Special Events

Special events can be big or small and often something that the young people can either organise themselves or take a large part in the organisation of it. The more they get involved with the planning and organisation the more skills they develop and the more commited they will be with the final event. You can run your event just for the fun of it or organise for something special such as raising money for charity or the youth club.

For some events consider arranging as part of it an entertainer or demonstrator to come along.

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Cabaret

Lots of fun and lots of hard work, but if you've done it before you know that already!! Those taking part choose what they fancy doing... Music, singing, dancing, drama, comedy, magic, gymnastics.... We have found that although the children/youth often provide the initiative to get it started it requires an adult to take charge and keep the enthusiasm for it going.

Duck Racing

Sent in by Lyn Hunt

At our Church Children's club we have an annual duck race, when we race numbered plastic ducks along a stream just for fun. The winner wins the coveted "golden duck" ( a plastic duck painted gold. ) Needs permission from your local council but we have never found this a problem.

Fashion Show

Very successful at those places it has been tried. Like the cabaret requires some effort to put together and make it work.

Resources:  Shops in local area may be willing to lend out clothes. Especially if the event is being organised as a charity event. Worth also checking out second hand clothes shops and charity shops.

Murder Mystery Evenings

Another popular event and ideal for older youth and adults. Write your own murder mystery for guests or group to solve over the course of an evening, perhaps even over a dinner. Or if you lack ideas then try one of a number already written, there are plenty of scenarios to choose from various specialist suppliers.

Sleep Overs & Lock in's

If you've never done them these are very popular! Make an event of it and possibly combine it with another activity such as a video evening. If they are church youth (or not) see if its possible to hold one in the church (if the church will let you) as a way of getting youth to see the church in different light and introducing those not already going to church. If you hold it on Saturday night, see about being part of the church service in the morning which they'll have to be up for anyway!! Play it safe though and make sure when you organise an event that there are enough adults.. although this depends on the age of those sleeping over and how responsible they are.

Who wants to be a Bible Millionaire

Credited to Aaron Blanco at Jonathan's Resources.

This one is also mentioned in the site's games section, but worth mentioning here as its a brilliant way of encouraging children to learn parts of the bible (or other topics for that matter!) and making a good evenings entertainment out of it. [Kit]

This game is a clone of the hit television show "Who wants to be a Millionaire." Here's how it works:

The game is nearly identical to the TV version, with a few minor exceptions. All contestants know one or two weeks in advance what portion of the Bible the questions will come from. (We generally give two weeks' notice and often cover an entire book, such as one of the Gospels.) The Grand Prize is $50 (or £50 - you decide) and the prize ladder for correctly answered questions is as follows.

Question #1 = $1
Question #2 = $2
Question #3 = $3
Question #4 = $4
Question #5 = $5 (first milestone)
Question #6 = 10
Question #7 = 12
Question #8 = 14
Question #9 = 16 
Question #10= 20 (second milestone)
Question #11= 25
Question #12= 30
Question #13= 35
Question #14= 40
Question #15= 50

(You may decide upon less money; but I have found the lure of $50 to be a *big* motivator. You may elect to charge a small fee from contestants and observers.)

Obviously the easier questions come at the beginning and gradually become much harder toward the end. Students know that one has a very limited chance of winning the Grand Prize without having carefully read the entire material at least once or twice. (Yet the questions should not be so hard that they are nearly impossible to answer...)

Lifelines are the same except for one. Instead of the "Call a Friend" lifeline, we substituted a "Check the Bible" lifeline, where a student has thirty seconds to look for an answer in the Bible.

"Fastest Finger" questions may be anything you want, but should be easy enough for anyone to answer. Sheets of paper and pens may be handed to each potential contestant and then the Fastest Finger question is read audibly. The first student to raise his/her sheet of paper (and who has the correct answers) gets to compete for the Grand Prize.

Some students may not do Fastest Finger well. Another option may be to ask the question and have students fold their sheets and hand them in. Then the host draws one sheet at random.

To involve more people, you may invite other students not answering questions to be "guest hosts" and read the questions to the contestants.

We put all the questions on MS PowerPoint, dimmed the lights and showed the questions on a large screen.

Video Evenings

It sounds like a cheat and with today's technologies, the easy availability of films through the TV and and we do not do it often, but we find it is not so much the film as youth having an opportunity to be together... We have found that these work better if organised at somebody else's house along with some food, pizza, etc, and you could if wanted combine it with something like a 'make your pizza'. When have had video evenings at the youth club they are more interested in playing games...