During a recent Family Camp I stood on stage introducing the theme for the weekend while Caitlin, one of our program team, stood alongside me and unwrapped Laffy Taffy candies. She read the joke off each wrapper and then stuffed the candy in her mouth. By the end of my introduction, there was a colorful stream of sticky saliva running down her chin.
Why did we do it? Just for fun. And that’s ok.
At SpringHill, we value the integration of faith and fun, rather than it’s delineation. For us, it means the opportunity to learn and grow in our relationships with Jesus doesn’t have to end at the edge of the stage. It means we sometimes do stuff just for fun, and other times take time for a spiritual lesson from a game or activity.
By intentionally blurring that line, we find we are able to engage a broader audience in a way that allows the Gospel to speak to them. It also sends a strong message that their Christian faith does not have to stay at youth group or at home. It teaches them that they can share the story of God’s work in their lives in the halls at school, at the gym, and even in the classroom.
Here are some of the things we do to make this happen at a weekend retreat:
We do stuff just for fun.
I can’t imagine that Heaven is going to be boring, and I’m convinced our Christian gatherings shouldn’t be either. It’s why we do silly skits with dumb punch lines, smash fruit on stage, and sing nonsensical camp songs around the fire.
When kids have the opportunity to laugh together, it breaks down barriers that might keep them from sharing their stories. Laughter also helps us to forget, at least for a moment, the challenges we face back home.
When we prepare funny skits, jokes and videos, there are three questions we ask:
- Is it funny to the people in our audience? What is funny to an elementary schooler may not be funny—or appropriate—to a crowd of college students (although often it is).
- Why is it funny? We want to intentionally stay away from funny at the expense of others, from funny that reminds us of past hurts, and from funny that our moms wouldn’t laugh at.
- How does it contribute to our session? Sometimes the answer to this is just that it gives us a chance to laugh. Other times, we can connect a funny story or video to a significant spiritual truth that starts our audience out laughing and then causes them to say, Huh.
We give people a chance to learn, rather than just be taught.
Each winter season we design and build a Prayer Labyrinth. It is a multi-media, interactive experience that gives students an opportunity to interact with the same content our speakers are sharing from stage in their messages in a different way.
The Prayer Labyrinth allows us to engage the content with our varied senses, and often will speak to students who zone out, or fail to connect with our speakers. Here are some of the key elements:
- We give kids a chance to read Scripture themselves (often from Bibles placed in the various rooms and bookmarked). By seeing the words in the broader context, they get a sense of the connectedness of what’s being taught to God’s bigger story.
- We give them something to do. Sometimes this includes physical elements like planting a real seed in real dirt. Other times it may be as simple as walking around a room, sitting, or kneeling.
- We invite them to pray. In a busy retreat weekend, some kids may actually not take time to speak to God or listen to Him. In the directed context of the Prayer Labyrinth, where kids are expecting to spend time in prayer, it feels like the right thing to do… and it is.
- We reinforce the same concepts from sessions. By tying together the concepts presented in the main sessions, the Prayer Labyrinth can help students to see how each piece of the weekend fits together. We intentionally will pull elements, characters and individuals from this experience into the skits and videos on stage.
- We present the Gospel. If there are kids who don’t listen well to a speaker on stage during the messages, then they may also not connect with a verbal invitation from stage. Because of this, the way of salvation is woven through the experience, and many students make a decision to follow Christ standing alone in a Prayer Labyrinth room.
Because of the self-directed nature of this part of the weekend, it allows students the freedom to progress at their own pace. Some will take significant time in prayer and to dig deeper into the scriptures. Others may move quickly through it, drawing the intended connections to the weekend content.
We free up youth pastors and leaders to spend time with their students.
This year, in particular, I’ve heard it several times from leaders who, in the past, planned and programmed their own student retreats: “Because you plan and facilitate everything, I just got to spend time with my students.”
It’s a key part of how we see God at work during retreats. During a weekend away, the relationships that trusted adults from home have been investing in for months and years, give them the opportunity to enter the stories of their students and share their own stories.
They talk about life and truth as they sit around the tables in the dining hall. They recap highlights from the teaching as they ride the Magic Carpet up the tubing hill. They tell stories about God at work in their lives as they lay in their bunks at night.
How are you using creative elements to reinforce the truth of Scripture with your students?