New Year's Eve All-Nighter
I think I have finally recovered from spending New Year's Eve with just over 100 of my favorite middle schoolers. Our Youth Ministry used to plan a pretty big night in the past. We''ve had concerts by Big Daddy Weave and Solomon's Wish and guest speakers like Ted Dibiase and Sting followed by a full night of roller skating, ice skating, and bowling to name a few. And we'd invite other area churches But the last few years we've been pretty quiet.
This year we shared the evening with another area church, Deep Creek Baptist. They brought about 30 or so students to our Life Center and it was a great time. We began setup and sound checks for the band at 7pm and the doors opened to all at 8pm.
The night began with a few ice-breakers to get the students involved. Our first game was hilarious. We strapped alka seltzer to the students forehead and gave them each a loaded squirt gun. The object was to disolve the pills on your opponents forehead before he/she disolved yours. It was a fun time only to be followed by The Banana Game. One student sits in a chair and has to peel a banana using only his/her feet. The fun part is the students partner then has to eat the banana. The first one done wins! We also had a "text challenge" where the students had to text the youth pastors and the 10th and 20th texters won a prize.
Then it was time for the band. I loved this because three of the band members started playing instruments in our middle school praise band and have gone on to play in our high school praise band and now have formed a band of their own. The band is MoonUnit and you can find them on MySpace. They've actually played a few "real" venues as an opening act such as The NORVA. Anyway, they played a 45 minute set and the students were loving it.
Following the band, Deep Creek's youth pastor challenged the students to be real with their faith. He used the example of a Rock Hero Guitar (fake) compared to a Fender Stratocaster (real) and how, even to the most casual observer who knows nothing about guitars, the real and the fake are easily distinguished. So it is with Christians who live their faith only for show on Sundays and those who go deeper and truly try to live for Jesus. It was an impacting message and about a dozen kids made committments to be more "real".
No youth event is complete without Pizza and this was no exception. The cost to attend was a 2 litre drink for guys and a bag of junk food for girls. We provided the Pizza so there was enough to keep everyone snacking all night long. We took a short food break and then it was back to the games.
This time we split the kids up into teams by grade. The students formed a circle, held hands, and a hula hoop was placed onto one of the students. The object of the game was for each student to step through the hula hoop and pass it to the next student without breaking the circle. This went on until it was time to turn our attention to Times Square in New York for the traditional countdown.
Once the ball was down, it was time for a Bungee Tournament. We had an inflatable delivered that had a basketball goal on each end and a tower in the middle. A rope passed through the tower and attached to the back of each student. On go, the students raced toward the goals and the first basket (dunk) was awarded the point. Only, the rope wasn't long enough for both students to reach their goals for a dunk. They had to pull each other back and forth until one got close enough to dunk the ball. The kids had a blast and the winner won a Best Guy Gift Card. After the tournament, a couple of the leaders (including me) even got into the action.
The Bungee Tournament ended around 2AM and it was time for a round of musical chairs. All 100 students played and it was a blast. It took over an hour but we finally had a single winner who was awarded an iTunes gift card.
The big event for the night was a Guitar Hero Tournament on the big screen that is used to simulcast our Sunday morning worship services. I'm not sure of the size but I'd guess it's probably 10' X 20' and it was also played through our sound system so it was pretty awesome. Of course, the songs were limited to those we felt appropriate and the kids had a great time. I'm looking to see a few more students join our middle school praise band - they were rocking!
At 4AM, we put the guitars away for the ultimate game of Dodge Ball. 100 students and 6 balls all flying around at once. It was crazy. We even braved a few games of Leaders (all 10 of us) vs. the Students. The students got the best of us in both games so they have bragging rights until next year. The games lasted until 7AM and it was time to clean up and put the building back together. The kids did a great job of chipping in and getting it done for the most part.
