Tag: how to

Theme Night Ideas: Prizes

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Our theme nights often have some type of competition between small groups. That may be entire small groups competing against one another in a scavenger hunt or an “Amazing Race” challenge, or it may be a representative or two competing for their group. Regardless of how we structure it, we frequently offer prizes for the winners.

Here’s the thing: I think for some youth groups offering prizes is normal and a good chunk of their budget can be apportioned to it. But there are other youth groups that the thought of prizes is something they can’t even consider due to constraints or lack of a budget. What I would love to do today is share some prizes we have utilized that I think should be applicable to any youth group regardless of financial standing. This isn’t meant to say one is better than the other, but a way to highlight the intentional and relational approach we can take with giving prizes to our students.

Food.

For some youth groups this may mean treating the winners to Chick-fil-A, for others it may mean giving them an ice cream party or cupcakes, and for others it may mean the prize is something that you or one of your leader makes for the group.

Gift cards.

You may be thinking, “Hold up Nick, you said these are applicable to any youth group.” You’re right, I did. I think when we hear “gift cards” we default to the belief that we have to pay for them. No, I’m not advocating that we steal them. But what I am suggesting is to be creative. Do you have a cafe you sell food from? Create gift cards your students can use there. Connect with local businesses and ask if they’d be willing to donate some gift cards for your event. Local businesses tend to have bigger hearts and want to bring in locals, so an opportunity to bless students is a great way for them to advertise.

Dinner out.

This is similar to the one above. We default to going out to dinner at a restaurant, but that doesn’t have to be the only option. What if you lined up a list of people within the church and their “menus” and let students choose where they want to eat? You could ask staff, elders, or volunteers to donate their time, home, and a meal for the winning team. Dinner out doesn’t need to be a restaurant but instead can be more about a memorable experience students can have with people who care about them.

Start a tradition.

I have seen youth groups do this in different ways. Some utilize a random item students get to sign if they win, which is displayed in the youth area or youth pastor’s office. You could also purchase imitation Emmy awards online that are fairly cheap but are something students can take home and display. How you theme, emphasize, and champion these traditions will help students be excited about them and desire to win them at each event.

Something personal.

This past year I decided to try something different as a prize. I’ll be honest, I lumped this idea in with three other prizes students could choose from and honestly they all chose the one I tried out. It was a huge hit! What was it? I offered to bake whatever they would like (within reason and my skill set) and bring it to their Home Group and spend the evening with them. I couldn’t believe how successful this was. My students loved it and we will continue doing it for prizes this year. I also enjoy making candles as a way of decompressing and we have offered a candle making class for winning groups and that was another successful prize. Creating a prize that is personal and relational is something students will desire because it’s meeting needs and offering them something they are craving: authentic relationships.

Theme Night Ideas: October Celebration

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Notice what we didn’t title this post: Halloween party, harvest festival, fall celebration, costume party, or reformation gathering. I’m going to let that sit for a moment because some of you are laughing, others are cringing, and still others of you may be frustrated.

The reality of the matter is any type of celebration in October can be inflammatory and challenging for youth ministries as we seek to work within the guidelines and parameters of our church while also navigating the cultural tensions that exist among church goers and communities. I mean how many of you have heard something like, “Halloween is the devil’s holiday” or, “Why would you wear costumes? God tells us to come as we are!” Or maybe you have even been told that bats and the like represent hell and we should never have them in the church.

Been there, am I right? Even as I am writing this, different conversations and interactions are coming to mind and I have a flurry of emotions and reactions. There will always be strong reactions to a theme night in October, but if we are looking to utilize theme nights as a means to invite new students and engage with our community, we need to understand that this is an opportune time to do so.

I am not saying we compete with Halloween or different cultural elements because you probably won’t see success in doing so. Instead, I’m suggesting that we find a way to engage our community in fun, relational, and missional ways that reach our students and their peers. But what does that look like? What can we do as we navigate this tricky time of year?

Pick a theme that works for your environment.

It’s easy to look at what others have done and want to create that for our groups, especially when we see what people post on social media. We see what larger churches and programs do and we want to replicate that. But before craving to imitate, let me encourage you to think about your environment and what will work for it.

Think about your people and what they need. Think about your space and what it will allow you to do. Think about your church and its culture and what will be acceptable. Think through what will reach your students and their peers. After you’ve done the ground work of examining what will work, then pick a theme. It could be as simple as calling it a Halloween Party or maybe you could theme it as a Fall Tailgate. Whatever you pick for your theme, make sure that it will be the best for your students and their peers.

Utilize games and activities to embrace the theme.

Whatever theme you choose, make sure to incorporate games and activities that embrace your theme. If you choose a theme but then just utilize your normal games or keep the format and feel of a typical program, the themed event will fall flat. Not only will it make your students feel devalued, it will also make it appear as if you don’t care. If students believe you don’t care about the event that you put together for them, they will believe that you don’t care about them.

You can incorporate different elements from your theme into your activities. If you are simply going for a fall theme think about doing apple bobbing and maybe taking it up a notch by bobbing for various fruits and veggies or even different foods like sandwiches. Choosing a Halloween theme doesn’t mean you need to do a haunted house, but instead you could have activities like pumpkin carving or pumpkin bowling. You could also utilize games with strobe or black lights like 9 Square or dodgeball. But make sure to tell your students if there will be strobes because they can affect people differently. There are also costume competitions to which you can assign different categories of judging. You can also incorporate eating activities like a pumpkin pie eating contest or have a make-your-own-s’more activity with a prize for most creative.

