Wilderness Retreat

Over this past weekend most of us were on the wilderness retreat. Lets talk about it and share our memories and experiences with everyone. What was your favorite part of the wilderness retreat? What was most memorable part for you? Did you make any new friends over the weekend or get to know someone that you kind of knew before better? Over the weekend we also talked about the different spiritual disciplines. Which one did you find to be the most helpful to you in your walk with God? Were there any that you didn't think were helpful? What part of the retreat stretched you the most if at all? I know we talked about all of this in class on Monday, but I wanted to give everyone a chance to share their experience and thoughts since not everyone was able to in class.

We have just finished our MSO Event!  We have received quite a bit of positive feedback from the majority of admissions people that were in charge.  However, these people did not necessarily see all that went on behind the scenes.  What was the most significant thing you learned while interacting with a large group of middle school kids?  What did you have to adapt?  Were there aspects of your planning that were flawed or missing entirely?  Did you feel that you were intentional about engaging students who seemed uninterested or not involved?  How did your team do with managing your own team of volunteers? Also, who was the most awesome person on your crew and why?

Children's Quiz

As we prepare for the Children's Quiz games, we should take into account the age group: children. Children are often easily entertained, so it shouldn't take too much planning on our part. The only difficult thing is, their attention span can often be shorter than our own. What types of activities do you think would be most helpful for them? Are there any games we can incorporate the Scriptures they've been learning about into? Also, in what ways can we plan and coordinate with each other in planning the activities?

Post Camp Planning

We just went through camp planning. Now that we have given our presentations, what do you think is the most important thing in camp planning? What would you do differently if you did it again? What are some things that went into camp planning that you've never thought about before?

Creative Process

Monday we discussed two creative processes for planning events.  State your case for which process is more beneficial. when would you use this process? How would you adapt this process if ideas were not developing? What if conflict arose while developing ideas how would you resolve the conflict? Lastly what suggestions would you give to other class members on how they could better adapt or could use their process?

I ALREADY KNOW...

I wanted to make sure you ALL know that I ALREADY know that:

1) Jenn is your favorite.

2) She is a wimp and let you out of class way too early.

3) The truth is that she stole from you. You paid for that class time. I would revolt next time you see her and demand and extra 45 minutes of class.

4) The retreat is going to be awesome.

5) You all are awesome.

Teamwork: The 12 C's

Teamwork takes effort from everyone involved. Each of the 12 C's in the article are very important to achieving success when working as a team. Which of the 12 C's do you think is most important? And how could we bring that into making the teamwork in our class better?

Working Together

I believe our first event went really well and the turnout we had was great! I believe all our personalities helped make the whole night in general a success. There were some extraordinary people who went out of their ways to help other groups and just make the night go smoothly. There was energy and excitement. I believe we can do really well at our next event, MSO, if we all channel our energy together and help each other plan and keep things running efficiently throughout the night. How do you think our class' groups interacted with each other? Do you think  there could be more communication, or helping each other at the events? Also what do you believe our strengths were as a whole class? What do you feel we need to work on as a whole class to help make our next event even better?

FIrst Event Done

On Monday, we had our first event, and in my opinion, it went really well.  What were some of the reasons it went so well?  Or were there some things you think went wrong?  Did the way we split the groups work?  Were the games we chose the best for the group of people that came to the event?  What could we do to make MSO better using what we have learned from this event?

 

Programming

We have spent a lot of time talking about programming and throwing out ideas and things we have seen, and telling others problems we see.What are some of the good programming techniques that you have seen that help with middleschoolers? And what are some of the things that have caused problems in programming with kids?

Mission Trips

Missions trips are always a great way to experience a new aspect of ministry. Mission trips are a good way to challenge students and show them different cultures and broaden their spiritual horizons, especially if they go out of country. There are many opportunities during mission trips.

How is a mission trip a form of recreational ministry?

Family Camps vs. Age-based Camps

Like we discussed in class on Monday, many of us have attended camps/retreats. Most of us have attended either Teen camp, Children's camp, Junior High camp, Senior High camp or Family camp. What were the benefits/hazards to being with others your age and how did that affect your experience? What were the benefits/hazards of being with your family and how did that affect your experience? Should we as leaders encourage and support one type of camp/retreat over the other? Why or why not?

The Lasting Effect of Camps

I love camps.  I used to go to summer camp every summer and everyone would be so on fire for God, but about a week after the camp it seemed like everyone was back at the same place as they were before they left.  I have talked to plenty of other people who have this same experience as well.  What can leaders do to get the focus of the kids not on having a "camp high" but instead a changed life?

Godly Play

What is the importance of Godly Play?  Godly play is an interactive teaching method that involves the children in the stories that they are learning.  As teachers, should we really invest our time and energy into methods such as Godly Play, or should we just teach straight from the Bible?  What could be the possible benefits and outcomes that result from involving children with Bible stories, and letting them interact witht these stories?

Intentional Activities

How important is being intentional when doing activities? It is important to think about what we want to happen when we are developing a game. Do we want it to build teamwork, leadership or some other skill? After we discover what we want to teach, then the process is what needs to be worked out. Along with this we also need to take into account the responsiveness of the group as well as the potential hazards of the activity.

What is the purpose of an Object Lesson?

I believe that an Object Lesson is important because it brings meaning to whatever you are trying to get across. In the book, page 30, it says " Object lessons take an ordinary item from everyday life and attaches meaning to it. Jesus used object lessons many times throughout his ministry to give us a better meaning that we can hold onto in our minds because it helps us to remember it when ever we come across the object that was taught about in the lesson.

Should Youth Pastors Play Games With Their Students?

I believe it is very crucial that a youth pastor not only organizes and provides game for his or her youth group, but also that they participate in those games. The point of playing games at youth group isn't to fill up a 20 min. gap that you didn't know what else to do with. And it's certainly not a time to just distract the kids while you take a break. Playing games is a time to interact with your students and to fellowship with them. We are ALL created to have fun, not just kids and teens. If church is suppose to be a community of joy, then we absolutely must play games with the kids we are ministering to and trying to build community with.

Why do we need recreation ministry?

Recreation ministry is important in any type of ministry that we have in the church. It is a way that we can get out of our comfort zone because in recreation ministry we may be doing things that we are not completely comfortable with doing. It also keeps us focused on inform, apply, reflect, and review idea. When we become more concerned with that idea then our services change from just know what the topic that we are talking about that night to transforming that whole person and that is the whole point of ministry.

Depth of the Loop

From the Loopiness Chart (Losey 111), we learn of the four steps that are involved in the process. Inform, apply, reflect and then re-view; with these four steps, we also saw in our activity the availability to connect one loop to another loop. In order to link each loop, connections should be made between the start of the second and ending of the first loop. What are the questions asked to see these connections and do you feel the questions are suitable? Do you have any of your own?

Assignment Sample

Tony Garvin told me to post on here. Feel free to post any comments you would like about Tony Garvin on here as a way to test the comments function of this blog. Have fun!