I like the suggestions given so far. My youth group wasn’t always so “religion oriented” because I think the idea was getting us together in a safe, fun, environment and thereby furthering our connection to the church. That was a positive (and worthy) goal even if we weren’t discussing the bible. We got closer to each other and learned a lot about, well, life and getting along and such. That happened even when we weren’t doing things that were grounded in worship. I think part of the purpose is to make young people think that belonging to a church can be cool and fun, as well as to help shape them into better people at an important time in their lives. That’s where the fun activities come in, as well as the ones that focus on personal development.
Here’s something we did which I don’t think has been discussed: Everyone brought a record or tape (I’m dating myself) as well as the written-out lyrics of a song that meant something to them. Each person explained why they liked the song and why they chose it, and we listened to each of them in turn. It was an interesting insight into people, and it also encouraged us to be thoughtful about the music we listened to.
We also did some trust-type activities, and teamwork things. Like what gets called “low ropes” these days (ropes courses without a need for helmets or spotting).
Service activities are always great. We worked in a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood as part of a week-long trip, but this could be done as a shorter activity closer to home. In any town there are always more needs than there are people to fill them, so I am sure you could find good opportunities for your kids.
We baked bread for communion once. That was really neat–I’d never made bread by hand before, and not only was it in service to the church, we talked a lot about communion and its symbolism.
Game night was always fun. I can remember playing some sort of smarmy bible-related board game that was abysmal, but regular board games would be fine, plus you could always spend a little time making up faith-related adaptations of games like Jeopardy, Pictionary, Outburst, etc.
i’m an active member (okay… the only active member) in my church youth group. we dont have a lot of really interesting things going on on a regular basis, but we do go on a few really fun trips annually.
~skiing/snowboarding for 4 days
~cabrini alive! service event in chicago
~canoeing in the boundary waters
we also go up to a bible camp a few times each year, and host a community garage sale every summer. in the winter, we do a neightborhood babysitting type thing, and take all the kids sledding and then bring them back to the church for hot chocolate and popcorn. oh, and we have an annual pumpkin carving contest! and i was the winner this year!
I don’t remember much of my youth group days. Our group had about two dozen 12-18 year olds, pretty much evenly split between boys and girls. I do remember our annual retreats, we went to some camp near New Paltz, NY. One cabin, boys in one room, girls in another, central kitchen/eating area/living room. I also remember (weekly?) gatherings at the church, at which we played games. We once repainted a church hallway and had fundraising car washes in the parking lot. Sometimes one of the leaders would have us at their home for a picnic. In the dead of winter one year, a pair of our leaders (we had two couples leading us that year) had us out at their house near a frozen lake. A bunch of us went on the lake, sans skates, to play some weird combination of hockey and soccer.
I would ask the kids what they would like to do. Give them a chance to brainstorm in addition to offering your own options. Also ask questions like, "What was your favorite YC activity? What was your least favorite? Why? What did/didn’t you like about it? Would you like our group to have a theme(s) or special focus(ii), like “helping people” or “thinking about the future”?
You could let them write down things they don’t want to say aloud.
I remember my youth group days… Pretty much alot of the stuff others have posted here. Plus in the summer we went to the beach in Florida, where we spent WAY too much time undersupervised, so there was quite a bit of fooling around, pot smoking (this WAS the 70’s), etc. With a youth group like that, it kind of makes me wonder why I’m an atheist now.
My Junior High youth group (7th and 8th grade) once did something called a “bigger and better hunt.” On a Saturday afternoon we met at the church and were divided into several teams. Each team was given one penny. We were then told to go out into the local neighborhoods and try to exchange the penny for something else… then exchange what we got for something else… and so on, trying to “trade up” with every transaction and get the biggest and/or best thing we could. At a predetermined time we were to return with our item and get reviewed by a panel of judges. People came back with furniture, lumber, an old lawnmower… but one group came back pushing a beat-up 1975-ish Datsun hatchback. :eek:
Malden What a great post! I really did laugh out loud. I am printing this thread and handing it over to the kid (8th grade) to take to his next youth group planning meeting. One of the youth group leaders is an auto mechanic, maybe one group will come back with a car the kids can fix up! That ought to keep them busy all summer and they might even learn something.
One year on halloween my team came back with a working washer and dryer that this family had just replaced and had been planning on taking to the dump. We won, and then donated the machines to a shelter.
Well, having been involved in a youth group as a teen, and having helped out with a friend who was a youth director, I can offer this advice.
Ask the kids what they want to do. Let them take a great deal of the responsability. I promise you, they will have some ideas.
When the adults plan everything without consulting the kids, it almost never works. If its a big group, have them elect representativs.
Nothing bothered us more as a teens then showing up for a lock-in, or party, and having every second planned for us for the whole night by the adults. I had a youth director for a while that was so nervous that things would go wrong he would do just that, and we felt like we were in boot camp. We went out the back window about 2 am and went home.