Make sure to utilize different decor.

When it comes to a fall-themed event think about decor like pumpkins, hay bales, apples, and fall leaves. If you want to do a more Halloween-themed event think through what won’t necessarily be inflammatory for your church community. You could use different colored lights, cobwebs, and hanging signs.

But what if you can’t bring in all the things? What if your space and/or budget is limited? Think about getting different colored tablecloths for the food area from a dollar store, get creative with the plates, cups, and napkins and see if you can acquire ones that fit your theme. Think about hanging lights around doorways or the podium you may use. Or consider hosting the event outdoors and asking local farmers to donate straw bales (not hay, I learned that one very quickly living in Iowa) that you can incorporate into your outdoor design.

Don’t be limited by your space but allow your space to generate creativity and utilize it in unique ways. This is also a great opportunity to ask your students and leaders to design it and see what they come up with. If you’re passionate about it and give them responsibility, they will be passionate as well and run with the theme.

Theme your food options.

When you can theme your food for events it just makes the event that much more fun. I’ll be honest, I’m not super creative when it comes to decorating food items for different events. But I can make things that fit the feel of the event. My point is that you don’t have to be able to design popcorn balls that look like spiders, but instead can utilize caramel popcorn for popcorn balls because it is a snack that has the feel of fall.

So for a fall event, consider having snacks and food that fit the theme. Think about pumpkin snacks, popcorn, candy corn, caramel apples, puppy chow, apple cider, hot chocolate, and whatever else feels fall-ish to your group. Or consider asking parents or different groups within the church to prepare and run a fall-themed dinner for your group.

Don’t fudge on your vision and mission.

This is more of a reminder to us as leaders. It is always fun to put on an event our students will love and bring their peers to, but we need to remember that regardless of what we do, our vision and mission should always be a part of and shape our activities. Simply put, we shouldn’t do things just because they are fun or different, they should embody our vision and help to emphasize it.

The Importance of a Health and Wellness Policy

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A health and wellness policy was something that years ago I would never have considered. We never talked about it in any of my classes or education environments. It only began to come up when I was involved in my ministry cohort, which was going on shortly after the pandemic started.

Our church implemented a health and wellness policy like many others once COVID-19 hit in our area. We implemented guidelines and policies to ensure that everyone remained safe and healthy. Like many other churches, these policies were met with mixed reactions. But after refining the policy and thinking about the future of health and safety for the church, we now have a policy that exists for all ministries and seeks to love and care for our people in meaningful and proactive ways.

I don’t mean to write this post as a worst-case scenario, or to try to instill fear, but instead to help us serve and care for our communities well. This is an opportunity for us show the love of Jesus in very real and tangible ways as we help to protect our community. With the fall upon us, we will start to see a rise in the common cold, flu, RSV, and COVID as students are back in school and activities are ramping up. So how do we handle this well? What are some key things to make sure we implement?

Have an overall wellness policy, not a policy per illness.

We don’t have a COVID-19 policy, we have a health and wellness policy with an addendum about COVID. That means our policy has health and wellness guidelines for all sorts of illnesses and helps us address the entirety of the community, not just the ones who catch a certain illness.

Make sure your guidelines are clear.

I don’t know about you, but I have some students who love to try to find a way around the rules. Whether it’s a PowerPoint game, a group competition, or even just the guidelines for our youth group. But I think we all know this doesn’t just apply to students. Sometimes leaders and parents will try to get around guidelines and rules, so make sure they are clear and easily understood. Don’t over-complicate the guidelines but instead look for clarity in what you are stating.

Keep it simple.

This is something I learned during 2020 when we tried to spell out all the rules and have all the contingencies. But truth be told, we either weren’t prepared for the circumstances that developed or we had a ton of rules for moments that never materialized. What I learned through all of that was to keep these guidelines simple. Instead of trying think through all the rationalizing that we can do for an illness and if people should participate, just keep it simple and say, “If you’re feeling sick, stay home.” The simpler the guidelines the better and easier they are to understand.

Have PPE items available.

The term PPE (personal protective equipment) became extremely popular during the pandemic and many people presume that this refers to mask, gloves, and sanitizer. But it actually can expand to much more. Yes, gloves and masks are helpful–especially if you have to deal with first aid issues that may involve blood borne pathogens–but there are other items to include. These could be certain cleaners, hand sanitizers, Clorox or similar style wipes, first aid items, and hand soaps at all hand washing locations.

Be willing to explain the reasoning for your policy.

When we first instituted our policy we got a lot of questions. Yes, you could make the argument that we all had a lot of questions about our wellness policies in 2020, but the reality is I still get questions as to why we have one. My answer is usually pretty simple: we believe that part of being followers of Jesus means caring for one another (especially those who are in need) and this is one of the best ways we can do that. Sometimes that suffices and other times it does not. We have to be willing to share the reasoning for our policy, but also need to understand there will still be those who disagree regardless of our reasoning.

Explain the policy to students, families, and leaders.

Clarity of thought and communication is key for this policy. These guidelines and policies need to be communicated to everyone they affect, and that means thinking through the spheres of communication. We always walk through this at all of our leader training sessions, communicate it to students at the start of each semester, and we send it out to all parents in our newsletter. That way everyone is aware of our policy and the reasoning behind it.

So what are our guidelines?

They’re pretty simple: if you’re sick stay home. That goes for students and leaders. We love that our leaders are dedicated but if they are sick, they aren’t going to be at their best and they could get others sick. The only addendum we have is for COVID-19, and that is simple as well. For the first five days we ask the student or leader to stay home (i.e. not coming to church activities) and then the next five days they are able to participate but with a mask.

