Youth Meetings

Youth Meetings are considered to be the backbone of youth ministry. The meetings tend to be on a Sunday evening or Wednesday evening service, which gives you about an hour to engage with the teens. Typically youth meetings have a message and some sort of activity to go along with it to engage the teens in some way. It is extremely helpful for the game to relate to the message in someway. The problem is with such little time can you cover what needs to be covered in the time allowed and how much do you try to cover. Growing up our youth group met on Wednesday nights and this was the night we had a game to go along with our message and Travis would try and do a theme for the month. He was able to make it where we would want to come back the following week and continue on with the topic. He would give us questions to think about like "Who was someone that you haven't forgiven and why?" when we were talking about forgiveness and tell us the next week we would talk about why we need forgive. In the book this is under give them a reason to return, so what creative ways did your youth pastor use to give you reason to return and what new ways can you think of to keep teens wanting to come back every week? Besides food!

Missions as Recreational Ministry

Todd Rohrer

There are a lot of different ways to go about Recreational Ministry, but one we don't think of is missions. Typically when I think of recreation, I think of games and sports and what not. Missions does not fall into that schema, but it is certainly a part of recreational ministry. These trips offer opportunities for community building and that, I can see, is the heart of recreation. When Julie brought the students into class, a lot of them talked about just watching people worship God in these unusual places. Some talked about witnessing to people. Others talked about just seeing people being excited. One of the boys, I feel terrible because I can't remember his name--he was the one in the orange--he talked about the boy on the playground who had been shot by gangsters. He felt--he had compassion--for those who didn't know if they'd be safe at night. These missions trips not only build community within the students, but between them and the neighborhood. As Julie said, "It is when we are in over our heads that we have to rely on God and we are stretched."

And just to wrap up with some notes, Julie mentioned 3 steps of doing missions:
1. Provide the opportunity. If you don't set it up, who will?
2. Frame it (help them make connections of why they're doing what they're doing)
3. Celebrate it. Let them share what they learned and know they did well.

Offering the Gospel to Children: The Christian Calender

Emily Grubbs: How can we make the Christian calender real to the students, and how can we teach and help families use these celebrations and traditions in their own homes?

Usually when we celebrate the Christian holidays, we have certain traditions that we keep to remember why we celebrate each holiday. I know that every year my church at home performs an Easter play to invite others into remembering the death and ressurrection of Christ. In the reading Pritchard brings up an important point about how usually we emphasize learning about these Christian traditions (such as the celebrations of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter) as opposed to truly celebrating them. She believes that the best way to learn about something is to experience it for yourself. Engaging students in what is being taught has a lasting impact on young people than just hearing a lesson. By taking a part of the Christian calender and bringing it to life for the students, it can truly help them to learn how to engage in worship. That being said, how can we make the Christian calender real to students, and how to we make it practical for families to be able to use these celebrations and traditions in their own homes?

Ideas Library: Planning Details

If no one has ever planned a camp, weekend meeting or a retreat, then they can easily get caught up in all the details of everything and end up spinning their wheels… essentially not getting anywhere. Everything from goal setting to vision to implementing a schedule for the event is drawn out and made easy to access. Sparking interest and combining people by playing icebreakers is a sure way to start the event off right, but their needs to be intentionality and authenticity from the leaders. There are creative ways to make up the rules for the event, either by letting the group make their own corporate rules or just making 2-3 sweet and simple rules. I appreciated the idea of the youth leader making “love letters” to send out the parents after returning, simply complimenting the student on behaving, making a decision, being a servant, etc. As a teenager, how were you involved in planning events like this, if at all and how are retreats built so as to encourage spiritual health and growth?

The Humongous Book of Game's for Children Ministry

Zachary Spoon

This is really late but better late than never...

For those of you who may or may not know these past few weeks have been a very difficult/stressful time. There have been some family issues that have taken my time and attention away from school. Thank you all so much for your prayers and words of kindness. Things are starting to get a lot better but prayer and more help is still much needed. Thank all of you again for genuinely caring and being good friends!

In the "Humongous Book of Games for Children's Ministry" it discusses briefly the effectiveness of playing games in Children's ministry. It mentions ways to use games to drive home a point and other such techniques. I think that, when used wisely, games can be very effective but if they are used carelessly they can be more distracting than anything else. Where games used well in church growing up? What are some things we can do in order to be intentional with our game/lesson planning?

Trevor Lanz
Godly Play
The concept of Godly play I feel is a very important aspect to the development for children to grasp the stories and meaning of certain biblical themes. Godly play takes on the qualities of engaging and emercing the child into the story through visual aspects and puts the story in the child's element- which is play. Playing for children is not just a time of exercise, but a time of expression and a opportunity for the child express his or herself in their own personal way. So with that Godly play is directed to let the children "play" but in a directed and focused way on God. I think that this method can be usuful, but like all methods of teaching there is a place and time for it and there is a place and time for us to not use it. Developmentally, children's minds are always moving and growing- the Godly play captures their attention and nurtures it so that they can feel free to "play" in their own way, but also help in the creation of biblical concepts and stories. There are many resources and different methods and way to teaching and giving the gospel to children, but this method is stepping out of the classroom and traditional setting and letting the children connect in their best element which is Playing.

Experiential Basics, Methods and the Bible

Parables in the Bible were an important method because it was used as a tool to connect to the people within the culture. Describe how a certain parable can be taught to impact students in today’s culture…

One of the subjects that stood out to me in Chapter 1.2 was the section on Parables. I have always liked a good story; from Dr. Seuss to J.R.R. Tolkien. Stories are a part of our everyday life. They are fun to read, watch, and listen to, and they can also teach us a lesson. What is the question a parent usually asks their kids after reading a book? The answer: “What is the moral of the story?” or “What can we learn from this story?” Jesus does the same thing by using Parables. One of my favorite Parables is the Parable of the mustard seed in Matthew 13:31-32: He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” This represents the growth of God’s kingdom and it reminds me that Christian’s need to be willing to be a witness in order to bring others to God’s kingdom. Parables are important because they teach us a spiritual or moral lesson that would be easier to teach through a story rather than through an explanation. People can understand and remember stories better than they would a lecture. Therefore, I think that it is okay to use movies or books as an example to teach a lesson as long as the Bible is the main resource. You could use Horton Hears a Who as a lesson on listening or a lesson on faith. Or you could use The Lord of the Rings as a lesson on perseverance. Of course there is more to these stories than these subjects, but it would be a memory jog for the youth to help them remember the lesson. This makes parables and stories valuable for the fact that they are easy to remember and can teach a lesson worth remembering.