Ready to go: Try this one

Group, Sep/Oct 2000

BIBLE STUDY

A PLACE WITH A VIEW

A lofty perspective helps kids see that God is everywhere.

Arrange for your group to visit the highest floor of a skyscraper, tall structure, or vantage point in your area. After taking in the view, ask: How far can you see? What landmarks can you find? How is this view different from what you can see on the ground?

Then read aloud Psalm 139:1-18. Ask: How is God's perspective different from ours? Is it a comfort or a terror to know that God knows us intimately? Explain. How does it make you feel to know that no matter where you go, God is there with you? What can you say in praise of God? Have group members answer the last question by praying aloud as you all look out from your high perspective.

Michael Casey

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

HELPFUL HINT

GROUP DIVIDERS

If your group-forming ideas are tired, wake them up with these fresh twists.

Have everyone draw a colored slip of paper out of a hat. Everyone with the same color is on the same team. This is a great way to divide a large group into pairs. Chuckle as you watch an 11th-grade wrestler wave a small pink slip of paper in the air as he tries to find his partner.

Or divide your group using drawings or illustrations. For example, illustrate half the slips of paper with a picture of fish and the other half with a picture of a doctor wearing a mask. After kids have found others with the same pictures, they must figure out their group's name. Tell kids the names of the groups match the pictures and they rhyme. For example: Surgeons vs. Sturgeons or Hogs vs. Dogs. For added humor, draw the pictures yourself.

Tracey Westphal

Wyoming, Michigan

CROWDBREAKER

MIDDLE NAME INTROS

This crowdbreaker is a fun way to help teenagers (and adults) get to know each other better.

Give kids a minute or two to come up with an original middle name. This name should describe something about them. For example, "Indiana Jones" could describe someone particularly adventurous. "Obi Wan" could peg a Star Wars fan, "Sosa," a baseball fanatic, or 'Acts-a-Lot" could identify someone in the drama club.

Then go around the circle and have kids introduce themselves, explaining their new middle names.

Jim rice

Guelph, Ontario

OUTREACH

NOT BY BREAD ALONE

An outreach to feed the hungry also serves as a relationship building experience for youth ministry staff, youth group members, and parents.

Once a year we invite everyone to join in making sack lunches. Young people and their parents bring all the needed supplies. We form an assembly line and have a lot of fun while we put the lunches together. We pray for the people we'll be serving. Then we load up and go downtown, where we split up into small groups. We talk with people and distribute the lunches along with printed material from our church.

Afterward we gather again at the church and pray that the seeds we've planted will grow.

Thomas Maw

Del City, Oklahoma