Youth Groups

[zizi90]

So I have a question. We have a youth group in our church, and the whole youth group thing is fairly new to us. My older brother is the youth group director and I am the "youth secretary", which basically means I assist in organizing events, and all that good stuff.

Anyway, my question is, what are some things that your youth group has done that were a great success, and what things were not? What are some of the things you really enjoyed, some of the things that helped you grow spiritually, and what things were really boring? I look forward to all you peoples advice!

A couple things we have done that went REALLY well:

1. One year we did a "Bible Book Club". Every month, as a group, we picked a book of the Bible. Then separately that month, we all read through that book. At the end of the month we would come together for a time of fellowship/food and we would talk about the book we studied. It was really good, and got us all into the Word every day.

2. Youth camp. It was awesome.

3. Pizza and bowling. I know, pretty carnal, lol, but it was a nice event where the youth could just relax. I think an important part of having a youth group, is creating an environment where youth can good clean fun. That is so hard to find these days.

4. Youth thanksgiving is always a success. We have games, a thanksgiving dinner, and then a youth service.

5. Youth soccer. (we rent a local indoor soccer arena. boys vs. girls...hahaha, oh yeah, the girls have beat the boys every time so far)

Anyway, please share!

[MelodyB]

Sounds like you have great ideas already.

One thing we did/do is youth prayer. Every two weeks we meet on Thursday night and pray. I am no longer a "Youth" but they make sure I know what is going on and they get mad at me when I dont show up.

One thing I always liked was scavenger hunts. We had all kinds of those when I was a teen. You make a list of clues, and then those with cars load up all the ones without cars and go all over "collecting" proof. The first team back with all the clues right wins a prize.
A sound hunt- the list was like: Baby crying, checkout beep, cop car siren, microwave beep, can opener, all kinds of silly stuff, and we each had a tape recorder. It was a blast! Our team had a couple that had a child and we stuck him in a room by himself and made him cry! We were the only ones that got that one.
A picture hunt: they gave out clues and you had to go around town and take a picture of someone from your group in front of what you thought the clue was. some of the clues were, oldest grave, pic of you and a Wal*mart employee, one of your team on a horse. (that was fun....we rode a carousel out side of Wal-mart!)

There are endless possibilites with scavenger hunts!

[RandyWayne]

Those sound like great ideas, all of them!

We have also had "car rallies", assuming you have enough people with drivers licenses.  Sort of like a scavenger hunt but requires much more driving.  Of course, ours got a little out of control and the evening turned into a repeat of the "Cannonball Run" but it was a riot!

Another great idea is a cooking night!  Have your own miniature "Iron Chef" contest!  Two or more groups competing to come up with the best 1 - 3 dishes based on a secret ingredient!  This can also be a regular riot.

[MelodyB]

What is a car rallie?

[amanda18]

Do you have another church with youth close by??? YOu could hire an evangelist and merge the youths together for the evangelistic services..

Have your youth get involved in youth service let them lead song service or preach or even testify..

[dwilliams]

I'm a Youth Secretary too, and our Youth Group recently got a new Youth Pastor. We do all kinds of things,

Ice Skating
Coin Drives
Youth Servings
Scavenger Hunts
We have our own Youth Service on the 1st Wed night of each month
We BIBLE QUIZ 
Paintball
We have SFC Volleyball, basketball, and softball tournaments for our entire section (we just sponsor and organize them)
We are currently finishing remodeling our Youth Room, which was a cool process. Some of us working together and getting a job done for the church was very neat.

That's all thats coming to my head right now, but there's plenty of kewl things to do!
Good Luck as Youth Secretary!

[faithinjesus]

Hi Everyone,

I love the Scavenger Hunt ideas. They sound like heaps of fun.

We did a car rally about 4 months ago and it was a real hit with the youth. It was soooooo fun.

I dont know if car rallys over there are different to the ones here in Australia. We had a whole heap of things on a list that we had to take photos of around the city. EG. we had to get a photo of all our team mates (except the one taking the photo) hanging on a tree branch. Also we had to get a photo of our team mates busking (singing or acting) outside of the Royal Mint (our money making place in the city It was the best day. We started at about 10.30am and didnt finish til maybe 4pm. We drove so many miles tho LOL

Some of the things our youth has done:

1. The Zoo
2. Debates
3. Bible Quizzing
4. Bowling
5. Games Nights
6. Archery
7. Car Rally
8. Youth Camps - THE BEST!
9. Youth Services
10. Prayer - this is one of the most amazing things when you get a heap of young people together who WANT to pray, the Spirit of God just moves so amazingly
11. Picnics

I know there are heaps of other ideas but I forget. Will post when I remember

Ciao, Emma

[RandyWayne]

See the pictures below for the ultimate "Car Rally" show.     

And just remember.... the 'treasure' is buried beneath a big W!

[EricShane]

our youth always did a car wash every summer, that was so much fun, and Cookouts are always awesome! weve all went fishing before, and Tubing once, where you can rent these water tube things and paddle boats and stuff at the lake, thats awesome.. ohh AND its fun for everyone to come over, and camp out in your own back yard.. The kids always do that at my moms house she lives way back in a hollar in the woods and stuff its perfect! (i always stayed in the house though in my rooom... in my bed..) lol - and... we used to Make Video's of stupied stuff.. like we got together one time and made a "Holiness Weather Video" lol.. omg.. I just thought of something, one time when upcstephanie was down, we turned off the lights and danced ninety miles an hour to some worldly music... haha, but I wouldnt reccomend that one..

