Soul Survivor – Friendship Island (11 weeks)
Proverbs 18:24 – “A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
This is the flagship series which helped launch 2Youth4Him Ministries. This series, based on a popular television reality show, will have your youth group divided into tribes which will compete each youth meeting for prizes and the right to vote. Before you say it – NO the teens do not get to vote anyone out of the youth group! The tribes will actually earn the right to vote for one of their members who best exhibits the teaching topic for each week’s youth meeting. In the end the teen with the most votes collected during the entire series is named the Soul Survivor and is rewarded some great prizes, but in reality all who participate are big winners.
The teaching emphasis of Soul Survivor Friendship Island centers on the Nine Laws of Friendship. Truths such as:
Law Number (1) - If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive!
Law Number (2) The Big Secret of Dealing with People
Law Number (9) Make Others Feel Important
Soul Survivor Friendship Island uses Bible verses and Bible stories to teach teens how to have friends and how to be a friend to others. It also explains why this is so important during their teen years. Each lesson is included in detailed outline form so it will be easy for you to customize it for your individual style and group. We completed this series over nine months ago and the youth still remember and still actually make use of the Nine Laws of Friendship.
Each week the tribes will compete in an assortment of challenges for the right to vote. These challenges range from very physical to totally mental and are designed to allow each youth group member to help their tribe with their given talents. Of course, in the flavor of the television series, we had to throw in a few food challenges, none of which require the teens to eat anything too gross, but they all involve food. Some of the challenges included in Soul Survivor Friendship Island are:
Triple Trouble Hula-Hoop relay
Human Tic-Tac-Toe
Tribal Human Battleship
River Crossing
And our personal favorite:
Value meal (Fast food value meal + blender = enough said)
In addition to the tribal challenges we have inserted several individual challenges in which the teens all compete for a vote placed into the Soul Survivor vote box. These challenges vary much the same way as the tribal challenges. Our personal favorite - Bobbing for Worms (Gummy), because gummy worms sink and get slimy fast!
All of the challenges have been tested and tried by a real youth group members -and actually work! Each challenge has a description of the game, and a list of the items needed to make it a smashing success.
The climax to the entire series is a Final Tribal Council in which the parents of the teens are invited to come and compete, against the teens, in two or three of the challenges which the teens help select. This is followed by some great snacks, all of which fit into the island theme. The conclusion of the evening is a video showing many of the highlights and “low-lights” of the entire series, followed by announcing of the Soul Survivor.