Due to lack of planning—David takes the blame for that—we had another games night. However, this time, David did some work ahead of time, and came up with some games to play.

Mostly, we played Whose Line is it Anyway. Some people didn’t want to take part, but those who did really enjoyed themselves. Near the end of the night there was talk of playing Boneyard, but it never came to fruition.

John’s devotion was about love. He compared God’s love for us with our love for each other; when two people have been dating for a short period of time, and are still in the “puppy love” phase of their relationship, and one says, “I love you,” to the other, it’s much different from when God says it to us. When one of those people says it, that person doesn’t really know the other person. The person’s faults, for example. Whereas when God says it to us, there is nothing intrinsic in us for Him to love—yet He loves us anyway. Not because of who we are, but because of who He is.

At the our Youth Group, we’re often stuck for games to play. But one that can be fun is Whose Line is it Anyway. If you’re not familiar with Whose Line, it’s an improvisational television show that used to be very popular, and it’s also fun to play in youth groups or at parties—as long as people are willing to set aside their shyness, and act.

For example, here are some games that are easy to play, even with people who aren’t familiar with the show:

• Questions Only: The participants act out a scene, but they’re only allowed to speak in questions. For best effect, there should be two people in the scene, and others on standby; whenever one of the actors says something that’s not a question, that person gets buzzed out, and another takes his/her place.
• The Dating Game: This game involves four people: Three contestants, and one “straight man.” It’s set up like a dating game show, where the three contestants are vying for a date with the “straight man,” except that each of the contestants is assigned a strange identity. (See below for examples of strange identities, that we’ve sometimes used.) The idea is for the contestant to figure out the identities of the contestants, by asking the types of questions somebody might ask on such a game show.
  
  For example, Contestant 1 might be a Muppet. The “straight man” might ask something like, “Bachelor #1, if we were to go on a date, where would you take me?” to which Contestant 1 might answer, “Sesame Street.” That kind of thing.
• Alphabet Game: Two (or more) participants act out a scene, where each line of the scene begins with the next line of the alphabet.
  
  “How are you?”
  “I’m fine.”
  “Just checking.”
• Commercial Moods: Two participants perform an infomercial for a particular product, and throughout the scene, they occasionally get assigned a mood (angry, happy, sad, etc.), and have to continue the scene in that mood.
• Sound Effects: Two contestants act out a scene, while two other people provide the sound effects for that scene.
• Whose Line: Two participants act out a scene, but throughout the scene, they occasionally have to work in lines which are given to them. They are given these lines on pieces of paper at the beginning of the scene, but aren’t allowed to look at them. It’s easiest to understand if you’ve seen it on the television show; there’s an example transcript online you can read, from the show. Below are some sample lines we’ve used. The stranger they are, the funnier they are during the course of a scene.

These are some examples, but there are numerous others. Really, these are all just improv games, so any improv game will work.

Strange Identities

Here are some examples of identities that we’ve used in the past, just to give you an idea. Of course, you can always come up with your own, and we often do:

• co-anchor being fired because of anchor
• wanting too much attention
• grade 6 student
• turning into werewolf
• falling in love with audience member
• 1920’s mobster about to get caught
• angry grandmother
• camera shy
• wedding co-ordinator
• mad scientist trying to take over the world
• can’t handle stressful situations
• fast food employee
• French chef
• martial arts master
• aerobics instructor
• runway model
• home shopping club host
• unsuccessful poet
• a Muppet on sesame street
• Dracula/Werewolf
• having a fight with his/her partner backstage
• A Teletubbie
• Rude beauty salon employee
• Beauty Queen/Actress from the 50’s
• Really bad mime
• Really dry stand up comic
• Man going through his mid life crisis
• Southern Baptist preacher
• Very nervous driving instructor
• A fly
• A desperate actor who has only come on the show to be "discovered"
• The mother of… (for example, for the dating game, the mother of the contestant)
• Humpty Dumpty
• A hypochondriac
• A disco maniac, stuck in the 70’s
• A heckler
• A cowboy
• A secret agent, protecting the president
• A snowman who’s melting (and not too happy about it)
• Santa Claus
• A lounge singer
• A college student cramming for an exam at the last minute
• An angry father on a long road trip with the family
• A sports announcer
• Panics over the slightest thing
• For Strange Newscasters, one of the characters is doing the traffic from the traffic cam, but the pilot has collapsed, and s/he has to take over the controls

Scenes

Here are some example scenes. As with the strange characters, you should always feel free to create your own.

