Dec04

Christmas Trivia (free game)

by Erik w/a "k" on December 4, 2013 at 1:57 AM
Posted In: Games

It’s Christmas time! Woohoo. Thanksgiving is over and you can officially start singing and playing Christmas songs. Todays post is another “gift.” Here is an easy Christmas trivia game on powerpoint. Use it! Make it fun when students give their answer. When they answer have them do a motion and make a sound for the different answers. For A you could have them squawk like a chicken and flap their arms. B have them jump on one for while saying aaaooooghaaa. C have them act like a monkey making monkey sounds. D have them pretend they are a geyser and make water sounds.

Doing the motions and sounds does 2 things: 1) They commit to an answer and there is no cheating. 2) It is fun/funny. You should video it and put it on FaceBook. :) Enjoy

Powerpoint File

 

└ Tags: , ,
 Comment 
Nov26

3 Word Sunday

by Erik w/a "k" on November 26, 2013 at 9:00 AM
Posted In: Speaking

Struggling to get your students to engage in “big church?” (Main service, adult service, sanctuary, etc. whatever it is you call your inter generational service). Maybe your students feel like it’s really boring and completely irrelevant. How can you foster engagement in the service?

Talk to your lead pastor and tell him you want/need his help to get your students more engaged in what he is preaching about. Essentially what you do is have the students come up with 5 words. Any words they want. And then tell them that the pastor will be weaving 3 of those 5 words into his message the following weekend.

Here’s what this does:

1) Students are listening intently to find the 3 words that are used.

2) The pastor (speaker) has fun trying to make it a natural part of his (their) message.

3) It causes your students to believe that the leadership cares about them.

A quick note and rule of thumb. Make sure the pastor/speaker doesn’t cheat and say, “I have to work this word into my message” but that it is made to fit with the message. That is key.

20131121-164640.jpg

└ Tags: , , , ,
 Comment 
Nov19

Thanksgiving Game

by Erik w/a "k" on November 19, 2013 at 9:00 AM
Posted In: Games

It’s that time of year again. Thanksgiving. The time of year we talk about being thankful. Focusing on what Jesus has done for us. We talk about who we are thankful for and how we can show our appreciation. I am thankful for you, our readers. I hope you are encouraged by our posts and I hope that they are useful for your ministry. The idea is that we give you something you can implement (typically) right away. Practical things. That’s what we have today. A thanksgiving trivia game. It is in keynote and powerpoint. I don’t have PowerPoint on my computer, but keynote will export as PowerPoint. That being said I think there may be some glitches in PowerPoint. So feel free to edit it.

Keynote
PowerPoint

Happy Thanksgiving!

20131121-145422.jpg

└ Tags: , , , , , , ,
 Comment 
Nov12

Finish the Sentence (get to know you)

by Erik w/a "k" on November 12, 2013 at 8:30 AM
Posted In: Games

Everyone wants to be known. We know that. Right? We want to be known by others, even if sometimes that isn’t immediately obvious. Today I am including a “Finish the Sentence” get to know you list. There are 30 sentences started. The idea is that you print out a copy for everyone in your group and have them take exactly 3 minutes to finish each sentence. Tell them not to think about their answers too much, but to write the first thing that comes to their mind. That is usually the most honest answer. Then you can go around the group and have them ask the person to their left to read one of their sentences. (ie. Avery asks Chantz to read number 13, then Chantz asks Toby to read number 4, and so on.)

I am also including a link where you can download a pdf version of this and print it out like that. Click here.

hi robot

Finish the Sentence

I will never forget…
If only I had…
My dad…
School…
Sometimes I feel like…
I dream that I…
My first time…
Healthy food…
The ocean…
In the summer…
My mom…
I always wanted…
Mostly I miss…
God is…
If I only…
I cry when…
I get stressed when…
I’m really good at…
In the future…
I don’t like it when…
Never…
One time I…
The last time I laughed…
If you ever…
I would not…
The opposite sex…
When I think about…
Movies…
When I am outdoors I…
Jesus is…

└ Tags: , , , ,
 Comment 
Nov05

Give Volunteers Goals

by Erik w/a "k" on November 5, 2013 at 8:30 AM
Posted In: Volunteers

Your volunteers might have a “job” or a “role” at youth group but have you given them relational goals? The reality is that you cannot reach every student on your own. You do not have enough time and honestly, you are not able to relate perfectly with every student – you need your volunteers! But how can you keep volunteers enthusiastic and motivated to love on kids while still having them do their role of leading worship, running powerpoint/mediashout/propresentor/etc. or signing kids in at the door?

Give your volunteers some realistic relational goals.

These goals will help your volunteer feel valued – they will not feel like they are just a participant but rather that they have a purpose and are moving forward. As a volunteer myself, I have found that when I am asked to do more than just chaperone an event I am much more invested.

Here are a few goals that you could ask of your volunteers:

1) Meet 3 students you have never talked to before and memorize their names
2) Find out something new about a student you do not know very well
3) Invite and set a date/time to take a few students out to coffee or ice cream this week

Follow up is important too. If you challenge your youth leaders to meet 3 new students, ask them how it went – they will see that you value it too! Give an opportunity for your youth leaders to share and debrief how their relationship’s with their students are moving.

Let us know what goals you have given your volunteers that have been successful.

–Hannah

└ Tags: , ,
 Comment