GET SOCIAL THREE SIMPLE AND EASY SOCIAL NIGHTS LIFE NIGHT OUTLINE CATECHISM # 736 # 1718 # 1829 SCRIPTURE Psalm 62:5 Proverbs 17:28 Matthew 11:15 Romans 15:13 GOAL The goal of this Life Night is to provide three simple social Life Night ideas in one outline for a youth minister to use when there is limited preparation time. Each Life Night is highly relational and designed to build community among the teenagers at a parish. ABOUT THIS NIGHT This Life Night is three social Life Nights in one. All three begin with the same Gather and end with the same Send. They have been designed to use in situations when you have limited preparation time and need a fun and engaging social Life Night for your teenagers. Choose one idea from the Proclaim / Break section of the outline to implement. These social ideas can be used throughout the year, and the format of the five-in-one Life Night can be used multiple times. LIFE TEEN SPOTLIGHT 39
GATHER WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION (5 min) Welcome the teenagers to the Life Night and introduce any teens that are attending for the first time. Take a few minutes to recognize any birthdays or special events that are happening in schools. After this brief time of sharing and recognition, begin the Life Night with a prayer. REVERSE CHARADES (20 min) Break the teenagers into groups of six to eight, with one Core Member in each small group. Have groups spread out around your main meeting room. Prior to the Life Night write down charade topics on piece of poster board or input them into a Power Point presentation and project them on a screen. Some ideas for topics are: Mary Parting the Red Sea Cheering for a terrible football team Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead Creation Winning the lottery Peter walking on water Eating a giant cake Invite each Core Member to the front of the room and turn around. Hold up a sign with a charade topic that only the teens can see. Allow the Core Members to turn around. Each small group will then begin acting out the topic without talking, and each Core Member will need to watch their small group in order to correctly guess the topic. He or she will whisper guesses for the topic to the youth minister, and if the guess is correct the Core Member s small group can sit down. The first group to sit gets three points, the second group to sit gets two points, and the third group to sit gets one point. Play several rounds and keep a tally of the points. Have a small prize for members of the winning group. PROCLAIM/ BREAK (30 min) Choose one of the following three low-preparation options for your social Life Night. Option #1 - Photo Scavenger Hunt Keep teens in the same group that they were in during the Gather. Make sure each group has a teen in it with a camera phone with Twitter or Instagram. If necessary, change teenagers around in groups so every group has a camera. A sample list for the photo scavenger hunt can be found on page 43. If you have time, you can also create your own list or edit the list provided to fill the time. Allow groups 30 minutes to take pictures of items on the list. One group member must be in each picture (to prevent teenagers from using pictures from other sources). Have teenagers Tweet or Instagram photos from the list with the hastag #LTPhotoHunt with the Core Member leading the group keeping track of items found. After time has expired, award prizes for the groups that found the most items and the best or most unique pictures. Teens can also look up other group s photos by searching the hashtag. Option #2 Behind the Back Affirmations Prior to the Life Night purchase several pieces of poster board, tape, and markers. Have teens stay in their small groups while the Core Member from each group gathers the supplies for the affirmations. Tape a piece of poster board to each of the teenagers backs. Then give each teenager a marker along with the following instructions: We enjoy receiving affirmations, but sometimes we fail to give them out as often as we should. It is easier to talk poorly behind someone else s back than it is to give them an affirmation. At this Life Night, we are going to take time to affirm each other. Every person has a poster board on his or her back. Take time to affirm each other by writing affirmations on the poster board. 40 LIFE TEEN SPOTLIGHT
Play music as the teens and Core Members write affirmations on the poster board. Allow the teenagers a substantial amount of time to do this. After every person has had several people write on his or her back, allow the teens to have a few minutes to read the affirmations that other people wrote. Option # 3 - Zombie Game Night The theme of this social is all about zombies. There are three games that will involve all teenagers in the youth group; each game can be played multiple times as your schedule allows. Zombie Tag Choose two volunteers (more if you have a larger youth group) to be initial zombies for zombie tag. Everyone else is a human. Zombies may not run, and must walk with arms outstretched while grunting. When the zombies tag a human the human then becomes a zombie. If you have extra time, set up areas where zombies can hide. Blind Zombie Shuffle Break the teens up into four to six groups. Have each group split in half and line up across from one another on opposite sides of the room. Give each person a blindfold and make sure they put it on before it is his or her turn to walk. Give the first person in