In this game you can have as many teams as you want. The teams are made up of two people. One person has a bucket and stays behind a line, his/her teammate has a hat on that covers his eyes and on this hat is duck tape wrapped backwards (sticky side facing out). The bucket person spins his/her teamate around three times and then verbally tries to direct them to a pile of candy on the floor. Tape-head person attempts to roll their head on the candy to get as much of it as they can to stick.

Tape-head person then attempts to make it back to bucket person and bucket person takes all the candy they can off of their head and put it in the bucket. You can either end the game here or you can send tape-head person back out there for more candy. Team who has the most candy in bucket wins. Lots of laughs for everyone, especially spectators!

Here’s a video that I put together recently about this and if you are interested in raising money for your youth ministry, please fill out the form below the video and I will personally call you to talk about how the program works. You could possibly raise $3 – $6k within two weeks and the best part is its not thrift sales or car washes! Make sure that you put your phone and please place the word “fundraiser” in the message box part of the form below

cforms contact form by delicious:days

This may all be old information for many, but I thought that I would put together a video showing you exactly how to create your own YouTube playlist for your youth ministry.

What’s great about it is you can add or take videos out each week. Add funny videos to your playlist or whatever you want to do. As long as you have high speed internet streaming at your church you should be able to use this idea effectively.

Here’s the video (I was using a free screen capture software so you may hear some glitch noises but it’s nothing over-powering):

Writing a purpose statement is always an exciting time. It’s inspiring to dream and pray about what God could do through the youth group.

But no matter how inspiring a purpose statement is, that does not guarantee that it will make an impact. We’ve all made banners of purpose statements and hung them up with all the fanfare, only to let them sit and collect dust. The hard part is actually using them.

Here are a couple tips to help bring your purpose statement to life so that you can use it to strengthen your ministry and disciple students.

Set clear goals to accomplish your purpose statement. Start as far out as possible, like with a 30 year BHAG. Then break it down to goals for the next 5 years, for this next year, and finally for this quarter. It’s hard work, but it pays off.

LIVE by those goals, every week and every day. Keep them in front of you and use them to set your agenda each day. Constantly ask yourself, “Is what I’m doing right now accomplishing this quarter’s goals?” If not, don’t do it!

Review all of your goals each quarter and set new quarter goals. Did you accomplish last quarter’s goals? Why or why not? What did you learn?

Revise everything annually. Your purpose statement and big goals may not change much, but always be ready to make adjustments as you go along. Don’t keep goals just because you used to think they were a good idea. If they’re not a good idea anymore, change them.

Involve others in the process. “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22). Don’t do it alone. Find wise counsel and listen to their opinions and advice regularly. And talk with your senior pastor to align the youth group with the rest of the church.

Pray, pray and pray. In each step of the process, ask the Lord to direct your steps and to give you wisdom and insight. Just “doing ministry” doesn’t change hearts or lives. We need to remind ourselves of our need for Him, especially when we think we have it all together.

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Nathaniel Dame is leading a new online training opportunity for youth pastors to study how to lead on purpose, make the most of every discipleship opportunity, and develop a committed, engaged adult leadership team.

Youth pastors will also learn how to create and live by a purpose statement to make a deeper impact, and they will be given a simple yet effective 2 Page Strategic Plan template.

This online training is a unique small-group experience titled Creating a Movement of Student Discipleship.

A new session starts soon–register by THIS FRIDAY for the best rate. To learn more visit http://www.calledtoyouthministry.com/training/creating-a-movement or email nathaniel@calledtoyouthministry.com.

Nathaniel is the president and founder of Called to Youth Ministry. He lives with his wife Christa and his son Josiah in Woodstock, IL.