Neat Newsletters Now!

Do you want a snazzy four page newsletter for your youth ministry but don't have time to create one? What if I told you that it was possible with only two pages of content that you may already have (or at least would benefit you to have ready)? Here are my five easy steps to cranking out a highly effective monthly newsletter in just one afternoon.

1.) You need to get a template. If you have any version of Microsoft Word you can find some dandy ones here for FREE!

2.) Dedicate a page to your monthly curriculum guide. "What's this?" you say? This is a place for you to present parents with a listing of your devos for the month along with a short description, key verses, and even a few questions for them to ask their kids at home. If you don't have anything like this at hand you should really consider doing it because it puts you ahead of the game for lessons, makes you look prepared, and parents just eat it up.

3.) Add in a page about upcoming events (special services, fellowship activities, fundraisers, nights you won't be having youth group, etc.) Give dates, times, and other need to know details. Again, you should have something like this at hand already from your church bulletin that you can copy, paste, and add a little fluff.

4.) Add some teen scene statistics. Parents want to know what kind of trends are circling their students world, so give it to them. You don't have to do any real work on this either. I suggest visiting Home Word Center for Youth and Family's website and look at their weekly "Culture Brief" which gives lots of great top ten lists but also some quick articles that can be quite educational. Take a look here.

5.) Got a page that is not quite full. Add a "Ministry Wish List". Most of those things you need for activities and special games don't have to be brand new, and if somebody from your congregation knew that you were looking for something special, well they might be able to scrounge it up from their basement. In mine I also ask for snack donations, and I always get a couple of takers.

This doesn't have to be all however. There are plenty of things that you can add to your newsletters (volunteer schedules, updates/reviews on past activities, or even words of thanks). If you need an idea of how to piece this together you can see an old example of mine here.

Free Halloween Games

Merry Columbus Day to you! (And Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to my friends up north!) To celebrate this momentous holiday I give you three great (and cheep) games for your group for Halloween. Enjoy!


Costume Musical Chairs
A new spin on an old classic. Simply get a large bag full of used Halloween costumes (usually families have them lying around for you to borrow), and just for fun raid the drama ministries costume closet (even throw in a couple old choir uniforms if you like). Put out a circle of chairs with one less than the number of players you have, and then get some music going (you can use this Spotify playlist of "Halloween" music). When someone looses, instead of being disqualified, they have to blindly pick something out of the bag to wear for the remainder of the game. It makes for quite a fun time, and lots of interesting pictures by the time people have multiple mismatched pieces on.

HalloweeniesI made up this game a couple of years ago, but it is essentially a Halloween version of the classic "I Have Never" game. For who have never played the game you have everyone hold up all their fingers, and for each statement that applies to them they have to put a finger down. When you run out of fingers you are out. As you are playing open up a big bag of candy corn, and give a piece to everyone that doesn't have to put a finger down and give the person who actually wins the game a bigger prize (maybe just the rest of the bag), this way everyone gets to have a treat. Here are the questions...

□Ever had your pumpkin smashed
□Had to take your little sibling trick or treating
□Your parents made you wear your winter coat over your costume
□You own Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin
□Bought a super hero costume that looked more like pajamas than the super hero itself
□Ever dressed as a food item
□Had your mom make your costume
□Your house gives out non-name brand candy
□You have been TP/egged on Halloween
□You have ever bobbed for apples
□Your parents still won’t let you carve a pumpkin with a real knife
□You have to stay home on “door duty” instead of go out with your friends
□Have worn an older siblings costume from previous year
□You and a sibling dressed up as the same thing the same year
□You and a friend/sibling have dressed up together as some kind of theme (i.e. – Jack and Jill, Wizard of Oz troop, Thing 1&2 from Cat in the Hat, etc. )
□You have dressed as a clown
□Instead of walking around your neighborhood your parents drive you to all their friends and relatives houses.
□You have dressed as a Disney character
□Instead of using fake blood or costume makeup you used ketchup or a red magic marker
□Made up your costume the day of Halloween
□Gone trick or treating as yourself
□Your parents made you put on those flashing reflectors or tape so you wouldn’t get ran over
□Took a roll of toilet paper and made a “mummy” costume
□Your parents check your candy for razor blades
□Found out you lost part of your candy stash on the way home because of hole in bag
□Parents enforced a rule about how much of your candy you could have each day


