Do you remember your most classic youth ministry moments?
As part of the upcoming theme for the 2009 National Youth Ministry Conference, we want to capture some of your own personal most classic moments in youth ministry that you remember.
What we need from you:
- a simple thought or up to 100 words, and your name (you can also post a photo if you have one)
Classic youth ministry moments based on:
– Fun times
– Mistakes you’ve made
– When God has shown up
– Random stuff!!!
- a simple thought or up to 100 words, and your name (you can also post a photo if you have one)
Classic youth ministry moments based on:
– Fun times
– Mistakes you’ve made
– When God has shown up
– Random stuff!!!
Post your comments here by January 15th, and you might see your thoughts displayed somewhere at the National Youth Ministry Conference in Columbus!
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One of my favorite memories of this year was at my recent wedding when all of students at the reception got up and we did the famous Group Workcamp “Get Down” dance. Someone from my husband’s church asked if I had a youth group or a dance troup! What a great memory to share with my kids! I could not have imagined my wedding without them there!
I have a great picture but I am not sure how to add it to the comment. If someone knows how to do it – just let me know I am a little technologically inept!
One of the most memorable, but awkward moments as a Youth Pastor, occurred while trying to explain to an inquisitive camp owner and an intrigued camper from a public camp grounds why I had a student run through the grounds from the shower house to the campsite wearing only a hand towel and shaving cream. Let’s just say that, unlike the campers, the student was very forgetful!
Still the only time I’ve ever ridden in the back of an ambulance was at a Midnight Bowling event with my youth group. I decided to grab one of my senior higher’s unlaced shoe strings so that when he began to bowl, he’ll be unable to walk forward. Little did I know that instead of walking to the platform to bowl he would impersonate one of our football player’s bowling forms (one big giant swing backwards). The ball caught me right in the middle of my forehead. They actually collared my neck and rushed me to ER thinking my neck could be broken, but it was just major whiplash and a concussion. Two days later, I had my ordination service (gentle with those hands). It was my first year of full-time youth ministry, and boy was it memorable.
Make sure that you preview your video clips and use a video editing software if possible. At my previous ministry (and that was not my reason for leaving that ministry) I used a clip from “Karate Kid” for a message. The clip was awesome but it was the 3 seconds before the clip that turned heads. After previewing the clip on a VCR, I stopped the tape took it upstairs and inserted it in another VCR. That VCR rewound the tape 3 or 4 seconds more than I had and just enough to catch an expletive… loud, clear and in the midst of 45 high school students. Not a fun experience!
Every year our church hosts an “All Saints Fair” around Halloween as an outreach event for families in our community; and every year our junior high and high school students volunteer to dress up in costumes and organize games and prizes for the children that come. This year the place was packed with over 400 moms, dads, and kids in crazy costumes. The fair was in full swing when Jae, an international exchange student from Daegu, South Korea, asked if he could talk to me in private. We walked to a less crowded part of the church building and sat down to talk. Jae explained, in his best English, that he had learned a lot about Jesus this semester and wanted to become a Christian! I asked him a few questions to make sure that he knew exactly what this meant, and then we prayed together – repenting for his sins and asking Jesus to be his Lord and Savior. It must have looked funny to those walking by – two guys dressed in ridiculous costumes on their knees in prayer – but it was a beautiful moment and the highlight of the Fall semester.
I came over from the UK to work in youth ministry in 2000 and I was sure that coming to a country who spoke the same language would be a breeze… or so I thought. In my first month of being in the States, I discovered that there were certain phrases that I had always grown up with in the UK that carried a different meaning here it the States…
On one occasion, the evening before an early morning event, I was trying to explain to a female student that the leaders would be coming to her house the next day to take her to the event… But, this is what I actually said, “Hey, we’ll be coming to your house to ‘knock you up’ at about 8am”… Everyone looked at me with that look… you know the one, like, “he said what”… I quickly learned not to use that phrase again…
I remember taking the whole Youth Group at Park Avenue Church to “A Knight’s Tale” during alockout all-nighter one night. Even the incoming 7th graders came. I was so excited!
Parents were NOT excited when they found out that there was a nude man in the movie. Twice. Ouch.
We all make mistakes, right?
A memorable moment for me, the first ever winter retreat we brought students to while serving in a church in Michigan was awesome, since we were staying in train cabins (yes they were rain cars) and one night it was -40 degrees with the windchill and our heater went out.. needless to say we enjoyed the high temps of 1 degree while playing broomball.
