What do 11′s and 12′s need?

I remember youth group in grades 9-10. It was a riot! Everything we did we did at 125% and every devotion struck tears in the over emotional teen girls. We brought friends by the carloads and reminisced about the events for weeks after.

But something happened in grades 11-12. Im not sure what exactly it was. Some would say we were “to cool” for youth group, others would call it rebellion, But Im not convinced that its either of these. As I look at this same age group today I have come up with a theory:

As we grow and begin to question absolutely everything that happens in our involving world, we look for things more stimulating than repetitive games and temporary emotional decisions. We want things that are real and make us feel like we have a role in our maturing futures. We get involved in relationships that trigger curiosity and constant awareness to moral dilemmas. Most of us start taking part in activities that challange us to think beyond our comfort zone. Sure, we make bad decisions and sometimes our curiosity leads up into dangerous situations, but in the end we are just trying to figure out who we are and where we stand. The reason that we drift away from the youth group setting is not because they have done anything wrong, but because it just doesn’t have that spark anymore.

Many youth groups are so focused on the outreach opportunities ( I admit, I was that youth leader) that we forget about the constant growth and challenges that our maturing students need. There comes a point when beaning each other over the heads with rotten pumpkins might be fun, but there are far more pressing issues taking place in our lives and there is no one there to help us work through those. No one is demanding us to use out god given gifts to inspire others, or encouraging us to push ourselves to the limits regarding our faith.

More frequently than not I build a theory and refuse to find a solution, but this time it was different. I think God is with me on this one, so here it goes….

I no longer believe in one youth group. I no longer believe that grade 9-12 students have the same needs (besides salvation). I no longer believe the bigger the better. And I no longer believe that entertainment based activities challenge christian youth.

I believe that there are many different needs within youth aged kids, and meeting these needs is what tweaks their curiosity and brings them back. I believe that grade 9 kids may benefit greatly from a fear factor night, but I also believe that grade 12 kids would benefit immensely from a diploma exam study party. And I believe the moment we try to entertain both of these age groups we lose people.

I am not tabooing events that bring these ages together, because I do think there is a certain mentorship that naturally develops between early teens and mature teens, but I do think we need to consider separate focus groups that target the needs of each demographic.

Phewfff. Glad I got that off my chest.

A Church Video Game

As I sit down to update my blogs, my husband sits down to play a glorious game of Killzone on the PS3. Im not a gamer, the only part I actually enjoy is building characters and doing things like playing the guitar or singing bad karaoke. But I do not think video games are bad, I think they are amazing actually. Which brought me to this epiphany…

What if there was a “Church” Video game.

Think about it.

There are so many veins for this to run through. You could have the diligent, yet highly attractive secretary which the pastor must resist temptation. Or you could have challenges and tasks to raise money for a serving opportunity. Or…wait for it…Sword drills.

Year end Wrap- Amazing Race

Its only our second year planning and pulling of the community wide “Amazing Race” for our youth group, but i think I seriously feel like a pro. I was even telling a fellow youth leader we should do this as a job….plan amazing races that is.

Needless to say, it went well. The one negative I can pull from it is that we underestimated teenagers competition levels and needed to add more activities. In total it only took around 2.5 hours to complete and we anticipated at least 3. We did youth in a rural community, so we took advantage of our surroundings and what we had available.

This year the roadblocks/detours/challanges consisted of:
-Finding a clue hidden in a outdoor swimming pool
-Chasing a “message in a bottle” down the river to get the clue that was inside
- Carrying a team mate across the river without getting them wet.
- Completing a suduko puzzle
- Throwing whipped cream pies at a teamate until you found one that had a cherry in it.
- Leading untrained dogs through an obsticle course
- Creating a device of soup cans and a plank to get you down a hill and back up
- Hearding cattle and collecting the clue off of the back of one of the animals
- Finding the oldest tombstone at the cemetary

It was a blast!

BYO

Last Friday we had a BYO at youth. We wanted to give the group a chance to bring what they like to the group. Ah….who am I kidding, the creative juices just weren’t flowing.

But it didn’t matter, They had a blast. It was hel-random, but we played soccer, truth or dare, had a 3-on-3 tourney, cooked spaghetti, played catchphrase, curled boys hair, chewed copious amounts of jawbreakers, jammed on stage, played sequins, laughed, burped, and played the Eukaleili.

I think that youth ministry sometimes co-exists with structured entertainment. We forget that we can just let these guys and gals hang out and they will have fun. We have labeled this the “Hang out Factor”. Not only is it cool to watch, but it initiates some leadership on their part as well.

EPIC Fear Factor

Okay, we tried the “Fear Factor” night last week and it was freakin’ Fantastic. I think us leaders were more grossed out than the youth….dang. But this was my favorite event, Carmel Apples….no wait…ONIONS!