Looking for a Youth Rally Theme?

Sometimes the make or break point of a youth rally can be one of the very first things set and that is the Theme. It sets the tone and creates excitement as well as gives the youth a phrase to sum up the day/event to help them remember. Over some time I have got a few ideas that could be built up and made your own and from the base of a strong rally so I thought I would start by sharing one of my favorite. 

If you have a strongly male youth group or are looking to attract more guys to your event one theme that might play to them is a play on the video game series Call of Duty, a war based which may cause some problem for a few parents but you can down play the whole gun part if that problem arises. The title of your event would be Called for Duty in that Christian have been called to the work of Christian, A strong theme but leaving it open for speakers to be able to play to their strengths. 

Sub-topics could as so be set-up off the game by using Game-types as titles of lessons:

Domination - Dominating fears that hold us back in spreading Christ.  

Search and Destroy - Searching out Sin in our lives and Destroy sinful opportunities.

Headquarters - Setting up a home base of safety 

...and so on as needed for your event. 

T-shirts would be an easy fix with options jumping out from the beginning, in that you could change the cover of any of the video games boxes such as holding a bible instead of a Gun. An other option would be to do anything with someone in uniform.

Hope this helps, feel free to take and need and let me know how it goes. 

Blogger, Start your Macs

This must begin with larger thanks to my sister and my wife Joy for leading to this point of starting a blog something I never thought i would be interesting enough to do, but nevertheless here when are. To start this blog off I guess I should let all 2 of you that may read this know where I am coming from and what I will be using this for.

I started my college career as a music major focused on play Tuba and singing, (so you I was the coolest guy on campus) but in my junior year I decided that I wouldn't be happy unless I switched to Bible and became a youth minister. 2 years later I find myself working for a church of 500 in North AR with a youth group of around 50... when we did fun things! I loved this job everyday I woke up to effect someone’s life and spent my days enjoying who I was and what I did. Then after only 1 month of marriage my wife and i found out that we were about to have a BABY.... (Enter life changing music).... Don't get me wrong, I love my son who is now 6 months old and I love my wife who is now old enough that she would be mad for me to say her age, but I knew changes where coming. Such changes as we knew we didn't want to live 6 hours away from family, so 2 months into the first trimester I let the elders know that after Caleb was born we would be looking to move closer to family but would be willing to finish through the summer events for the kids. Two days later I was meet in my office by one of my favorite elders and he was there to let me know that it had been decided that I needed to leave in the next 2 weeks. (Emotional break, prepare yourself) This was a blow to me, I came close to losing all faith in the "Church" which was scary because it left me with no group to turn to for support like I have been told my whole life, I was very lonely in a spiritual aspect.(Break down over) 

SO my wife and I moved to north AL to be with family and to look for another youth minister job ... It's almost a year later now and I am working retail for just above minimum wage and am get turned down by the few open jobs in the area, "is this what I went to College for?"

One day in sadness I tweeted that thing I missed most was the public speak to much I received 2 responses: 

1. I was in courage to try to get on the speaking circuit for the youth in this area, so rather then work as a youth minister to one church be more of a "free lance youth motivator" (Copyright Pending). This seems like a great idea to me and I am looking to press forward with this option by trying to get my name out there! (Fingers crossed..... toes too)

2. Write a blog.... and here we are today. I am going to try to use this blog to put out there some of my ideas about public speaking in general and speaking youth. This being said please fell free to use any idea you may find on here - I only ask that you let me know how you use the idea and how it goes over! 

  

Stay tuned for my updates and ideas