Youth Group Ideas

[SNJM]

I'm helping with out parish as they search for a new Youth Minister. (The old one left under suspicious circumstances.) The parish is fairly conservative & the Pastor does not want to use a singular program (like Lifeteen) but doesn't mind mixing & matching.

Does anybody have any ideas about activities for a good welcome night? Obviously it should be fun, social, reverent, and faith filled. What are some of the things/activities that any of you have done in the past that you have you really loved or particularly remembered?

Thanks in advance.

Rose


PS Any ideas are welcome !!!

[Basilisa Marie]

Hi! 

 

My home parish was pretty conservative, but when I was going through the program my youth minister drew from Lifeteen, using it as a starting point.  If you already have access to it, that might be a way to begin - you don't have to do everything the program says. I think my youth minister drew mostly from the talks. My point is that if you can only find one program, don't feel like you're obligated to do all of it to the letter.  Others around here know better than me what programs are out there. 

 

Begin and end the night with prayer.  Maybe have some food there, even if it's just lemonade and a veggie tray.  And even though it's a welcome night, you can still have a short talk on a subject. Since it's a welcome night, I'd plan a couple of icebreakers/teambuilders. One that involves getting people to know each other (names, etc) and another that involves interacting with each other and having fun (like telephone charades).  For that, you'd get into teams of about five, and everyone stand in line in front of the group, facing the left or the right. The person at the end of the line is told (or shown on a paper) what the "message" is, and once that person has an idea of what they have to do, they tap the person in front of them.  He turns around, and watches and the End of Line Person silently acts out the message. Once he gets it (or the person is done), he taps the person in front of him and she watches him convey the message.  It's fun to watch because if you put the messages on papers, you can show it to the audience and they get to watch the message deteriorate down the line. The last person guesses, and then the next team comes up to the front.  We'd really get into it, and it got to the point where my youth minister had to come up with stuff like "catching a deer and riding it to school" or "going fishing and catching a boot".  But normal charades stuff, especially 'activities' are great ideas for messages.  

[Spem in alium]

Great ideas above :)

The first things to work out are how much time you have and how big your group is. These will affect how much and what kind of activities you can do.

 

I would also suggest beginning (and ending) with a prayer and some icebreakers for sure. Maybe you could play some games too - I've got a few I know which are designed for youth groups, so happy to pass them on. You could also show a short movie if you wanted.. As for food, pizza always goes down well.

 

 

[Lil Red]

Three words: "Protect the President". best game ever. 

[ChristinaTherese]

Just because Basilisa's post reminded me of it:

 

Probably my favorite game in high school sunday school (we didn't play games often, but we sometimes did) was called "brain freeze". Basically, it starts with a group of people sitting in a circle. One person starts, and says something of a specific type, like a color, number, movie quote, etc. They pass that to someone else, who has to say something of that same type. It goes on this way until everyone in the circle has done that. (A good way to start is just going through with numbers in sequence. It helps to get the hang of it before mayhem ensues.) The trick is that this is then repeated, and it must occur in the same way. Then you can start new chains, each with a different sequence of people, that go concurrently with each other. These should be declared and figured out without the confusion of the other chains going on at the same time, and then added in with everything else. Maybe practice them a time or two before you add things together, maybe not. The chains should also all end (and maybe start as well) with the same person, so that someone can keep track of whether everything has finished.

 

However, this works best with a small group (10 would be fine, 20 would be too many, 5 would be too few), so it depends on how many people show up whether that could even work. Also, I'm just describing this from memory and it's been a few years so I could be off a bit.

 

And we liked that about as much as BM's youth group liked telephone charades.... So it got kind of crazy. But it doesn't have to be totally crazy unless you want it to be. You do have a choice in how many chains happen and how concurrent they are.

Edited October 12, 2013 by Christina Thérèse

[Lil Red]

honestly, it's really going to depend on the dynamics of the group. do you have a bunch of kids who don't really like physical games? or a bunch of kids who would hate to sit still? or a mix? If this is the first time with all of them, have a good mix of games. 

 

nametags (as much as I hate them and kids hate them) are a must. every.single.time you meet. 

 

beginning and ending prayers shouldn't be an after-thought but well-thought out and planned for. but they shouldn't be excessively long either. don't make a mini-rite out of it, if you know what i mean.

 

food is always a good idea with teens. a meal is even better. 

 

make sure you circulate and talk to every teen. make sure your adult volunteers do the same. oh yeah, make sure you have enough adult volunteers, and delegate, delegate, delegate. even if when they do something that wouldn't be up to your standards. don't be afraid to tell adults to stop talking to each other and start talking with teens. if they can't do that basic, simple thing, they don't need to come back to volunteer. (it's harsh, but they're not there for conversation with each other.) make sure the volunteers have a prayer life and pray for you & for the group before every meeting. 

 

Sincerely,

The voice of 10+ years of youth ministry experience.

[ContemporaryCaflicCrusader]

Are kids beg for dodgeball every week now lol