Our reasoning is exactly what we stated above: to love and care for others well no matter the circumstance. We want to make sure that our immuno-compromised friends can still come and not have to worry about getting sick and that we don’t spread illness around to others. We believe that Jesus, being the great Healer, would want His followers to do all they can to ensure the health of His Bride, the church. We embody that through our health and wellness guidelines.

7 Ways to Help Students Serve

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“Nick! You have two riding mowers?! Look at this one it’s bigger than what my family uses at our farm!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. We also have a wood shop that our facility team utilizes.”

“Can I see it?!”

“Sure thing!” I unlocked the door to our wood shop and the student’s eyes almost jumped out of his head.

“Nick…this…is…amazing! I wish I could use this stuff and cut grass here.”

“You can if you want to. I can connect you with our facility team and if your parents are okay with it, you can help them out.”

“I’m gonna check with my parents after youth group and let you know this Sunday!”

This was a conversation I had with a middle school boy recently. He correctly identified the tractors, mowers, and tools as I simply nodded along trying not to show my ignorance in what he was pointing out. We were cleaning up from an outdoor event and he was helping me put things away in our garage at the church. When he saw all the resources our facility team had to take of the grounds and to build items for various ministries, our student was over the moon excited to be able to use them. I could see how much he enjoyed working with his hands and being outdoors, as well as driving some of our bigger mowers. (What middle school boy wouldn’t be excited about that?) But what I could really see was his desire to serve and help in an area he was passionate about.

I don’t know many people who get excited about doing yard work, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that this student found a place where he could use his gifts, passions, and skill sets to help serve the body of Christ and I wanted to help him excel in that area. Getting students excited about serving and helping them find their niche is an important part of guiding them toward growing in their faith and growing as a member in the body of Christ. So how do we do this well?

1. Model service for them.

One of the best ways to help students grow and have a desire for serving is by showing them what serving looks like. When students see us serving and doing so with a willing and joyful spirit, it will help grow a desire to be of service within them as well. It helps our students to learn through seeing others model serving and it also gives us a practical way of helping younger generations grow and mature as followers of Jesus. You are cultivating a desire to serve as you model service for them.

2. Challenge them.

The next way to help students serve is by challenging them to do so. If you see a need for service, challenge your students to rise to the occasion and meet the need. This could be helping with set-up and tear-down at an event. It could be doing yard work for someone in the church or the neighboring community. It could be helping in the nursery. Or it could be any number of other things. By highlighting the need and challenging your students to meet it, you are building in them a desire to serve and also giving them an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to lead and care for others.

3. Help them know their gifts and skills.

When I ask students what their gifts are or where they could serve the usual answer is, “I don’t know.” This isn’t because they are ambivalent or don’t care, but because they truly do not know. So find ways to help students identity their skills and gifts, but also highlight ways they can serve in and outside of the church. Spiritual gifts assessments abound online but one from Lifeway is a solid option that is more in-depth and will help students be able to see which gifts they have and how to utilize them. Coupling spiritual gifts assessments with ideas on how to serve and a skill set survey sheet will help your students start thinking creatively about where and how they can serve.

4. Help them come up with their own ideas.

While helping students figure out where to serve, I would highly suggest we not pigeonhole them into a certain area we think would be good for them. Instead, allow them to find their own ways to serve. Give them guidelines and a direction, but also allow them to be creative and find places and opportunities to serve on their own.

I encouraged a student to serve one time in our communications department because of their skill set with design and art, but their passion was serving in our worship department because they could help people engage corporately through different media. I hadn’t even thought of that option but if I had forced them to serve in a place they weren’t passionate, they may never have continued to serve. So let students be creative and think about where and how they want to serve.

5. Serve with them.

One of the best things we can do when it comes to helping students serve is to serve with them. I know we can’t do everything, especially on Sundays, but if you’re able to serve alongside your students periodically I would encourage you to do so. Maybe it’s helping with tech one week. Or perhaps it’s seeing a student mowing the church lawn and going out to help or bring them a bottle of water. Maybe it’s hosting a service day and working with them. The more students see serving modeled by you and your leaders the more they will continue to serve.

6. Equip them to serve.

This goes beyond simply helping them identify their gifts and where to serve. It is about helping them to grow and mature in their service. I’m not saying you need to know everything and help students know how to do all the things, but help them grow as servants of God. Teach them why we serve, show them how to serve joyfully, debrief with them, help them grow and try new things, encourage them, and connect your students with others who can help them grow and sharpen their skills.

7. Follow up.

Follow-up is one of the most necessary things to do when we challenge students to serve, and it is also one of the things that tends to fall by the wayside. Be willing to check in on your students and see if they have followed through on their commitments, but also listen to how they are doing while serving. When you follow up, it isn’t about making sure students are behaving and doing the right things. Follow-up is checking in to see how their hearts are doing and being intentional and relational in your conversations. It’s caring about your students and their maturity as followers of Christ. Making sure your students are experiencing growth and seeing how they are valid and needed parts of the body of Christ is paramount as you follow up with them.

How are you helping and equipping students to serve?

Theme Night Ideas: Fall Kickoff

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It’s the middle of August and that means the school year is rapidly approaching. Many of our students are getting in their final vacations and summer memories because they start school in just a couple of weeks. Families are beginning to shop for back to school items and students are beginning to finalize their class schedules.

