Our first live youth group - ministry recap

Like many of you, I learned Saturday afternoon that our church was shutting down. This was in accordance with the governments limiting of large group gatherings. For us, that meant no worship services on Sunday and the cancelation of all events for the foreseeable future. This would include the gathering of our student ministry. So I jumped into the pool with everyone else, hustling to rework their youth ministries to accommodate the shut down.

Our plan was to utilize Facebook LIVE. This would be the first time that we attempted a Facebook LIVE, and because it was our first time, I decided to keep it simple; a welcome, a game, and a short devotional. Below is the outline of our first live youth group gathering.

---

Date: Tuesday, March 17th, 2020
Theme for the Night: C3Students LIVE
Series Title: The Great Unknown
Message Title: Reminder of Who is in Control

Countdown Video: 
 - No countdown this week.

Welcome Video: 
​ - I welcomed everyone to our first Facebook LIVE and gave an update on the church's position with Covid'19.

Announcements: 3 minutes
 - Explained that everything is on hold for the next 2 weeks.
 - Plans are being made for future small group activities.

Game: 20 minutes
​ - The Corona Scavenger Hunt: I created a short, 10 item scavenger hunt for the students. One by one I called out an item. The students had to search around their houses, find the item, take a picture of it, then send it via text to me. The first text I received was awarded 2 points, everyone else received 1 point. The scavenger hunt included the following items.

• A ROLL OF TOILET PAPER
• A BOTTLE OF HAND SANITIZER
• A BAR OF SOAP
• A BIBLE
• A BRUSH

• A TEXTBOOK OR COPY OF AN ASSIGNMENT
• A MASK
• A ROLL OF PAPER TOWELS
• A BOX OF TISSUES
• A CAN OF LYSOL DISINFECTANT SPRAY

Worship: 15 minutes
 - No Worship

Message: 25 minutes
 - The Great Unknown
 

---

It ended up being a great night. We had fun with the scavenger hunt. The students utilized the comments space. And, everyone stuck around for the whole message. All in all, not a bad first attempt. Since we will be using Facebook for the time being, we are looking to up the game for next Tuesday night. I have already started planning and trying to figure out how to pull off an excited event! Check back next week to hear what we did.

- jay

---

Jay Higham is a veteran youth worker of almost 30 years; having worked with students in the local church and Christian camping settings. Jay is currently serving as the Director of Family Ministry at Covenant Community Church, in Wheeling, WV. Jay has been married to Amy for over 21 years. Together, they are raising 5 kids, (4 boys and 1 girl). Jay is an aspiring author, blogger, speaker, vlogger, and social media junkie. He is passionate about student ministry, family ministry, and training youth workers to love and serve their students with passion and excellence.