Short Break

Sorry for a lack of activity the last few days. I have neglected the blog out of busyness, and then I thought, "You know what? I need to not blog next week while I go on vacation." So that's what I am going to do. For the next 7 days you won't see anything going on on here, but if you are all good little boys and girls I will have a special treat prepared for you all on Black Friday. Deal?

Peace out, and a Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

No Shave November Games

 

I like to start off with a little incentive challenge for the main game. If yourself, or a willing volunteer, have a beard then print these off. Give one to each student so they can submit a design or style they would like to see an adult leaders facial hair shaved into. Pick the best one for each gender, and as an additional reward they will get to play the lead role for the main challenge.



In the main game you will need a "shaver" for each gender (which should be the winners of the style contest) and three volunteers from each gender to be the "shavies". Have each team line up their "shavies" in a row of chairs and have an adult volunteer with a can of Barbasol put a nice coat of shaving cream on their faces (makes sure they get the neck, chin, cheeks, and area above the lip). The "shaver" will then be given a popsicle stick (or if you can trust them to use the back side of a plastic knife that is fine too) and will need to cleanly shave all three members of their team. I suggest having a volunteer or yourself stand nearby to judge whether a shave is acceptable or if they have to go back and do some work before moving on to the next "shavie". The shaver to get finished with all three first wins and gets their design shaved into your face.

If you choose to trim up during youth group so that all the kids can see the aftermath then play this final game which will involve a can of shaving cream for each team and a large easy to clean surface (i.e. a tarp or plastic folding table). You tell each team that you will be playing a "pictionary" type game where they will be taking turns drawing in shaving cream and will need to make a nice smooth blanket/canvas space on their table/tarp/whatever. Each round will start with one person from each gender going up to a volunteer leader to hear them say a word. After that word is said they are to run back to their group and start drawing in the shaving cream (kind of like Jesus drawing in the dirt). The first team to get the picture right gets a point, first team to 10 points wins. You can make any kind of theme for this game: Thanksgiving words, famous people with beards, or none at all. Whatever you do the kids will have fun.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoy the graphic and games. See you tomorrow!

The Logos and Legos

Your senior pastor uses Bible Gateway, and the worship pastor uses YouVersion, but what is the Bible website of choice for youth ministers? Well I tell you what it should be: The Brick Testament!

For those of you who don't know, the Brick Testament chronicles most of the Old Testament and part of the New in Legos. From the creation of world to the end of it, you can see it all in colorful blocks of illustrative magic.

I seriously love using this site. The work alone makes it amazing, but the fact that it is easy to navigate the different stories and they are documented for content makes it a great resource. I love putting together power points or videos of all the pictures (there is one for nearly every verse) as a tool to share particular stories with our youth. It always keeps their attention during the lesson, and usually gets a good laugh.

I mentioned above that they document content. Since many of the Bible's Old Testament stories aren't rated PG you see a lot of the Lego equivalent of blood and some depiction of sexual sin. This is reassuring at least to know they aren't doctoring the text, but it should serve as a warning to maybe use discretion with 6th and 7th grade students.

So there you have it! I hope you are encouraged to use this website in the development of future devotions, or it least to visit it and let it bring some joy to your day.

Until next week, God bless.

Strange Youth Pastor Facts

Today we bring you the strange and exciting of the world of youth ministry. Behold the amazing feats of legendary youth workers, wonder at these almost superhero like accounts of intriguing individuals, and recoil at some of the more shocking stunts in student ministry history!

- At a 2007 summer camp eight Oklahoma youth pastors executed the largest recorded water balloon massacre by preparing hundreds of water bombs in secret and then leading all the boys in camp out for a "special devotion". The students never saw it coming.

- Scott Manning of Forkbend Church of God once ate four boxes of Twinkies in one sitting. When asked for a comment he quoted Philippians 4:13 saying, "I can do all things through him who gives me strength."

- Cory Whiteside of Bossier City, LA has served for three years as Director of Student Ministries at NorthPointe Church and has yet to get a "speaking to" from the Church Elders.

- Steve Carman holds the record for the shortest period of employment as an on staff youth pastor. He was officially voted on by the congregation and was in the middle of his drive across the state to relocate for this new position when he got a call from the Senior Pastor informing him they would not be able to pay him because the church needed a new roof.

- Ken Thompson of Casper, WY holds the record for most consecutive donuts in a church van. What is even more noteworthy is that of all the students present with smart phones none uploaded a video of the incident to Facebook.

- Missy Wolf of Lake City, OH once organized at See You at the Pole Rally and got free pizzas donated by not just one, but three different restaurants in town.

- Bob Wise, a part time youth worker in Kentucky, actually managed to use vacation time from his full time job to go on a trip with his family.

