Church Youth Group activities
Growing up I was part of several youth group activities that just made no sense. This blogger opened up her twitter feed to peoples memories of yout group games and got some interesting responses. A friend shared this link on FB and I recalled several wierd games that made the rounds. Stop and think how foolish many, if not most of these “games” are. What are these kids actually learning?
http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/youth-group-games
(disclaimer, I know nothing of the blogger or her world or religious views)
I found the following comment to be fairly funny. Ask my husband how many times I had to stop reading simply cause I couldn’t get oxygen around my laughter.
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I can imagine the history books 1,000 years from now, talking about Evangelicals like we talk about the Puritans.
“Among the historical Evangelicals of the early 21st Century, children were seen as a treasured and valuable commodity. The few historical blogs we have remaining detail the extreme lengths that this religious sect used to keep the children within the walls of their churches lest they depart for other, more worldy pursuits.
‘Among the more extreme examples was the act of breaking the children’s legs with a fifty foot rope so that they could not physically escape. A less extreme but no less effective measure was to fix the youth to the walls with a primitive adhesive so that they could be better ministered to.
‘Although the specific meaning behind many of the youth practices are not yet fully understood, it is believed that they were a way for Evangelical youth to better understand the Christian rites before full initiation. Standing for long hours at attention without urinating was meant to symbolise the resolve needed to practise the faith. Initiating physical contact with one another with inflated plastic sacks of air between them was a reminder of sexual chastity. And the search for a counselor entombed in a garbage receptacle was most likely symbolic of the story of the women who came to the tomb of the deity Jesus.
‘Much of what we know about Christian Evangelical practises comes from the writing of Rachel of Birmingham, notable for practising the rigourous religious practises of the Bible for a short period of time. Not much is known of her after she inadvertently sparked the Great Complementarian War of c. 2024 C.E.’ ”
Sad thing is…A lot of these kids will take nothing more away from youth group than nonsense games.
Another comment- “
You have put my thoughts into words exactly. I remember sitting through those ridiculous games wondering, “What does this have to do with Jesus?” We’d spend 45 minutes finding creative ways to maim each other, 10 minutes singing Michael W. Smith songs, and 5 minutes listening to some variation on, “See, Jesus is fun too, don’t have sex!”
Sorry but no game of Chubby Bunny is going to be more fun than having sex or other “worldly” things, that’s really not the point. Youth group culture needs to give young adults more credit. They are able to understand concepts of abstaining from certain things in pursuit of a greater good.
ETA: I’m as extroverted as they come, and I hated these games too. I started hiding in the playground when my mom dropped me off and finally put my foot down and refused to go. “
My husband quite going to youth group for this same reason. He got sick of the 45 minutes of games and 2 minutes of “devotional”. The pastor’s wife asked his sister if he was even saved. He finally found somebody who would actually TEACH him instead of try to ENTERTAIN him.
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