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Fall Festival Planning Ideas for Youth Ministry! · Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: On this episode, we're talking all about how to plan a super fun fall event for your youth group.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where every week we bring you actionable and practical tips to help you grow the size and health of your youth ministry.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: My name is Jeff Lascola, and this is Kirsten Lascola.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: And today we are going into the future.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: I am so excited because school starts this week.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: Some school stuff already started, so some of you might be in the past.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: When it's the future.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: To me, basically all that to say it's fall.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: It is fall.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's the moment I've been waiting for all year.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I love fall.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I'm my best self in the fall.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like the most accurate version of me, my happiest me.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it is.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it feels so basic to say that, but I just love the fall.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: I have my tea here tonight and just feeling so cozy.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so we are doing an episode all about how to throw an event.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: In church world, we have to be careful how we phrase this because depending on how you grew up or what kind of church you grew up in, uh, you might call this event something different.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you call it a harvest festival.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you call it fall festival.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: A fall festival.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Fall harvest festival.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: Something with fall, something with harvest.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we all know it's code for we don't want to say Halloween.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we're not gonna say that word.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: Some churches are fine saying Halloween, some are not.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Potato potato.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um I beg to differ.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: They're vastly different.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if that is triggering for you, this episode might not be for you.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: You could just skip it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's fine.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: But if you would like to know how to throw a fun fall event for your students that may or may not involve costumes and candy, where in the world did I get that idea?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: If you object, that's okay.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: There's room for everyone at the time.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: Any other time of year would be completely fine.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_02: But right now, I say no.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's okay, Jeff.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I honor, I honor.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: I am going to race to the comment section to voice my disapproval.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: If you that's what you need, we're here for that.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm kidding.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, it's a lot of fun, and we do this every year, and I've never had any pushback or anything weird.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: It just seems to be a whole lot of fun and bring everybody together.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And how I say it, everything can be redeemed for Jesus.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: So no matter how you feel about it, why not redeem something that could have a weird connotation and make it all about Jesus?
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Ultimate power move right there.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's how I look at it.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: All right, we've addressed the elephant in the room.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: The elephant has been addressed, and we're moving on.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I was looking at my notes for the event I did last year.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: We call it C3 Chaos Costume and Candy Bash.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Hey.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: See what we did there.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I always admit I am not good at naming things.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm good at other things.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Naming, not so much.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, maybe I should use Chat GPT for that more or something.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Because, anyways, so that's what the elements are involved.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Our youth group is called Chaos.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's basically costumes and candy, and it's something that our students look forward to every year.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: So if you'd like to do something similar and you want to get a head start, I'm so proud of you because gosh darn it, it's fall, okay?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Even though it's August 10th today.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's still summer.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: No, I refuse When school cup gets back, it feels like it's fall.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like that's the official, unofficial switch into the fall season.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm drinking tea.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's full.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's not pumpkin spice, so it's still summer.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: I almost did.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: I bought pumpkin spice creamer two days ago, but I didn't want to open it yet because I wasn't done with my vanilla creamer.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, all right.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we talked a little bit last week about having something fun to eat.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: So, what I love doing at events.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: At events, in general, every day on the hour, every hour.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: What's my fun thing right now to eat?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Tea.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we do cotton candy usually at this event.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just think cotton candy for a fall festival type of atmosphere is super fun.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's easy, it's cheap, kids love it.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: What's not to like?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: There's not much more to say about that.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to do something different, like um caramel apples.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like if you have a larger youth group versus a smaller youth group, if I had a small youth group, I would probably do caramel apples.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen it done really well where you get a little clear plastic cup, like a half cup, and then you fill it with like sliced green apples, and then you drizzle the caram on it.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then kids could maybe even do an extra topping if they wanted, like peanuts, like Sunday peanuts or sprinkles or something like whipped cream, and then it kind of tastes like apple pie.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've done, oh, this was a really good one.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: This could work for big or small youth groups.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was apple, kind of like apple pie floats.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it was like, Oh, do you remember we did that at church?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: I my contention is I invented it, but I probably didn't.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Is it um like basically vanilla ice cream with apple juice or apple cider?
