Miscellaneous

Idea to publicize an event or activity so that everyone becomes interested. Example: Publicize study of OT and NT titled “Something Old, Something New.” One month in advance, place the letters “SOSN” on small pieces of paper around the church. The next week add the dates of the Bible study. Then, the next week place the time, place, etc., until eventually all the information was added. They will have fun figuring out what the letters “SOSN” stood for and trying to guess the upcoming activity.

On Sundays, during Sunday School, we find a story from the Bible that no one knows. We spend our session learning about it and coming up with a skit to go along with it. Then before Sunday Service we do our skit for the church to show them what we are learning. The adults really get a kick out of it when the youth mess up too. 🙂

This is a great game that 3 of our youth came up with on their own. We were on the way to Winterfest 03 at Liberty University and we had a 4 hour drive ahead of us. One of our youth is in the back seat and he starts waving at all the cars that drive by. Much to his surprise, people began waving back! Out of this came: “The Wave Game”.

This game works best when you are in a car and have 4 people in there. The driver and person behind are one team and the passenger and person behind him are the another team.
——————————————
The Scoring system:

1 point – each person that waves back at you (you can get more than one per car)

1 point for the other team – for each person that just smiles but doesn’t wave at you

5 points – for getting a semi-truck to honk at you

10 points – for getting a police officer to wave back at you

Double points – if the vehicle is red. (example: a honk and a wave from a semi-truck with a red cab is worth 14 points)
(or a red van with 3 people that wave at you is worth 6 pts.)
—————————————-

Just some thoughts: This game works best on a 2 lane road. It’s up the driver who gets points when. If you stay in the left lane then only the people on the right side of the car can get points and vice versa. This is great because the driver can keep the game close. If you are playing to 100 pts. to win and one team is up by 40 points than just stay in the left lane for a long time and give the people on the right a chance to catch up. Some things to consider as well are that most of the semi-trucks on major roads are in the right lane. Eventually your youth will realize this as well and start to complain about the right side car team getting more points because of this. You can kindly explain to them that if you drive in the right lane app. 10 times more cars will pass you on the left so it ends up being fair.

We hope you are blessed by this game as we were and don’t be afraid to make your own variations of the scoring system.

To God be the Glory!

My church has sponsored a very successful program for the past several years. This program has multiple purposes.

1) To help our elderly members (70 and older) feel valued and remembered during the holidays.

2) To teach our younger children (as young as 3 and 4 years old all the way to the teenage years) the priceless value of ‘giving’ during the holidays

3) To develop life-long relationships between our younger and older generations within our church family.

Beginning just after Thanksgiving of each year, our younger group become SECRET PALS to the older group. (Each child/youth is given the name and information of a senior member. Many of them know who their senior is beforehand, but they really don’t ‘know’ them personally.) The young secret pal sneaks small gifts to their assigned senior once per week (usually through Sunday School Classes and Worship Services and through other people). These gifts are simple, inexpensive gifts such as gloves, scented candles, homemade goodies, a flash light, small decorative picture frames, a planning calendar, coffee mug, and miscellaneous trinkets, etc. Cards are sometimes sent as well through the mail. The seniors are beside themselves trying to figure out who their secret pal is. The kids are having fun sneaking the gifts to the seniors. It is fun for everyone!

At our church, the weekly gift giving continues until just before Valentine’s Day when the finale happens! A church wide banquet (We call the Secret Pal/Seniors Banquet) is held where the seniors are honored with a special place to sit and be waited on and served their food by the younger ages. We involve the entire church in elaborate Valentine decorations, place settings, entertainment, and of course the big revealing of the secret pals. The secret pals bring one final gift to their senior when the secret is revealed. At the banquet, individual pictures are taken of each senior with their pal. Soon thereafter, the photos are then posted on a bulletin board and copies are given to the seniors to keep and remember their pal.

This is a great way to bring the generations together and build unity within the church body.

This is not so much a game as it is a powerful way to bring down walls in your youth group. Divide your group in half and have each of the two groups line up single-file and shoulder-to-shoulder, facing each other so that everyone has a partner. For instance, if you have 20 people, divide them into group 1 and group 2 like this:

1111111111
2222222222

Each person in group 1 holds hands with his/her partner in group 2, and must stare deep into the other person’s eyes without saying a word — this may be hard to achieve at first but it is absolutely essential. Play some mellow Christian music in the background. Every ten seconds or so, pause the music briefly (one second or so) to signal that the entire group is to shift clockwise so that everyone changes partners. Continue this until everyone has been a partner with everyone else.

The point? Many youth stay in their own cliques and avoid contact with others. This activity forces ten seconds of total concentration on another person’s soul — “the eyes are the window to the soul.” You may be amazed at the results. Everyone gets the same measure of respect from everyone else for a change. This might lead to an excellent discussion on any number of topics. You could instruct the ten seconds to be spent in prayer for the other person, or have everyone forgive each other for any hurts, etc.

Some youth are very excited and talkative and some are quiet. I find that it is easy to pay attention to the more outgoing kids in my group and sometimes the quiet get ignored. The “2 good 1 bad 1 great” concept is to give every teen a chance to share how their day or week has been. It’s real simple and a fun way to have “praise/ testimony” time. Tell them you want to hear how their week has been and they can share 2 good things that has happened followed by one bad thing and end it on a very positive note with one GREAT thing that has happened in the past week. If you have a small group you can let everyone share. If you have a large group let 6 or so share.

Here’s a way to learn more about each other in a fun way.
Announce that Universal Pictures called today and are looking to make a movie about the lives of the youth in your church. But to see if there is any interest, they need some information in advance. Then ask each participant to fill out a card with the following questions about a movie made of their life.

What will the title of this movie be?

Will the movie be a comedy, drama, horror or science fiction movie?

Who will they need to get to play your role?

Who will be cast as your parents? (I let them use personalities that are either living or deceased – since sometimes they think their parents are so old)

What other roles will need to be cast? (family members, friends, etc)

What will be the funniest part of this movie? (has to be a real life event that has happened in their lives)

What will be the saddest part of the movie? (actual event)

What will be the people’s reaction to the movie after they view it? ( how will they go away feeling)

We did this recently and had a great time and learned a lot about each other.