This also means that ministries–ours included–are preparing for the fall launch. Our summer programming is scaled back due to living in a tourist town where most local families go away for the summer. Because of that, we look to kickoff our fall programming in a fun and celebratory way. We love to start the school year in a way that fosters community and is invitational, while at the same time highlights what our ministry is about and shares our vision.

A successful fall kickoff isn’t a capstone to the year or indication that everything will go smoothly throughout the school year. Instead, a successful fall kickoff helps to set your ministry up for a good year and it allows the tone to be set for your students. Today I want to share some ways you can make your fall kickoff special, meaningful, and intentional for your students.

Cast the vision well.

One of things that is always important to the start of the school year is making sure you cast your vision. It sets the tone for the year, highlights your priorities, and helps students and leaders know what your ministry is about. It allows you and your team to set the tone and direction for your group right from the onset of the ministry year. By doing this, students and families know your heart and passion for the ministry. It will also highlight the direction you are going and the reasons for doing so.

Utilize local resources.

I’ve talked about utilizing local resources in other posts, but in moments like these I love to do that. We typically see larger numbers at the start of the year because students are excited to be back. And with typically nicer weather this time of year, it affords us more options to utilize. We’ve partnered with local eateries and ice creameries for our kickoffs in the past, but you can honestly utilize any local business.

If you live in a farming community you may be able to host a whole hog cookout. If you live in a community known for a certain type of food or dessert, try to highlight that. If you have community groups that offer unique experiences like onsite laser tag or dunk tanks and weather allows, incorporate it into your kickoff. We live in Hershey and have highlighted chocolate at different points, but we also don’t want to overuse that one thing and so we look for other elements to highlight. Whatever your local resources, make sure to give them a shout-out and point your students and families to that aspect of the community.

Know your culture.

I could tell you all the things that we have tried to incorporate and have seen fail. I could also list out all the things I have done that have worked. But the truth of the matter is, some or none of those may work for you depending on the culture of your ministry. If you have students who just want to chill, setting up a large scale scavenger hunt won’t work. If you have students who love sports and active games, setting up 9 Square and playing capture the flag will probably be a win. At the end of the day, you need to know what your students are going to readily engage with and utilize those things to your advantage.

Create a celebratory moment.

Let’s be honest: going back to school isn’t a celebration for most of our students. But kicking off youth group, regathering with friends, and looking ahead are celebratory moments. So look to celebrate in ways your students will connect and relate to. This comes across in how you theme the gathering, the environment you create, how it’s communicated, and the way you and your leaders respond to it. When you and your leaders are having fun, your students will respond to that energy. It is also important to look at the environment. Do you have music, are leaders smiling and engaging, are the activities working, is there food, have you created opportunities for community? These questions will help us identify if this is truly a celebratory moment and also help us shift things if needed.

I would also encourage you to create a singular moment that everyone can celebrate. This can be pre-planned or something organic that happens in the moment. Let me explain. Every other year our church does outside services in the summer under a tent and it was still up when we did our fall kickoff. We had our music pumping and kids started to come up on the stage and dance. And let me tell you, some of our kids can truly bust a move! I was about to settle everything down and call students in for our brief message, but instead I called our students in and threw on a few songs they knew and our entire student body engaged in a dance party for about ten minutes. It was awesome and exciting and everyone was involved.

That’s an “in the moment” celebration. But perhaps pre-planning is better for some ministries. Maybe you celebrate and honor students who were baptized this summer. Perhaps you celebrate what God did on your mission trips or at camp. Maybe it’s welcoming in new students. Perhaps your students met a challenge and get to hit you with pies. Whatever it is for you, make sure to celebrate with your community.

Theme the evening.

This doesn’t need to be crazy or a brand new idea. Sometimes the proven themes can be the best for your group. We have tried to make our fall kickoff tailgate themed, but that never landed with our students. We did “Minute to Win It” for multiple years but it never really caught on. What has actually worked for our group is a theme around community and connection. We shape our kickoff around intentional moments and activities that foster connection and conversations. We also highlight our small groups and create two moments for connection during our kickoff. At the end of the day, however you theme your night has to be something that resonates with your community and draws them together.

Involve students and leaders.

Whenever I host kickoffs I like to highlight my leaders and introduce them, but I also love to make sure they get intentional time with their students. I also really enjoy getting my students involved in leading or facilitating part of the kickoff. This can include letting an intern take lead in the structure of the night. Or have students share their testimonies or stories of what they saw God do in and through them during your summer trips.

Set the challenge.

One of my favorite things to do is to honor and celebrate the successes we see our students already doing and challenge them to continue to do just that. Last year we saw our students invite a ton of friends to our kickoff and so I challenged them to let our ministry be a place where anyone and everyone could come and to continue inviting inviting their friends. This resulted in record numbers of new students attending our program and many of them becoming part of our community.

By setting a challenge or goal for your students, you are highlighting how they are the focus of the ministry. You are giving them identity, ownership, and purpose, and students will rise to that challenge. So think about what you’d like to challenge your students to this year and lay that out for them at your kickoff. I would also encourage you to remind them throughout the year and to celebrate the successes as they happen.

Theme Night Ideas: Christmas Parties

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“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!” It’s colder out, Starbucks has debuted their holiday drinks, radio stations are blasting their Christmas selections, and your hoodies and gloves are becoming a common clothing staple.

Don’t look outside thinking you’ve slept away the summer, it’s still July. But Christmas is fast approaching, it’s only 147 days away. Some of you may need to catch your breath because it feels like we just saw our seniors graduate and summer is only halfway over. But before we know it, Christmas will be here and we will be trying to formulate a plan for a Christmas party for our students, our leaders, and maybe even one at your home. So why not get a jump start on things and begin preparing now for Christmastime so you are better prepared when it comes along?

