The Four Best Things
Advent is the best time of year. Both inside and outside of the church are full of lights, love, and hope. It can be easy to get swept up in the magic of it all. And then it hits you – what am I going to do and talk about with my youth this Advent season? What activities are going to be meaningful for them this year? This post offers a 4-week plan for how you could talk about and have fun with Advent in your youth groups. I hope you find something that will connect and inspire conversation with your young people.
This plan emphasizes the symbol of the Advent wreath and candles. Perhaps your congregation has one in its Sanctuary. This might be a great time to purchase a version for your youth space. Light the candles at the beginning of each of your gatherings during Advent.
Tip: If buying an Advent wreath is not an option, invite five of your youth to bring candles from home and one youth to bring a small wreath. It will be a mysterious invitation that will encourage them to come to youth group to find out what they are helping build!
1. Hope
- Activity: “Wreaths of Hope” is a fun and creative way to start this series because it will also decorate your youth space for the season! Have each student cut out about 12 tracings of their own hands. On each hand, they will write something they are looking forward to or something they are hopeful for in the next season or in the new year. Tape/glue all the hands together in a wreath shape.
- Supplies: green construction paper, red ribbons, scissors, permanent markers, and other things to decorate the wreaths
2. Peace
- Activity: Cooperative Games
- The Most Common Thing: Divide the group into four “teams.” Give them the task of finding the most unique thing that everyone in the group has in common. The goal is to have the most common thing of all the teams. Some examples may be: “we all have had braces” or “we all have had dogs named Charlie”. An example would not be “we all have a birthday” (because everyone has a birthday!).
- Up and Down: Place 100 solo cups on the ground. Place half of them up and the other half down. Make half the group “up” and half the group “down”. Start the timer and give the group one minute. The “up” team is trying to get all the cups to be right-side up. The “down” team is trying to get all the cups flipped upside down. At the end of the time, count each team’s cups and see who wins!
- A World of Peace: as the last activity, have the whole group work together to imagine what the most peaceful world would be like. Have them describe what it would look like, what it would feel like, how people would treat each other, etc. All people should be involved!
3. Joy
- Joy Jars: a collection of moments of joy over the course of Advent. Ask your youth to write a moment of joy for each day on a slip of paper throughout the four weeks of Advent. Over the course of the year, they will be able to pull a slip of paper from the jar when they are in need of experiencing some joy.
- Supplies: small mason jars, dozens of small strips of paper, pens, ribbons and other things to decorate the jars
4. Love
- Loads of Love / Gifts of the Heart is a mission-based activity meant to inspire generosity and love of neighbors. Partner with a local organization in your area to make bags of necessary items. Loads of Love could mean laundry supplies for a local women’s shelter, or it could mean partnering with the denominational organization Presbyterian Disaster Kit to make “Gifts of the Heart” kits. Go to this website to learn more.
About the author:
Rev. Maggie Johnson Phillips is the associate pastor for young adult ministry and worship arts at Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas. She was raised in the pews of Second Presbyterian Church, Little Rock, Arkansas, and has previously worked at churches in Dallas, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia. She is a graduate of the University of Tulsa (B.A. in Psychology) and Columbia Theological Seminary (M.Div.). Maggie is a lover of liturgy, a fresh cup of coffee, conversations around the table, and the hopeful Church. When she’s not serving the congregation of Village, you can find her practicing yoga, reading a book from her never-ending list, going on hikes with her dog Charlie, or hanging out in the kitchen while her husband Sam cooks dinner.