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.
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18
“Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Materials
Several pairs of scissors
newspapers and magazines
blank thank you notes
pens or pencils
Preparation
Set the scissors and the pile of newspapers and magazines in the center of the room / table.
What to Do
“Search through the newspapers and magazines and find one story about someone experiencing either good or bad circumstances. Cut out the story using the scissors for easy reference.”
Once everyone has a story, collect them into a pile and shuffle them up. Walk around the room and ask each youth to take the story on the top of the pile.
Give each person a blank thank you note and a pen or pencil.
“Read through the story you’ve been given and write a thank you note to God. Express how you would be thankful in the circumstances your story describes.”
When youth have finished writing their Thank You notes, have each youth, in turn, read his or her thank you note aloud. (You cab do this in pairs or small groups if you have many youth group members).
Then youth to respond to each circumstance: “In the circumstance you read about, how would being thankful affect your perspective?”
Take it to the Next Level
God wants us to be thankful in all circumstances — in both good situations and bad ones. Being thankful changes our perspective. It helps us take our eyes off ourselves and the circumstances and look to God instead.
Closing
Finish the meeting by having a time of prayer where each youth can have an opportunity to express prayerful thanks to God for the events in their lives.
Holiday Collection Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.
Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.
The mentor carves out and helps to create a space where learning can occur. It has boundaries of confidentiality, structure, and guidance, but is open. It is a safe place where both can be vulnerable with their questions, struggles, emotions and doubts. There is space for ideas, curiosity, wonder, and joy. It is a space in which the mundane, the ordinary can be a container of grace. It is a space in which the mentor is given increasing permission to ask the tough questions that will penetrate the masks most of us wear. It is a space where the protégé has no fear to confess failings and progress, to entrust the secrets of his heart, and reveal all his plans.
Get Help on Your Youth Sermons
Creative Sermon Ideas
This 100 Page e-Book Includes All The Help You Need To Prepare Powerful, Life-Changing Youth Sermons That Will Turn Your Preaching Around And Make Your Youth Sit Up And Listen! Includes 7 Complete Sermons. –> I want More Youth Sermon Ideas…
Game Description
Use your senses to identify common objects and items.
Game Materials
Lunch Bags, Small Household Items (depending on which senses you want to use in the game); Stapler; Paper; Pen; Marker
Game Preparation
Prepare several lunch bags with one item in each bag. The number of bags can be adjusted depending on the time you have to play the game. You can use items that can be found around the house – (i.e. comb, pen, etc) or items can be acccording to a specific category like office supplies, foods, tools, cosmetics, etc to suit a party theme. Fold over the top of the bag and staple closed.
With a marker, number the bags on the outside.
Game Play
Participants examine one numbered bag at a time, and try to identify the contents ONLY by feeling the them through the bag.
Ask participants to number their paper according to the number of bags, and record their answers next to the appropriate numbers corresponding to each bag.
When all the participants have identified the items, reveal what is in each bag. The winner is the participant who correctly guessed the most items.
Game Variations
Touch – use items with various textures (i.e. hard, sandpaper, soft, bumpy, feather, cotton, fur, felt, hairbrush etc that have identifying characteristics. You can also use simple items like staplers etc) You can allow them to rech inside the bag, without looking and feel the item inside the bag or for simply objects they just feel through the bag.
Smell – Use 2-3 tablespoons of spices, fruits, or other items with strong characteristic smells. (i.e. orange peel, pepper, cinnamon, oregano, onion, etc. These might be best in a cloth bag or punch a few very small holes in the paper bag with a needle so the scents can escape.
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.
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.