Today, I want to share some helpful tips and ideas for hosting a Christmas party either for your students or your leaders. My goal is to help you make it the best it can be and to help take some of the stress of planning everything off your plate. So what are some key elements that we’d encourage you to include?

Games.

Incorporating various games at a Christmas party is a great way in include excitement, fun, and engagement. Depending on your group dynamics your games may look different. With a smaller group you might want to make it more interactive and maybe include “all play” style games. Some games include the plastic wrap ball game, a Christmas themed “Find Me…” game, a Christmas carol rap competition, or a decorating game where students each have to decorate a person in a specific style.

If your group is larger you may need to look for games that are small group-styled PowerPoint games or ones that invite an individual or two up from each group. You can find a bunch of these games at DYM and many other ones you can utilize for any sized group.

Celebration.

Christmas parties should include an element of celebration and feel different from other youth group gatherings. This can be accomplished by having a themed party like ugly Christmas sweaters or dress up as your favorite Christmas movie character. It can be done through a hot chocolate and Christmas cookie bar, or through the decoration of your youth area.

These events should be celebratory and different so your students get excited about coming and want to bring their friends. That is also true for leaders. If you can add some festive elements and share a theme for the party, it turns a simple gathering into a really special day. Consider doing table decorations and centerpieces, having Christmas music, leveling up your food game, and community.

Stories.

For both student and leader Christmas parties, taking time to share stories of what God had done over the last year is a really cool way to celebrate God and to encourage those in your ministry. These stories should and will look different based on which party you’re hosting, but you could ask people to share how they’ve seen God move or to share their favorite memories from this year.

If you want to have things a little more polished and planned out for the student party, consider asking students to record a brief video sharing their stories that you can edit and show at the party. My encouragement for leaders would be to allow them to share live at the party whether in front of the whole group or at their tables.

Team competition.

One of the things I love to do at our student and leader Christmas parties is to have some sort of team or group competition. In years past we’ve done gingerbread house competitions and they have gone over very well. We broke students up by small groups and our leaders we divided by the table they sat at.

Depending on your group, and their propensity to follow or not follow rules, you can adjust the competition and rules accordingly. You could also do a karaoke-style competition or a group-style trivia game. There’s also Christmas Pictionary or charades. These are easy and fun opportunities to help the whole group participate in a game.

Gifts.

We always try to incorporate gifts into any Christmas party we do. We celebrate and bless our leaders by getting Christmas gifts for them as a way of saying thank you. Putting intentional thought and effort into getting a gift that your leaders will not only enjoy but also use is a great way to make Christmas parties special.

When it comes to our student parties, we do a white elephant gift exchange. We ask students to bring a new or gently used wrapped gift that is no more than $10 to utilize in our gift exchange. However, we know that some students may not be able to provide a gift or a friend may come to our party and didn’t realize they needed a gift. So we provide additional gifts for our students so everyone can leave with a gift at the end of the night. Typically we also tell our students that if they receive a gift they didn’t like they can swap out with one of the gifts we purchased which we make sure are things students will enjoy.

Worship.

Incorporating worship into Christmas parties is a great way to keep everyone focused on the true reason you are gathered together. Now before I go any further, I want to emphasize that I don’t simply mean music when I talk about worship. I mean holistic worship. So think about singing and music, reading and teaching the Christmas story or another passage of Scripture, prayer, and different responses. We don’t always sing Christmas carols at our parties but we do carve out time to talk about Jesus and why He is the reason we are gathering.

When it comes to our student parties we try to keep our lesson time to 15 minutes or less for two reasons: we know we have lots of first time guests who haven’t been to a church setting before and we will be giving them ample small group time to dig deeper into the Christmas story. For leaders, we love to read the Christmas story to remind all of us of how great God’s love is for us and then to spend time in prayer together. Sometimes we also sing Christmas carols together even if it’s a capella. Whatever way you choose to incorporate worship, it is an essential part of keeping the focus of Christmas parties on Christ.

Small group time.

Our student ministry is a discipleship-based program which means we allot ample time for our small groups each week (45–60 minutes). When it comes to events and theme nights, we know that these are highly relational and invitational. Because of that we know that extended small group time can feel awkward for our newcomers, which means we include small group time but only for around 30-35 minutes. That way groups can gather to talk through the reason for Christmas, to talk about their plans for the holiday, to do any gift exchanges for their small group, and to pray together.

For leader parties we take time to pray together at our tables during the party and to celebrate what God has done and to pray for any requests that we may have whether personal or focused on our students. This time of prayer and community is typically how we end our parties as it allows for us to engage in interpersonal relationships and be for one another.

What are some must-have elements for your Christmas parties?

Theme Night Ideas: Nerf Battles

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Last Monday, we kicked off a new series called “Theme Night Ideas.” These posts are intended to help you think creatively about how you can help students invite their friends out to a non-threatening event that will hopefully encourage them to participate in your ministry long term. We shared some commitments we make to our students in order to help them reach out to their peers, and some creative aspects to add to every event like food, students sharing, and shortened small group times.

Today, we’re sharing an event we only recently started hosting at our church: a Nerf night. This was something I never really got behind because I didn’t think Nerf would resonate with our students, especially our high schoolers, and our more reserved students. But we had a couple of small groups meeting at our church one week and they had a blast playing Nerf throughout the building. So much so, they were telling all of their friends and they were begging my team to host a youth group Nerf night.