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then you could do it.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I invented that.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, whatever.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: With cinnamon.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you did invent it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: There it is.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, no one's heard of that movie.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, Jeff invented this cool drink.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: So this one is a got it.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: This one is super cost effective, I feel like, too.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: So if you wanted to do it like um, what do they call the espresso with ice cream?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Afogato.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I have no idea.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's called afogato.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't drink espresso, not because I don't love it, but because it makes my heart race.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's like espresso with vanilla ice cream.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you could do hot apple cider with vanilla ice cream.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you live in a colder climate, if you live where it's warm, you could do just apple juice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and cinnamon.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: Cinnamon.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, whipped cream.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: And it's called the apple pie dream shake, if you really wanted to know.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: You are excellent.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_02: But that was when it was like blended.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: It was a shake.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my invention.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds good too.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_02: It was really good.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of like a pie drink.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we've done pie in a cup at church where you go and get the big Costco pies.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: And instead of giving everyone like a full slice of pie and you go through so much, you just do like a scoop in one of those cute little plastic clear cups, and then just top it with whipped cream.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it can be pumpkin or cherry or apple, and it just is enough.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Like you just need a little pie in a cup kind of thing.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: So, those are some ideas for a fun, harvesty fall themed treat.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think any of those would work well, super cost effective.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: So then we move on to the event itself.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: So last week we talked about whenever you do an event or whenever I do an event, I love putting a just dance in there.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: So we would all come in, we'd probably watch a funny video.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: The funny video would be probably fall themed, um, something like that.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then we would probably go straight into just dance Ghostbusters or Thriller.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: You're probably gonna need two for this event.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So just stagger them however you want.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Those are both approved, appropriate, and a lot of fun.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Ghostbusters is three dancers, so it's fun to kind of like they get a little group.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Thriller is just one, I believe, but it's still fun.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now, what do you what do you your whole group is doing it though, right?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just yeah, but like everyone gets a tiny little group of three, and then because the three are doing different things.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it'll be like the Ghostbuster on the right does this thing, and then everyone waits, it's like a ripple or something like that.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then we usually have leaders go around and pass out candy, like I had said last episode during that.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, good job, especially during like fall and you know harvest, harvest, it's really fun.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: Autumn.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't want to say Halloween.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'll edit that out.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so scared.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so scared, Jeff.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like this is an ongoing running joke that we've had for many years about churches and the well, I went to a Christian school growing up and we had the fall festival and it was candy in costumes.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: What was the difference?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right around October 31st, of like, okay, we just redeemed it.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: We can just redeem it.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's fine.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, nothing scary.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and that is well, I'll get into the costume thing in a second.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we play Ghostbusters, we do our just dance, and then we're going to do um announce that we're having a costume contest.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a couple rules for a costume contest.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: The kids are encouraged, but not required, to come in a costume.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: I say you can't be anything scary or gory.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: We don't do that.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: So, like no scary, evil clowns, no blood, no gore, no weapons, no knives, no nightmare stuff.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: The other rule I have, I always say nothing scary, nothing sketchy.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: And by that I mean you can be a bumblebee or you can be a sketchy bumblebee.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like girls, just you know, or boys.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't seen that one yet.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Don't want to, but it's like just be appropriate.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: And kids usually pick up what I'm putting down.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: And there's so many options that you can do and not be one of those things.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Totally.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: And my kids usually rise to the occasion.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: I very rarely have an issue.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: I did have this kid come in a giant clown outfit a couple years ago, and it was terrifying.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: Just a regular clown.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was like seven feet tall.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, I don't know.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's like you put it on, but then the top had like these wires in this giant clown, and all these kids ran up to me.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, he can't wear that, can he?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, go out to the parking lot.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, actually, can you just put that in your car?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we're not gonna wear that.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, okay.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like he was fine with it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: That is not harvest approved.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: No, so nothing scary, nothing sketchy.