Mystery Events

With apologies to Rev. Jesse Jackson, I have often said that three of the enemies of a thriving student ministry are, "Sameness, Tameness and Lameness."  I'm not even sure how many of those are actual words, but they do serve to get my point across. If your youth know what is coming all of the time, they will become complacent and perhaps a bit bored.  One way to spice up the summer calendar is to schedule some random Mystery Events.  I tried to do this at least once a summer to keep the kids on their toes.  Most times the events were small and not a big deal, but the youth always loved them.  Here's the publicity for one such event, taken from one of my Summer Brochures:


On Saturday, July 19th, Carl and a few of the Youth Counselors are going to a late movie.  You are invited to join them.  What movie, you may ask? HA!  That is information you cannot have.  Which theater?  More information that is for us to know and you to find out!  Simply meet at the church at 8 PM, bring money, bring your friends- and bring a parachute.  We will have you home by midnight- or sooner if you forget your parachute!  Here's one hint about what we will be seeing: It's a movie. We'll see you at the Late Show!


We always had a nice turnout and had great times at these events, which also included mystery meals, mystery games and mystery visits to the houses of our students.  We also took two completely wacky and insane mystery trips (those stories another day).  And then there was the most infamous of all the mystery adventures: Be Afraid...Be Very Afraid!  Few tings I ever did in youth ministry generated as much buzz as those three Saturday mornings.  Come back Friday to get the details...