On the lighter side of youth ministry…

Here’s a little harmless prank I pull on students. I love messing with people. If you do, too, you might consider using this if you can do it with a straight face.

Here goes… When you’re out and about with a student, at the checkout counter when he hands his ATM card to the cashier, say loud enough for the cashier to hear, but soft enough to be believable, “You’re still using that guy’s card? He’s going to find out and report it stolen. You’ve got to give it back to him!”

The casheir’s expression will be priceless, yet subtle (usually) and likely include:
- Nervous laughter
- The look of terror because of the conflict between being rude and asking for ID or taking a risk that you’re joking and finish the sale
- A call to 911 after you leave the store and getting to tell the joke to some humorless authorities

(only the first two have happened so far)

The student typically stands there not knowing what to say or do the first time this happens. The following times, it just becomes a running joke. What’s funny is when they try to pull this on me, they usually can’t keep a straight face or botch it. Either way, it’s funny.

Now, for some of you, you see a big flaw in this. Students don’t pay for anything when they’re with you. If that describes you, you might be a ministry newbie. Let the kids pay their own way except for the occassional surprise treat or special occassion.

If you use this prank, good luck. It might take a couple of times to do it well. The cool thing is, you can use it on the same student several times, just don’t do it every time.

I’d love to read some of your fun pranks. Leave them as comments on this post.

For my high school Bible study, we did a white elephant gift exchange. The rule was we had to go to Goodwill, a 99-Cent Store or Big Lots and buy something and turn it into something else. I kind of went overboard as you can see in the video. After I shot this, I added an ornament to the top of it, but you get the idea. So much fun. Not sure I’ll be able to top it next year. Fortunately, most of my guys will be graduated so my new guys won’t hold me to that standard of awesome/hideousness.

This is my 2nd year to do this… and my 2nd year to make a video about it. This video will waste your time. Watch it if you need such a thing… wasting time, that is.

Happy holidays,

Dennis

My boss asked me to find out how to create a QR code for Celebrate Recovery’s Facebook page. I had it done in about 1 minute for free through Google. I decided why not create one for my blog. Not sure how (or if) I’ll use it, but it’s cool. There are a few phone apps that can read these and either reveal a message or take you to a company website. This code takes a person to this blog.

What to create one for yourself for free? Click here

I’ve seen this a few times over the years. It never gets old. Enjoy!

I had this idea to take s’mores to the next level by using Pop tarts instead of graham crackers. It was so good that I had to share the idea here. Go and do likewise!

PS: Thanks for reading VolunteerYouthMinistry.com!

This was a short game we put together for The Landing last Friday. It’s not an original idea, but it was a fun way to get the students involved. Students ran the entire service. The setup for this game was that the computer was playing with the students. The student on stage was kind of a helper for the computer – not necessary, but creative and cute.

We started with a zommed in shot of an object. If the students couldn’t guess what the picture was, we would show the next picture a little zoomed out. If they still couldn’t guess it, we zoomed all the way out and nobody won that round. Then we moved onto the next set of pictures. Good times.

Click here to download the file. Use it, alter it, whatever works for you. Have fun!

So I’m one of “those”. I’m sitting in line for the iPad 2. Been sitting here since 10:30 this morning. Currently it’s 2:40. Just 2 hours and 20 minutes until they release the darn thing.

The cool thing is I’m about #20 in a line of about 150 people. When I get it, I’ve got to high-tail it over to Saddleback Church in time to run The Landing tonight. I’m planning on actually using it as part of my lesson. As part of the lesson, we’re talking about planning for stuff. I’ll be asking the students what steps they would take to raise a kid. I’m getting a VGA cord to plug the iPad into the system so I can write their answers on the screen with my finger and have it show up on the screen. I hope it works. That should add some cool factor to the lesson. I’m sure I’ll be posting lots of ministry applications I find for it. Forgive me if it overtakes this blog.

Another cool thing is that I’ve seen 3 friends walk by while waiting in line. They’re all from my church. The guys around me probably think I’m famous. No, I just happen to attend church with 25,000 other people. You can’t throw a rock in Orange County without hitting somebody from my church. It’s been a cool way to let them know I go to church and spark some conversations.

All said, it’s been a great day! Oh, and another cool thing is I’m getting some reading glasses. I had my eye exam this morning then placed the order. Now I can finally read my Words With Friends score on my iPhone… now that I’ll be actually playing it on my iPad. Better late than never, I guess.

UPDATE: The Landing shirts are now available! Click here for details

I haven’t put on my creative hat for a while. However, tonight I thought I’d put together a couple of ideas I could present to students and volunteers. They want new T-shirts and I’d love to get the word out to more people about The Landing. Here are a couple of designs I came up with. One is edgy, the other’s kind of goofy.