• 2 Star Trek fans at a convention
• 2 candidates for President at a debate
• 2 astronauts about to leave for a trip to Mars
• someone at a job interview
• 2 people on a bus on the way to a historic site
• 2 people in the army about to go to battle
• 2 people waiting for plastic surgery
• someone buying a pet from the pet shop
• someone sneaking in food to the movie theatre
• someone calling the plumber to get the toilet fixed
• someone trying to get out of a speeding ticket
• at heaven’s gates with St Peter
• someone trying to talk their way out of grade 9 initiation
• James Bond meeting his arch enemy
• Action scene from the old Batman and Robin
• 2 people on a blind date
• one person firing the other, who is begging to keep his/her job
• A general briefing the president that the Earth is about to be destroyed by a comet
• Crossing the border, while trying to smuggle a truckload of diapers
• A commercial for laundry detergent
• At an old West saloon, waiting for the arrival of the notorious Ugly Gang

Strange Lines

Following are some examples of strange lines we’ve used. You need to put each line on a piece of paper, and the participants usually put the scraps of paper in their pockets, to pull out at appropriate parts of the scene.

• Indeed, I am the true Lord Of The Dance.
• What’s that thing in your nose?
• Being a woman just got better.
• I’m a complicated man, and no one understands me but my woman.
• Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?
• Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.
• All the girls say I’m pretty fly for a white guy.
• But what if my diarrhoea comes back?
• I am woman, hear me roar!
• Luke, I am your father.
• Help me Obi-Wan Kenobe, you’re my only hope.
• Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids.
• Whatchu talkin’ about Willis?
• It’s time to release the baboons!
• Why, oh why, did I swallow that fly?
• The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world!
• Honey, I’m home! Oh, I forgot, I’m not married.

Finally, the snow let up enough for us to have a Youth Group meeting again. (Unfortunately, there is supposed to be more snow next Friday—hopefully not enough to have to cancel it again. We’ve been cancelling Youth Group a lot, lately.)

Due to lack of planning, it was decided to have a Games Night again. As usual, the Games Night was not planned too extensively, beforehand. For the first hour or so, the kids entertained themselves; most of the boys played basketball, in the church gym, while some kids were in the sanctuary, playing the drums and piano, and some others were playing video games, on a console provided by Urban Promise. Some of the older boys were also having an intense conversation with one of the Urban Promise leaders, with whom they’d developed a good relationship. They mentioned that when they graduated out of Urban Promise, Youth Group hadn’t really properly filled the void—which isn’t too surprising, because the boys have less in common with the current Youth Group leadership than they’d had with the Urban Promise leadership. Still, it’s a failure for the Youth Group leadership, not to have filled that void.

While this took place, David ordered pizza and wings. Since it takes so long for delivery, we decided to let the kids continue entertaining themselves, until it arrived. We could then do the devotions, while the kids ate, and then move on to play Boneyard.

Unfortunately, when the food finally arrived—but after the pizza delivery guy had already left—we realized that he had forgotten to give us all of our drinks. So David had to call them, and get them to bring the rest of our drinks. He also forgot to start the devotion, and John had to remind him. The kids had already dispersed, and David had to go and gather them back up again.

John’s devotion was on the subject of a Christian’s changed life. Although we know that a Christian’s saved behaviour can never save that person—that is a work of Grace, and nothing but Grace—the flip side is that a saved Christian will always start to exhibit Christ-like behaviour. The saved person will become more like Christ—and if that person doesn’t start to become more like Christ, it’s a sign that the person has not been saved. If you’re not more like Christ than you were before you got saved, then you need to examine yourself, and decide if you really are saved. (For example, see Matthew 7:15–23.)

The drinks arrived just as the devotion ended, which was good timing. And then we played boneyard for the rest of the night. This is usually a crowd-pleaser, but for some reason, the kids weren’t into it. (Which tends to happen, from time to time, when you’re dealing with teenagers.)

After boneyard, it was time to bring everyone home. It took a few trips, between Odele and David, but we got them all home. Some kids had to go to Mississauga, which is a bit outside of the usual Youth Group range, but David volunteered to bring them.

Since we play the game Boneyard so much, we thought it would be a good idea to post the rules here. The kids in our Youth Group usually love it, so other Youth Groups probably would too.

Object of the Game

Boneyard is basically hide and go seek in the dark. You have to turn off all of the lights in the church, except for one particular area, which is designated the boneyard. (In our church, we have a particular stairwell that we always use for boneyard, because it’s somewhat isolated—meaning that turning the lights on there doesn’t illuminate the rest of the church—but, at the same time, fairly central to the church.)

Everyone hides, and the person or people who are “it” attempt to find them. In this version of hide and go seek, people are allowed to move around freely—they don’t have to remain in the same spot for the entire game. When someone is caught, that person goes to boneyard. To catch someone, you don’t have to tag them, you just have to find them, and tell them to go to boneyard. For example, if you were it, and you found Odele, you would just say, “Odele, go to boneyard.” Or, if you’re not able to make eye contact with him or whatever, and need to make it clear, you might say, “Odele, hiding under the table, go to boneyard.”