Clue
This will be pretty simple to pull off if you can get your hands on the cards from the board game. You can make up your own "Detective Note Pads" if you like, but after doing a little search online I have found that you can find multiple different kinds to print off here at Karencookiejar.com. To play the game just give each kid participating a sheet, a pen, and an even amount of clues (after you have removed the actual murders identity, the weapon, and scene of the crime). Let the kids mingle and share clues with one another, but keep things interesting by putting each students name in a bowl and periodically drawing one out, saying that the killer has struck again and the name drawn is now out of the game. To keep some sense of order you can keep kids from over guessing by stating that an incorrect accusation is considered "tampering with the investigation" and will result in "expulsion from the party" (a.k.a. - being removed from the game). Whoever finds out the mystery first gets a prize.

Youth Pastor Confessions

In pattern of being honest in the last few postings, I thought I would continue but turn the attention to the minister rather than the students...


Sometimes I triple check to see if there is anything new on Facebook, Twitter, or my email before I start a task that I know I need to get done. Sometimes I wait to look over a new resource until I need to go to the bathroom, and take it with me as reading material. Sometimes I stay in there so long flipping through stuff my legs fall asleep. Maybe I should stop wasting so much time online.

Sometimes I get annoyed with elderly people visiting the office because they will stop me to chat right when I'm in the middle of a project. Sometimes I will be strategic about when I go make copies because I know the secretary will ask me to help her with a computer related issue. Sometimes I realize that I am a complete stranger to some people and I wonder what they think because I'm never around. Maybe I should be more intentional about being part of the office.

Sometimes I ignore text messages from needy kids that I know but aren't in our youth group.
Sometimes I don't spend time checking up on kids who have missed a few weeks because they aren't "core" students. Sometimes I remember that Jesus has a really big flock, and he cares even about the one. Maybe I should stop acting like an elitist.


What is your confession?

The Middle School Student Office Visit

Yesterday I posted a little insight on middle schoolers. Today I want to shed some light, for those who aren't familiar with these unique individuals, on the way they communicate.

 
A unknown student comes to your office...

STUDENT: (says nothing as they pop their head in and out of your door awkwardly)

YOUTH PASTOR: Hello.

STUDENT: Hi!

YOUTH PASTOR: Can I help you...with something?

STUDENT: Um, my name is Tommy...and my mom said that if I ever had any questions I could come talk to you, and I was wondering...do you play Modern Warcraft 4?

YOUTH PASTOR: Uhh, no I can't say that I do, but...

STUDENT: Because it's awesome and I just got the expansion, and my friend Billy says that if you hit 50,000 XP then you get access to this cool map pack and...

YOUTH PASTOR: Tommy, do you go to the local middle school?

STUDENT: No, I'm home schooled.

YOUTH PASTOR: Yeah, I figured. So do you do many activities then since you can't join any school teams.

STUDENT: No, not really. I do my school work in the morning, and then I play MW4 in the afternoon, unless my mom has to go somewhere, like right now she is at the women's Bible Study down the hall, so she brought me with her. But I tried to tell her that I could stay at home by myself and she could just take my little sister, but she says that I don't need to stay at home all day in front of the computer, but I don't know why she says that because Modern Warcraft isn't a bad game and there isn't a lot of blood or anything, except for this one bad guy at the end of the game who has these bloody bones as part of his costume, but I've already seen him like 4 times, so I'm not scared or anything, and then there...

YOUTH PASTOR: You know, if you aren't doing anything tomorrow night you should come to our Wednesday night youth group, I think you would really like it. There are lots of other kids your age there.

STUDENT: Wednesday nights I can't, I have Boy Scouts.

YOUTH PASTOR: (face palms self) I thought you said you don't do any activities.

