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.