more people trickled into the group the circle grew uncomfortably small.

Since we were in a circle we also couldn't do Joys and Concerns normally (we usually write them on a white board). So I think that stifled the sharing a little bit. In fact it was a little giggly after our game and joys and concerns so I make a pretty firm transition into the contemplative worship service by reminding students that there are times for games and silliness and times for more focused quiet. And I encouraged them to stay present in our worship service and respectful even if they didn't like it out of respect for others.

Next time we do something like this we will definitely reconsider lights. it was quite dark in many of the rooms that we used. even with 30 tea lights the words to songs were difficult to read, maybe I'll consider making candle lit display in several rooms and lighting them ahead of time. I'll also consider lamps in various spaces because while the candles provided great atmosphere and definitely made the kids quiet, I think lamps could create a similar effect.

My favorite part of the vigil was the student readers. they were great. and added a lot to the stories. The songs seemed fine - but Just as I am was not as good as the others. I also wish we had used our SNL blessing instead of the one written in the hymnal - but I'm sure that there were some students and leaders who appreciated the reminder of their confirmation/baptism days.

Here's the order of our worship including songs that we sang.

Sunday Night Live Easter Vigil

March 24, 2013

Greeting and making of the Christ light

Silent Procession to the chapel

First Reading: Genesis 1:2-2:4

Song: Forever Reign (printed on reverse side)

Silent Procession to the lower level faith trek area

Second Reading: Exodus 14:10-31, 15:20-21

Song: Messiah (songbook page 19)

Silent Procession to the attic

Third Reading: Isaiah 55:1-11

Song: All Who Are Thirsty (songbook page 1)

Silent Procession to the sanctuary

Fourth Reading: Daniel 3:1-29

Song: Just As I Am (songbook page 17)

Gospel Reading: John 20:1-18

Song: The Wonderful Cross (songbook page 25)

Discussion

Prayer (hymnal page 234)

Profession of Faith (hymnal page 235)

Affirmation by the Assembly (hymnal page 237)

Move to baptismal font and bless each other

Share the peace of God

Song: The Lamb (songbook page17)

Words of Institution

Lords Prayer

Communion

Benediction

Post it love

Last night at youth group we began our evening with a quick video called post-it love and ended with these!

This was a great project for our group because we had low numbers because of spring break. It took a lot of work to setup but all the setup paid off and allowed kids to work in small group - collaborate and then hang their murals. They are all made from post it notes.

I made the templates last week by pixilating some graphics that I found online (that weird one is the logo for our church). Then I created a spreadsheet in Excel that had square boxes and just counted squares and colored them in until the image matched. it was pretty easy to make. The harder part was realizing that post-it notes don't stick to walls very well, so I used huge paper from a roll (3 feet wide). The most tedious part was drawing a 1 foot by 1 foot graph on the paper so that the assembly of the post it notes would go quickly. I also then drew darker lines on the excel boxes that matched the grid lines on paper. Each paper grid is 16 post it notes (4 by 4). For these larger images we had one team make the lower half and one make the upper half and then tape together.

We also began our evening with a quick conversation about communication and played a game of backtionary as the opening ice breaker after our joys and concerns.

I had planned a Bible study to match the experience but we ran out of time and the kids wanted to create their own image (SPY) which was probably more fun than the Bible study! without the Bible study there wasn't a whole lot of God talk going on, but butterfly, fish, hand, church logo, and youth logo are all deeply spiritual so I guess we let it slide.

stick bombs

Last night at youth group we talked about balance. And what better was to talk about balance than by creating a stick bomb and setting it off during youth group? Well, though that's true, a stick bomb isn't quite as menacing as it sounds: stick bomb video from last night.

I have found at this congregation that especially in the month of march - when spring break is looming or affecting a few schools (because none of our schools are coordinated and kids come from 8 different high schools), we have sparatic attendance. The problem is not so much that we have fewer kids show up, but that it feels like we have fewer kids show up. It's an uncomfortable feeling when someone looks around the room and says aloud, "Where is everyone?"

So during the month of march - I go special event crazy. I plan weird events during youth group that are designed to be more fun with fewer kids and that are so unusual that I have an excuse to call kids, invite kids, promote youth group in ways that I don't normally. I try to think of these march youth groups as entry points for the kids who don't come regularly - like a sampler platter - because they suddenly didn't have their normal Sunday night commitment and could actually come.