The tricky part about Boneyard is that people can be freed. If someone is free, they can go to boneyard, and free anyone who is currently caught, by tagging them. Once they are freed, they can go and hide again. (When you’re it, you’ll often walk by boneyard and find a bunch of people there, and then walk by a few minutes later and find it empty.)

The object of the game, of course, is for the people who are it to catch everyone, and have everyone in boneyard. With a fairly large group, such as we have, this rarely happens. There have only been a couple of instances where the person who was it has won. (That is, until John started as a Youth Group leader, and now he regularly catches everyone.) At the beginning of the game, you should set a time limit for the game, so that people will know how long they’ll be playing; you may want to have multiple games, so that the same person (or people) don’t have to be it for hours upon hours.

Rules for People Who are It

The following specific rules apply to people who are it:

• No “cherry-picking”—that is, if you’re it, you can’t spend the whole game guarding boneyard, in case people get freed.

As you might have noticed, there aren’t a lot of rules for the people who are it. The game is usually stacked against them, so we don’t want to tie their hands too much.

Rules for Game Participants

The following rules apply to people who are participating in the game, and hiding from the people who are it:

• No hiding in boneyard. (This may not be applicable for you, but if the location you choose for boneyard has somewhere that people can hide, it will.) If you’re free, you’re not allowed to hide within the boneyard, so that you can keep freeing people when they get caught. (You can, of course, hide close to boneyard.)
• Similarly, if you’re free, you’re not allowed to stand in boneyard and pretend that you’re caught, so that you can free others as they get caught.
• No hiding in bathrooms. Since people who are it wouldn’t be able to freely go into the bathrooms to find you—i.e. a man couldn’t go into the women’s room, and a woman couldn’t go into the men’s room—it wouldn’t be fair.
  • If you are playing this game in a church, as we do, there will probably also be other places that people aren’t allowed to go. For example, in our church, we don’t allow people to go into the sanctuary. If this is true for you, you should make it clear at the beginning of the game which areas are out of bounds.

Youth Group was cancelled this night, due to a snow storm in Toronto.

With the help of some medication, David was finally able to make it back out to Youth Group, so all of the leaders were present.

There had been plans to go to Laser Tag, joining with the other Youth Groups we’d previously met with. Unfortunately, the other groups’ plans changed at the last minute, but we decided to continue on to Laser Tag on our own. We knew it would present a problem for rides, because events like Laser Tag always draw out a lot of kids, but it wouldn’t be the first time we’d had to squeeze too many kids into too few vehicles.

Normally, when we have an event outside of the church, David switches cars with the pastor; we take the pastor’s van, and the pastor takes David’s car. However, after a quick head count, we realized that we weren’t even close to having enough seats. So we called the pastor, and asked if he really needed the car; he didn’t, and we went and got it. That gave us three vehicles: David driving the pastor’s van, John driving David’s car, and Odele driving his own car. Altogether, it was seventeen seats, for nineteen people. We’d have to squeeze two extra people into the van.

Due to a miscommunication, John hadn’t realized that he’d need to prepare a devotion. (Since we were going out, it was assumed we wouldn’t need one. However, David is trying to make sure we do devotion every week—something we haven’t been good at in the past. (John has been a big help in making this happen.)) So David did the devotion, which was a parable from his own life, illustrating the way that God is in control of our lives, even though we have our own free will. The devotion was much shorter than usual—preparation is a good thing, and winging it often causes problems.

After the devotion, we piled into the vehicles, and left for the Laser Tag arena. We played two games, and the kids seemed to have a really good time. (It’s always a coin toss as to whether kids will enjoy Laser Tag; sometimes they love it, and sometimes they’re just bored with the whole thing. For a high-school-aged group, it seems to be the younger ones who enjoy it more, and the older, jaded kids who get bored with it.)

David was still not feeling well, so John, Odele, and Diana took the reigns again. It was a games/movie night, and perhaps food might have been ordered, as well. (When David wrote this post, he didn’t have any details.)

Again, the devotion went well, with John able to maintain the kids’ attention for longer than usual.

David wasn’t feeling well, so John, Odele, and Diana took the lead. It was a games night, but unfortunately, since David cancelled so late, it wasn’t too well planned.

On the bright side, though, John was able to expand his devotion time, and still maintain the kids’ attention. That’s always a very good thing.

Diana’s profile coming soon…

Youth Group was cancelled for December 28^th and January 4^th, for the Christmas/New Years holidays.