[LarryTheCucumber]

'Thriving Youth Groups'  by Jeanne Mayo is a great resource if you're looking for more than just games or lesson outlines--it covers foundational ideas on building a youth leadership team, staying in touch with the youth in your group, visitor followup, and all kinds of other practical stuff

[Backseat Radio]

I've seen some good suggestions so far from various folks. I'm 26 but still involved with the youth group at my church because the youth and adult singles kinda got lumped together for certain things.   Here's some things that come to my mind concerning youth groups from my experience youth groups....

1)  Any activity to get them to get their nose in scripture.  This could include things like sword drills, bible quizzing, getting them involved in teaching bible study (and not just from prefab charts either), even things like stump the teacher with a bible question.

2)  get them involved as much as possible in youth services and church services in general.  Youth that have a reason to be there and be involved are more likely to show up.

3)  get them involved in the community helping out someplace.  To often with the youth is just about them.  Volunteer work in the community someplace would help them be more aware of the needs of others and get them involved in the godly principle of reaching out to help others.  This could also be tied in with prayer by having them as a group pray for the place or person the youth group is volunteering for.

4) Be careful not to go over board on the fund raisers.  One of the things that really annoys me with the youth group at my church is its constant fund raisers.  For folks like me that are not so apt to go out and ask folks for money it gets very fustrating knowing that every time I turn around theres gonna be a new fund raiser tossed in my lap. 

5)  Try to find activities that don't require alot of money to do.  The youth at my church are really bad about going out to expensive restaurants all the time. 

6)  Make sure all activities are well planned and that the youth and their parents know in advanced whats going on.  the youth directors at my church are really bad about they send out a text message the night before with "oh by the way we're suppose to be doing this tomorrow, you need to be there". 

[zizi90]

'Thriving Youth Groups'  by Jeanne Mayo is a great resource if you're looking for more than just games or lesson outlines--it covers foundational ideas on building a youth leadership team, staying in touch with the youth in your group, visitor followup, and all kinds of other practical stuff

Thanks! I will check that out.

Bereaness, those are some great hints, thank you for sharing them!

[EricShane]

omg, I told my friend about this today... theres this stupid game that we used to play when a bunch of us would get together.. I would just call it the Broom stick game.

you take a broom stick, one person at a time would go out in the middle of the floor (Away from furniture) with a broom stick and put one end of it on the floor, and put your hands on top of it, putting your head on your hands, and you spin around and around in circles counting to like.. 20 or something, and then you drop the broom stick on the floor and try to jump over it!

OMG its sooo much fun!

[Called_&_chosen]

omg, I told my friend about this today... theres this stupid game that we used to play when a bunch of us would get together.. I would just call it the Broom stick game.

you take a broom stick, one person at a time would go out in the middle of the floor (Away from furniture) with a broom stick and put one end of it on the floor, and put your hands on top of it, putting your head on your hands, and you spin around and around in circles counting to like.. 20 or something, and then you drop the broom stick on the floor and try to jump over it!

OMG its sooo much fun!

Dizzy is the word I would use   

[EricShane]

omg, I told my friend about this today... theres this stupid game that we used to play when a bunch of us would get together.. I would just call it the Broom stick game.

you take a broom stick, one person at a time would go out in the middle of the floor (Away from furniture) with a broom stick and put one end of it on the floor, and put your hands on top of it, putting your head on your hands, and you spin around and around in circles counting to like.. 20 or something, and then you drop the broom stick on the floor and try to jump over it!

OMG its sooo much fun!

Dizzy is the word I would use   

its hillarious though, because when someone tries to jump over the broom they fall down lol

[MelodyB]

We used to play spin the spoon and winkums.

[drummerbear7]

these are really cool ideas!! but i got a question, we have a few kids in my youth group that are worldly, so things like a car wash would not work at all, how would u get the ones that just seem to struggle and not grow closer, to be involved??

[amanda18]

Hold a squirt gun to them and force them to be involved!!!! 

[jdalgetty]

After church servings are always successfull at our church. We always bring in about $600 every serving.

[edgehead7]

well,i think camps and conventions are always good

[edgehead7]

Hold a squirt gun to them and force them to be involved!!!! 

i dont know,the girl with the dancing fruit my have something there

[drummerbear7]

ha that's funny!! actually squrit guns can be pretty deadly if u get shot in the eye!! it hurts!

[edgehead7]

ha that's funny!! actually squrit guns can be pretty deadly if u get shot in the eye!! it hurts!

yes,i do agree with you on that

[Mrs.Wilson]

We had an awesome youth group.  I miss being in the youth group.  I've since gotten married and moved away.

Anyways, some things we did was before evening service on Sunday we would pray for 30 minutes.  No one really cared if you went in there and actually slept, but looked like you were praying.  When you get one or two people that are actually praying it can convict that person that's not really praying.  We went in the youth room to do it.  It was good to be away from the parents at this time.

During youth service we had like a regular service.  We had worship that was led by the youth and everything.  I really like that idea about getting with another youth group and having an evangelist.

I really really like the Bible book club idea.  I told my husband and he likes that idea too.  lol I told him to suggest it to our pastor.  We don't really have a youth group right now.  We only have one or two people for the youth, not counting the college students during the school year.  But, I really like that idea.

For the worldly youth: Get them involved just like the other kids.  Have them go to the prayer room too.  Have them sing with the praise singers as long as they adhere to the standards your church has set for the praise singers.  The church I come from you had to wear your hair up, sleeves past the elbow, don't show your knees...  One thing I have learned is that if you get them involved and so busy doing God's work then they don't have too much time for the world.  Then they lose that desire to be with the world.  Of course they need to have that seed of desire first.