Sock Wars

It's a cross between pre-k story time at the library and WWW Smackdown, and the kids loved it.

Here are the rules.   

1. Everyone has to start with at least 1 sock on.  One of our leaders brought in his dirty laundry that kids without socks could dig through to find some.  This was a great idea & pretty gross.  Some of the socks were still wet from his sweaty feet.
   
2. Everyone must stay on their butts.
   
3. No kicking or hitting.
   
4. When the music starts, it's a free for all to get everyone else's socks of while your's stay on.
   
5. You can still pull other people's socks off even if both of your's are pulled off.

When we got to 4 or 5 people, we stopped the game and just put them in the middle to play by themselves.  Everyone had a blast except the girl who got the black eye.  But, then again, that's when you know you've got a winner of a game.

Successfully Leading Games & Mixers

Jonathan McKee gives the 7 Deadly Sins of Game Leading over at the Source for Youth Ministry. They are extremely helpful reminders of how important the little things are when you're trying to be excellent.

I prefer to be a little more positive, sort of like Paula Abdul. I've translated these into an optimist's language.

1. Come up with some creative transitions to lead into games. Avoid telling the kids you're gonna play a game.
2. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Stop and think through exactly how the game will go. Anticipate problems.
3. Play along with the kids.
4. Explain how to play in less than 30 seconds. Practice doing this before hand. Try explaining it to the other leaders to see if it makes sense. Control the room. If the kids are talking, make them sit down so you only have to explain it once.
5. Split up teams quickly. Again, think through this ahead of time.
6. Have a personality & have fun. If you don't, get someone else to lead the game.
7. Make sure everyone can be involved either by playing or by seeing what's going on. If you're doing an up front game, try to elevate the people if they're doing something on the floor. Try using a table.

Something to Sign

A few years ago I had the opportunity to shake nearly every hand in my school's 2007 graduating class, just before they walked across the stage to receive their diplomas.  I love that position.  I'm the guy who tells them to watch their step and to not trip or puke on the principal, as they - many for the first time - get a chance to be the center of attention for one brief moment in time, in front of thousands of people.

I try to say something to each kid, shake hands, and occasionally give a hug to those kids I've come to know the best and know I will miss the most.

As the kids slowly moved past me, I noticed one of my campaigner guys inching his way closer. When he reached me, I threw my arm around his shoulder and told him I was going to miss him. That's when he told me he had decided to stay in town and go to our local university. Last thing I knew he was headed out of state, so I was pleasantly surprised and mentioned that I'd like to talk to him soon about getting into our new leader training.

The ceremony ended and I headed for the doors with the rest of our faculty. As I walked down the street back to my car, I ran into this kid again. I told him how excited I was he was going to be in town, and that I really wanted him to get involved in our new leader training in September.

Then, I saw an uncomfortable look come to his face and he said, "Uh, I don't know. I don't think I want to do that. Don't you have to sign something?"

"Sign something?" I said.  I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Yeah.  Don't you have to sign something that says you're not going to drink?"

"Are you serious?" I said.  I couldn't believe it.  Here he is walking away from his high school graduation, his Young Life leader is giving him an opportunity to stay involved and help others, and all he can think about is having to sign something that says he's not going to drink.  How sad!

Wow, I thought.  I respected him for being honest.  The more I thought about it, I thought he was just articulating something that some of our young leaders might think.  But, my gosh.

Part of me felt like such a failure.  Had I not been an example of what it's like to live an exciting life with Christ?  What would make this kid feel the need to, not even give in to temptation, but "plan ahead" to give in to temptation?  It just struck me as so sad.

Candid Camera Club

A friend of mine shared an awesome idea with me recently.

A few years ago, he got some administrators and a coach to help pull one over on some kids. He set up a camera in one of their offices and had them call a kid in and basically scare the crap out of them. You can use your imagination, but one kid was told that all of her college applications had been stolen and another kid was cut from the basketball team.

At just the right time, the administrator/coach points to the camera and says, "You're on Young Life Candid Camera".

Then you show the videos at club that night.

Note: All of it has to be done in one day, or word will spread & the kids will get suspicious.

Rindercella and the Prandsome Hince Skit

If you've ever wanted to learn this, here it is. It's a great way to break the ice before a talk.

Once upon a time in a coreign fountry there was a geautiful birl, whose name was Rindercella. And Rindercella had a mugly other and two sigly usters. Also in this coreign fountry there was a prandsome hince, and the prandsome hince was going to have a bancy fall. Rindercella’s mugly other and her two sigly usters went out and bought dancy fresses for the bancy fall, but poor Rindercella couldn’t go because she had nothing but rirty dags. So on the night of the bancy fall, Rindercella’s mugly other and her two sigly usters put on their dancy fresses and went to the bancy fall. And since poor Rindercella couldn’t go, she cat down and sried. Suddenly, her gairy fodmother appeared before her and touched her with her wagic mond and turned her into a peautiful brincess. Her gairy fodmother gave her a kig boach and hix sorces so Rindercella could go to the bancy fall. So off went Rindercella. When she got to the bancy fall, the prandsome hince met her at the door. He had watched her come up in her kig boach and hix sorses from a widden hindow. Rindercella and the prandsome hince danced all night long, and the prandsome hince lell in fove with Rindercella. When the prandsome hince was just about to quop the prestion, Rindercella heard the moke of stridnight, so she turned, straced down the rairs and when she got to the stottom blep she slopped her dripper. The next day the prandsome hince went all over his coreign fountry looking for the geautiful birl who had slopped her dripper. When he got to Rindercella’s house, he tried it on her mugly other, but it fidn't dit! He tried it on her two sigly usters, but it fidn't dit. And he tried it on Rindercella, and it fid dit! So they were mappily harried and lived appily ever hafter. Ehe Thend!