At 8AM, parents started showing up and collecting their students and by 9AM I was back home saying goodbye to my oldest son who had driven up from Columbia, SC to spend the holidays with us. Then it was off to bed for a 5 hour nap and I'm just now beginning to feel like I'm back to my normal sleep schedule.
I can hardly wait for 2010!
This year we shared the evening with another area church, Deep Creek Baptist. They brought about 30 or so students to our Life Center and it was a great time. We began setup and sound checks for the band at 7pm and the doors opened to all at 8pm.
The night began with a few ice-breakers to get the students involved. Our first game was hilarious. We strapped alka seltzer to the students forehead and gave them each a loaded squirt gun. The object was to disolve the pills on your opponents forehead before he/she disolved yours. It was a fun time only to be followed by The Banana Game. One student sits in a chair and has to peel a banana using only his/her feet. The fun part is the students partner then has to eat the banana. The first one done wins! We also had a "text challenge" where the students had to text the youth pastors and the 10th and 20th texters won a prize.
Then it was time for the band. I loved this because three of the band members started playing instruments in our middle school praise band and have gone on to play in our high school praise band and now have formed a band of their own. The band is MoonUnit and you can find them on MySpace. They've actually played a few "real" venues as an opening act such as The NORVA. Anyway, they played a 45 minute set and the students were loving it.
Following the band, Deep Creek's youth pastor challenged the students to be real with their faith. He used the example of a Rock Hero Guitar (fake) compared to a Fender Stratocaster (real) and how, even to the most casual observer who knows nothing about guitars, the real and the fake are easily distinguished. So it is with Christians who live their faith only for show on Sundays and those who go deeper and truly try to live for Jesus. It was an impacting message and about a dozen kids made committments to be more "real".
No youth event is complete without Pizza and this was no exception. The cost to attend was a 2 litre drink for guys and a bag of junk food for girls. We provided the Pizza so there was enough to keep everyone snacking all night long. We took a short food break and then it was back to the games.
This time we split the kids up into teams by grade. The students formed a circle, held hands, and a hula hoop was placed onto one of the students. The object of the game was for each student to step through the hula hoop and pass it to the next student without breaking the circle. This went on until it was time to turn our attention to Times Square in New York for the traditional countdown.
Once the ball was down, it was time for a Bungee Tournament. We had an inflatable delivered that had a basketball goal on each end and a tower in the middle. A rope passed through the tower and attached to the back of each student. On go, the students raced toward the goals and the first basket (dunk) was awarded the point. Only, the rope wasn't long enough for both students to reach their goals for a dunk. They had to pull each other back and forth until one got close enough to dunk the ball. The kids had a blast and the winner won a Best Guy Gift Card. After the tournament, a couple of the leaders (including me) even got into the action.
The Bungee Tournament ended around 2AM and it was time for a round of musical chairs. All 100 students played and it was a blast. It took over an hour but we finally had a single winner who was awarded an iTunes gift card.
The big event for the night was a Guitar Hero Tournament on the big screen that is used to simulcast our Sunday morning worship services. I'm not sure of the size but I'd guess it's probably 10' X 20' and it was also played through our sound system so it was pretty awesome. Of course, the songs were limited to those we felt appropriate and the kids had a great time. I'm looking to see a few more students join our middle school praise band - they were rocking!
At 4AM, we put the guitars away for the ultimate game of Dodge Ball. 100 students and 6 balls all flying around at once. It was crazy. We even braved a few games of Leaders (all 10 of us) vs. the Students. The students got the best of us in both games so they have bragging rights until next year. The games lasted until 7AM and it was time to clean up and put the building back together. The kids did a great job of chipping in and getting it done for the most part.
At 8AM, parents started showing up and collecting their students and by 9AM I was back home saying goodbye to my oldest son who had driven up from Columbia, SC to spend the holidays with us. Then it was off to bed for a 5 hour nap and I'm just now beginning to feel like I'm back to my normal sleep schedule.
I can hardly wait for 2010!
Tags: all-nighter, celebration, new year's eve, party
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