Brother Adam Posted May 29, 2010 Share Posted May 29, 2010 I am now the youth minister for my parish. I have been trying to come up with our schedule for next year, which has been an adventure in madness. I especially need more awesome ideas like "Glow in the Dark Toilet Paper Dodgeball" and "Super Bowl Party Night" Here is what I have so far: Youth Group Schedule 2010 – 2011 Youth Group Cost: $25.00/Year (Free for Visitors!) Regular & Core Meetings: Sundays 2:00 – 4:00 PM Bible Study at WHS: Tuesdays 3:00 – 4:00 PM TENTATIVE TENTATIVE TENTATIVE TENTATIVE TENTATIVE June 2010 6/30 Diocesan Cedar Point Day July 2010 7/30-7/31 Michigan Adventure Camping Trip August 2010 8/22 Core Team Meeting – Office Olympics September 2010 9/7 School Starts 9/12 Core Team Meeting (2:00 – 4:00 PM) 9/19 Religious Education Eucharistic Ceremony 9/26 Meet at Ellie’s ($meal) / Issues Night / Youth Banner October 2010 10/6 Core Team Meeting 10/10 Toilet Paper Glow in the Dark Dodgeball / Pizza ($2) / Issues Night 10/24 Ultimate Frisbee / Make your own tacos, so very tasty and good for you, ($2) / Issues Night November 11/7 Vocational Discernment / Eastern Catholic Church Visit / Pizza ($2) 11/14 Core Team Meeting 11/20 (Sat) Youth Mass @ 4:30 PM / Youth Laser Tag & Pizza Afterwards ($5) December 2010 12/5 Core Team Meeting 12/12 2:00 PM Service Event (???) 4:30 PM Teen Mass – Gaudete Sunday / Dodgeball & Pizza 12/24 Midnight Latin Mass at St. Mary in Morrice 12/31 New Years Eve All-Nighter Lock In + Bowling January 2011 1/9 Core Team Meeting 1/23-1/24 March for Life Trip 1/30 Youth Group Meeting February 2011 2/6 Core Team Meeting 2/13 Youth Group Meeting March 3/6 Core Team Meeting 3/13 Youth Group Meeting 3/27 Youth Group Meeting April 4/10 Core Team Meeting 4/17 (Palm Sun) Passion Play 4/21-23 Triduum May 5/1 Youth Group Meeting 5/8 Core Team Meeting Summer 2011 Franciscan University Summer Conferences & LEAD Program Cedar Point / Michigan Adventure November 2011 National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) 2011 November 17-19, 2011 Indianapolis, IN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Adam Posted May 29, 2010 Author Share Posted May 29, 2010 Basically, I want to know what youth actually want to do. What would make you even remotely interested in coming to youth group without your parents forcing you and it not JUST being fun stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted May 29, 2010 Share Posted May 29, 2010 I love wall climbing. I've only ever done it in school, but if I get an opportunity to start up again, I'd certainly take it. If you played it right, you can easily get a lot of team building/bonding features out of it. The climber/belayer relationship is great. Something about being really high up and not falling only because of your friend on the ground really allows you to build trust, and it does wonders for communication. That's something I experienced personally, looking back on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vincent Vega Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 I think the visit to an Eastern parish sounds really cool...but I'm probably not exactly the demographic that you're looking to hit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTheresa Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 Going off Nihil's idea, you could see if a couple of other youth groups from other parishes want to do something like a huge field day where you had teams and competed in games like rock climbing and flag football, dodgeball, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, etc. I'm not sure how many kids are in the group, but if it's small you could combine with another parishes youth group. Maybe you already do this, but there's something called XLT, where the kids come together for one night and sing praise and worship songs in the church and have Eucharistic Adoration. Sometimes the parish pries will give a little talk and then there are cookies and pinch afterwards. I'd also suggest a movie night and a couple bonfires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Adam Posted May 30, 2010 Author Share Posted May 30, 2010 Bonfires are a great idea. Thank you. We do things with other groups once in a while, usually in the context of a Diocesan wide event. Joining groups bigger than us (we are small and just starting) is usually not a good idea. Sometimes the kids don't come back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomist-in-Training Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 I like books... so if the parish had had something with books when I was in high school I might have gone to it. They tried to combine Rel Ed and youth group and I was already Rel Ed'd because I went to Catholic school. You have Chesterton in your signature. Can you pass around something of his, like Lepanto or Man Who Was Thursday or Napoleon of Notting Hill, for a bookish youth night? I'm trying to think of one of his "more Catholic" works but nothing is coming to mind except the Father Brown mysteries and 'Everlasting Man' which I honestly could not get through. WHOA I love that you have a midnight Latin Mass in the schedule for Christmas Eve! Oh man--you know what actually? Our local Carmelite Nuns sometimes have vigils (from the afternoon on First Friday till early in the morning Saturday) with exposition and adoration. Someone provides snacks and coffee in a separate room so those who are not utterly can have a break to fuel "Brother Ass." There is a rosary every hour or two and the rest of the time is silent. Youth like this--not for every day, but to go to once or twice it is amazing. Kind of almost like camping (with the snacks) you're going through a tough experience and come out stronger. If you have nuns around you perhaps you could ask about something like this. (Well, you don't REALLY need the nuns, you could do it in a parish. But this is the kind of thing Carmelites were doing anyways, I think, they just invited us to accompany them.) In your case you could bring a dozen books for people to borrow to help them pray perhaps. Dunno if this will