Icebreaker: Popcorn Sharing

This is a funny way to get students sharing with a new group.  

Decide who will start the game and give them the bag of popcorn. The person to the popcorn-holder’s right, chooses from one of the following questions that the popcorn-holder will have to answer. Then the popcorn-holder will give their answer in the following steps: Say a single answer, put a piece of popcorn in their mouth, say another, put another piece in their mouth. If anyone in the group can count to ten in between their answers, their turn is over and the bag passes to the right. If the group leader cannot understand the words the person is saying, their turn is over and the bag passes to the right.

1. What are the names of several government officials? 
2. What are the names of several BAD-Quality Pop-musicians? 
3. What are the names of several GOOD-Quality Pop-musi- cians? 
4. What are some funny YouTube videos? 
5. What are some good books? 
6. What are some of your favorite celebrities? 
7. What are some actors/actresses? 
8. What are some GOOD movies?
9. What are some BAD movies?

New Year's Reminders

This is a great way to use new year's to make a spiritual impact.  Ask students to think over their past year and write a letter to themselves.  Give them some spiritual questions to get them started:

• What is something you learned about God?
• Who is someone you need to forgive?
• Who is someone you need to ask forgiveness from?
• What is something you heard God say to you?
• What is something you heard a pastor or youth leader say that you don't want to forget?

Then ask them to place the letter in an envelope, seal it, and address it to themselves.  Take the letters up and stick them in a drawer for several months.  Sometime around may or June when you are rummaging through your desk and see the letters, mail them.

I also will do this at the end of a retreat with questions like what did you hear God say, what is something you don't ever want to forget, etc.

Youth 2011 (UMC Youth Conference)

The Youth Minsitry arm of the GBOD (General Board of Discipleship) is putting on their HUGE conference in two cities (Sacramento, CA and Purdue University in Indiana).  This only happens once every four years and they are going all out.  Kristian Stanfill, Fireflight, and Zach Hunter are some of the highlights in the speaker/artist realm.  You should definately check it out!  Click here to download the posters, and Click here to visit their website (youth2011.org)

Review: A Life-giving Christmas

I will be honest.  I am generally unimpressed by official UMC branded resources, and am committed to being part of the solution (this site is part of it).  When I received the copy of the church-wide series "A Life-giving Christmas"  I was skeptical.  Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.  

This material is top-notch from start to finish.  It's sermon starters are well written, concise, and incredibly tuned in with built in social media suggestions!  The scripts are polished and the videos could air on any national news broadcast.

That is to say nothing of the stellar content.  Keeping to the traditional advent themes of hope, peace, joy, and love, this refocuses Christmas on more than gift buying AND more than donating!  From AIDS orphans in Africa to a nativity constructed by German POWs from World War II, it will interest and challenge you with stories that break every Advent mold I have seen.  In addition, the RETHINK group provides downloadable companions for children and youth (that I wrote) that have helps for using the material in those settings including discussion questions, action steps, and more.

The only thing you might need to consider, especially if children are in your worship services, is the video that shows a local church member who dresses up like Santa. OK for youth, but may expose the Santa pretend thing and make some parents upset with children present.

This resource is a breath of fresh air for a person who wants to see the UMC producing quality materials that help the church be relevant in a transforming culture.  Way to go UMCOM!

The sermon starters as well as the youth/children guides are free to download from umcom.org/advent.  However, you will definitely want the media bundle which is incredibly inexpensive ($25!)  as it has the scripts, videos, etc (did I mention all sorts of graphics and promotional pieces?). It's not easy to find the purchase link so just go ahead and click here to go to the site to purchase it.

Asking Questions that Students Will Actually Answer

I cannot claim that any of this content is totally unique.  You can find some version of this in almost every youth minsitry book that includes a section on leading discussion.  With that disclaimer, here's my standard discussion tips:

1. Wait it out -- Ask a question and then wait (however long it takes) until someone offers an answer... they’ll let you talk if you don’t wait.  This is the number one mistake that people make when trying to get students to talk.  The first time or two, there will be uncomfortable silence.  Then, someone will ask you to restate the question.  Eventually someone will answer, and I don't know is not enough... you are looking for real content.  If they don't know, ask them what is difficult to understand, etc.
2. Ask questions concerning family/siblings -- sometimes bringing the discussion around to family will give them lots of practical application to talk about.  If you are talking about envy ask, "What is something you have envied of your brother's/sister's?"
3. Open Ended Questions:  As questions that do not prompt a yes or no answer.  These questions often start with words like “how,” or “why.” Adding "why or why not" to the end of a question does not make it open ended, and usually won't work with a group that is not engaging.

Creative Types of questions:

1. The devotional question  This is the basic level, most materials you will use will have questions printed in them to start group discussions. These are a place to start, but are often grossly inadequate because of the datedness of the authors or because no resource will match every culture.
2. Emotional Questions:  Many times students will begin to use the “I don’t know” escape. Students may answer “I don’t know” for many reasons; laziness, embarrassment, coolness, or even misunderstanding. Most often a student will answer this way because they are afraid to get the “wrong” answer. When rephrasing the questions doesn’t help, use an emotional question that will take the “correctness” out of the answer. Ask a student how they “feel” about a relative issue. Try creating a hypothetical situation that a student can personally find him or herself in. Then, guide them in connecting the original questions with the hypothetical situation.
3. Interview Questions: If students are having a problem opening up to a whole group, especially when some strong personality types are acting out, try pairing the students up and have them interview each other with the questions you have, taking turns asking and responding. After they finish interviewing each other, go around the room and have each pair share some of their comments. This is especially good when the group is new and everyone is a little shy. Be Careful: This question can turn into a free for all gossip or chit chat time within the group. Limit the time, and when you can see that several groups are finished, bring everyone back together... don’t wait for everyone to finish their interviews!
4. Group Creativity Questions: This works especially well if you have a very artsy, creative group. If analytical discussion is failing you, allow the group to answer questions creativity be creating skits, songs, poems, drawings, etc. This not only allows for more interesting interaction between students, but it allows them to use 0their gifts as ministry.
5. Consensus Questions: Sometimes the best thing you can do for discussion is to get out of the leadership role. Ask non-feeling related questions to the group, and give them a set amount of time to come to a consensus. Make sure that these questions are broad questions like: Who did the right thing in this story, etc