"Memories," write Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins, "are the milestones by which we mark our journey with God."

And the 50 ideas in Memory Makers do just that—give you the wherewithal to create in students vivid memories. The authors have recalled the best (and worst) that serendipity has sent them during their many years in youth ministry, then translated those occasions into a rich portfolio of memories you can create for your own group—moments that seem almost unplanned, moments that are out of the ordinary, that are particularly intense or adventurous or ceremonial. Memories created out of—

• Phone calls and letters
• Vidcam events and audio tapes
• Road trips and service projects
• Meetings and overnighters

Memory Makers will kickstart the kind of personal and group settings that create vivid memories. Whether you work with children, teenagers, or adults—whether you're a leader or a parent—you'll find years' worth of memory-making events and moments waiting here.

Customized Posters

You’ve seen the posters typically sold in Christian bookstores—Bible verses or otherwise inspirational phrases printed over landscapes, action shots of athletes, footprints on a beach, cuddly animals. Ready for a change? Your own youth group poster!

Film developers—the chains as well as the labs that professionals use—can take any slide or print of yours, enlarge it, lay over it any text you want, and print it on paper stock.

• Extend the memories of summer camp with a group-designed poster of the verse, "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil 1:6a), laid over a favorite camp photo.

• To remember a work project: "Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity" (1 Tim. 4:12).

• To commemorate a student’s participation in your annual Mud Bowl fundraiser: "You are clean, though not every one of you" (John 13:10b).

Of course, after these posters hang in the youth room for a month or two, take them down and give them as gifts (or sell them as fundraisers) to kids or parents.

Take It to the Cross

The forgiveness that Jesus gives can be difficult to comprehend. So help kids visualize it during a camp or special program by having students anonymously write down a sin or sins they are currently struggling with. After your talk about forgiveness, bring to the front a rough wooden cross pieced together before the meeting; at its foot place a hammer and a box of nails (sixpenny nails do fine). Invite students to come forward and nail their written confessions to the cross. It’s a visual (and possibly emotionally intense) way for kids to understand Christ’s forgiveness—and the power he had to give them a brand-new start.

Index

Introduction

Un-testimony service
Mystery hitchhiker
Bowling trophies that bless
Prearranging disaster I: retreat bus breakdown
Soup-er bowl
Photos galore
Sunday school invasion
Retreat at the Ritz
Audio letter I: should you choose to accept this affirmation
Birthday video
Prearrange disaster II: urban bus breakdown
Cabin sneak
Youths illustrated
Getting engaged with (not to) your students
Planned mischief I: TP backfire
Good Sam in a Chevy
Phone memory I: surprise speaker-phone incident
Getting clean
Affirmation circle
Audio Letter II: morning drive surprise
Fast-food tips
This Present Darkness all-nighter
Take it to the cross
On the go
Shotgun discipleship
This is your day
Planned mischief II: ditching Sunday school
Tour of your life
Retreat at the top of the world
Prearranged disaster III: power outage
World shoe relief
Letter from God
Raise an Ebenezer
One sweet letter
Planned mischief III: cabin raid backfire
Future freshman
Complete the sentence
Double photos, double blessings
Perform-a-prom
Prearranged disaster IV: lost bus
Adjective overload
Customized posters
Phone memory II: speaker-phone artist interview
Good morning, America
Love that laundry
Youth group memory chest
Third Timothy
Planned mischief IV: a welcome glut of junk mail
Finals week survival kit
Pre-camp parent letter