Let wonder replace worry

Engaging Culture (Really Cheap!)

Anyone in youth ministry should know how important it is for us to keep our finger on the pulse of pop culture. Why? Because this is the world students are saturated with every day.

Besides a list of websites I am subscribed to, another thing I do this is have subscriptions to Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly. These 2 magazines keep me up on everything happening in the world of music, movies, television, technology, celebrities, and many other things.

Right now at this link you can get a year of Entertainment Weekly (57 issues) for $10.

Go ahead, charge it to the church account. It sincerely does help me to minister more effectively.

Kaleo- Saturday Morning

Much to my surprise, George Fox does not have wi-fi avaliable. Bummer.

The day has been great so far though. I am impressed with this program. The campus is smaller than I would have thought, but very nice. I am looking forward to the rest of the day.

I'll meet back up with Nicole when we finish up here. (Which is around 4:15.)

Youth Ministry Ideas: Musical Dodge Ball

Middle School Youth Group will kick off when student's start showing up in about 50 minutes. Since I have a few extra minutes, I thought I'd share the game we are going to be playing tonight. This one is a HUGE hit for Jr High.

A great thing about this game is that everything you need can be found in any youth ministry.
    *An iPod with some high energy music (or a CD and a player.) I always set up a special playlist and change the music up as we play.
    *2 big, soft, rubber balls (kickballs)
    *chairs

Line the chairs up on one end of the room, have 2 teams line up at the other end. Give the 2 balls to one team.

Play some music, get everyone dancing.

When you stop the music, one team runs to the chairs while the other tries to throw players out with the balls.

Just like dodgeball here, if hit (not in the head though!) that person is out, if the ball is caught, the person who threw the ball is out.

The tricky part is the last person to sit down is out as well.

Next, switch teams. If one team gets too small, divide the other team. Even though you play with teams, the goal is to get down to one final player.

Keep the music fun and unpredictable throughout.

Summer Ideas for Youth Ministry

I was surprised to learn last year that the summer is the toughest time of the year for our local food bank. People just do not donate during the summer like they do during the rest of the year. I guess I would have thought Christmas may be the toughest time, but I found out that they usually have more than enough food during the holidays. It is the summer time when people are traveling and not thinking about giving when they really struggle. So, I decided to do something about it. It was successful and fun. We are doing it again this year.

Here is what to do:

Contact a local food bank ahead of time to learn what items it most needs. Then make a "grocery list" of 15 or 20 of the items. Get permission to borrow shopping carts from a local grocery store.
Form teams of no more than four. Give each team a shopping cart and a grocery list. Have teams go door to door in search of the items on the list.

I had some silly prises for the first team to make it back to the church with their list full. The amazing thing is that most people gave more than what we were asking for.

When everyone is back, have some pizza before all going together to the food bank.

When I was 15... (or Mission Impossible)

2 Tuesdays a month at noon, I meet with a group of almost all retired people to hear reports from and to pray for the missions our church sponsors both here locally and around the world.  If you take me out of the group, the average age is probably 70 (or older).  The thing I love the most about this group is their ability to tell stories.  The amount of history we have in this congregation is breath taking.

This past Tuesday, I had an idea. 

I am going to attempt the impossible.  I am going to try to get that group to work along side the high school youth group in order to raise money for Rwanda Partners.  That is right, I want the old retired people (70-85) to work along side teenagers.  Has this ever been attempted before?  At least in this church, these 2 groups have had very little (if anything) to do with one another.

So, here is my thinking.  I am going to try to get some old volunteers and have them reflect on what the world was like when they were 15 (or around 15 if they cannot remember exactly) years old.  This would date back to the 30s for some of the people in our church. 

When I have the years they were 15, I'll put the high school kids on Google and Wikipedia to find out everything they can about that year.  Things such as who was president, and news items such as war, the great depression, issues people were concerned with, whatever else they come up with.

So, the night of the fundraiser, I'll have the parents bring ice cream for a dessert and start the program which will look something like this:

I'll have the student who researched the year for the person they were assigned to give an introduction as to when _____ was 15 years old....  and have them give a snapshot of the world that year.  Then I'll have the person come up and share what it was like for them personally (not in the world) when they were 15.  They can talk about things such as where they lived, what church they went to, what did youth ministry look like, who were their teachers, what games did they play, what invention did everyone really want (like the iPod today) and what ever else they can think of.  They are such amazing storytellers anyway, they will do a great job.

I think the rest of the church would love to come out and hear these stories and get to know the eldest people of the church a little better.  We can collect an offering and 100% of it will go to missions.

When I get this pulled off in a couple of months, I'll let you know how it goes.

Youth Group Games

I am going to try something new here.  I am going to start a new category called //Creative.Youth.Ideas where I will be posting practical youth ministry ideas that I have used.   Ideas like the candy gram.  The main reason for me to do this is because I have tons of ideas I have used in the past that I can never seem to remember when thinking of something to do in youth group.  Some things that were a huge hit, along with others I want to make sure I never do again.  I'll make notes of things that work and things that don't work and write about them here.  This will give me an online achieve to refer back to.  And if you find something you think you might be able to use posted in this category, make it yours.  I think anyone in youth ministry would agree that there is nothing new.  Every idea, game, and discussion started has been done in some form in some other youth group.  That being said, I am not claiming ownership, not trying to write a book, just wanting to list some ideas that have helped me and worked (or not worked) in my ministry.

Tonight at Middle School Youth Group, I am going to need to separate the group into 2 teams for part of a game and discussion we are doing.  The worst way to do this is to number off the kids.  They figure this out immediately and place themselves in order to be on the team they want to be on.  I also don't like to assign kids to teams, someone always ends up unhappy.

What's the best way I know of?

That's right, Jawbreakers.   Pick out as many colors as teams that you need and put one into everyone's mouth as they come in.  When it is time to get into teams,  have everyone stick out their tongue.  Other candy, such as suckers, work just as well.

If I don't have candy for middle school, I'll pass out papers with names of animals printed on them.  Then they must find their team by acting and sounding like the animal assigned to them.  This idea would never work in High School, so I'll divide them by even and odd numbered birthdays, alphabetically, or whatever else I come up with.  But candy is definitely my favorite way.

Just anything except numbering off or assigning teams.  These other ways are much more fun and creative.