This week I jumped on the internet sensation about stick bombs and touted that we would try to break a world record. I have no idea what the world record is - I've seen up to 9000 sticks used online – but I have no idea if that’s the most. And though most of my kids had no idea what a stick bomb was, after the video that I showed during youth group – everyone was intrigued.

So here’s what we did: First we gathered as usual and used a balance-type game for our ice breaker. I pulled out the game of Jenga and wrote a number on each block. Then one at a time kids pulled the blocks out of the tower and had to answer a question from my question book that corresponded to the number they pulled. When the tower fell, we moved on. Not everyone had had a chance to pull a block – but we moved on anyway to Joys and Concerns.

Then after our prayer I explained our stick bombs and showed a sample video of stick bombs going off. The kids were hooked. It’s so strange to watch, unbelievable really. Then I showed a video tutorial I found online of someone demonstrating the process. The steps are simple, but you really have to practice before you can get it going. Honestly I made several the week before so that I could be an expert and then invited a few kids ahead of time to learn the process with me. getting the sticks started is the hardest part, after you’ve begun it’s quite simple.

After a few examples we went into another room to watch and exploded a stick bomb that one of our expert students made. The kids were really excited after seeing it live! Then we did some tutorials, gave each kids some sticks and tried to explain the process and let them experiment for a few minutes before finally heading upstairs to our lobby to make giant strings of stick bombs.

The process was slow at first, but 20 minutes in we had accomplished what we set out to do. Kids worked in teams and it helped to start a pair of kids together (me starting the sticks together and then passing it off to the pair to continue). Probably half of our kids would have kept going for another hour and the other half of the kids were too frustrated and just sat around talking and watching. There were several leaders and students who figured out how to connect the stick bombs to eachother – which was the key to making longer stick bombs. And of course several went off on accident during the making – which was super fun!

At the end of our allotted time, we all stood and cheered as we set off the stick bomb! It was excellent – and a great video! Then we cleaned up and headed off to small groups to talk about balance in our lives.

With 20 kids we split into two groups. but I wish we had split into 4 groups – my fault. Next time I’ll be sure to pair down the groups. our small groups focused on balance and read two passages together and discussed them: Revelation 3:15-16 and Ecclesiastes 7:15-18. I think they worked really well together for good discussion.

We closed with worship as usual and called it a night.

shake it

Last night at youth group we followed culture by creating our own Harlem shake. Not a big deal, and surprisingly easy to accomplish. I have boxes of props (mostly hats) that we used to make the crazy even more crazy. we began with everyone looking rather tame, chatting like they normally do while one person in a motorcycle helmet danced alone in the back. we filmed that for about 30 seconds. Then everyone ran to grab a prop and returned to their space. we had one student flicker the lights and everyone danced for about 30 seconds. Then I just edited the two together and overlaid the Harlem shake music, making one quick video to enjoy.

We also played a few rounds of Four on a couch. I usually begin with one normal round before imposing the rule that everyone must switch names with the person on their right when they sit down. It's good game, not a great game. kind of low energy and lots of thinking. But part of what makes it good is that it's so confusing that no one really gets frustrated when someone makes a mistake.

At our large group time I showed slides to emphasize the story of John 12:1-8. the slides were made from pictures that we took from the week before, which made the story much more fun, especially since it was such a simple story. The dialog after the story was about how we choose to worship God. Mary choose to worship with blessing, using her resources to honor God while Judas advocated for more of a following approach by serving the needs of others. a good discussion ensued.

Photo Challenge

Last night at youth group we began our evening with an ice breaker like normal. I picked photos from the 'what's the word' app and created a short version of the game for our teenagers. I randomly assigned teams as people walked into the room and then I projected the 4 images and had the appropriate amount of blanks listed at the bottom of the screen. Kids raised their hands and I called on them to guess the solution. It worked well, I wish I had made more than 10 images.

After our joys and concerns I asked the kids to stay in their same group while we participated in a photo challenge. Nothing too big, just a list of 20 words and a few instructions: must stay together as a group, only submit 20 photos, someone from the group should be in each photo, props must be returned unharmed after use, time limit to return in 30 minutes. Then the teams spread out across the building snapping photos.

* A quick note about cameras. I have several youth cameras. I collect them. whenever someone doesn't want a digital camera, I ask for it. And since our communications team has been through several camera transitions, and I've had a few more donated, I do have several cameras that use. they are definitely not all equal, but they work!

