Youth group ideas?

[psycmajor]

Okay, my youth group on my college campus is having some issues. The main thing is, we're having a hard time getting people to come. There's less than 5 of us. I'm worried the group will completely discinigrate. Does anyone have ideas about how to get people to come to meetings? We've posted fliers, but there's so many other fliers about that it's easy to overlook. And we've tried using sidewalk chalk on the ground, too.

Please pray and offer some suggestions.

 

[Blake]

Offer free food.

 

[vibrant]

um...

is there a club's week at your college?

we have our clubs week this week - sort of like a club fair, where the clubs on campus set up booths/tables in the common areas. tonnes of people come by, especially since there are also tradespeople as well. you get noticed and people come by, ask questions, get informed, sign up.

does your college have a website? is there a clubs section? are you in it? is that section being promoted or stuck in obscurity?

take out ads in the school paper?

merge with other small christian clubs?

as for posters, if you make them normal they get lost among other normal posters. but the ones that are different sizes, multicoloured, basic info in large and bold font grab my attention at least.


make sure that there's still a club for people to come. what's great about the small group of people is that you can form a strong, close-knit group - you guys will have such charisma and have such fun that the folks who drop by will just want to be apart of it. so in that way leadership matters.

pray!!

 

[desi]

I had this same problem with the Christian club at my school. Last year there was noone left as me and my peers started our final year of rotations. This Fall I spoke to the freshman class during freshman week and gave them a flyer about the club who what when where why type of thing. During the speech God helped me out quite a bit. Later a few days before the first meeting I had reminder flyers put in their mail boxes along with a small treat. 9 out of 64 people of the freshman class showed up and the club is thriving now.

 

[notto]

Get people to come one person at a time.

Get a friend to ask a friend to ask a friend. I think you will have more luck with this thank fliers.

You might also check with local churches to see if they have a registry of students who attend or see if they will post your flyers and mention you in their announcements.

 

[Shannonkish]

definitely do all these suggestions..

as well, you could get door knob hangers and post information about the events on each door.

Don't advertise it as a christian event... if you do... many will immediately disregard it.

 

[OnceDust]

Try servant evangelism. My youth group did window washings on a parking lot once. We put on the flyer, "Your windows looked thirsty. Have a great day, God bless you!" Or something. No ads or propoganda, just a blessing. We also did a free carwash. We didnt accept donations, it was just an act of servantism. We invited them to visit us and that was all.

Yes, there is the traditional mailer, event, "build it and they will come." method. I'm more inclined to think how Christ did it and go to them rather then wait for them to come to us. You'd be surprsed how well word of mouth works as advertisement.

Blessings

 

[LifeInYou]

Offer free food.

LOL....word up

 

[catch22]

Sidewalk chalk? That sounds familiar. You don't by chance go to school in Colorado do you? Of course I'm sure that there's more schools than the one that I go to that use sidewalk chalk, but if it is UCCS, then I'll come.

 

[Cragg]

No matter how small the group gets, keep it going. Pray for individuals that you want to join the group and encourage the existing members to bring their friends along. Social events are often good for attracting people, such as going for a meal somewhere. But whatever you do, don't give up!

 

[hotarugari]

In so far as youth group stuff is concerned it has to be fun. That's what Nickolodeon preaches and that's what all the cartoons do as well.

The kinda stuff that kids love to do doesn't happen with one or two people planning, either. It really does require a whole team.

I remember with my youth group, we had this one game we played. I think it was called "Bigger, Better". The teams of youth would drive around having been given something insigifigant like a marble. The goal is to trade upto to the biggest thing possible. With our youth groups it seems like we could always trade up to a real firetruck (temporarily, of course). Still That made it fun.

Besides the fun, people loved each other. It wasn't perfect because it was a youth group, but it was still really neat.

And we had real times of Bible Application. It answered all the tough questions that we had as youth. At least for me, it did. I'm sure there were youth in our group that didn't get everything I did out of it. Still, they can only get out what they are willing to put into it. You have to encourage them to put into it by having things they like.

 

[urbanfaerie]

buy one those murder mystery games.. its bout 30$ prices vary i quess depending where u live. but its well worth the mula.

we had a college age group, and to get more ppl, they gave us invitations, to give to our friends. you have a lota fun, you end up meeting more ppl, and once ppl see how much fun it can be, they come back for more, and invite more ppl to check it out.

we always had various lil getting to know you games, b4 bible study. it made going worthwhile.