I began to look into what this entailed, and it actually ended up coming together relatively easily and it cost less than I had suspected. So what does a Nerf event look like? Well, we have our Nerf night coming up later this month, and I would like to share with you a variety of tips and things to think through to prepare for and make this event a success.

1. Think about your space.

Knowing what you have and what you can use is key for these games. Sometimes less is more depending on the size of your group. Other times, utilizing bigger and more open spaces may be ideal. But knowing what you have at your disposal and how to best utilize it will allow you to create an event that students will love.

2. Provide eye protection.

Eye protection is key for games with projectiles. Some Nerf blasters, like the Rival line, can fire fast and hard, and even a smaller blaster at close range can do serious damage to someone’s eye. So having some safety glasses or googles is a must. A quick Amazon search brings up multiple varieties or a Google search will bring up sites that have various options as well. Just make sure you look at shipping costs and times when you place an order.

3. Supply extra blasters and darts.

Typically students have their own blasters, but some do not or won’t want to bring their own out of fear of them being broken. So having some extras on hand would be extremely helpful. They don’t need to be super expensive or battery operated; they can be simple one shot style blasters or off brand blasters. I’d also recommend supplying the darts for the game. That way students don’t have to struggle to find their darts after the game and it ensures you’ll have enough.

4. Have ways to delineate teams.

Whether it’s pinnies, bandannas, or hats, having a way for students to know who is on their team and who isn’t is key to the success of most games. In games where teams are necessary, having a visual means of identifying teammates and opposing teams will allow students to have more fun and build a stronger desire to participate. Even if you can’t get pinnies or bandannas, think about having different colored yarns attached to players or using colored paper that is taped to shirts as a means of identifying the teams.

5. Know your game styles.

I’ll be honest: the first time we held a Nerf battle I thought I had everything planned out perfectly. I had a PowerPoint with rules and game play, I made sure there was no way to get around the rules, and I thought I had fun ideas that would work well. It didn’t. After two rounds of the original style, I switched it up and we went to a more flexible style of game play. What I found out was my rules were too strict and the game play to detailed. My students wanted a quicker and less restrictive game play.

We switched to a “capture the flag” style game with jails for those who got hit with a dart. We also incorporated ways to get people out of jail to make it more fun and engaging. We have done free-for-all style games to end the night where no one actually gets out. We’ve done leaders versus students. We have had “protect the president” style games where one team’s goal is to get the president and the other team’s goal is to protect them at all costs. We’ve done games where each person on a team can only use one bullet at a time throughout the game.

Whatever you decide to do, don’t be afraid to switch it up if it isn’t landing with your students. And don’t be afraid to ask them what they would like to do because you might find out that they have really good ideas.

6. Make sure your rules are clear.

One of our big rules is no shooting blasters when we aren’t in a game scenario. If we are going over rules, eating snacks, or simply hanging out, students don’t have to wear their eye protection. We tell students they can’t shoot in these moments because we don’t want someone getting shot in the eyes. It can really hurt and damage parts of the eye so we want to be hyper-vigilant in that area. We also make sure that our game time rules are clear and that we have leaders who help to direct game play.

7. Call audibles when needed.

Sometimes our best laid plans can be blown out of the water. And this can only be exasperated by our inability or unwillingness to shift and change when needed. The first time we hosted our Nerf Night, I should have changed how we did it but I refused to audible.

We hosted it during the summer and were hoping for more students but only a small number of our group came out. We had reserved a large portion of church for the event and rather than slim down the area, we kept it the same size. This meant that students were running around for longer periods and spent much of the playing time simply standing around or looking for people. It still worked out in the long run, but it would have been a lot more fun if we had made the size of the space more appropriate to our numbers.

We learned from this and the next time we played, we narrowed the game play space down and it worked out amazingly. Our students were more excited, they were laughing, games went faster which meant more people could play, and overall our students continued to ask to do it again. Calling audibles isn’t always easy or fun for us, but it can make it more enjoyable and exciting for our students which means they will be more willing to invite their friends to the event.

8. Plan out your barricades and boundaries ahead of time.

I don’t know about your church, but at ours there are certain items and spaces that are off limits. We can’t use our preschool space and we can’t move things around in certain classrooms. That means we need to get creative with where we play and what we use for barricades. It would be helpful to think through this ahead of time so when you explain the rules you can help students know what they are and are not allowed to use. Because, and trust me on this, there is always at least one very creative student who will find a way to incorporate an item you never thought you’d have to have a rule about; like a push cart with a trash can lid.

Have you ever hosted a Nerf event before? What worked well for you?

New Series: Theme Night Ideas

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This week we’re introducing a new series we’ll share periodically called “Theme Night Ideas.” Our ministry hosts different events throughout the year that have a specific theme attached to them that help our students intentionally invite their friends into our ministry. And we want to share those ideas with you.

These nights aren’t all about the theme, but the theme is a big part of helping us draw in new students. We incorporate other elements such as snacks, a brief testimony or share time, and small groups, but not for as long as we normally would. The reason we still have those elements is because it is the DNA of our group; at our core we are a ministry and not just a fun place to hang out. So we want to make sure that these theme nights aren’t just about fun but also about Jesus and why students need Him. In order for these nights to be a success, we have promised our students four keys things:

1. We will never embarrass you or your friends.

In talking to students, they have made it clear that they are worried about inviting their friends to youth group because it will seem “weird” or “off-putting.” We know it can be hard for students to invite their friends so we want to make sure that we have a fun and safe space for them to invite their peers to without worrying that there will be embarrassment or awkwardness from our team and ministry.