STUDENT: No, not school ones, but on Wednesday we go to Scouts, and Sundays are my home school bowling league, and then I also play with my MW4 clan on weekends. It's really cool because we have these two guys from Germany, and...

YOUTH PASTOR: That's is really cool Tommy. Hey, listen, I need to make a phone call real quick. Would you mind maybe stepping out for a minute and coming back a little later.

STUDENT: Yeah, but did anyone ever tell you you look like that guy from Myth Busters?


That is seriously how half of my conversations with random teenagers end. Not kidding, see what I mean below.

 

What are you most interesting conversations with middle school students?

Those Filthy Animals

So last week was our local high school's homecoming football game. Kids painted their bodies, people where dressed in red and gold, and there wasn't a empty seat in the house. Although school spirit was in the air, there was something else that the stadium reminded me of...

You know in the nature shows when all the animals gather together at the watering hole? I swear that is what the concession stand was like. All sorts of people gathered together at a place of consumption, while near by members of a lesser class hid in the shadows. Of course I am talking about the rambunctious sixth graders behind the bleachers.

Yes the high school caste levels are much like the great circle of life, and junior highers are like the hyena's. They are scrawny, they cackle, and many times they smell. They are scavengers in the most literal sense (at the last moment before group ends they will pounce on whatever snacks are left), but you can't blame them for it because the lions (a.k.a.high schoolers) have taken the bigger kill . The kill of course is the social experience.

Too often everything is about the senior highers, and it leaves the younger kids to entertain themselves, which makes them feel like they don't matter. So once in a while dedicate that fat juicy hippo event you have planned to the junior highers instead of the big cats. They will appreciate it and you just may become king of their pack.

5 Social Media Tools You Need to Use!

A few weeks back I did a blog on Internet memes, and how you could use them to further enhance your communication with kids. Well the truth is there are plenty of great resources that are practically begging to be used creatively for ministry, you just have to know about them:

 

Pic Monkey - Don't have the money for a fancy photo shop program? That's fine, because with Pic Monkey you don't need software or even a membership. Just simply visit their website and get cracking with all of their amazing tools for touching up photos, adding cool effects, and putting on text. I have used it to make several flashy advertisements for youth group activities...

Tagzedo - A website (again absolutely free and has no registration) that allows you to make unique word clouds in a matter of minutes. It has tons of options (colors, fonts, shapes) and lets you randomize infinitely if you don't like how it came out. It is really amazing, and using it to artistically display kids names in your youth group makes them feel like you really went out of your way to make some custom art just for them.

 

 

Spotify - If you haven't heard of Spotify, it's like Pandora and iTunes had a baby together. Its great for making your own custom playlists and you can access it from any computer with a Internet connection. It is of great use for throwing together playlists for events (without having to spend any money), but is also good for pulling off a "Name that Tune" sort of game. I have made up a few that you can check out here.

Top Tenz - This is just a website that compiles some pretty nice/funny/useless top ten lists that can actually prove useful should you find yourself needing to make a random time-suck power point to entertain a crowd in between parts of your event, or if you are looking for some good illustrations for a lesson. The website has featured articles on the front page, but also has categories and a search box. Another great aspect is that just about everything listed has a picture or Youtube video linked to it.

Quickmeme - Yeah, yeah. I know this might be redundant, but this is probably the hottest and most relevant tool to teen culture you can use right now. Just like the ones listed above, you can access this website for free and without giving up any personal information to make some fun pictures for whatever reason you like. However, I would suggest that you use a photo snipping/capturing program to get the the best quality photos without a watermark on them after you have made your creation.

 

So there you have it. Five different websites that I highly encourage you to use to sharpen your ministry. If you have any other sites or social media tools that you find useful please let us know in the comment section below.

Movie Trivia Monday Give Away

This weeks give away is probably my most favorite yet. It is a FREE Movie Jeopardy Power Point. The whole game is contained in this one file. There is a main page with various hyper-links to all the different questions, and it looks like the Jeopardy board. It comes complete with six categories and a "Final Jeopardy" round. If you want to change any of the questions up it is fully customizable.

Enjoy!