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One of my (Matt McGill) best nights in youth ministry!The idea was to design a creative prayer time for our students, a place where they could step away from their regular, busy lives and simply "BE" with God.
We created 15 different stations, each with a devotional, scripture, and activity. Going into the event, we felt that some of the activities were a little uncomfortable/risky, and maybe even cheesy. However, each station ended up being great (honest!) and the whole event was awesome. Sure, we'd make a few changes next time around, but everything went off really well.
We planned a 2 hour event. We went 30 minutes long, which was a drag. 90% of the students didn't complete all of the stations. When we do it again, we'll probably do a few less stations (not sure which one I'd cut...but we might combine stations 4 and 5) and plan for a three hour event.
Here is a quick overview of all the stations:
- Be Ready - Getting started: gathering everyone to set the tone.
- Be Still - identify the "static" in their lives that keep them from hearing God
- Be Silent - duct tape over your mouth, Ecc 5, listening to God
- Be Vocal - write out a prayer, read that prayer and a few psalms out loud
- Be Loved - identity in Christ, lies of the enemy we believe about ourselves
- Be Freed - nail it to the cross
- Be Child-like - joy, delight, celebrate ... shoot 5 baskets, finger paint, eat a desert
- Be Reverent - shoes off, lie on the grass, listen to a dramatic reading of scripture
- Be Called - Jesus calling Peter, have you set down the net?
- Be Light - praying for friends who don't know Jesus
- Be Courageous - write a fear on a stone and throw it into the lake
- Be Servant-hearted - Upper room foot washing...be washed, wash another
- Be Compassionate - "Social justice" issues ... read them all, pick one to pray for
- Be Reminded - Lord's Supper
- Be Thankful - Identify something you are thankful for...write it on a white board and we take a picture
- Be Together - chapel service
