Anarchy Night

One thing I did as a youth pastor to really help prepare my students to lead the group, and not just rely on me or the other adult leaders, was to have what I called an "Anarchy Night".

What is it?

It's a special night where my student leaders run everything from the opening prayer to the closing prayer. They come up with and run the game for the night. They do announcements. They do the "talk" for the night.

How it worked:
I picked a night on the calendar and told my student leaders it was going to be "Anarchy Night". I told them they'd do EVERYTHING. If they dropped the ball and didn't prepare or do something, then it wouldn't happen!

I asked them to decide what they'd do for the "talk" section of the night. They could have one student give a sermon, or lead a discussion, etc.

I asked them to tell me the topic for that night and to give me a basic outline of what was going to be talked about. (I also worked with and gave "preaching advice" if one of the students was going to speak for the "talk".)

We then advertised and promoted it in the group!

It was always cool to see the students run the whole thing that night. Some of the nights were times where God totally moved.

The students who weren't on the leadership team loved it. It also inspired some of them to want to become a leader too!

But either way, it gave them more ownership of the group. It also gave them a chance to see all the work that was put into our Wednesday night gatherings. It helped them appreciate my job more!

I'd really encourage you to try one of these nights. I never regretted doing one of these nights!