This four-part series will provide ideas to impact your summer planning and provide unforgettable events your teens will remember forever! These ideas are centered around summer special events and holidays.
For your first Summer Special: MOTHER’S DAY! Mother’s Day is on Sunday, May 11th this year. Affirm the women of your church while providing teachable, servant moments for your students.
SERVANT SURPRISE PATROL: Find out what chore each mom HATES doing. Set up youth teams to go to each house with a “coupon” good for doing that chore right then and there.
A MOTHER’S PRAYER PATH: Have your students decorate small, stick-in-the-ground signs with encouraging prayers, sayings, and Scriptures. Send teams out to decorate each mom’s sidewalk with the signs. You might include some flowers and a small package of tissues at the end of the path because she will cry! (You know how moms are.)
MOTHER’S DAY SLIDE SHOW: Create a “mom” slide show of pretty scenes and Scriptures set to soothing music. Leave blank slides in the master for personalizing each mom’s slide show with pix of her and her family. How you get the pix is up to you . . . but stalking her with a camera could be okay. Show the slideshow during the main service or at the mother’s night shown below.
MOTHER’S NIGHT AT YOUTH: This one is simple, but moms will love it! Invite your students’ moms to a special night at youth group. Fix and serve them dinner to candlelight—moms love that. Do skits designed to encourage and thank the moms. Give them flowers and homemade cards. Moms just wanted to be included in what their kids are doing and they will be thrilled at being asked to step on to their student’s turf. Close with an affirmation circle and watch the waterworks flow! It will mean so much to the moms and they’ll remember it forever!
STEPHANIE CARO has been in ministry to youth for over . . . well, a long time. Her humorous, yet straightforward teaching style has made her a popular speaker to youth and youth workers at camps, conferences, training events, retreats, etc. She is a member of Group’s National Presenting Team and the team leader for their Youth Ministry REAL Ambassadors. She is a regular contributor to several youth and leadership ministry publications, including Group and Rev! magazines and has written/contributed to numerous ministry resources. She and her husband, Steve, live in St. Petersburg, FL where she still continues to serve on staff in the ministry trenches in her local church.