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Board Games at Youth Group

It’s cold and wet.  Your youth want to do something fun but you are stuck inside.  You have played  “ninja” ten too many times.  Are there any other options?

Board Games!

Wait, I really don’t want to play 5 hours of a monopoly game at youth group.  Neither do I.  So here are three short games that you and your youth can pick up quickly and will fall in love with.Tsuro-box

1.  Tsuro: The Game of the Path.  (2-8 players and 15-20 minutes) Create your own journey with Tsuro, the Game of the Path. Place a tile and slide your stone along the path created, but take care. Other player’s paths can lead you in the wrong direction – or off the board entirely. Find your way wisely to succeed. Stay the path – your journey begins here.

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Facebook and Youth Ministry

Anyone who works with youth—for that matter, anyone—must wrestle with Facebook.  Some clergy and ministers would rather ignore Facebook.  But it is too large and too ubiquitous to ignore, and our youth certainly don’t.  Some dive in without any reservations.  But there are pitfalls there, too. So how do we use Facebook and use it well? And what do we teach our youth about using it?

This resource packet has three main goals:

  • To open discussion between participants on what their Facebook activity says about who they are.
  • To inform participants about how Facebook makes money off of their Facebook activity and raise awareness about how their information is being used.
  • To equip participants with strategies to use Facebook safely and faithfully.

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Lectio Divina in Youth Groups

“Lectio Divina”, a Latin term, means “divine reading” and describes a way of reading the Scriptures whereby we gradually let go of our own agenda and open ourselves to listen to what God wants to say to us. In the 12th century, a Carthusian monk called Guigo, described the stages which he saw as essential to the practice of Lectio Divina. There are various ways of practicing Lectio Divina either individually or in groups but Guigo’s description remains fundamental.
In order to practice lectio divina in a youth group, select a time and place that is peaceful and in which you and your whole group may be alert and prayerfully attentive.

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Group Art Project: Icon Magazine Mosaic

I am always looking for a great art project that is meaningful, easy and that can be done in a large group.  This is a great art project that I saw while visiting All Saint’s and Sinners in Denver, CO.  As soon as I saw it, I knew that we needed to do it at our next youth Event.

We did this at AYE (The Arkansas Youth Event).  The Mosaic is made with clippings from magazines that are glued to 11X17 sheets of paper.  To give you a sense of size this is almost 5 feet tall and 6 feet wide.

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Compline on one sheet (Front and Back)

One of the great services that youth ministries often do is Evening Compline.  This became a staple for me in youth ministry with the youth leading the service.

To simplify this and make it easier for a new youth to pick up and lead this I worked on getting Compline on one sheet of paper front and back.  Compline formatted for Youth Groups 

Please know I did make decisions by selecting readings and selecting some  of the prayers when there is an option.    You can find the full formatted Book of Common Prayer here.