The Truth about Youth Group...

This was too funny and true not to pass on.  There are a lot more video by Blimey Cow if you liked this one.  There are a limitless number of ways I can think of on how I could use them.

Games Ideas for Youth Ministry

Our last YPA gathering in Nashville was a lot of fun because we all brought a couple of simple games to share that we do with our ministries.  The goal was simple, cheap, and not cheesy.  Here are a few that we shared:

DICE GAME
Materials: 6 sided dice, notecards or small pieces of paper, pen

Directions: Divide students into groups of 3-8.  Give each student an index card and have them sit in a circle (around a table or on the floor).  Place one pen and one die in the middle of the circle.  Each person takes a turn rolling the die, going clockwise.  If it lands on 6, that person picks up the pen and begins writing numbers, from 1 to 50 on the card (1,2,3,4,5…).  Meanwhile, the next person continues to roll, and so on until another 6 is rolled.  At that point, the person writing has to give the pen to the person who just rolled the 6.  Play continues until someone reaches 50 and wins ... $1,000!  (we Baptists have a big games budget)

SPIKEBALL
Go to Spikeball.com for all the info and to order.

QUARTER GAME

Materials: quarter or other coin, table and chairs

Directions: 3 or 4 people on either side of a long table; the people on the same side are on the same team.  One team has the quarter and passes it between each others under the table.  When the other team calls, “Hands Up;” The team with the quarter has to hold their hands up with hands closed (the quarter in one of them), then the team with the quarter counts 3,2,1 and then at the same time, slams their hands flat on the table with the quarter under one of them.  Then the team without the quarter has to guess which hand the quarter is under.  They have two guesses and then the quarter goes to the other team and repeat.

Keys

Materials: chairs and set of keys

Directions: Circle of chairs; one person in middle without a seat holds the keys; this person begins a line by walking around the circle picking up a boy or girl and it alternates; then the person who was just pick gets up and locks hands with the person with the keys, and then they pick the next one to add to the chain. Make the line as long or short as you want; the first one who started is holding the keys, and when they are ready, they drop the keys & everyone scatters for a chair; the person left standing must start the next line.

SCATTERBALL

Materials: Larger area, a gym or field is great. One Dodgeball

Directions: This is basically individual dodgeball with one ball.  Everyone starts gathered up together in the middle and the ball is thrown up, and every scatters.  Whoever get the ball has two steps, and tries to hit someone with the ball (dodgeball rules apply, head doesn’t count, if the person being thrown at catches it, the one throwing it out, etc).  When someone get out, they sit down right where they are, because you are never fully out.  They can still get the ball and hit other people from their seat.  Everyone person for themselves, and it continues until one is left.  Then start again.  It can work where people roll or bounce the ball to each other if they want to pass it without getting out.  Those who are seated normally work together to help get everyone else out.

AMBASSADORS
Materials: list of clues

Directions: This game is like team charades.  The leader or ambassador with make a list of items (it might be a good thing to do with a specific topics and use words that relate) to be used.  You'll want to separate into two teams into two different areas (different rooms or even different floors work well.)  The ambassador needs to be located equally distant from both teams.  The first person from each team will go to get their first word at the same time.  They then return to their teams and act out the word, just like in charades (no talking or sounds).  Once someone in the group guesses the word, the person that guessed the word must race over to the ambassador and give them the word that was just guessed so that the ambassador knows which word to give them next.  If at any time a team gets stumped the actor can say pass and another member of the group can go to the ambassador to get that same word.  The person who passed is not allowed to guess in that round.  The team that gets through the entire list first wins the round.
Hint:  It helps to have an adult volunteer supervise each group to make sure there is no cheating. The list can be made by the youth leader, volunteers or even the youth themselves.

Time to Rethink the Youth Retreat

I don’t know about you, but I am seriously rethinking the youth retreat…maybe we all should be? After spending nearly a week being sick after a youth retreat weekend, I have had some time to reflect on the whole youth retreat idea.

The world has changed a lot on the past 20, 10, 5, and really even 1 year; and how we approach ministry for the most part has not. 

In the past, youth retreats made a lot of sense:

1. They provide a time away to focus on God.

2. They create a time of group bonding that doesn’t just happen in an hour.

3. They give youth and leaders a shared experience that they could fall back on.

4. They give youth an opportunity of fun that they would not otherwise have.

5. They were an atmosphere of exhaustion/emotion to bring a certain response.

6. They give youth the opportunity to stay up late, if not all night, for a change.

All of this sounds great on paper until you factor in youth culture. 

Youth today are more connected with the world than ever before.  Through social media and technology, they can talk to, communicate with, and access anything and anyone in the world whenever they want.  Technology is great for bringing people who are far away, together; but it is also great at taking people who are close together and pushing them far away. So to have them get away and focus on God, you have to tear them away from the technology that runs their lives.

Secondly, youth have more entertainment thrown at them in one day than they did in a month 10 years ago.  Everyone is trying to gain the attention of the youth through entertainment, and if they church thinks that we can win that battle, we are in for a very harsh awakening.  

Finally, youth today get less deep sleep than any generation ever.  This sounds like a crazy claim, but think about it.  Since youth feel that they always have to be connected, night and day; throughout the night if they receive a Facebook or text at any hour of the night or day, they feel an anxiety that they must answer it; and so they do.  All of this leads to a lack of full sleep cycles, less hours of sleep, and eventually completely exhausted teens.  And the last thing they need is another excuse not to sleep.

If the church can be anything, it needs to be “Holy” meaning set apart from the world.  So then why do we jump in on the newest whatever thinking that is what we are supposed to do?

