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.