Christian Youth Games: The Lifeboat Game
The Lifeboat Game. A list of ten people is displayed. The list includes individuals such as: a pregnant woman, the president, a minister, a person about to find a cure for cancer, a ten-year-old child, a comedian, a fisherman, a sailor, and a reformed criminal who speaks to youth about the dangers of crime and the like. Youth are advised that these ten people are in a lifeboat and the lifeboat is sinking. It has been determined that only five can remain for the lifeboat to float. Youth are asked to write down which five they think should remain. One of the ten people on the lifeboat is identified as “yourself.”The votes of five are totaled up and the choice of the group is revealed. The matter is then opened up for discussion. Did the group, as a whole, make the correct choice? Why were the choices made?
We did this event on January 27, 2008 with not only twenty six young people participating but fifteen adults. We did not include the president in our list and added a missionary doctor. Why don't you try this with your youth group. Here are the results we got from the event...
The top six choices of the adults, then of the youth are as follows. All votes are for which five of the ten individuals should stay on the boat…
15 adults voted as follows:
10 Year Old - 13 votes... 87%
Scientist about to find cancer cure - 13 votes... 87%
Pregnant woman - 12 votes... 80%
Missionary Doctor - 11 votes... 73%
Fisherman - 9 votes... 60%
Myself - 6 votes... 40%
26 youth members voted as follows:
Myself - 21 votes... 81%
Missionary Doctor - 18 votes... 69%
Pregnant woman - 17 votes... 65%
Sailor - 15 votes... 58%
Ten Year Old and Scientist (tie) – 14 votes … 54%
One quick observation - the closest result is for the missionary doctor to remain. 69 per cent of the youth said yes and 73 per cent of the adults also felt he should remain.
The minister – he got one vote (thanks to Danny Ermert) but Pastor John stated that he had filled out his list with himself off the boat.
More Lifeboat Results - this time from a group of young Christian leaders at a Youth Workers Conference (October 2008)
The choices included with number of votes received in parentheses: Pregnant woman (18), Ten Year Old Child (19), sailor (10), scientist to find cancer cure (17), fisherman (9), President of U.S. (4), reformed gang leader (7), minister (8), a television news reporter: mwho could tell the story (1), yourself (6).If anyone uses this, let me know how it went. It would be interesting to see how your group voted. Please write to: TimFerguson@christianyouthgroup.org. I would really like to hear your results and your thoughts about what choices your young people made.
God bless you in all your youth activities.
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