line on one side an object to hold. Be creative with the objects think apocalyptic zombie movie. Old shoes, bike tires, and small kitchen appliances all make great objects. Explain these rules to the teens: When there is no music playing, the blindfolded zombie will begin to zombie walk forward toward their group waiting on the other side. A zombie walk, consists of walking forward holding the object with arms outstretched forward, grunting, with legs bending as little as possible (it winds up looking more like a zombie waddle. ) Teens are not allowed to run at any time. When the music starts, the zombies must stop moving forward and make up a zombie dance. This can be anything goofy, but any person that does not start a zombie dance immediately will need to return to the beginning of his or her line. When the music stops the zombies may move forward again. When the zombie passes the baton they can move to the end of the line and sit down The first group to have everyone sitting is the winner. Zombie Dodge Ball Divide a large room or gymnasium into two sides. Place five teenagers on the one side, designated the zombie side. The rest of the teens start on the human side. Rather than placing all of the dodgeballs in the middle, the zombies will start with them. When the youth minister begins the game, the zombies may begin trying to tag the human players with the dodgeballs. If on the human side gets hit with a dodgeball below the head, they become a zombie and go to the zombie side. If a zombie catches a ball thrown by a human, that human becomes a zombie and goes to the zombie side. If a zombie is tagged by a ball below the head, he or she must sit down and becomes dormant for 30 seconds. During this time he or she cannot move and cannot throw or catch any dodgeballs. If a human catches a dodgeball thrown by a zombie, the zombie that threw it becomes a human again. The game can end in three ways: 1. All humans are eliminated 2. One human is left and is able to survive for one minute without being tagged by a dodgeball 3. All zombies are dormant at the same time (the most difficult way to win) SEND CLOSING PRAYER (15 min) After all of the activities are completed for the Proclaim / Break that you have chosen, close the night with a time of silent prayer. Move the teenagers into the sanctuary space of your Church, or another quiet, prayerful place. If possible, this place should be where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved at your parish (either the sanctuary space or in a Eucharistic Chapel). Explain the time of prayer to the teens: We had a lot of fun at Life Night and were able to strengthen friendships and bonds. There was a lot of craziness, fun, and movement. At different points it may have felt chaotic. Our lives can also be chaotic at time. We have school, sports, homework, clubs, and other activities consuming our lives. With all of LIFE TEEN SPOTLIGHT 41
those things, it can be easy to forget where we find our center and our peace. We find peace in the bond that we have with Jesus Christ. We must make time for Jesus in the midst of the craziness of life. We must take time to slow down and be present with the One who is always present to us. We are going to close tonight with a period of silent prayer. Silence can be uncomfortable, but it is also a place where we can allow ourselves to hear the voice of God. Read 1 Kings 19:9-13 Elijah finds the voice of God in the silence. We are closing the Life Night in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, in front of Christ, and in silence. Take a few moments to ask God to speak into your heart, and to offer your prayers and intentions to Him. Allow the teens several minutes to pray. If possible, have paper and pens available for the teens to journal as part of their prayer. After everyone has time to pray in silence, close the Life Night by praying a Hail Mary and Ave Maria. ADAPTING THE SESSION If possible, invite your parish priest or a deacon to be present to lead a brief period of silent Eucharistic Adoration. This should be a very simple time of prayer, without music or noise. Close the Life Night with Benediction and the Divine Praises. 42 LIFE TEEN SPOTLIGHT
GET SOCIAL HANDOUT PHOTO SCAVENGER HUNT INSTRUCTIONS Small groups must photograph items on this list. At least one group member must be in each picture for it to count. Bonus points are awarded to groups that have the most creative photographs. The Core Member in each group must check-off and confirm each photograph at the end of the game. Crucifix Mary A business card Water bottle 5 different colored wallets/purses Your entire group in the air Your entire group in the shape of a pyramid Someone blessing himself or herself with holy water Everyone in your group praying in a different way Someone who is looking like an old lady Someone who is looking like an old man Someone reading the Bible The name of Tobit in Scripture 5 red objects at once Everyone doing a zombie impression Another group taking a picture Pope Francis Picture with the youth minister (Youth minister can hide a bit) Everyone in the group shortest to tallest Everyone in alphabetical order by the 2nd letter of his or her middle name A beard. Spell out a word with your team using your bodies Your group playing duck duck goose An insect dead or alive Someone eating a blade of grass Someone making a pig face A Latin word Someone doing the Bernie Someone doing a handstand LIFE TEEN SPOTLIGHT 43