I need ideas

I am just recently elected as an assistant youth leader in my church in Fiji ... I just need ideas of how to keep our youths together.

Ana
Fiji

Editor's Note: Hi Ana,

I am pleased to have heard from you and that you took time to identify yourself on our map of guests. You can see that we have had a nice response from around the world.

You asked about steps to take to maintain the interest of your youth. May I suggest the following:

• Group activities need to be planned in collaboration with the young people themselves. We do this by having annual elections and I meet regularly with our elected leaders even if only for a few minutes before a meeting. In addition during our weekly announcements we always ask all of the youth if they have any suggestions.
• Be a good listener. You will learn a great deal that helps you develop your program by listening to the youth talk with one another, perhaps during a craft activity or some event during which they are doing something rather than discussing. Our youth have shared many a good idea while working at a local soup kitchen feeding the homeless.
• Make the meeting fun. You can share the gospel and have fun at the same time. On the website I have described some activities that we have developed that do just that. Also - it is O.K. to have some activities purely for fun. We do this but in every meeting we find some time to share why we are all together - the love of God that brings us the three themes for our program - Faith... Fun... Friends.
• This one depends on your comfort level. I love when our young people challenge me. It makes me do some work and my faith grows as a result. I have just put on the website the result of such a recent challenge. Two weeks ago nine of our young people stated they wanted to be part of a Christmas skit - no suggested topic - they just wanted to do so. The end result was the skit "Were You There?" which they will be performing on Dec. 16th. I will be printing it sometime next week in full on the Activities Archives page with a reference on the Activities page. Use it in your meetings if it will be helpful.
• I have some activities on the website and there are 360 pages worth of activities in a recent book I have published entitled "Not the Same Old, Done-it-before Youth Meetings". You can find it on Amazon.com and you can even review segments of the book @Amazon.com. Also on the page entitled "The Book" you can read a few brief testimonials about the book.

I hope I have been helpful and please let me know how your group is doing. Do you have any pictures of your young people and some of your activities that I can share on this website? If you tell me a little more about your group - ages, number who come to meetings, frequency of meetings, I may be able to make more concrete suggestions.

We will keep your group and yourself in our prayers and we wish you the happiest of Christmas seasons. Tim Ferguson

If you also wish to write to Ana, please send your message to: TimFerguson@christianyouthgroup.org. and it will be posted on this website.
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