Try this idea, the next time you have a youth camp or overnight retreat
Before breakfast, require each youth to find a quiet place where they can be alone outside with their Bible.
For the “Sealed Orders”, type up personal devotions for each morning and give youth a one page sealed personal devotion.
Youth must read the scripture passage, the text on the paper and then answer the open ended questions in the devotion. They get 30 minutes and they must use this entire time to have their devotion and listed to God.
After breakfast and clean up they come together in pre-defined small groups with a leader and talk about their devotions (all devotions are the same), this set time is also 30 minutes.
The care of another – even material, bodily care – is spiritual in essence. Bread for myself is a material question; bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.
“Procrastination and vacillation are fatal to leadership. A sincere though faulty decision is better than no decision. Indeed the latter is really a decision, and often a wrong one. It is a decision that the status quo is acceptable.” (85)
The leader may be “obliged either to greatly modify or lay aside projects which were sound and helpful but met with determined opposition, and so tended to create greater evils than those which might have been removed or mitigated by the changes in question. Later on, in answer to patient continuance in prayer, many of such projects..[may be] given effect to.” (100)
“No small dissident or reactionary element should be allowed to determine the policy of a group, when the concensus of the spiritual leaders is in the opposite direction.” (168)
“Spiritual ends can be achieved only by spiritual men who employ spiritual methods” (40)
“A leader must be able to invision the end result of the policies or methods he advocates. Responsible leadership always looks ahead to see how policies proposed will affect not only present, but suceeding generations.”(78)
He must never be swayed by considerations of personal reward. (56)
Source: J. Oswald Sanders “Spiritual Leadership”
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
Icebreaker Description
In this icebreaker / crowdbreaker, youth will communicate things about themselves using single words..
Preparation
Prepare a list of questions or topics for discussion. Some examples:
a favorite food
a favorite sports team
a favorite song
a dream
a goal
a fear
a dream
a recent accomplishment
a recently solved problem
a strength
a weakness
ETC.
Icebreaker Activity
Form pairs.
Have pairs sit on the floor and talk to each other by speaking one-word messages back and forth.
Suggest one of the above topics for their one-word-at-a-time discussions.
Optional: Change pairs and repeat the process.
Optional Debrief
What does this activity tell you about communication?
How did you communicate without words?
Read John 1:1-9. How did God communicate to us through Jesus Christ?
Conclusion
A single work can communicate a lot. A lifestyle can communicate even more. Jesus is the Word become flesh. God communicates to us through the scriptures, but Christ is God with us, the living word.
Application
What words might people use to describe your life?
What can you do this week to become more like Christ, to reveal God to the world more clearly?
This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.
A brother said to an old man, “I do not know of any warfare in my heart.” The old man said to him, “Then you are a building open on all four sides. Whatever wishes to, goes in and out, and you do not notice. If you had windows and a door, and shut them so as to bar certain thoughts, you would soon realize how many there are outside, waiting to slip in and attack you.”
Materials
Get enough chairs to have one for each participant then remove one chair.
Icebreaker Description
In this icebreaker / crowdbreaker, youth will learn the names of others in the group.
Preparation
Arrange the chairs in a circle.
Icebreaker Activity
One person starts by introducing themselves by their first name and then naming a city with the same first letter as their name (Hi, I’m Bob and I’m from Boston).
The next person in the group starts by repeating the name and city of the first person in the group and then introducing themselves and a city that has the same first letter as their name (This is Bob from Boston, and I’m Pete from Pittsburg).
This continues around the circle with each person repeating the names and cities of the previous youth in the circle, working successively around the circle and then giving their own name and a city.
Optional Debrief
If you could choose to be from a Biblical City, which city would you choose? Why?
Conclusion
Many people in the Bible have their birth place mentioned. But it is not so much where we are from that determines who we are. Cain and Abel were from the same place but their lives were very different. Abraham and Lot settled in the same place, but because of Abraham’s Faithfulness and the blessings of God, their lives were very different. It was said of Jesus, “How can anything good come from Nazareth. This place is not our home. Heaven is the home that God has prepared for us. We are of God’s household. Regardless of where we are from, it is our choices that determine who we are. Let’s make choices that show our heavenly citizenship.
Application
What choices can you make this week to show yourself as a citizen of heaven?
This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.
Materials
Get enough chairs to have one for each participant then remove one chair.
Icebreaker Description
In this icebreaker / crowdbreaker, youth will learn the names of others in the group.
