Outdoor movies and reading ideas

*An idea if the weather is nice is to find a laptop, lcd projector, and speakers and show a movie outside (if you don’t have the equipment ask around in your church/community, someone might be willing to loan it or run it for you for the evening). You could use a white sheet as a screen or if you are lucky enough you might have a light-coloured side of the church building to use. Remember to check on copyright restrictions before showing a “commercial” film. AVEL [Audio Visual Educational Library] films come with public performance rights already. To see what AVEL has to offer follow this link AVEL link. Don’t forget to provide drinks and movie watching snacks (popcorn being the traditional one!). And ask folks to bring either lawn chairs or a blanket to sit on. If you want to turn it into a study opportunity you can try some of the movie studies posted at Youth Specialties movie resources link *please keep in mind that these studies comes from a site that does not necessarily reflect the theology of the United Church of Canada. You may have to adapt them and other articles as needed should you choose to use them.


* Just for You ~ As we enter into the summer and hopefully a slower pace perhaps you have a little time to catch up on reading. Here you’ll find a link to Top 10 Youth Ministry Books links . I’ve either read or heard good things about most on the list. Others I can suggest are "Sustainable Youth Ministry" by Mark DeVries, "Go Deep" by Doris E. Kizinna (a United Church resource!), "Inside the Mind of Youth Pastors" by Mark Riddle *(I'm pretty sure he's not related to Tom for all you Harry Potter fans!), and "The Unofficial United Church Handbook" edited by Scott Douglas and Nanette McKay (and I'm not shamelessly promoting it just because they are friends of mine.  It is both hilarious and thought-provoking!)  If you have others you can suggest please add them to this post or let me know (dcoss@confmnwo.mb.ca)

As you plan for the fall perhaps you’d like to explore a different way of offering youth ministry in your particular context. Here’s a great article to spark some thinking A-Program-less Youth Ministry article .


Have a wonderful summer and see you back here the second week in September when we hopefully resume our web-links posts again. Blessings for a renewing and rejuvenating summer enjoying God’s glorious creation!