Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

John Losey has been teaching and leading people since 1983 and working with experiential programs since 1986. His work with Christian organizations such as Campus Life, Forest Home Christian Conference Center, Center for Student Missions, and numerous other churches and camps has given him diverse experience within the ministry world. John holds a BS in biology, an MA in social science, and has done continuing studies in learning and growth theories and community development. He is director of Praxis Training Systems and author of Experiential Youth Ministry Handbook..

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More than 50 fun exercises that youth workers can use to help students learn and grow. John Losey has once again compiled his knowledge of experience-based learning to help your youth ministry take part in activities that allow students to have fun and learn something valuable! Experiential Youth
Ministry Handbook 2 is filled with even more activities that you can use today, along with all you need to know in order to incorporate them with intentionality,
so your students can truly learn and grow. Along with an overview of the foundations of growth and learning, Losey offers more than 50 exercises and
activities that are sure to have a lasting impact on your students. Each comes with an overview, equipment needed, safety concerns to be aware of, ways to teach from the experience, variations, and a place for you to write your own notes and reflections as you incorporate experiential learning into your ministry “on purpose.” The book also includes templates for using activities in the context of community service, shortterm missions, and real-life interventions (“teachable moments”). You'll find fun exercises for small or large groups, including many that would pique students' attention by their names alone, such as Mousetrap Gauntlet, Toxic Waste, Amoeba Walk, Once Upon a Time …, Pressure Grid, and Jar of Death!!! If you want your activities to be more than just fun--if you want them to be meaningful--this is the ideal book to have on hand.

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Experiential Youth Ministry Handbook, Volume 2

Zondervan

Contents

Introduction.............................................................................................7Section One :: Foundations...............................................................................131.1 Stages of Growth.....................................................................................151.2 Dynamics of Growth...................................................................................231.3 Spheres of Growth....................................................................................35Section Two :: Activities and Exercises..................................................................452.1 Initiative Activities (25 of them)...................................................................512.2 Exercises for Small Groups (11 of them)..............................................................852.3 Large Group Activities (9 of them)...................................................................992.4 Planning/Assessing Exercises (5 of them).............................................................1132.5 Activities and Exercises Index.......................................................................124Section Three :: Templates-Models and Activities Together................................................1273.1 Community Service....................................................................................1313.2 Short-Term Missions..................................................................................1353.3 Real-Life Interventions..............................................................................139Appendix-Going Deeper (A Bibliography of Suggested Resources, Training, and Reading).....................141

Chapter One

"It's the fundamentals, boys." -Vince Lombardi

I was a champion wrestler in high school. Looking at me today, you might think that amazing. What's even more amazing is that I didn't really want to go to the championship tournament. My loyalty to Coach Pry was the only reason I'd joined the team in the first place. I'd wrestled since junior high, and I enjoyed the sport; but I'd also hurt my knee the previous two years. Now in my senior year, I was looking forward to playing football in college, and I didn't want to do further damage to my knee. Word got around to Coach Pry that I was considering not participating that season, and he approached me.

"John," he said, "I hear you might not wrestle this year. Without you we only have a sophomore to wrestle heavyweight. You're a bit light for that weight class, but I think you could do well. What do you think?"

He hooked me with two things: My loyalty and my desire for challenge. So I joined the team.

Every season started the same way. No matter how long you'd been wrestling, you had to start from the basics: The sprawl and the drop step. We drilled these moves at the start of every practice, and the experienced wrestlers did these drills right alongside the beginners. Later in the practice session we'd be allowed to drill more advanced moves, but not until we'd practiced the basics. Every single day.

As the new wrestlers became more comfortable with the basic moves, Coach Pry would stop the drill and gather everyone around him. He'd then demonstrate a complete move broken down into component steps: 1) drop step, 2) head on the outside, 3) wrap arms around both legs, 4) suck the legs in with your arms and pull your hips under you, and 5) complete your drop step while turning and lifting the opponent off the mat. We'd begin to drill this move one step at a time, moving to step three only after we could smoothly combine steps one and two. Coach Pry would count off, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Switch partners. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ...," and he'd increase the tempo as we became more comfortable with the move. He'd have us practice a few times without counting, and then he'd turn us loose to spar at full speed.

By the end of that section of practice, all of us-both the experienced and the "newbies"-had a complete understanding of the move and knew how to use it in real wrestling situations. Coach Pry introduced two or three new moves a week this way. Because of his approach, our team won our league and sent eight guys to the finals of the league tournament.

I learned much from Coach Pry that year, but I learned far more from him when I worked as one of his assistant coaches. The year after I graduated from high school, he accepted a teaching and coaching job 20 minutes from where I was going to college. My football career went by the wayside, and I ended up volunteering for Campus Life at the same high school where he was working. As a way to be on campus, I helped him coach freshman football and wrestling.

I wanted to show the students all that I knew as a football player and wrestler, but my approach frustrated both the students and me. First, I'd show them what I believed to be a simple blocking technique-and they'd give me a puzzled look and trip over their own feet as they tried to copy the move.

Finally, Coach Pry pulled me aside and said, "They need to learn how to get into a basic stance before they can learn how to get out of it. Don't start with the whole thing; start with the basics and then build on them." This made a whole lot of sense, and it still impacts how I plan my programs and curricula.

Steps and Stages

Breaking down a concept into component parts and introducing students to these parts one at a time while building on the previous concept is one way of understanding how steps and stages of learning can help us be more effective teachers, coaches, and leaders. Just as it's important to understand what we're teaching, we must also understand how much students can handle, and how they learn and grow.

This section offers some simple imagery that might help us become more intentional in helping people grasp new concepts and move through difficult stages in life.

From Milk to Meat-Sequenced Learning

When Coach Pry introduced us to the basic skills first and then added progressively more complex aspects of wrestling, he was modeling a sequenced approach to learning. By first offering easy, accessible skills, he not only built a foundation for what was to come, but he also allowed us to experience success and created fun and excitement.

The Bible talks about this process as a movement from milk to meat.

You've had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God.-1 Peter 2:2-3 (The Message) Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.-1 Corinthians 3:1-2

We start as infants, immature and limited in our capacity to digest. In order to survive, we must be fed simple things that we can easily process. Just as this is true for newborns to grow, it's also true when we're like "newborns" to unfamiliar ideas, concepts, and skills. Babies' systems cannot handle solid, complex food. They cannot chew it, and their stomachs can't digest it. In fact, their bodies will reject the food, and it will make them sick.

Similarly, if we...