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other rule I have is I only have adults vote for the costume contest.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I learned that the hard way.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a year this kid dressed up as a claw machine.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: I remember, and it was amazing.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: He was the claw machine, he was in this box and it was filled with stuffed animals.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_02: And like his head was like basically one of the stuffed animals looking like it was like his grandpa helped him make it.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was perfect.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: He should have won.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: However, there's a more popular boy who was dressed cool, he looked good, but nothing close.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the other boy won.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then I just had this moment where I'm like, this is a popularity contest.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Not a real costume contest.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: And to this day, I regret like not intervening there.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, votes are votes, you know, like a dum-dum.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so now I only have adults vote because they usually do it fair and square.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: So we do have a costume contest, and throughout the night, I have my leaders write their top three.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: And then later on in the evening, I go through the results.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone who wants to, we do like, we play Madonna's Vogue and we do a catwalk and we put the lights down, and everyone lines the auditorium, and you can walk down the middle and show your costume.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: I have some hams in my group and it is fun.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: They will dance, they'll do the worm, they'll like twirl.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: They love showing off their costume, especially if it's something they're really proud of or something they made.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: I had a kid dress up as a demigorgon once.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's scary.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't though.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was looked like a flower.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: It just looked like a flower.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was weird.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was he made it.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was awesome.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we do the costume contest, and then we have prizes for the winners.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: So first, second, and third place.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: So that could be like a big candy tower, that could be a gift card, whatever your budget allows.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: But I say first, second, and third is probably enough for that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then obviously, we're gonna play games.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I try to schedule the night so that I can play one kind of shorter fun game that only takes about 10 minutes, and then a longer game that's more in the 15-minute range.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: But so last year, the first game I played was Head, Shoulders, Knees Cup, and that's where you just line up with a partner, you go head to head.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: Someone on the microphone is calling head, should or there's a cup on the floor between you.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you cannot bend below 90 degrees.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: So you're kind of in like a squat position, and then you put your hands on your head, your hands on your shoulders, knees, whatever they say.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Shoulders, knees, shoulders, head, knees, shoulders, cup.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: And then whoever grabs the cup first gets to stay in and find a new partner.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever doesn't is out.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's elimination, last couple standing, the winner gets a prize.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's just kind of fun, and it's usually pretty quick.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that's more of like a fun little icebreaker.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: On special nights like this, I like to do more than one game, and then we would do another just dance.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: So then if we did Ghostbusters before, now we're gonna do thriller.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then we'll go into our next game.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_01: Last year we played Predator, which we did two teams, Jack Skellington versus the Great Pumpkin, and we printed out cards with those logos on it.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: And Predator, if you've missed that episode, is basically all the kids get a card, and the card denotes what team they're on.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: They just get one.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're on Jack Skellington, you have your Jack Skellington card, I have the great pumpkin card, and we run out.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: You find like a play area and you tell the kids the boundaries, and we run out and we get a 60-second head start for the leaders that are coming after us.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So some kids hide or you know, just run around, and then the leaders come out armed with dodgeballs or noodles or the sock weapons, and they, if you get hit by a leader, you surrender your card, that's your life, and then you're out and you go back into the auditorium to wait for the round to be over.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then we count all the cards at the end that the leaders have collected from their shots, and those count as hits against you.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: So then the lowest card or the lowest count wins.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: If the kids did not get caught, they get to keep their card, and that point obviously doesn't get counted against their team, and then they can keep it if you play another round.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's my student's favorite game.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: I like playing it in the fall because we play outside and it's dark by like right now, it's hard to play it outside because it's light until like eight something, and it's like, well, you know, it's not as fun.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh we played a lot in the fall, and I I I they love being hunted down by the leaders.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, they just think it's so much fun.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't understand why.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't think it's that fun, but they do that exhilarating feeling of being chased, I guess.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: Goes back to like the playground where the girls and the boys would chase each other.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure it has something rooted in it.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: I hate that feeling.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: Right I hate someone behind me.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: I hate being chased.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: But I think when you're a kid, totally the chase and all that stuff is still still fun for some reason.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: For some reason.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: They love it.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we play that, and after the games is when we do the costume contest, so that we give the leaders plenty of time to vote and all of that.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: So after Predator, you know, they'll come back in and we'll announce the winner of Predator and then we'll do the costume, catwalk, and contests.