All NexGen Pro articles – Page 138
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Issues
Movie: Frozen
Disney princesses are usually romantic fodder for Prince Charming to sweep off their feet - but not Anna.
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BlogWaiting for the fruit
Phoebe Thompson on what we can learn from Miranda Hart (and other famous people’s Wiki bios)One of my favourite pastimes is reading biographies of famous actors and actresses. Unlike the sophisticated among us – who purchase inspiring books from respectable book stores on successful individuals – I happily scroll for hours through Wikipedia entries on the latest soap stars.
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IssuesFun Games
One question I get asked a lot is: ‘Why do you have games in your sessions?’ You might want me to talk about reinforcing the theme or complementing the teaching, but the main point of a game is to have fun. Church is allowed to be fun (joy is a fruit of the Spirit) and a very good way to have fun is to play together. Of course there should be a time to be contemplative, but there should also be a time to run around screaming while waving your hands in the air (to paraphrase Ecclesiastes 3:7). So for this issue, I decided to go for three games
that are pure, unadulterated fun. -
IssuesFunny Jones
Comedian Milton Jones is known and loved for his witty one-liners. On the release of his new book – Ten Second Sermons – he chatted to Youthwork’s Jamie Cutteridge.
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BlogA pilgramage into the future
In this week's YW Blog, Richard Passmore of StreetSpace explains some of the practices he has put in place as a leader and how he thinks they could help the future of youth ministry
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BlogReady-to-use Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy has a colourful and varied cast, including self-appointed ‘Star Lord’ Peter Quill, a roguish smuggler who was
abducted from earth in the 80s, a walking tree called Groot, a talking racoon called Rocket, a genetically altered assassin named Gamora and
Drax the Destroyer. -
IssuesReady-to-use Mentoring: The listening game
I recently did some mentoring training for a fab youth discipleship programme called The Ascent. I loved their heart for discipleship and willingness to learn new mentoring skills in order to get alongside young people and walk with them through their ongoing faith and life journey.
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BlogThe numbers game
In this week's Youthwork blog, Andy du Feu, director of youth and community work at Moorlands, discusses our obsession with numbers.
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BlogGross Games
It had to happen at some point; every now and then you want to play a game that is grosser than humanly imaginable. A game that you don’t want to tell your church leader about. A game that pushes your young people to the very precipice of human decency. A game where there is a very real chance of a young person rushing out of the room in a desperate attempt to to make it to the bathroom. Here are a few of those games…
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Blog
Ready-to-use Games + Icebreakers: Paper Plane games
Planes, Trains and Automobiles: not only a Christmas movie, but also a hint as to what this month’s games are all about. Apart from the trains bit – I haven’t included many games involving trains, or automobiles come to think of it. For these games you will need a plentiful supply of paper from which your group will make paper planes. See a website such as paperaeroplanes.com for ideas!
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IssuesIcebreaker games
For the first time I’m going to theme this column by the time of year (by that I mean the time of year this issue claims to be not the time you
actually get it). So let’s pretend it really is September as the front cover claims. Here is the Games Master back-to-school-icebreaker-
slash-get-to-know-you-type-games special! -
IssuesReady-to-use Games + Icebreakers: Phone Games
Young people today… always playing with their phones, aren’t they? You know, they’re always playing Cross the angry bird, posting pictures of curry on Insta-naan or checking their What Book. So in an attempt to put the hip back in ‘hip replacement’, all of this month’s games involve young people’s phones. That’s games with their phones, not games on their phones; this isn’t ‘Sit in a corner and ignore everyone.’
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IssuesParachute Games
There’s one prop that our children love more than any other – the parachute. There’s something about a giant piece of coloured material that screams fun. You can play all these games with a 3.5m parachute, but if you can get your hands on a 5m or a 7m one, that’s even better. There’s plenty of choice online so have a look and see what you can find, and what will fit in your room!
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IssuesReady-to-use Games + Icebreakers: Simple Games
In recent months this page has been taken over by water games, jelly games, games that need a lot of space, games that involve outer space, games involving sharks, games only to be played during an earthquake, games for people with three arms, games for people who know every element of the periodic table, horse games and, of course, ear wax games*.
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IssuesName Games
Does this scenario sound familiar to you: ‘I’m sorry, what was your name? Come again? Just one more time?’ And then it’s too embarrassing to ask them to repeat it for the 16th time. But this academic year things are going to be different. Yes, this year you’re going to get the name of everyone in your group right first time. How are you going to do that?
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Issues
Ready-to-use Games + Icebreakers : Water Games
The sun is shining (hopefully), the evenings are getting longer (well, not literally, they’re still the same length of time, but certainly lighter) and it’s time to relax and have some fun with your young people (unless they’re all cramming for exam season). This can mean only one thing: you need some water games.
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Issues
Ready-to-use Games + Icebreakers: Gelatinous Games
Welcome to a brave new era…our very own Jamie and Lloyd have taken over the games page in an attempt to find the weirdest and most fun games in the dark recesses of their minds. So what better way to start than with…games involving jelly.
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Issues
Ready-to-use games + Icebreakers: The last one
After a number of years writing the games column, this is my final compilation. So I wanted to make sure I left it all out there, and have included every possible game that I have ever come across / played / invented / blatantly stolen from lots of wonderful youth worker friends (for legal reasons I prefer the phrase ‘inspired by’). Here I present to you: the last ever bunch of games. Over and out!
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Issues
Toothpick Games
Have you ever brought resources for a youth group session, only to discover that you end up using only a small percentage of them, and now have to store the rest of them in your increasingly-space-precious youth-group-storage-area (i.e. your spare room)? This month’s column includes some ideas for what to do with all those thousands of spare toothpicks that you got for that one thing months ago.
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Issues
Teamwork Games
There comes a time when even the most skilled manipulator of group dynamics has to accept that the group could do with a little boost. A set of creative games can be a great way to work through some of these issues, or at the very least, show the dysfunctional nature of the group. Therefore, here are some teamwork games.