2. We won’t force your friends into a commitment.

This means we won’t make students commit to a conversion experience nor will we force them to become a part of our ministry. That doesn’t mean we won’t share the Gospel or invite them back, it just means we won’t force or manipulate them to do so.

3. We will have fun.

Students want to invite their friends into a space that is spiritually encouraging and enriching, but also into a place that is fun and exciting. So we promise our students that their friends will have fun at these events and we look to deliver on that promise by what type of events we hold, the snacks and food we provide, and by how they are structured.

4. We will utilize more students for these events.

At these events, we want our students to be the ones inviting their friends and we want them to be the ones sharing with their friends. So that means we will have students helping to explain the event, getting their friends connected, and even sharing their testimonies on stage.

Join us next week for the first idea we’ll be sharing: Nerf Battles. In the mean time, have you hosted a theme night? What tips would you share from your experience?

How to Host a Respite Day

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One of the best parts of my job is working with our special needs ministry. I have the amazing privilege of overseeing a wonderful team of volunteers who love and guide our students in that ministry. Aside from being a ministry I believe every church should have (that’s another conversation for a later post), this is a ministry that truly brings me so much joy.

I started with the special needs ministry when the person overseeing it moved on to a different ministry organization. I’ll be honest and say that I was woefully ill-prepared and had no idea what I was doing. I had never been trained or taught about this while in school, and this is the first church that I have been to that actually has a special needs ministry.

So I went into my first meeting with the team and just asked questions and sought to learn. I dove into books, contacted churches who have special needs ministries, and sought to grow in my ability to walk with and disciple these amazing young people. Through all of that, I got to know my team and our students better and truly began to understand and have a heart for this ministry just like my leaders. And it was through one of my leaders that we began to host our Respite Days again.

Respite days were something our church hosted before COVID and before I started on staff, and honestly, I was a little nervous about hosting them. My mind ran toward all the liabilities, the different needs students had, the guidelines we needed, the number of volunteers, and so much more. If I am being honest though, it was fear that kept me from being willing to host these days in the beginning. Fear of the unknown and what-ifs. Fear of failing. Fear of letting down our students and families who already are marginalized and isolated.

But after some loving and continued prodding from my team, we hosted a respite day in January of this past year and it was a huge success! So much so that we are now hosting one in the summer, fall, and spring of each year. What I’d love to share with you today are a few key ways you can host your own respite day and how you can help ensure it is a success.

Have a sign up process.

The sign up process shouldn’t just be about gathering names, addresses, or other contact info, but about getting to know the students and their families. You should have options for understanding the students and their disabilities and how you can best care for them. You should also look to understand what their triggers are and how they interact with others. Doing this allows you to better serve, love, and care for the students. I’d also encourage you to have a place where you can ask the families if they have any prayer requests or needs, so you can assess whether your church can step in to help and walk with them.

Build a team.

One of the best things to have in place to make this a successful event is a quality team. Having people who understand students with special needs and how to love and care fore them is essential. But it’s also important to bring in people who simply love others well and care enough to learn and walk with them.

Utilize students.

Students with special needs often feel ostracized and alienated by their peers. And more often than not, students with special needs know that they are different and left out. So bringing in students to love and share in life with your group is a wonderful way to encourage them and help to build community. Seek out students who are good hosts and willing to spend time with others, and simply let them do that. Allow them to simply come and build relationships with their peers and to love on your special needs students.

Provide food.

Food is a natural way to lower walls and build community. Having snacks and a meal (if time allows) is a great way to make your environment welcoming and warm. But make sure that you know if certain foods or additives aren’t okay for your students. This is something that your intake form should have as a required question.

If parents don’t want their students having sugar, think about having fruit instead of fruit snacks. If they can’t have food dyes, look for more natural snacks. We have provided Goldfish crackers, pretzels, grapes, and Skinny Pop as snack items and we have had pizza and Chick-fil-A for meals. Whatever you choose, be intentional in what you pick to help make your atmosphere and the entire day feel special and celebratory.

Have a variety of activities.

In order for a respite day to be a success, it is highly important to have a lot of different activities to engage your special needs students. These could be Foosball, ping pong, four square, board games, puzzles, coloring and crafts, playing outside on a playground, drawing with chalk, watching a movie, or playing games on a Wii. We also provide fidget toys for our students who need them and we place them throughout the area we are using so they are ever-present.

We don’t necessarily structure our day with rigid timelines of what we want to do at specific times. Instead we have all the activities up and going to allow our students to engage organically with one another. We do make sure our leaders are present at each activity but we also allow students to choose their own adventure by picking what activity they would like to do.

Bless the families.

One thing I came to realize by serving with our special needs team is this: having a special needs child is extremely taxing and isolating. Most of these families feel alone and forgotten. And worst still, they don’t see churches as safe places for them or their kids. I’ve had multiple parents tell me they have been forced to leave a church as they were told their child wasn’t wanted because they are a disruption. These families are hurting and in need.

So if you’re able to, consider having gifts or gift bags for the students and for their families. For families, we write a card for them and include a gift card to a local restaurant along with information about our church and special needs ministry. For the students, we give new students The Biggest Story Bible by Kevin DeYoung, but everyone gets a gift bag with glow sticks, snacks, some fidget toys, stickers, colored pencils, a journal, sunglasses, and a special note to them from our special needs ministry team.

Utilize invitations.