And there you have it, just a few of the bizarre, amazing, and most likely fabricated stories of youth ministry legends.

Just One More Political Post

It's funny for me to look at that title, because in reality, I haven't written anything about voting or this years election at all. It's actually for you, who have undoubtedly seen more than you wanted to online in the last few months (especially late yesterday and this morning).

Last night my wife stayed up late visiting with a friend and around 11:00 we just started seeing a flood of angry posts on Facebook. Amongst them where verbal accusations about both pundits and disappointment with other "Americans". I didn't see much of this after the last election because four years ago Facebook barely had anyone on it that wasn't "college aged", but now with users being extremely varied in ages, the whole atmosphere has become a dodge ball free for all of opinions, especially negative ones.... and most where from Christians.

How was it that 9 out of 10 status' of believers I knew were not only about the election, but where negative in attitude? How did we get suckered into loosing all sense of the gospel we are supposed to be witnesses to?

Thank the LORD that some more sensible things started showing up this morning, like this...

"For anyone upset that I'm not taking the election more seriously, I am profoundly grateful for the rights and liberties we have as American citizens. When it comes to who our President is, I will pray for the man and for those who lead alongside him. But I refuse to put my hope in ANYONE other than Jesus Christ."

That brings me to my encouragement for you today. If you are fed up with what is going on online, go be a light! If you are fed up with how the election turned out, that's fine, but remember your duty as a Christian...

1 Timothy 2:1-3
"I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior..."

See you tomorrow light bearers!

More of the Tommy Chronicals!

You pull up on a house that looks a little too clean. While the whole subdivision is relatively new, this one reminds you of a Thomas Kinkade painting. You don't even have to check the address to know this is the place. Just about the moment you are deciding if you need to go ring the bell or just honk the horn Tommy pops his head out the door as if he has been waiting on you for the last 10 minutes. He starts jogging to the car and then sprints back to the house. After about a minute he comes back out with a coat and gets into the car...

YOUTH PASTOR: Hey Tommy! Hows it going?

TOMMY: Hey, good!

YOUTH PASTOR: You ready to go?

TOMMY: Yeah...wait! I have to go lock the front door.

Tommy gets out of the car and runs to the porch, once the door is locked however he casually strolls back to the car.

YOUTH PASTOR: Everything good now?

TOMMY: Yeah, I think so. We can go.

YOUTH PASTOR: So are you excited for your friend Billy to come to youth group tonight?

TOMMY: Yeah! I was telling him all about it this afternoon while we were playing Modern Warcraft online today.

YOUTH PASTOR: Well that's great. Do you think he is going to like it?

TOMMY: Yeah, I think so, he is really excited to try out the whip cream pie game we did.

YOUTH PASTOR: You know that we don't play the same games every week right?

TOMMY: You don't?

YOUTH PASTOR: No.

TOMMY: But you guys play games every week right?

YOUTH PASTOR: Oh yeah!

TOMMY: Oh man! I forgot my mom's cookies!

YOUTH PASTOR: You mean the sugar free raisin cookies?

TOMMY: Yeah.

YOUTH PASTOR: That's OK. I picked up some other snacks...so we should be good.

TOMMY: Oh, OK.

YOUTH PASTOR: So your mom says that Billy lives just down this road. Do you know where to turn?

TOMMY: Ummm...sorta.

YOUTH PASTOR: What do you mean "sorta"?

TOMMY: Well I know that it's off this road after a sign.

YOUTH PASTOR: Well what does that sign say?

TOMMY: It says something about "guns save lives"...Oh there it is!

You slam on your breaks in order to turn down a road that you were just about to cross.

YOUTH PASTOR: OK, well now that we are on this road do we just keep following it?

TOMMY: Yeah.

YOUTH PASTOR: How far?

TOMMY: I dunno.

Will they find Billy's house? Will Tommy live to see it? Tune in next time for the continued Chronicles of Tommy: Everyone's Favorite Homeschooled Student!

Free Game and Grapic

Here is a game we created for and perfected through our on campus club that meets before school at our local junior high. It works for generally any size group, and the best part is that it can be played just about anywhere that has chairs....

 

In the game "Use Your Head" you give each student a penny and tell them to make a circle of inward facing chairs (basically the opposite of how you would for musical chairs). You then tell the kids to put the penny on top of their head and sit down. Through out the game they will be given  "simple"  math problems and a direction. For example you may say, "Take the square root of nine and go that many chairs to the left" or "Multiply three by seven, subtract fifteen, and go that many right". Now there are two ways that people can get out in this game. The first is if they are the last one to be seated. The second is if they drop their coin in the hustle and bustle of trying to quickly get around the circle. The game ends in a show down of wits with the last two standing.

 

Note: It helps to have your math problems worked out beforehand.