Photo Used by Permission.
When we think about youth ministry, how do we organize the calendar? Some YM1 folks recommend setting the calendar in August and not deviating.
I prefer to do a calendar with all the overnights and week trips set in stone. Then I work with the Leader Team (adults) and the Student Leadership Team (high schoolers) to develop a three-month plan of fun events and mission projects.
The flexibility of this model keeps me interested. It helps to maintain enthusiasm for the off-site events. It also allows creativity from the two Leader teams who can implement their ideas.
Note: Our youth moved up on July 1 each year. This timing allowed us to avoid difficult conversations with 8th-grade parents about why their child wasn’t ready for the high school mission trip in June. Some 8th graders are ready, others need a year of high school responsibility to get the most out of the trip. Other YM will move kids up as soon as the school year ends. This has value as well.
Below you will find a July to December YM calendar. The January to June calendar will follow in the next blog.
Here is the July - December YM calendar for the Big Church:
July
Dinner & the Bible - This ran on Tuesday or Wednesday nights for four weeks.2 A family with grown children would host us at their home with a meal. Then we would have a Bible study led by a youth Leader or a pair of youths. The host would participate in the Bible study making the cross-generational connection. Parables or OT Miracles or NT miracles work well.
Pool Party - Ann Arbor has a lot of pool clubs so it was easy to rent one for a night. We would do pizza and swim one night. This event would be planned and hosted by the student leaders with a big push to the incoming 9th graders. This was a fun introduction to high school YM.
Art Fair - The community’s Art Fair each July was a great fundraiser for YM. Youth would sell parking for the art fair on the church parking lots. We kept the bathrooms open and clean. We could earn $4,000-8,000 over 4 days. Long days with shifts 8-Noon, 11:30-4 p.m., 3:30-7 p.m.3
Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park. Photo by J. Monnett.
August
School sports begin in the middle of August so plan around the school schedule. If your district returns to school in early August, you will need to adjust this plan.
The 1-Day Road Trip - Rent the 12-passenger van(s) and drive 2 hours north to the giant outlet mall in Birch Run, Michigan. Shop the morning. Meet at Pizzeria Uno for carb loading. Head to Covenant Camp for swimming and blobbing. For $10 a vehicle, you got 2 hours of waterfront time with the tower and blob for bouncing each other into the lake.4 This is a high school trip.
Yuck Day - A Mid-high day with water balloons and more. Yuck is a biodegradable product that when mixed with water makes something like applesauce slime. We did Slip & Slime, Tug of Yuck, and Kickball of Yuck where the first and third base is kiddie pools filled with different colored Yuck.
Summer Camp - Our choir director and two YM staff would go to the summer camp with the Midhighs.
(or) The 3-Day Road Trip - Leave early in the morning for Cleveland.5 Do the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that afternoon. Stay at hotels in the suburbs. Do a park clean-up project in the South Chagrin Reservation. Make cork “boats” while eating picnic lunch. “Race” the 3-inch boats in the Chagrin River while wading in the river. Sit under a small waterfall. Last day explore the Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park and then swim and cliff jumps at Nelson Ledges Quarry Park. Drive home with sleeping teens. This is a high school trip.
September
Launch Weekend, (2nd or 3rd weekend in September)6 begins with Sunday School for all ages. Youth groups begin that night. We usually did Youth choir at 5, Dinner at 5:45-6:15 then Youth Groups at 6:15-8 p.m.
The first three Sundays youth groups stayed on site to establish a clear pattern.
The Youth Group followed a typical pattern of 15-minute fun activities that could add people as they arrived so no one is sitting around waiting. Next a 20-30 minute interactive lesson. End with a 20-30 minute fun activity.
October
Confirmation (8th grade) retreat with learning on all things worship with high ropes or something cool Saturday morning. Kids can’t learn a lot on Saturday mornings as they are tired and excited/scared for high ropes. Do the activity at 10-Lunch then teach 1-4 that afternoon.
Zap Zone or Whirlyball - This is an off-site activity on a Sunday afternoon that is easy for new youth to come to for their first event. Many youths are slow to begin YM, fearing boring Bible studies7 and having to talk about themselves. Zap Zone is laser tag.8 Whirlyball is lacrosse played in bumper cars.9
3-Week “Evil” Bible Study - A high school youth group study on “Evil” leaning into Halloween movies/TV. A great time to take on crappy theology about why God lets bad stuff happen.
