1. 02 June 2010 · 09:27 PM ·

    First night as a youth minister.

    Tonight was my first official night of being completely in charge of the youth. All of our youth members were scheduled to arrive at the church around 6 and we would hang out and program till around 7ish.

    We had some students get here about 5:45 so we all went to the gym and tossed the football around. I’m not one for standing in a circle and throwing a ball back and forth so I quickly had to initiate some sort of competition. It turned into a game of 3 on 3 football with me as the all time QB. We had a good game going for a while. Soon enough though, six o’clock came and it was time to begin our programs.

    This was the first Wednsday for the youth were everyone was finaaly done with school. I decided it would get a good idea to just chill out, play some games and have some fun. These guys had had enoughs books and exams for a while. It was time for summer! 

    Games, for one thing, are not my strong point. Don’t get me wrong, I am very very competitive and I love sports. I’m not the best in the world at preparing games though. If it were up to me, I would play dodge ball all night and maybe throw in some tackle football. This strategy however would not go over well with the group of middle school girls I have. So it was hard planning games that would be suitable for everyone to play and enjoy. I spent last summer running a day camp for children K-5 grade. I could make up any games and they would love it as long as it involved running or getting wet and screaming. Youth however are a totally different story. I couldn’t play the corny ice breaker games because they are too cool for that. I could play tackle football because only about two of them would last. So my options were pretty slim. If anybody out there has some suggestions on games to play with a group of middle and high school kids, please let me know. 

    I started off with a game called “hospital tag”. It’s like freeze tag except everyone is it and you get two chances before your out. The game went well but quickly got a old.

    I then transitioned to a game called “Mr. Wolf”. It was pretty lame I’m not going to lie. It’s like a knock version of tag. That game lasted all of 5 minutes before I had kids texting during the game. 

    I proceed to the next game called 4 points. It is a game where everyone is in a group of 3. You make a finish line and and tell them they have to stay attached the whole time with only have 4 points touching the ground. Then you make it more challenging by allowing only 3 points and then 2. This game was by far my best idea. It made them work together and interact with each other while still competing.

    I was all out of ideas at that point and resorted to the bread and butter of all PE classes…DODGEBALL. Dodgeball was a life-saver. Everyone loves dodgeball. It took no time to set up. Everyone already new the rules. They loved it. I loved it. It went great. Before I realized it, time was up and it was time to settle in the youth room and have some good conversations.

    Since school had just let out and it was my first full session in charge I decided to keep it simple. We just went back to the youth room, chilled on the couches and cooled off. We had about 15 minutes left so I grab a piece of paper and ask everyone what they wanted to get out of the summer. I explained that games were not my strong point (they confirmed my statement with, “we could tell” looks) but that I was really excited and passionate about leading them in bible study and real life discussions this summer.

    I ask them what they wanted to get out of the summer and wrote down there responses. It took a little warming up but I finally squeezed some responses out of them. I wrote down things from peer pressure and sexual temptation, to being together as a youth group and not having cliques to how to act like a Christian outside of church and not judging people. It was very fulfilling and I was deeply impressed by the openness and maturity of my youth group. They are an amazing group of students and I’m am looking forward to serving all of them this summer.