Two weeks ago, while at our student leadership team meeting, one of the leaders said, "Dude, I've been getting bored on Sunday nights." We need some different activities.
My first thought was, "Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Okay, that wasn't my first thought. My first thought was "Wow, what else can we add? What else can we do?" We have basketball, a room full of video games, a hang out room etc.A few days ago I was thumbing through my planner and saw a quote I had written down from a speaker, "Never assume what worked yesterday will work today! Re-evaluate what is working today - it won't work tomorrow."
It's funny how often we need to re-evaluate and try something fresh. As the weather changes we have realized that the outdoor free-time activities are going to come to an end and more and more students will want activities available indoors. Our solution to this problem is a radically different layout on Sunday nights. We will switch teaching rooms and use our largest space in the building for free time during the winter months rather than the worship service. If you saw our layout, it is a pretty extreme decision.
We will go to a stage that is a third of the size. We will be going from three screens to one. The band will be playing direct from their amps not our sound system. We will be abandoning round tables and going to row seating. Why this drastic change? We realized by not thinking outside of the box we would keep a Wow factor service but have poor relational, activity time by not having sufficient activity space.
Going to the alternative room won’t be bad by any means, we will have a much more intimate setting. Messages and content will have a “different” vibe. There will be less opportunity for distractions in this location. The large room will be an awesome hang out activity station.
What extreme decisions do you need to make? What worked for you last month that might not be working now? Think about it before you find yourself out in the cold.
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A blog by Matt Silver that is a resource for all things related to student ministry in the Christian community and churches.
About Me
- Matt Silver
- Matt Silver is the Director of Student Ministries at Christ's Church of the Valley, a dynamic Christian community outside of Philadelphia. Student Ministry is an exciting, rapidly changing, and much needed ministry in the church. This blog will explore the joys and challenges associated with both middle and high school ministries, and communicate some creative solutions to address the problems faced in student ministry.
4 comments:
Have you ever thought of having an organized activity with the students instead of the free for all (so to speak)?
anonymous...
Great comment! One of the values I try to stress during the hang out time is individuality. Giving students several options to utizilize during free time. Our goal is to have leaders head up activities that others can become involved in. Some leaders will run a game of football while others play basketball, etc. I would love to see someone passionate about organized activities come in here and whoop us into shape. What do you think are the best organized activities?
These are just off the top of my head:
Games
-Real Life foose ball on the
soccer field
-All on One side - a form of
bombardment played inside
-Free Ball - A mass Dodgeball game
with no teams or sides played
inside
-Poison Chair
-Bite the Bag
Group Building:
-Knots
-Electric Fence
-Reverse Electric Fence - you need
to get everyone under a rope 18"
off the floor - the only thing
that can touch the floor in a 3"
area aound the rope is your feet
-Trust Fall
-Trust Walk one person is
blindfolded and thier partner
leads them around
I am not sure how some would work with a large group. I have done these with smaller groups (under 20 students)
Anonymous...
Thanks for the ideas! Feel free to email me at matt@moviechurch.com if you would ever like to swap ideas.
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