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then I like to do a message on this night.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: I usually like to do something about fear and um what the Bible has to say about it.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: You could do, you know, like depending on what age group you work with, like the common fears of that age group and what the Bible says, you know, how I think it's 300.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if this is room or not, but I've heard it says 365 times in the Bible, like do not fear.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: So you could read that one for every day.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like you could.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: I can read it every time it's in the Bible.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: 365 times.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I thought you were gonna say.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: Read every passage.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Every day.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: No, in your message.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Do not fear, do not fear, do not fear, or fear not.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you could talk, kind of unpack the kids, like like what God is trying to communicate to us in the human condition.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: Why does he have to keep saying that?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And how can we hold on to that?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: What is our hope in Jesus?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: Again, we're redeeming everything for Jesus.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, quick question for you.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever felt like you were working really hard in your youth ministry every week, but you don't know what the next step is or how to grow your youth ministry?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you are not alone.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that is exactly why we created our course and coaching program called Youth Ministry Growth Accelerator.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: Inside the program, we're gonna walk you step by step through strategies, systems, leadership principles that help ministries grow, both in size and in health.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: This isn't just theory, it's the exact framework we've used and taught to youth pastors all over the country and even globally.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: In addition to the course and coaching, you will also have the opportunity to join a cohort community where you can meet with other youth leaders who are on the same journey to encourage each other, share ideas, and stay accountable as you put things into practice.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're looking for a clearer path to grow your ministry, head over to grow your youth ministry.com to see everything that's included.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Once again, that's growyouryout ministry.com.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's get back to the episode.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: So here's some other ideas if you don't want to play Head Shoulders Knees Cup, if you don't want to play Predator.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Here's some variations of things I have done in the past that worked really well.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And this is especially good.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: I get a lot of requests for people saying, talk about things for smaller youth groups.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And these are what I did when I had a smaller youth group.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a pumpkin carving contest when I was a smaller youth group, and I went to a pumpkin patch and just said, Hey, I'm a church and I'm a church.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Kristen, the church is here.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: I said, I work at a church.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I asked if they were willing to either give me small carving pumpkins at a discounted rate or if they had any that they were getting rid of.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't remember.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think I paid something and they gave me like 20 pumpkins.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then I went and got some of the carving stuff, um, like at one of the party stores or something, or Walmart, and it wasn't too much.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then I had the students get in groups of like five, and they, or three, probably.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Five is a lot to carve a pumpkin, two or three.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um well, depending on how many pumpkins you got and how many kids you have, you could have one each.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you could.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then you could do like America's great bake off or whatever, and like time them and like a certain amount of time.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then they could like showcase it, like here was my vision here, and like you could have judges, you could take that as far as you wanted to go, but I thought that was really fun.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: You can also just a lot of groups will just paint them and that would just avoid the I mean, I guess you have the mess of paint, but avoiding the mess of pumpkins, and you can just do it that way, and you they can get super creative and what they put on it and stuff.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, when I can get creative, they usually don't get creative, but you know, I've seen some.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Usually when have you done a pumpkin painting contest?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and they'll say vote for our students or whatever, and you look, you're like, Okay, very good.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: The best ones I've seen are characters, like they turn it into like a Dr.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Seuss character or a minion.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Not everyone's an artist, I guess.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not, so mine would be horrible.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then another fun thing I did when my group was smaller is instead of playing two big group games, we turned the auditorium almost into like carnival booth games.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so kids could play a bunch of different games all night and earn tickets and then turn those tickets in for prizes or candy or snack shack items or something later in the night.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it'd be things like pumpkin bowling, and you would have a leader run that booth for our this is kind of what they do for our elementary school, you know, at the Monster Mash.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like we made you who am I kidding?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't help, but it was a ring toss.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you painted small cones like candy corn.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh small, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then you had like the kids toss the rings over it.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: We have like an uh kid like plastic axe throwing thing that our high school ministry bought.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's meant for kids.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: You could do like the duck derby where like you race the rubber duckies when you're blowing them with the straw.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, you could chat GPT that there's probably tons of like school carnival games.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that was a fun one.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: We did that I did that a couple years in a row.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think why I stopped A, we grew, but number two, instead of just setting up like one big group game, I felt like I was setting up a bunch of games.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you have the manpower for it and you like that kind of thing, it could be awesome to try one year.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then another game we played once, this was super fun.