Preparation
Arrange the chairs in a circle.
Icebreaker Activity
Each participant is called Shadrach. The one sitting on his right is Meshach. The one sitting on his left is Abed-nego. Someone who is “It” stands in the center.
There are three possible scenarios:
If “It” calls, “Meshach!”, before everyone can count to ten (vary time for faster groups) you must give the real name of the person on your left.
If “It” calls, “Abednego!”, before everyone can count to ten (vary time for faster groups) you must give the real name of the person on your left.
Now and then the person in the center may try to fool participants by calling out “Shadrach”. When he points to you and calls “Shadrach” you must give your OWN NAME.
Any mistakes or failure to call out the correct name in the indicated time and you forfeit your seat to the person in the center and you become “it.”
Optional Debrief
Who were Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego?
What are some of the things society today asks you to bow down to?
What are some of the fiery trials you have needed to face in life?
How would you describe your life at this time: a spring breeze, Warm, Hot, or Fiery?
Conclusion
Shadrach, Mechach, and Abednego were three Jewish friends of Daniel that were taken into captivity by the Babylonians. It was a difficult time. If you dared to say what you really believed or to stand up for what you thought to be true, it might literally be the last time you ever stood or the last words you ever spoke. But they were not afraid to stand for God. They refused to bow to anyone or anything else, even when their life was on the line.
Application
In what situation is it most difficult for you to take a stand for what you believe? What will you do the next time you are faced with this situation?
This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.
When the eagle soars in the endless blue,
its shadow races after, far below.
Yet space does not divide; bird and shadow are linked.
So too each act — each choice and consequence.
There was once a lonely girl who longed desperately for love. One day while she was walking in the woods she found two starving song birds. She took them home and put them in a small glided cage. She nurtured them with love and the birds grew strong. Every morning they greeted her with a marvellous song. The girl felt great love for the birds. She wanted their singing to last forever.
One day the girl left the door to the cage open. The larger and stronger of the two birds flew from the cage. The girl watched anxiously as he circled high above her. She was so frightened that he would fly away and she would never see him again that as he flew close, she grasped at him wildly. She caught him in her fist. She clutched him tightly within her hand. Her heart gladened at her sucess in capturing him. Suddenly she felt the bird go limp. She opened her hand stared in horror at the dead bird. Her desperate clutching love had killed him.
She noticed the other bird teteering on the edge of the cage. She could feel his great need for freedom. His need to soar into the clear, blue sky. She lifted him from the cage and tossed him softly into the air. The bird circled once, twice, three times.
The girl watched delighted at the bird’s enjoyment. Her heart was no longer concerned with her loss. She wanted the bird to be happy. Suddenly the bird flew closer and landed softly on her shoulder. It sang the sweetest melody, she had ever heard.
The fastest way to lose love is to hold on too tight, the best way to keep love is to give it — WINGS!
Author: Dee Edgett
Source: Unknown
MORE IDEAS? See “Creative Object Lessons”
200 page e-book that explains everything you need to know when planning your very own object lessons. It contains 90 fully developed object lesson ideas and another 200 object lesson starter ideas based on Biblical idioms and Names / Descriptions of God.
Icebreaker Description
Youth will ask and answer questions in rhyme
Preparation
None
Icebreaker Activity
Seat the youth in a circle.
Ask someone to ask the person on his/her right a question. He might ask, for example, ‘What color is my shoe”
The youth questioned must answer with a response that rhymes with the question. He might say, for example, “It’s any color but blue.”
He/she then turns to the person to his/her right and asks a question which must again be answered in rhyme.
Do this until every person in the circle has answered.
Optional Debrief
Has it ever seemed that your questions in life go unanswered or that the answers don’t really make sense?
What are some of the questions you would like to ask God?
Conclusion
Everyone has questions and doubts. Doubts alone are not a cause for concern. Its what we do with our doubts that makes a difference. Even though we may not understand the reasons for things, we must take our doubts to God and place them in his hands. Thomas had doubts about the resurrection of Christ, but Jesus did not condemn him for them. In fact he gave Thomas the evidence he needed to remove his doubts and live by faith.
Application
What are some of your doubts that you need to place in God’s hands?
This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.
Creative Youth ideas: 1700+ Resources for youth leaders, pastors, ministers to help plan camps, retreats, and meetings using games, illustrations, Children's Worship, Bible Studies, object lessons, sermons, creative ideas,creative activities
Decision making…