As we regathered I explained that our photos that we just snapped would be used to create our own version of 'what's the word' that I posted this morning on facebook and emailed links to parents. The pictures are okay, but grouped together they look great.

Then we settled into a quick Bible story where I walked the students through the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. I used lots of images and projected short snippets from the text. it was okay, but I definitely should have read through my script once more. I was a little shaky, but I think the spirit intervened and provoked our kids into really good discussions in small groups about resurrection and our resurrection at the end times.

Peer Pressure

Last night at youth group one of our brave seniors shared her faith story with our group. Her words weren't perfect. Sometimes she rambled. Sometimes she stumbled over words. Sometimes she told about her story rather than telling her story. BUT her emotion spoke clearly and her perspective was powerful for our group to behold. She shared about being popular, carving out an identity as different than her friends, and standing up to peer pressure, but feeling isolated and lonely in her decision. Eventually caving into peer pressure having to re-frame her mind about who she is and who she is called to be... it was a great story and our students were treated to great conversation afterwards.

Our evening began like any other: a gathering time, ice breaker questions and sharing joys and concerns. Then we moved to the fellowship hall and played group game of Pictionary relay. The 40 words I had on my list took about 15 minutes for the fastest group - but to make the game feel close I caught everyone else up several times throughout the game. Part of the fun for this game is watching kids run across the room to receive the next word, their competitive spirits flying. It was a great game for the evening.

Then we transitioned back to our youth room and got quiet so that we could focus on the faith story. I read scripture Genesis 50:20 to introduce our story about how God can use bad things to good in our lives. Our small groups reacted to the story and also read a little of Micah 6:8 and discussed sacrifice, the practice of Lent, and if God wants us to sacrifice to be Christian.

We closed up worship with a trio of ukuleles leading our music... beautiful!

I am the gate

Last night at youth group we had great conversations. We have a tradition each week of beginning our evening (after some gathering snacks and some sort of weird ice breaker) of sharing our joys and concerns. As we receive these prayer requests from students and leaders with raised hands, we share a moment of community. Sometimes it's kids who want to tell the group about making it to state, or receiving the lead role in the play, or that their grnadmother died... and last night's moment of community was a great moment, with lots of sharing, it began the evening great!

After our Joys and Concerns I explained the game of Secret Agent, which is a great mingling game. The basic premise is to walk around shaking hands with people while secretly one person, the secret agent, secretly scratches/taps the inside wrist of the person that they meet, thus killing them. Once a person is tapped, they need to shake at least two hands before collapsing to the floor in death.  Part of what makes this game great is that kids are talking with each other and the leader of the group can direct those conversations. To make the game a little better of a mixer, I told the kids that they were to keep shaking hands while they each asked the directed question and and both answered it. The game progresses as people share conversation (what was the last movie you've seen, what's your favorite vacation, where would you like to go before you die...) until someone would like to risk accusing someone of being the secret agent. An accuser raises their hand, the game is paused, and the accuser gets to accuse someone. If they're right the game is over, if they're wrong, the accuser is out.

For our group - once was perfect. We had used playing cards to determine who was the killer (the only one with a face) but when we attempted a second time playing the game a handful of kids cheated and killed each other. oh well.

Following our game we headed back into the youth room and dove into some scripture. I projected the Bible verses and we read them out loud as we talked about John 10:1-18. This year we've been reading through John and this was the next logical passage, but to make it especially relevant and interesting we referenced the news story last week about the LCMS pastor who apologized for participating in the Sandy Hook Vigil. The two phrases that stood out to our group which incited good discussion were: I am the gate, Whoever enters by me will be saved... and I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also. What great conversation those two passages held, especially given the Lutheran pastor apology.
 

Super Bowl Sunday

Last night at youth group was unconventional. personally I hate hosting the super bowl party, it's just a darn shame that it's held on a Sunday night conflicting with youth group. it's just too big to ignore, and just not good enough to really do anything with.

To my surprise we had a really good turn out this year I can't explain it, but they also watched most of the super bowl together... strange I know despite the myriad of games that I pulled from my personal shelves in anticipation of a non-football crowd. Here's what I did that worked:

I went to Papa Murphy's ahead of time and cooked pizzas during the game and invited leaders and kids to bring snacks (potluck style).