Our Heart Toward Them Matters

This cartoon is from the Naked Pastor.

A Kid's First Time At Club

I came across this while looking around the internet & thought it was pretty encouraging. I won't link it, but here's the text.

Last night I went to this thing called Young Life. Basically, it was a big group of kids that got together at somebody's house to play games, sing, and talk about God a little bit. It was so much fun, and I'm really glad Morgan brought me with her. One of the games was dividing into two groups and putting as many clothes pins as possible on one person. Clothes pins on clothes were worth 1 point, and pins on skin were worth 2 points. We ended up winning, but I felt kind of bad for the girl with pins all over her, especially since there were so many on her face-ouch. Then they had 4 kids go up to the front (2 teams of 2) and one person had to chug a 2 liter bottle of Sprite zero while the other person was spinning in a circle. When the person got tired of chugging, they would switch. It was pretty funny to watch, but I'm glad I didn't have to do it. We also sang some old school songs- stuff like Backstreet Boys and Avril Leviegn (sp??). Of course, nobody is really a great singer, so the songs didn't sound so good, but everybody enjoyed it and ended up laughing. I hope that I can maybe go again, because it was so much fun. Everybody there was so nice too. (I wonder if this would be considered making my own excitement in life??)

Sounds like an awesome club (gonna use both those games), but what really stuck out to me was that this girl thought everyone was so nice. Talking to kids at camp, one of the things that always blows them away is how nice everyone is, how welcomed & loved they feel by the leaders, workcrew, & assigned team. It's great to see that we are creating that atmosphere back home in our clubs.

I think it's worth evaluating our clubs to see if we are creating atmospheres where everyone feels good to be there.

Good Leaders Admit When They're Wrong

From Leadership Unleashed...

A much-overlooked component of leadership is the willingness to be wrong.

Admitting we are wrong shows vulnerability and makes us more approachable. Other leaders and kids are less likely to be intimidated when we openly admit our mistakes.

Let's say you screw up, which is simply part of being human. When you admit it -- own it, and do so willingly (and not grudgingly), people see you are human, and, because they can identify with that, are more likely to allow themselves to be led by you.

Focus On One Among the Crowd

Smart Christian (what a name for a website) posts this little reminder of how important (and biblical) it is for us to focus on one person among the crowd.

When we read the Gospels, we see Jesus’ love for individuals among the crowds. In fact, he often rejected the crowds to minister to a single person.

That doesn't mean we shouldn't focus on the crowds, too.  There are plenty of examples of Jesus teacher the crowds, even distancing himself (in a boat) to be better heard by the crowd.

I know for me though, I get caught up by the crowds and realize I don't even know the names of some of the kids I'm talking to.

Human Christmas Trees

This is an annual tradition for our club.

1. Have plenty of Christmas Tree decorations - lights, tinsle, whatever. Glass bulbs break when they fall on tile, so be careful.
2. Bring up 3 kids to be trees and 2 kids to decorate each of the trees (that's 9 all together).
3. Play upbeat Christmas music while they decorate.
4. Plug all the lights in when the decorating is finished. A surge protector & extension cord usually come in handy.
5. Have the rest of the group judge the trees by applause.
6. The winning tree has to stand there for at least 15 minutes, if not the remainder of club, as the Young Life Christmas Tree.
7. If you want to be really cruel, get the big colored lights that get really, really hot.

Turkey Bowling

Our annual tradition for this week's club is Turkey Bowling.

I'm sure there are several variations and things that work better than how we do it, but here's how we set it up and play.

1. Do it before club starts.
2. Use a large frozen turkey.
3. Set up 10, half-full 2 liter bottles on a sidewalk.
4. If you have plactic to lay down, use it. We've done it without, but the turkey will fall apart after a while.
5. Just have kids go one after another, bowling the turkey.

Marshmallow Baseball

Here's a great game for everyone to be involved in, especially during the play-offs.

What you need:

1. Marshmallows
2. Wiffleball Bat
3. 2 Bases (we use pillows)

How to play:

1. Set up one base as a home plate and the other base straight ahead of home plate at the other end of the room.
2. Have the kids make an open area between the bases for the players to run.
3. Call up 3 girls to hit.
4. Have a leader pitch marshmallows underhand.
5. After the girl hits, she runs to the base and then back to home.
6. Guys try to throw the marshmallow to the catcher before the runner gets back home.
7. Girls in the crowd try to keep the guys from getting the marshmallow to the catcher.
8. After 3 girls have hit, call 3 guys up to do the same thing.
9. If they're having fun, keep playing.

Some extra fun: When the game was over, everyone was eating marshmallows. We tried to sing the entire next song with marshmallows in our mouths, without swallowing. We looked like a bunch of rabid dogs and sounded terrible.