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.