| S.E.A.L. Team: What's It Really Mean? (Tonight at The Forge)Our youth group is called the S.E.A.L. Team. So tonight I wanted the kids to get a real sense of who we are and remind them what S.E.A.L. stands for and means.
We opened by dividing them into teams and having them list as many adjectives about our youth group as they come up with in five minutes. Man, they did an awesome job. They, then, circle the ones they considered the top five. We had each group read off theirs so any duplicates could be 'redone'. Surprisingly, there were only a couple of duplicates. So we ended up with 20 GREAT words to describe our group. Next, they came up with a symbol for each word. Again, very creative group and they did an awesome job. Lastly, I had them make banners. Stephen and I already had a sample banner, and everything they needed to complete their banners. They are truly a great group of kids. The banners were a tangible and visual reminder of who we really are as a youth group.
Our 'lesson' centered around what S.E.A.L. stands for and Bible verses to back that up (with discussion questions, as well). S=serve (we MUST invest in others and use our gifts, talents, time, etc to advance the Kingdom through our investments). E=Empower (we are empowered by the Holy Spirit and we empower others by listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit), A=Advance (we advance others through 'building them up"/encouragement and advance ourselves by 'growing in salvation'). L=Lead (we must learn to follow before we can lead). Jeremiah 3:15 was a GREAT verse in teaching us to follow leaders who are 'leaders after God's own heart'. Psalm 78:72 was a good reminder that in order to lead we must have 'integrity of heart'. The things on our banners were confirmation that we are growing as a team that is serving, empowering, advancing and leading.
We also had two more people sign up for Open Mic. Night. Whoo Hoo. Anyway..here are a few pics. SPECIAL THANKS to Brittney who is really helping me out by taking pics. You go, girl.
Brittney (my assistant photographer) w/her group's banner. Note: The front of each banner was the same with S.E.A.L. Team and what each letter stood for on it). The back had the symbols.
Britt's group used duct tape and super glue as the symbol for bonding. Their other symbols were: ninjas (warrior/warrior princesses), light bulb and hand (creativity), hands on top of each other (team), and a map for 'going out/being adventurous).
Me, showing Stephen's and my banner. One of our symbols was a sword (if you've been following my blogs for a while, you know we give out REAL swords to those who live our their faith by investing in others. We esp. give these out if/when they are 'leaving us'.) Other symbols were: carabiner (unity/adventure), wall with a crown (wall of warrior/warrior princesses), paint palette (originality/creativity) and thumbprint (unique).
Jaren's with his group's banner. Their symbols are: a runner who is running to the finish line (for passionate), lion (courage), Superman symbol (heroes), muscles (strength/strong) and rhino (crash--explanation is in The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus).
Some of the other words to discribe our group were: out of the box, exotic, optomistic, caring, helpful, involved (Shared Hope/Living Water..), fun, spontaneous, spiffy, spunky, priceless, energetic, giving,...that's all I can remember. LOL. But, truly, it was good night. I think it's always good to remember who you really are.
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