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was a costume relay, so I feel like it fits really well with the theme.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: So basically, you have, and they don't even have to be exactly the same piles, but say you have two teams and And there's a pile of clothes.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: And you can like the first person runs and has to put on the pants and then they run back and tag the next person.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: The next person runs over and they put on the hat and then they, you know, or you could have them put on every single thing, take every single thing, and then it has to keep going.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: Again, smaller youth group, that's probably a better option to do it that way.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: So either one works.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: I've yeah, played both ways and both are fun.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, just some extra little freebie games there for you.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you could even like make the costume more thematic.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like it could be like they're dressing up as something specific, like a minion.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: So they have to put on overalls and a goggle, a goggle, and just one gloves and whatever.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you can make it themed like that.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it could be a mystery, like, don't tell them like what it is, and then they have to guess or something.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: So the finished costumes are usually pretty fun and funny.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I feel like because we're doing this so early, you have plenty of time to sort of take this as a blueprint and then add to it, take away from it, delete this file altogether.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but it gives you sort of like hopefully some creative thoughts for oh yeah, maybe we do something in the fall.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: I usually do it the last Tuesday of the month.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't do it on an extra night.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: Our youth group is on Tuesday.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: I do it on Tuesday.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Our I think it was either last year or two years ago, Halloween fell on a Tuesday.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: You mean harvest day?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: No, actual Halloween.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: It happened on a Tuesday.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: And they were like, are we still gonna have youth group?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, let's do it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we had like 10 kids show up.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, awesome, they had the best time.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have any questions, Jeff?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: No, I just think it's worth reiterating, you know, whether you you know your church, you know your kids, you know your parents.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: If are they okay with a harvest festival?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Do they like pie in a cup?
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Do they like apple dream shake?
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: I don't if they don't like apple dream shakes, don't give them apple dream shakes.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's not for you.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Just you probably haven't even made it this far in the comment or in the uh video, but you've already made it to the comment section.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: But just know that you know, if if you're okay with that, then this is some great ideas.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not, then it wasn't for you.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, you like some of our other videos.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Aw.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: We did do a whole episode on fall kickoff events.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of specifically for like small groups.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but if you guys want to check that out, make sure you check that out.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have if you want to check it out, make sure you check it out.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then check it out.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: And if you want to email us um for we have like 20 event ideas for that.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to email us, we'll give you that whole list.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: It has all kinds of decor options, game options, things like that.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: So something fun for your youth group.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I know a lot of people do trunk retreat.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of churches in our community do that.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really know.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: I've never been to one.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: They do it too.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I've never been to one.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: I've heard about it.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Looks fun.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think people decorate their trunks, like theme it out, and then you go and get candy, like as if you're going to a house, but you go to a car.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And they decorate it.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: I just I think it's just the safety of it, you know, because you have instead of going to a random house, obviously you have the church members in a parking lot, so families can feel safe doing that, which is cool.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know and the same idea with uh like an event like this, you know, it's a fun time to just put on a costume, be silly, you know, and also hear the word of God.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what are you gonna be for?
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: I've been thinking about it and I really don't know.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_02: I could recycle an old costume.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like it's been a few years since I've used some of them.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: I did Jack from Jack in the Box one year.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: That was a fun one.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I might do that one, except it was really hard to see out of the head.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh winner winner chicken dinner where I was like a chicken on a giant plate of like mashed potatoes and you should have had a blue ribbon on too to make it a winner.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: I know I should have.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's okay.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: Missed it this year.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'll do that.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I have the plate though.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think I threw it away.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: All that stuff.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: We can't start.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: I kept it for like 15 years.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: It was good, it was really good.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: All right, well, thank you guys so much for watching and listening.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: And we'll see you next time.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Today we're talking about how to plan an amazing and unforgettable youth fall event on the budget.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: On a budget.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: On this episode, we're talking about how to plan a super fun and unforgettable, you know, uh, I don't know.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.