QT's

A while ago I think there was a post about writing QT's for your youth group.

It would be worth tracking that down come to think of it.

However, I stumbled across another QT option.

I went to my local Christian bookshop and discovered that they have old stock of QT books for teenagers. They usually have trouble selling the back issues because they are dated (the daily entries are for the 14 of September, for example). Once that year is finished they are a bit hard to sell.

My bookshop said that they will give these back issues to me for free! So QT's for our youth group are sorted for a term!

Why not ask your local Christian bookshop?

Scott

Welcome!

We had an evangelstic youth group meeting on the weekend.

And I was faced with how to do a welcome that was interactive and fun, without making the new kids feel like they were exposed or singled out. Here's what we came up with, it worked out well.

You read out a list of statements, if it's true for the kids, they stand up.

Everyone can see what people got up to in the past week without anyone feeling awkward.

You can also throw in a follow up question (examples to come!)

Stand up if you . . .

slept in till past 10am on Saturday

got a detention this week (follow up qu for those standing: What for?!)

saw a move in the last week (follow up qu for those standing: What did you see?)

got a new item of clothing in the past week (follow up qu for those standing: are you wearing it now?)

etc

Simple, quick, get's the kids invovled and doubles up as some 'catch-up' time too!

Scott

Boring announcements?

One of the facts of life is that we need to get info to the kids in our youth group.

If you have announcements or a news slot each week, it can sometimes get a bit tricky thinking up ways to keep it fresh.

So how about this . . .

Get a message that everyone needs to hear (it could be about a camp coming up, when you are having your small groups, a social, whatever)

Go to google translator and get it translated into 3 or 4 different languages. Print these out on slips of paper.

When you get up to make the announcement, say that today you need some help to get this message across. Get some kids up to read out the message in the different languages.

After this is done, ask the group if they can guess what the message actually means (you can have a bit of fun with that.)

To finish, you read out the English version and conclude with something like . . .

"So you see "x" is going to be awesome, no matter where you come from or how you say it!"

TIP:

If you have people who speak other languages in your group, perhaps you could prep them before hand to make the announcement in their language (especially if it is not well known to others)

Thanks to Paul for this idea

Welcome!

Here's a welcome idea that worked well for us on Sunday . . .

Write a short little poem or a few lines of some song lyrics that welcome people to your group.

They can be funny, or a bit more deep. The idea is that you have 3-5 lines of 'welcome words'.

Then divide the kids into groups and give them each a copy of the words and tell them that they have to come up with a song style in which to perform these words.

(We had one group do a 'crooning' rendition and other do a rap etc)

Then each group, gets up and 'performs' their welcome. It's a heap of fun, and everyone gets a chance to be invovled in the welcome.

Thanks to Julie Atmore for this idea.

Back to School

Our kids spend most of their time at school, so why not tap into that?

You can run a short segment in your program which 'checks in' on how they are going at school as Christians, the challenges they face, the victories they win, the questions that trouble them.

You may be surprised at what good stuff the kids are getting up to for Jesus, or you may discover areas that need attention. It encourages them to take their faith into the week and it's awesome for them to hear of their peers who are standing up for Jesus.

Here's a few ideas . . . .

Kids often have to give orals in english class. Some of our teenagers have chosen to speak on something christian, or even give their testimonies! Ask your kids if they have such opportunites, work with them on it, let them give it a test run infront of others at youth, get them up after the fact to tell everyone how it went.

Why not split for prayer at your next meeting and use it to pray for school CU groups? You can get the kids to share a bit about what they do at their group, and then pray for the various schools represented.

You could run a sharing time when kids tell of a highlight or a lowlight for them in the last week as Christians at school. Spend some time praying about these things.

There are lots more ways to make school an opportunity for the gospel and a mission field for your kids. If you have any ideas that worked - send them here! (scott@stjames.org.za)