do anything for you but the 'XLT' mention and the listing of the Midnight Mass made me think of it. The way we do it there is a Mass partway into the vigil on Friday evening, and another on Saturday morning, that way you can make a First Friday and a First Saturday of reparation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomist-in-Training Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 I see that you have a camping trip listed. I guess coed? Anyways [b]somewhere [/b]in the schedule, even if you have to fly in a girl friend from out of state or something, you should have an activity for young men only, and something for young women only. It doesn't have to be a chastity talk or anything it's just that youth [color="#FF0000"]REALLY[/color] [color="#0000FF"]REALLY[/color] [color="#4B0082"]REALLY[/color] [color="#006400"]REALLY[/color] listen differently in a coed context than in a single-sex one. REALLY REALLY differently. That is one of my biggest youth group memories actually, from seventh grade. There was some seventh grader I thought was cute, and he was in my 'group.' So whenever the group leader said something I thought was dumb, we would catch each other's eye and smile like "We're smarter." The dynamics are REALLY REALLY different in single-sex groups. Trust me. So if you are thinking through your lessons for the year, and think "I wish everyone would listen to this lesson, if they were going to only listen to one of my lessons" (if you have lessons...) then make that day Men's Group/Women's Group. If you haven't thought about this before, think about it. I know you said your group is small. 2 girls and 2 boys is big enough to do at least 1 day with single-sex. Trust me. Remember being a teenager? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resurrexi Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 Lock-ins, dances, and ski trips are generally popular with the youth of my diocese. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Resurrexi Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 By the way, the Latin Mass on Christmas Eve sounds like an awesome idea; I hope that you're able to get a high attendance for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 [quote name='Thomist-in-Training' date='29 May 2010 - 08:38 PM' timestamp='1275183498' post='2120450'] I see that you have a camping trip listed. I guess coed? Anyways [b]somewhere [/b]in the schedule, even if you have to fly in a girl friend from out of state or something, you should have an activity for young men only, and something for young women only. It doesn't have to be a chastity talk or anything it's just that youth [color="#FF0000"]REALLY[/color] [color="#0000FF"]REALLY[/color] [color="#4B0082"]REALLY[/color] [color="#006400"]REALLY[/color] listen differently in a coed context than in a single-sex one. REALLY REALLY differently. That is one of my biggest youth group memories actually, from seventh grade. There was some seventh grader I thought was cute, and he was in my 'group.' So whenever the group leader said something I thought was dumb, we would catch each other's eye and smile like "We're smarter." The dynamics are REALLY REALLY different in single-sex groups. Trust me. So if you are thinking through your lessons for the year, and think "I wish everyone would listen to this lesson, if they were going to only listen to one of my lessons" (if you have lessons...) then make that day Men's Group/Women's Group. If you haven't thought about this before, think about it. I know you said your group is small. 2 girls and 2 boys is big enough to do at least 1 day with single-sex. Trust me. Remember being a teenager? [/quote] On the flip side, of course, I really wouldn't have a lot of interest in an entirely gender-segregated youth group. I agree with you though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thy Geekdom Come Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 I made my youth clean the youth house by picking up dirt with packing tape. Whoever had the dirtiest tape won a prize. I could have (but didn't) turned that into any number of lessons (spiritual cleaning, the dirt of sin, Confession and the Paschal Mystery). Moral of the story: they're teens; you can turn anything into a game and you can turn any game into a lesson, so do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tridenteen Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 JMJ Please be careful with any lockins, the local youth group did that, and it became problematic afterwards. If you are in the mood for a car trip, 8 hrs away is the body of Saint John Nuemann, incorrupt and holy. Oh, and the local pregnancy helpo center might periodically be short oif volunteers, and they are always happy for help. So, if you have any older teens (16-18) that is a possibility. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveletslive Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 (edited) since when do you have to pay to join a youth group? i've never heard of such a thing...or paying for food? i guess ours was always donated my youth group always had a huge turn out for our summer water festival. slip n slide, wading pools, squirt guns, water balloons, etc! we even got our priest to go down the slip n slide in his clerics also ultimate frisbee is HUUUGE with that age group right now, beach volleyball is also fun. Edited May 30, 2010 by loveletslive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thy Geekdom Come Posted May 30, 2010 Share Posted May 30, 2010 [quote name='Tridenteen' date='29 May 2010 - 10:54 PM' timestamp='1275188055' post='2120499'] JMJ Please be careful with any lockins, the local youth group did that, and it became problematic afterwards. If you are in the mood for a car trip, 8 hrs away is the body of Saint John Nuemann, incorrupt and holy. [/quote] Yeah, my diocese had banned lock-INS years ago. Not sure if that's still in effect. Adam and I went to a parish in Steubenville where St. John Neumann was pastor for a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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