November
Mission Project - Spend an afternoon working with the church’s adult “Handy Crew” doing home repairs. Do Habitat for Humanity (watch out for their 16 yrs and older policy). Help sort clothes and toys for the Foster Care system. Work on a food project.
The Pittsburgh Project - Each year we did this weekend mission trip with our HS. Drive to Pittsburgh Friday night, arrive for worship, receive work projects, and sleep in their dorms. Saturday (worship at night & ice cream) and Sunday morning work on homeowners projects. Sunday afternoon drive back to Michigan. Promise a 9 p.m. return and aim for 8 p.m. Getting home early is always good. Late not so much.
Photo Scavenger Hunt - We would do this during Sunday youth group. Divided into groups with an adult Leader they would scatter around the neighborhood trying to get themselves in a photo with as many things as they could. Scavenger options included: walking someone’s dog; around a University of Michigan blue building sign; in the atrium of the Math Department’s building; sitting on a porch swing; eating a taco, and other fun stuff (comment if you want a photo scavenger hunt list).
Christmas Break Mission Trip Training
December
Run Sunday School and youth group until the 2nd or 3rd Sunday so that you don’t have 2 kids on the first Sunday of Christmas break. End on a high point.
Christmas Party - Mids and HS would have separate parties with a meal and gift exchange. HS would do white elephants or DVDs (back in the day). Mids would have a challenge of a non-gender specific gift costing exactly $6.26 etc. Both gift exchanges would keep everything wrapped until all the stealing is over. This avoids hurt feelings.
Christmas Pageant - Mid-highs was part of the pageant. HS helped with all the different age groups as they dressed as angles, wise people, sheep/camels and would process
Christmas Eve Services - I love integrating high schoolers into the Christmas Eve services. We would have youth play with a Christmas orchestra of members/friends that would play for 20 minutes before the 5 and 7 p.m. services. We would have youth carry the cross, the Bible, and candles for the processional reading of the Christmas story.
Islamorada Mission Trip 2013. Photo by J.Monnett.
High School Florida Mission Trip - We offered a Florida Mission trip over Christmas break on a 2-year on, 1-year off pattern. These trips gave youth who could never do a summer mission trip the opportunity to go. It also allowed our Michigan youth to enjoy 60-70 degrees while helping others. By working at summer camps we could eat and stay at low costs. On different trips, we did camp projects, painted a church manse, tore a house down, and did repairs in a trailer park. We often flew into Tampa or Orlando and rented vans to drive to our project location. For the fun part, we would rent 1-2 homes away from the water (cheaper) and do some tourist things like swim with a manatee or have a beach day.
End of Part 1
I hope this gives you good ideas you can adapt to your church. The rest of the calendar will come in February 2023. Please forward this to your volunteer and paid youth leaders so that they can gain new ideas for their ministry.
Youth Ministry
YM met on Sunday nights during the school year, but Michigan has hundreds of lakes where people go to cottages. YM on the summer weekends did not often work. Midweek was better.
Overlap the sifts by half an hour so that when youth arrive late because of the terrible traffic, you still have enough people for the critical afternoon and early evening shifts.
Pay attention to the camp’s bathing suit policy. Many forbid the wearing of 2 piece swimsuits. I would require a 1-piece suit for everyone but someone always wore a 2-piece. Rather than have a discussion I would have a female leader give the girl a dark-colored small t-shirt. We usually brought 4 t-shirts in Small and Medium for this purpose.
We often ran this trip in early August on a Monday-Wednesday. This gave better hotel rates and didn’t interfere with summer sports or weekends away.
The 2nd September weekend is still a cottage weekend so can be a hard time to begin Sunday School and youth groups.
Never be boring when teaching the Bible. Find interactive ways to get people talking and engaging with Bible stories.
Be aware of your parents’ opinions about laser tag and “shooting.” In our community laser tag was fine, but paintball was an issue for some parents.
Whirleyball can be expensive so plan this even well. I often charged $10 and underwrote the rest of the cost of the event. Often a $600 event.