When you are preparing to host a respite day make sure that you have invitations that you can use to invite people. Disperse them to your church community but also ask the families who have special needs students to invite their friends. Special needs families have their own communities and know one another well, so asking them to share the invitations will ensure that they invite their friends which will provide opportunities for unchurched people to step into your church.

Be hospitable.

Welcoming families as they arrive is key. There may be families who show up who have never been to your facility before, so having someone greet them is paramount to them feeling loved and accepted. Make sure your leaders have name tags and introduce themselves as they interact with the families to encourage them and to help them be put at ease as they leave their student with you.

Hospitality shouldn’t exist only when people arrive but also as students are picked up. Making sure you have a greeter and someone to walk parents and guardians back to their students is highly important and shows them that you value the safety and well-being of their child as well as caring for the parent.

Helpful Items for Leaders to Take on Mission Trips

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Mission trip season is upon us. This year we are taking two groups of students to vastly different places. Our scope and sequence for trips is to begin at the local level with middle school students and to build outward to regional and global missions as students move through their middle school and high school careers. This year we are doing an inner city trip nearby for middle and high school students and a disaster recovery trip for our upper classmen to Hazard, Kentucky.

Regardless of the trip you may be taking and where you are going, there are some essential things that all leaders of the trip should have ready to take with them and done before they leave. Today, I want to share some essentials that we take along on our trips and to hear what you take for your trips.

A good first aid kit.

Maybe this is because I have a background in security where we needed to be prepared for any situation and our first aid kits were stocked with everything and anything you could need. But I’ve also been in youth ministry long enough to know that you should prepare for the unexpected. This is why having a well stocked first aid kit is a necessity.

Too often we can default to a pre-made kit from the local mega store or Amazon, but they are usually packaged with very basic first aid items. My advice would be to buy a first aid backpack and stock it with your own items. That way you can switch out items for various trips and keep the consistent items in your bag to be adequately prepared.

Here are some things I would recommend for your kits: medicines like Benadryl, Advil, Tylenol, and Asprin; a good multi-tool; insurance info for you and your team; bandages including bandaids of various sizes, gauze, butterfly bandages, wraps and tape; eye wash; Propel powder or electrolyte pills; candy in case people have low blood sugar; intestinal medicine like Tums, Imodium, and Exlax; scissors; tweezers; splints and slings; cough drops; different ointments, wipes, and anti-itch creams; tissues; and hand sanitizer.

Coffee and tea.

You would think that these would be provided at any mission trip location, but more often than I’d care to admit I’ve found that isn’t the case. There have been multiple times where there isn’t coffee or the coffee is expired. That isn’t the fault of the agency or host because that isn’t their priority. But if coffee and tea are an important element for you and your leaders, it’s helpful for you to take some along as a way to care well for your team. I’d also encourage you to bring along a couple extra bags of coffee for your host as a way of blessing them.

Sunscreen, bug repellent, and remedies.

Many mission trips happen during the summer and require work that takes place outside. So having quality sunscreen and bug repellent appropriate for where you are serving is key. Make sure that you connect with the team or organization you are partnering with to get their recommendations for what to bring. It is also a good idea to have remedies for when they are needed. This could include things like aloe, after burn relief like Alocane, anti-itch cream, Cortizone, Neosporin, and similar products.

Flashlight, extra batteries, power strip, and adapters.

When it comes to being prepared for mission trips, flashlights and extra batteries are a must. Whether they’re being used to help on a project or for a game of manhunt or if you’re roughing it and need to find a bathroom at night, having a good flashlight and extra batteries are a necessity.

To go along with that, bringing a power strip and adapters when needed is also important. Have you ever been on a trip when there’s a limited amount of wall outlets? It can be incredibly difficult to charge everything and sometimes the outlets can get overloaded. So having a quality power strip is one of the best things you could bring along. If you’re traveling outside of the United States it is also important to have the right adapters for your electronics to ensure they will be charged and working abroad.

Travel documents.

Getting ready for a mission trip means having the right documentation for your destination. If you’re traveling nationally, you may not need much, but don’t only think in terms of passports. You may need an EZ-Pass or another electronic toll reader and you might need to have permission forms for various organizations that you’re partnering with. If you are traveling outside of the country you will need passports, immunization records, documentation for minors to travel abroad, and permission slips. These are some helpful things to think through and prepare for before leaving so you are properly equipped for your trip.

Extra money for incidentals.

The reality is that even with all the planning and support raising, incidentals will always occur on mission trips. Whether it’s purchasing extra supplies, taking a vehicle in for repairs, unexpected travel costs, or needing more food, things will happen. So make sure to have additional money for those moments. This can be both actual cash or making sure your credit cards have a proper credit line and. Doing this will help make sure you are adequately prepared. It is also important to make sure to put a travel notice on any credit cards. Some companies will put a fraud alert on your card if expenses are incurred that are outside your normal purchases, which can hamper your ability to use it on trips. So make sure you contact the company ahead of time to be prepared.

Communication.

If you’re traveling internationally or to an area that has poor cell reception, having a plan for communication back home or to needed contacts is important. This may mean purchasing an international phone and data plan, or scoping out if there will be access to WiFi in the area.

Protein bars and easy snacks.

I love to take snacks on any trip, but when you’re going on mission trips snacks aren’t always something we think about taking for a variety of reasons. But having some easy snacks and bars is essential because you may need them if someone is feeling lightheaded or faint from exertion, or for when your own student gets a little hangry. Some easy suggestions include Larabars, peanut butter crackers, protein bars, gummy candies or fruit snacks, and mints.

When you go on a mission trip, what are your must-haves?