At one time, Andrew Carnegie was the wealthiest man in America. He went there from his native Scotland when he was a small boy, did a variety of jobs, and eventually ended up as the largest steel producer in the United States. At one time he had 43 millionaires working for him. In those days a millionaire was a rare person; conservatively speaking, a million dollars in Carnegie’s day would be the equivalent to at least $20 million today. A reporter asked Carnegie how he had managed to hire 43 millionaires. Carnegie responded that those men had not been millionaires when they started working for him, but had become millionaires as a result. The reporter’s next question was: “How did you develop these men to become so valuable to you that you have paid them this much money?” Carnegie replied: “Men are developed the same way that gold is mined. When gold is mined, several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold; but one doesn’t go into the mine looking for dirt – one goes in looking for the gold.”
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.
Thank you for your letter of May 1. After careful consideration, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me employment with your firm. This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.
Despite your company’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet with my needs at this time. Therefore, I will initiate employment with your firm immediately following the New Year. I look forward to seeing you then.
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.
Check out his incredible video. The singer is Nicole Nordeman. Why
Thanks to Charissa Ee at The Orange Chalk for pointing me to this.
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.
As a sensitive microphone picks up smallest sounds and amplifies them, a mentor listens to the smallest details of life and helps the protégé to hear them. A mentor is primarily a listener. The best mentor is one whose “own ear is turned toward the wisdom of others, who is always open to listen, to hear, and to transform life.” He is to attentively observe the protégé with love, compassion, genuine concern and interest. He is to have a vulnerablity in which he says “all of me listens to all of you” The mentor must listen carefully to the protégé, his story, and his needs. He must also listen to what is not said and how things are said. He must also listen to his own heart and instincts as a mentor, the stirrings, consonance, and dissonance. When the protégé is “listened to, probed, encouraged, challenged, and helped to hear, then the mentor has come alongside to help him.”
Get Help on Your Youth Sermons
Creative Sermon Ideas
This 100 Page e-Book Includes All The Help You Need To Prepare Powerful, Life-Changing Youth Sermons That Will Turn Your Preaching Around And Make Your Youth Sit Up And Listen! Includes 7 Complete Sermons. –> I want More Youth Sermon Ideas…
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
Icebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level
“If I could see further than others, it was because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”
The mentor carves out and helps to create a space where learning can occur. It has boundaries of confidentiality, structure, and guidance, but is open. It is a safe place where both can be vulnerable with their questions, struggles, emotions and doubts. There is space for ideas, curiosity, wonder, and joy. It is a space in which the mundane, the ordinary can be a container of grace. It is a space in which the mentor is given increasing permission to ask the tough questions that will penetrate the masks most of us wear. It is a space where the protégé has no fear to confess failings and progress, to entrust the secrets of his heart, and reveal all his plans.
British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands
At one time, Andrew Carnegie was the wealthiest man in America. He went there from his native Scotland when he was a small boy, did a variety of jobs, and eventually ended up as the largest steel producer in the United States. At one time he had 43 millionaires working for him. In those days a millionaire was a rare person; conservatively speaking, a million dollars in Carnegie’s day would be the equivalent to at least $20 million today. A reporter asked Carnegie how he had managed to hire 43 millionaires. Carnegie responded that those men had not been millionaires when they started working for him, but had become millionaires as a result. The reporter’s next question was: “How did you develop these men to become so valuable to you that you have paid them this much money?” Carnegie replied: “Men are developed the same way that gold is mined. When gold is mined, several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold; but one doesn’t go into the mine looking for dirt – one goes in looking for the gold.”
As a sensitive microphone picks up smallest sounds and amplifies them, a mentor listens to the smallest details of life and helps the protégé to hear them. A mentor is primarily a listener. The best mentor is one whose “own ear is turned toward the wisdom of others, who is always open to listen, to hear, and to transform life.” He is to attentively observe the protégé with love, compassion, genuine concern and interest. He is to have a vulnerablity in which he says “all of me listens to all of you” The mentor must listen carefully to the protégé, his story, and his needs. He must also listen to what is not said and how things are said. He must also listen to his own heart and instincts as a mentor, the stirrings, consonance, and dissonance. When the protégé is “listened to, probed, encouraged, challenged, and helped to hear, then the mentor has come alongside to help him.”