We hosted the band StorysideB for three nights, three seterate shows, all acoustic. During the show they had aquestion and answer portion and people asked all sorts of questions. One was from an older man and he said, “You played all that stuff, now play somthing for the older folks. Play that song We Are The World.” The band laughed and tried to move on but he was serious and that made it even more funny. So they sang We Are The World while the students were rolling in the floor laughing.
You never know what someone will ask.
It is ironic that this question was posted this week. This past Sunday we started our series entitled “Keys to the Kingdom”. Our first lesson was on Salvation and how you can’t do this on your own. The activity for the day involved everyone receiving a balloon and then they were challenged to inflate the balloon without using their lungs.
One of our teens, will call her Jane, immediately got up and went to the sink to fill her balloon with water. Several others followed and the discussion ensued as to who had the bigger water balloon. As we were taking prayer requests, Jane was rolling her balloon around in her hands and the balloon burst sending all the water straight onto her lap. It was hilarious and after a few minutes of drying off, even Jane started laughing.
Once I decided to shave 10 minutes off a 10 hour trip to a youth conference and left the church grounds earlier than planned. About two hours down the road I dreadfully realized we didn’t have “Susan.”
Finding the first payphone (no cells back then), I called the church and learned Susan had arrived only minutes after we left. The preacher, in an attempt to save his youth intern from the wrath of Mom, was in hot pursuit. Unfortunately, I also didn’t inform anyone of our route and he was over2 hours off course. We finally connected several phone calls, miles and hours later.
Consequently, my 10 minute decision cost us 3 hours and a late arrival.
Baptizing an Ogre
One of the more memorable experience as a Youth Pastor occurred by baptizing, not an Ogre, but the Ogre. As the name might imply, Ogre was a 6’5” muscular wrestler that accepted Christ as Savior following an International Wrestling Tour that ended in Turkey. Ogre’s shoulders were as wide as the baptismal, and his height stretched longer than the space provided. I was fine until, “I baptize you brother in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” where Ogre hit his head on the end wall after I dropped him. The matter got worse when I vocalized a deep “Ugh” sound, and portrayed a red-faced strain during “buried in likeness and raised in newness of life.” The experience ended with congregational gasps and laughs, as Ogre splashed water over the front wall while standing to his feet and holding his head. I praise the Lord I am living today to tell of this joyous celebration!
there are so many memories i’ve made over the years in youth ministry, and there are a lot of fun, cooky things (like freezing mayonnaise, putting chocolate syrup & sprinkles on top, then telling the youth it’s ice cream… it had a good point, but the process of making the point was PRICELESS), but probably one of the top crazy things was the time our bus broke down on my first trip with my new youth group in a not-so-good neighborhood in the middle of the small street. i didn’t know what to to do, so i called 911 (definitely didn’t know who else to call)! my youth leaders made fun of me for months. they told me i should have just called the chairman of the bus committee, but i didn’t know there was one! the police came with flashing blue lights behind our church bus and i was spread out on the front of the bus (which was in neutral by this time) about to push with the officer. it was so crazy! but hey– at least i wasn’t being frisked!
oh, by the way, we were pushing the bus out of the way into a yard that the officer decided to commandeer.
In one of our high school small groups we were memorizing I Timothy 4:12. One of the guys was so proud that he could memorize God’s Word that he wanted to quote the scripture back to me. He said, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in… puberty”, instead of purity. He said it so confidently and that made it even funnier. He laughed once he realized what he said. Later I was hit with how right on target his little mistake really was.
A few years back at a D-Now weekend we had a soda drinking contest: 60 seconds to drink as much Code Red Mtn Dew as possible. In the finals, as you would guess, a student “returned” the Dew as fast as he had consumed the Dew. Classic blowing chunks story.
What was amazing? One of my freshman immediately grabbed towels and a bucket and mopped it up – everyone was stunned. An amazing display of the spiritual gift of Service at work (and a pretty cool projectile vomitting story).
We decided to take our youth to a local military base to go ice skating. They apparently had found a roll of duct tape in the church van….when we pulled up to the security checkpoint the security guard looked into the back of the van and gave me a very concerned look. When I turned around, there were my precious teenagers with their hands and mouths duct taped mumbling “help me…help me!” Thank goodness our security guard had a sense of humor!! I will NEVER forget that!