My Experience as Youth Pastor

I have started way too many speeches that way. I enjoy having fun. Often the most fun things are at the expense of others. After all, "it's all fun and games till someone gets hurt, then it's freakin' hilarious." Seriously, the best games involve twists that result in people getting messy. When I say people I do mean someone other than myself, but for the sake of the Youth I'll take it on the chin from time to time. Not the chin so much as my entire face actually, but whatever.

Last night was Youth service in church. Once a month we get the evening service and I try to plan fun as well as sharing with the adults what I do with the Youth and what they can do for the Youth. Last night we had a great improve skit and ended up playing a game I hadn't planned on. During our drama practice I told one of the girls what she missed the previous week in Youth. When she heard about the Dance Dance Revolution game she begged me to do it during the service that evening.

Please understand that we have a very uptight sort of church on Sunday Evenings. There are lots of people over 60 raised in a denomination where almost everything was a sin. Movies, women in pants, drinking, and dancing were all evil sins when they were growing up. They aren't quite that bad, but trust me when I've said something about these kinds of things I've received some interesting looks at the very least. Anyways, I did the dancing game but apologized up from. OK sure it wasn't an apology so much as a qualified warning.

The game went great. I got one of the Youth's grandmother up there and 3 Youth and a mid 20's guy. The dancing was completely hilarious and everyone was laughing and taking pictures. I'm glad I didn't let my better judgment stop me. Of course I have now set a really bad precedent. Not so much for the church but for myself. Next month I get an "anything goes" service. The denomination national youth day is next month and I've been given the morning and evening services that day. I'm already planning for the service. I want something completely memorable. If it is my last service I want it to be something they will be talking about for years.

So before I start I need to say I'm sorry.

Labels: games, youth service

Last night was a blast. I'm pretty exhausted right now. We started selling Monster on a trial basis in our snack shop. I'm not sure if this will be a good plan in the long run but to be honest most of the ones that will buy it drop by the store and pick one up on the way in so if I sell then I make money on dealing with the hyper which is always a win in my book.

We had about 50 and the place was pretty well packed. I need to bring up more seating because the seats were pretty well all used. I've been told they had 70 a few years back but I'm honestly not sure how you fit that many into that place. It was feeling pretty cramped with 50. I'll probably start doing break outs again. Not every week to start with but we will build towards an upper and lower Youth group because we will reach our capacity very soon otherwise.

Now for the breakdown of the games.

This was moderately fun at best. I picked tow girls expecting them to have ticklish feet. They admitted to it when questioned but there was much less squirming than I expected. I would recommend as a simple ice breaker to begin bringing the focus in while getting something else ready that will only take a minute or two. That is what I did with the game and it filled the space of pulling out other supplies just fine. Don't expect a lot from it. It is easy to get started and takes up a couple minutes but that is about it.


This was actually pretty fun. I think the students enjoyed the Pizza more than anything but it added to the excitement. If you can pull it off next time you order Pizza for the Youth it adds to it. We gave the winner a $20 tip and the loser a $5 tip. I also asked the winner some questions. The nice part was that he knew several of the youth so they were really excited to see him win.



This is just a great game. It got messier last night than in previous nights but every had a great time. We had a few that made it across without killing any fish but there were also a couple of really good reactions so it makes it worth while. The only problem with this game is you can't really go to it very often unless you have lots and lots of new people coming.



This went over better than I expected. I planned this as a time killer but once I got enough volunteers together (that was harder than I thought) they had a great time. The dancing was mostly clean and usually pretty funny. One kid threw down with some nice Robot action and a couple of the girls did a waltz step together with the Polka. If you want to get an idea about the overall spectrum of music then you can listen to it. Dance Mix



Sadly we didn't get to do this. Seriously I'm very sad but there was a miss communication about the fake fish and they were not available for this game.



Ok I got really lucky twice with this game. We got two volunteers which was good since the first callee couldn't hear and so kept going through "I can't hear you" over and over. Total bust but the 2nd caller was ready to go. Then I made a big mistake and made my embarrassing question "what kind of underwear are you wearing?" I should have made the question "boxers or briefs?" That would have been much safer since the callee was a teen girl. Can you imagine how bad it would have been with the various kinds of underwear she could have been wearing and a bunch of teen boys listening in on the answer. Fortunately the answer was "boxers." Yeah I'm so blessed that didn't go down hill quickly.



This was the second most popular game of the evening. Let me say that it was a huge mess and I learned a couple of really important things. First, those cheep table clothes are great. They are cheep and keep most of the mess of the carpet. You can pull them into a nice bundle and drop the in the garbage when you are done. Now for the game, I let the ice cream sit out for a couple hours so it was very melty. Not completely melted since it was in a good size sealed container but easy to spoon out large drippy quantities of ice cream and aim for the mouth, which is easier said than done. The other consideration is that the chocolate syrup is easier to get in the mouth but that too much is a very bad thing. I got worried for a brief moment before I stopped the person applying syrup that they were gonna kill our volunteer. Finally, I learned that you do not give a jar of cherries to the person dropping the cherries. The first couple of tries were fine but then they poured the juice and that was not cool. Still, everyone had a blast with this game and it has the advantage of being something I can do more often than Walking on Goldfish.

Once again I ask if anyone has had experience with these game or other fun games you would like to suggest? I have about 70 game on file right now but I've gone through a great number of them so I really could use more ideas.

