Types Of Gatherings Used For "Friends Contest"...

I said I'd post again today and tell you some of the types of things we'd do during the "Friends Contest" to make the gatherings really cool and visitor friendly.

It's late, but I'm still posting since I said I would! :)

4 Example Of Gatherings We'd Do:

• Fun Night - Games, Competition, Lots Of Snack-type food, Pizza, Soda and Candy! We'd spend most of the night just goofying around and then we'd do a "half time" where I'd give a 5- 10 minute talk.
  
  
• Talk Show Night - We did a take off of Oprah one year with a guy named Tony in a dress. We called it "Toprah". One year I did a "David Letterman" type night with stupid human tricks and all. The cool thing about this format is that it's really a "testimony night" in disguise. You can interview people with cool stories about how they came to know Jesus.

• Game Show Night - We did a "Family Feud" type night one year, a "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" night, and even a "Let's Make A Deal" night. I would always end the night with a short 5-10 minute talk that went with the night. (ex. Talk about the things we trade our lives for for the "Deal" night.)

• Improv "Who's Line Is It Anyway" night. Break extroverted people who want to play into teams and the rest can be the audience. End the night with a short 5-10 minute talk that goes with the night.
  

The point is make the nights during the "Friends Contest" fun, relevant, and spiritually meaningful. I didn't do a theme night for every mid-week gathering during the contest. Some gatherings I'd just do one fun element that we don't normally do.


Promote the upcoming gathering at the end of each night to hype it up and build momentum.

If you try this contest out, then let me know how it goes at the end!

*DONT FORGET:
The special Labor Day offer ends in 3 days. Grab the ebook at half price now or tell your youth pastor friends!

On Monday, I'll post another idea we did. Check back then!

Friends Contest

One of the best momentum builders I stumbled onto when I was in youth ministry was something we called "The Friends Contest".

The basic idea was that whoever brought the most friends to our mid-week gathering during the months of September and October would win a prize.

Here are the basics of how it worked:

• We started it at the beginning of Sept. (1st or 2nd week).
• We ended it on the last mid-week gathering in Oct.
• Anyone could win (including a guest who comes for the first time).
  
• We announced the winner gave out prizes at the mid-week gathering the week AFTER the end of the contest. (This encouraged guest to come back one more time
  

We gave out 3 levels of prizes:

• 1st place $45 gift certificate to Old Navy (or any clothing store they like)
• 2nd place $20 gift certificate to Local Mini-golf/arcade place (or other favorite place)
• 3rd place $10 gift certificate to McDonald's (or any fast food place they like)

(**I personally liked giving out certificates instead of money, so I could control what it was spent on.)

Each week we would say who was in the lead, mention the prizes, and remind people that anyone could win.

Most years the students would really get into it and bring a lot of friends (everyone once in awhile it wasn't as successful, but usually was). It would also cause people to keep inviting friends throughout the year.

During this contest, I planned special things for our gatherings that would appeal to visitors and be events that people would want to invite friends to.

This was a BIG key to making it work. If you don't have something worth inviting friends to, then you won't be able to pull this off.

**I'll post some ideas about the kind of special things we did for these gatherings tomorrow.

Check back tomorrow!

Click here to see my special "Labor Day Offer" on my ebook.

Revealed: What Really Makes Students Happy...

MTV and The Associated Press did an extensive survery of 13 to 24 year olds and discovered some pretty surprising and encouraging things. Check out the beginning of this CNN.com article...

"NEW YORK (AP) -- So you're between the ages of 13 and 24. What makes you happy? A worried, weary parent might imagine the answer to sound something like this: Sex, drugs, a little rock 'n' roll. Maybe some cash, or at least the car keys.

Turns out the real answer is quite different. Spending time with family was the top answer to that open-ended question, according to an extensive survey -- more than 100 questions asked of 1,280 people ages 13-24 -- conducted by The Associated Press and MTV on the nature of happiness among America's young people."


Wait till you read what students said about sex. You won't believe it! You gotta check what they say about spirituality and belonging to a religious group.


DISCUSSION STARTER
This article/survey would be a good discussion starter. You could start by asking your students similar questions. (You could even video your own on the street interviews)

Then use the results of your survey with the results from this survey and have a discussion about happiness. End with some ideas about what the Bible says about happiness.

Read the whole article here!

Need To Improve Your Preaching Skills?

There's a cool new blog with a ton of info on how to improve your skills and how to do biblical preaching.

Check it out here:

"Biblical Preaching Blog"

Click and scroll around their blog. They have a lot of good stuff that can apply to preaching to students!

Parents Key Role In Helping Students Keep The Faith...

The recent survey from Lifeway Research showing that 70 percent of young adults ages 23 to 30 stopped attending church regularly for at least a year between 18 and 22 also revealed an interesting fact you might have missed...

--From article "Parents Can Help Teens Stay In Church"

Teens who, at age 17, have parents who are authentic examples of Christian faith -- proactive and consistent in living out their faith -– also are more likely to keep attending as young adults. Across the board, 20 percent more of those who stayed in church indicated they had parents or family members who discussed spiritual things, gave them spiritual guidance and prayed together.

"Despite the conflicts that often occur during these years, it is difficult to understate the impact of a solid family involved in the faith community on the future involvement of teens," Stetzer said. "And that isn’t something that can be faked."

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This confirms one of the points made in "How To Build A Lasting Student Ministry" (made by Brenda Seefeldt and others) that a lasting student ministry has to have an element that focuses on your students' families.

One way to minister to your students is by ministering to their parents and helping them to know Jesus or grow spiritually!

Questions To Inspire Action:

• How will you implement this for the upcoming fall?
• How can you improve what you're doing in this area?
• Who can you bring onto your team to help with this?

Read more about what parents can do in this article:
"Parents Can Help Teens Stay In Church"

How To Help Your Teens Stay Christ-Followers AFTER They Graduate...

One of the keys to seeing your student ministry to have a "lasting" effect AFTER your students graduate is to help them get involved in spiritual activities WITH their parents and other adults.

Here's a cool resource to help you do this easily at your church:

Pray21

What is it?

From Their Site:
"The mission of Pray21 starts with teens and adults united in 21 days of prayer. Together we will seek and know the heart of Christ for the world around us, and be commissioned for His Mission. 21 days to Impact!"

New Report Reveals Why We Need LASTING Student Ministries

A new report from LifeWay Research reveals some scary facts...

Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23.

That's why we have to build student ministries that are lasting!

Not just that live on when we're gone, but ones whose effect on students lives continues on beyond their time in our group!

Click here to read the USA Today article to see all the gory details!