This past weekend we had our confirmation retreat. I was out shopping for supplies for the games last Thursday (the day this post should have come about). I am playing a little bit of catch up this morning, but also have some reflections coming off of a weekend filled with programming.
Today we are going to continue our series about “The Talk: how everything is the message.” The games and activities that we do have a lot to do with the the tone of the evening and can on some level reinforce what is being taught. Games are a powerful thing that can build up and tear down momentum of an event and the esteem of students.
The picture included in this post is from a mission trip our church went on. Each year we have a Ultimate Frisbee tournament with the other groups from around the nation who are doing mission work as well. This particular year we had a group of students who really wanted to win, and we had another group who might want to play, but were not so good. I asked the group who was not so good if they wanted to just make another team. It would be, “a team that didn’t pretend to want to win,” I told them. The team name would be “The B-Squad”. The idea allowed the competitive students to play their kind of game and the others to have fun too. Soon the “B-squadders” adopted some of the less athletic students from other groups who were in the same situation, as well as some older adults and workcamp staff.
The B-squad was maybe triple the size of the other teams and everyone rotated in every 30 seconds or so (That was part of the ploy to keep the other team guessing). It was a blast!!
When playing games with students remember the message you are sending. set up games to support the message. If you play the games and send the message that winning is everything and then teach about being meek and humble there might be a disconnect.
For great resources about games, planning games, and leading them so that they build up rather than break the group down check out the work of Les Christie