All this brings us full circle to me typing this while being on antibiotics after a three day youth retreat.  It wasn’t just me; over half of our group and other groups as well have all crashed in one way or another, several coming down sick.

Is this the Gospel?  Is this what we are called to be as the Church?

What if the Church found its identity as a place of Sabbath?  Relationships where you connect on a deep, meaningful level gathering together to refuel, recharge, and rest; knowing God is God and we don’t have to be.

So is the youth retreat dead?

Maybe.  But more importantly, we as the church need to revision and live out Sabbath.

What if church was not another thing you had to get up and go to, but rather it was where you came when you were worn out?

What if church wasn’t a place for people to tell you what to do, but rather a place we shared life together?

What if church wasn’t a place you hid from when life was hard, but rather a place you ran to when you had nothing left?

What if Sabbath wasn’t a day a week or a place you went, but rather time spent with people of God doing the things that brings you and others life?

I don’t know about you, but I am seriously rethinking the youth retreat…maybe we all should be?

Thank you…

As Youth Pastors, there are some many things that we do that are overlooked and underappreciated.  Often times, teens and their families forget to or don’t know to say “thank you.”  It is amazing to me how deeply touching a simple heartfelt thank you means.  So, as today is National Thank A Youth Worker Day (check out more about this at thankayouthworkerday.com), we at Youth Pastors Anonymous wanted to say thank you.  So hear these “thank yous” as if they are from your youth and their families…

Thank you for answering your call from God to go back to help those who are in high school and middle school; even if those were terrible years for you, we need help and you provide.  Thank you.

Thank you for all the times you stay up praying and struggling to find a way to help me understand faith and why it matters in my life.  Thank you.

Thank you for all the boring church meetings you sit through so that you can be a voice for us. Thank you.

Thank you for showing up to my games, concerts, plays, speeches, recitals, and so many other things; it shows you care beyond the walls of the church.  Thank you.

Thank you for all the notes you write, they really do mean so much to me and always seem to come at the right time. Thank you.

Thank you for bringing me cookies, ice cream, coffee, anything while I was recovering.  It reminded me about truly being the church to each other.  Thank you.

Thank you for planning, scheduling, setting up, running, and cleaning up for retreats and events.  I cannot image how much time you spent on this just so we can experience God in a deep and real way.  Thank you.

Thank you for spend hours preparing a lesson that I can relate to so I can learn what it means to be a disciple of Christ. Thank you.

Thank you for being with me when my world fell apart and I had nothing to live for and you were there present with me reminding me how God is with me. Thank you.

Thank you for asking me hard questions and caring about my soul, it challenges me to look beyond the shallows to the depths.  Thank you.

Thank you for being one of the few people who asks “How are you?” and stays around to listen to a real answer.  Thank you.

Thank you for always being there, week after week, and consistently showing up in my life.  Even if I seem like it doesn’t matter, it does; a lot.  Thank you.

Thank you for pointing out where God is at work in my messy life, sometimes it is so hard for me to believe that God cares; but you are a constant reminder that God does. Thank you.

Most of all, thank you for the fact that you live out faith in such a way that it makes me excited to be a Christian and one of the greatest gifts that you have given me.  Thank you.

Thank you for being such an amazing youth worker!
Chris and Joanna Cummings

Are you walking? - A reflection from Modern Family

I love the show Modern Family!  Often times is night be the funniest show out there, mostly because it brings up things that we have all seen in one way or another in our own family.  A recent episode, Phil on Wire (Season 3: Episode 3), was one that stuck out for me as a youth worker as well.

 

One part of the “Modern Family” is made up of a husband, wife, senior and freshman in high school daughters, and a preteen boy.  In this episode, they are addressing how do we teach our children how to handle life choices well, a topic they cover all the time.  The thing that stuck out to me as a youth worker in this episode was how the mom and dad tried to teach a lesson to their children.

The mom, on several occasions, is telling her daughters how they should handle getting along with each other and other people.  While she is doing this, we see the mom getting frustrated with the parking lot cop as the school.

Phil, the dad, and his son are seen in wonder of a movie about tightrope walkers.  Phil then decides that he must do this.  And he and his son spend the rest of the show trying to do get Phil to successfully tightrope walk across the yard.

(Spoiler) By the end, the mom is being arrested by the parking lot cop all while still trying to teach her girls about making good choices, while the dad is walking on a tightrope.

What stood out to me was this: 
How often do we as youth workers keep telling teens how to be a follower of Christ, all the while not living it out ourselves?

Think about the last time you as you, and not as a youth worker (not just because it was part of your job), but when was the last time you served because you were living out your faith… when was the last time?

I know for me, if I am honest and look back on a given week, I spend most of my time planning how to communicate how to be a follower of Christ or complaining about how some part of the church is limiting me to do so.  Instead of living out what it means to be a follower of Christ and asking others to join in. 

There are two inspiring points to leave you with from the episode that I hope challenge and encourage you:

The son challenges Phil, who was trying to tightrope 6 inches off the ground and failing: “Maybe that’s the problem, maybe you keep falling is because part of you knows you can fall; maybe if the wire was much, much higher you wouldn’t fall…”

After this, the mom and daughters come home to the son cheering on dad, as he walks a much higher rope, and the mom reflects: “All week long I have been telling my girls how to act instead of showing them. But not Phil, Phil could have said Alex relax don’t take everything so seriously or Hailey challenge yourself, don’t give up so easily.  But instead of talking the talk, Phil walked the walk (literally).  And isn’t that what we are supposed to do for the people we love?”

May we stop spending so much of our lives talking about faith, and raise the wire for how we live out our faith, so that those watching might be inspired to join in on the greatest story ever…