We pulled in a second TV into our youth room and watched the game on it, while I used the projection TV to broadcast other less important but more entertaining things. We spent quite a bit of time using polleverywhere polls on this second TV, just having fun making fun of commercials. The polls are super simple to setup so we could do them on the spot and add questions. We also used this to play music from spotify during our 35 minute break when New Orleans power was out.

I borrowed the church flip camera and asked kids to show off their favorite Beyonce dance moves after the half time show. to be fair, few of the kids wanted to do this, but I was able to convince a few and generate a pretty sweet video which was then posted to our Facebook page.

We had a service project planned for the week before, which was canceled, and so during the 35 minute down-time we completed this project. BTW this is a super simple project that any group could do. We have a partnership with a local middle school and one of these upcoming weeks is a state-wide assessment test. So we provide a small envelope with goodies like pencil grips, stickers, bookmarks, pencils and hard candy. For our service project we have our high school kids write notes on the envelopes before stuffing them: you're awesome, you can do it, this test has nothing on you, good luck... after we make teams of 5-6 the kids just go to work writing the same note on each envelope filling it with 5-6 clever encouragements before taking them to get stuffed.

And since I'm evaluating... here's what didn't work:
The guessing game that I created was a total bomb. I tried to make it clever: guess the score after the first quarter, who will have the ball in to start the second quarter... but the kids just didn't care enough. perhaps prizes next year.

We had several kids bring friends to our super bowl party - which is really great but I didn't have a whole lot of leaders capture that unique opportunity. pretty much we all just sat in one spot and talked with people around us. I should have forced everyone to switch places a few times to get to know each other.

Extravaganza

Last night at youth group didn't happen. Iowa's weather iced us out of the church and we canceled the evening. That's just fine, I was in Anaheim, CA networking with other youth ministers anyway at the 2013 ELCA Extravaganza. During the Extravaganza I led a workshop about games, from big groups to small groups, each workshop hosted 10-20 people eager to play and learn some games.

Since I failed to provide a handout for the workshops (which will no doubt be reflected in the evals) I did promise to post the list of games that we played at each workshop. You'll notice that we didn't play the same games in each workshop, just due to different spaces and amounts of people.

What would you do if...
Pictionary Relay
Balance
Animal Pairs
Jello
Spell My Feet
Chicken on a Hill
The Bus Game
Evolution
Knights and Dragons
Over the River
Head to Foot


And some of your ideas that I can't wait to steal:
Battle Bots
Capture the flag (with spies)
Trigger
Giant angry birds
Zombie sardines
Lutheran lutheran baptist
Silent ball
Entourage
Secret agent
9 Square


If you attended the Extravaganza and can't remember some of the rules to the game we played or you want a more comprehensive list of other games that we could have played, I'm happy to oblige. Just shoot me an email by clicking here: Email Andy

Also: if you're wondering what those 4 rules were that we start our events with they are as follows: Everyone Stays, Everyone Plays, Everyone Prays, Everyone is Okay. Catchy, memorable, and maybe the title of a book that I would write!

Suicide Prevention

Last night at youth group we hosted an intense faith story from a set of parents who's teenager died from suicide several years ago. The evening was okay, not a spectacular event, but a good evening together. What I'm most happy with though is that we did it and did it well, including sending emails to parents ahead of time to give them some context for Sunday night's group.

To start with we invited a speaker who does suicide prevention talks at area schools to come and share her faith story. The story could have been a little better told, it was clear that she was used to sharing the prevention side rather than the story of her son, but it was captivating for the teenagers and she and her husband had lots of good God connections.

We also invited a team of suicide counselors to meet with our small group leaders ahead of time, spending 30 minutes talking through the subject, potential questions that students might have and thinking through prevention outside of youth group. This time could have been better organized, but it was comforting and good to get our leaders into the right perspective before we met. These experts stayed throughout the evening, just in case there was something out of the ordinary or need for more help, but we didn't need to use them.

We began our evening with our normal gathering, followed by a quick game of Family Feud. I homemade this edition of family feud by monkeying with power point. Basically I just listed the 10 answers in columns and then put white boxes over each answer that would disappear when clicked on. Very simple and it allowed kids to guess answers randomly. I also tweaked the format to make the game more fun. Each round I invited 3 boy students and 3 girls students to participate. They each gave one answer a piece to try to get on the board, scoring one point per answer. Then I asked 3 leaders to guess a correct answer too, which meant three teams scoring points. The style was great, everyone had a chance to participate, we didn't drag on any of the categories, and the leaders beat the kids... a perfect game.