Labels: games

So yesterday I posted about the games for the March game night. If you are curious this is the description of the games.

Find two local pizza places that deliver. During the beginning of the evening, divide the crowd in two and bring up a representative from each side. Hand each representative a cell phone and phone # of two competing pizza places. Have them each order a large pizza, tell the delivery person the situation, and that there's a $20 tip for the one that arrives first. Clearly announce to the crowd which pizza place is coming for each team.

As you are continuing your program, one side of the room will erupt into applause when a pizza driver comes in representing their side of the room. (Olympic or Rocky theme music is a plus!)

Interview the deliverer and give him the $20 tip in front of the crowd. (You can then have up front games lined up where winners get a piece of pizza.)


Crowd Game: Have 5 students come to the front of the room and remove their shoes and socks. Give each a felt-tipped or ball point pen. On the signal, they run out into the crowd and see who can get the most signatures on the bottom of their feet in the time limit. No one person can sign more than three feet. Can use both feet. Signatures must be legible.


I described it in the post Fun and Games Basically you get 4 or 5 victims that know nothing of the game. You show them the live goldfish (20 or more in a single bowl) and blindfold them while you "spread the fish on the tarp." Once they are blindfolded you get a can of mandarin orange slices and drop those on the tarp. It is important that they hear the "fish" hitting the tarp and get the crowd excited and making comments about how gross, poor fish ... Then they cross the fish grave yard. I make it a "trust" exercise where the crowd guides them across the tarp but others do a timed trial. I like more crowd involvement.


It’s called Dance Dance EVOLUTION because the style of music keeps changing and changing and students don't know what to expect next! Here’s how you pull it off.

Bring 2-4 students up front and tell them you are going to play a CD that they must dance to...without stopping! Best dancer wins.

Make a CD with snippets (I'd say about 30 seconds each) of different genres of music, (at least 10), the goofier the better. Here are some ideas:
The Wiggles (children’s TV show)
Country Song (something with a lot of twang!)
Rock Song (top 40 will suffice)
Polka
Opera
Heavy Metal
Bluegrass
Gospel
Cartoon Theme Show (like Sponge Bob)
Reggae
Rap/Hip Hop (make sure it’s clean)

Individuals compete against each other for the best dance composition. You can have 2-4 students compete at the same time. Judge them for who has the most creative moves, who wasted the least amount of time trying to figure out what to do, the one willing to be the goofiest, etc.

Here are a couple of rules to help you make the game a hit with your group.

1. You can't just do the same thing the whole time. You have to change your dancing each time the music changes.

2. Once you stop dancing for more than 10 seconds, you're out!

3. Make sure the dance moves are “acceptable” by your standards. (Announce this before you begin, or else you WILL see some “dirty” dancing.)

Have fun!


This is a great upfront game. Supplies needed: gummy fish, 3 REAL LIVE goldfish, 10 glasses half full of water (3 containing real goldfish, 2 with just water and 5 containing gummy fish and water—these 5 are kept hidden from the chosen victims…..er students.

Bring three students up front and show them the 5 glasses with water (3 with real goldfish and 2 with just water). Blindfold the students and instruct them to choose a glass to drink. While they are blindfolded switch the glasses to the 5 containing gummy fish and water. Option: Award a prize for the best reaction.

NOTE: This would be a great game in which to have a live video feed hooked up. At the very least, you may want to record this one for laughs!


This is a fun easy game. Pick a student with a friend at home. Ask several simple questions but make sure a couple are embarrassing. The student guesses how the friend will answer. Then call the friend and use speaker phone and the mic so everyone can hear the responses.


Just like it sounds. One person gets a banana split in their mouth while laying on a tarp and the other person delivers the ingredients while standing on a chair.

I'm pretty certain I got all of these games from The Source for Youth Ministry on their Game Pages
. Enjoy.

Also, if you have any game ideas please share. JayDee gave me a great game that almost made this weeks games. I decided to make a theme so it didn't quite get there, but next time I'm totally playing "Egg Head."

Labels: games

I love Game night. It is so fun and the Youth are really getting into the tradition. Over the past few days they have been posting bulletins and such letting their friends know about the fun and excitement. I'm really excited because we have enough new people to play one of my favorite games tonight. Tomorrow I'll have a description of the games (it is scheduled) and then a review of how they went over. Walking on Goldfish will be awesome I can tell you that already. To pique your curiosity (man I butchered that word thank goodness for spell check) this is the order of events that I just finalized after eliminating some games. We've only done two of these games in the past.

Opening (make announcements blah blah blah)
-Unity
-ATF
-Ask Nick (next week)
-
Order Pizza (Start Pizza Challenge)
Foot Signing contest
Free time while waiting for Pizza and setting up Walking on Goldfish
Pizza arrives interview winning driver
-Name
-Where did(do) you go to school?
-Weirdest thing that has happened while delivering Pizza?
-Favorite Pizza topping?
Walking on Goldfish
Dance Dance EVOLUTION
Goldfish Gulp
Call a friend
Banana Splits in the Mouth.

Closing (thanks blah blah blah)
Remind everyone about Ask Nick and distribute contact info etc.

PS if you haven't already read it find out why I might go to hell in the post from earlier this morning.
PPS. Yes my actual order of events including the blah blah blahs and missing line after the -.

Labels: Game Night, games