The last piece of our evening that went well was the small group conversation after the faith story. I had created two small group sessions in case there was discomfort with the suicide lesson, but we didn't end up using the Bible study that I wrote because each group dove into the suicide discussion so smoothly. The Bible study would have been about Naomi and Ruth, emphasizing the compassion to stay with each other during grief, but we'll save that for another time.

Bible Tags

Last night at youth group we played a skit-based game involving Bible stories. Even as I write these words today I get nervous that it will flop if we ever did something like this again. However, the game worked great, so maybe I ought to be changing my perception and giving my kids a little more credit. The game began by giving each student a sticky label that contained a word which would be identified with a Bible story (trumpet, donkey, burning bush). Kids were directed to find other students who would be part of their story and then sit down together at tables labeled with story titles and the total number of people who should be in the group (Jericho - 4, Christmas - 5, Exodus - 5...). Once everyone found their group, they could turn over their title page and read the story together in order to create a skit retelling this story in 30-60 seconds. I gave groups 5 minutes before I started calling them forward to perform.

All the Bible stories were relatively familiar, but of course there are always new kids in the groups, always different levels of biblical knowledge, and different personalities. For our large group though, it worked really well! Our leaders all participated in groups which helped them steer groups, and the kids did a great job making the skits funny. Telling the story in 60 seconds or less was critical to the comedy as teams got really creative in their approach, some even getting done in 10 seconds, laughing the whole time. The labels mixed the kids well and we made sure to give new kids to the group easier labels.

This game also setup our discussion nicely about John 9. For the first time ever, I began our lesson by reading a poem about perception! then I summarized the story as kids followed along in their Bibles. The blind man who struggles to find a new identity because he is judged by who he used to be... it was perfect for teenagers. They really dove into discussions about judgement and perception, revealing who they are and how hard it is to change in a social group.

Our evening concluded with worship and our announcement again that God loves them and that God has judged them as worthy!

Leader Hunt

Last night at youth group we played a camp favorite in our building called Leader Hunt. The entire evening was centered around getting to know each other better, getting to know our adult leaders better, and getting to know God better.

Leader Hunt was a perfect way to get our kids exposed to our leaders, and show off their more silly sides - and it was super simple. I collected a list of 5 strange facts from each adult leader then made a list of all the facts randomized. For my purposes, I also dropped one of their strange facts, and I also made a master list of who's facts belonged to whom and photocopied for the leaders. Then I dismissed the leaders to hide throughout the building and asked teenagers to get into pairs or triples. While the leaders hid, I read through the entire list of crazy facts with the students and went over rules, then dismissed them for 30 minutes of running around, asking questions, and getting to know our leaders.

 We returned to the youth room and counted up scores. With 48 items on the list the highest score was 13. we probably had too many crazy facts, but it worked out. Once back in the room I read through the list again and asked kids to shout out correct answers which was rewarding for leaders and enlightening for students. Then we broke into our new small groups for the spring semester. The tedious process that I used was to do a role call, sorting each leader into their group and their kids. I've tried to think of other ways, but given that we had 6 friends join us last night, and about half of our core group was missing, this was the best way. it only takes a minute or so to read the list and get everyone to the right space.

In small group the kids got to know each other better by using a few small group resources. The Comfy Chair is a deck of cards that has three questions on each card of varying depths. the choice allows a student to answer one question depending on how comfortable they are with the group. The Ungame is a similar card deck with one question per card. I asked students to read the card aloud and and say the name of someone in the group who was to answer the question. then the card reader could also respond. And finally I also used a milestone bowl for one group. This item has a mousepad with 10 milestones on it, and a clay bowl with 10 matching tokens. on your turn you randomly grab a token, match it to the milestone and then talk about the corresponding milestone in your life: high point, low point, new beginning, quest, gratitude, remembering, loss...

We closed our evening with our normal prayer and praise - a few songs, then a devotion from John 8:31-38. I invited students to think about what they learn about God from a passage like this, then I read it aloud, and after a moment of reflection I asked them to share aloud. good answers for that huge group and that quiet space!

**an added bonus to the leader hunt game is that we can carry it over for the next few days. I'll be posting these crazy facts to the facebook walls of teenagers who didn't make it to youth group over the next few days.