Harmonious Lock-In The night's message is entitled, 'Harmonious Living, Embracing God's Tune. We took time out from all the games around 1 a.m. to chat about the role music plays in our lives and just how to hear God's message in everything we do. LOCK-IN Supplies: make a sign in sheet with name/phone/$, Purchase ½ inch PVC pipe and cut them into 2 foot lengths, enough for your expected guests, sponsor packets, post-able youth schedules, craft supplies (see BLING), cardboard, portable CD player, 200 3X5 cards, pens, "talent" cards (see Musical Talents), Nerf Ball, plain paper; a recording of the following sounds: a car starting, a door slamming, water dripping, a vacuum cleaner, and other similar sound effects, PIZZA, POP, 3 flash lights, lots of big fat rubber bands, poster with guitar-singer-drummer rankings on it (see 3:00 large group games), a couple of musical stuffed toys   9:00 Large Group Crafts and Mixers the Gym Craft Project - BLING Begin the night with a craft project. It's an easy way to amuse the youth while you wait for everyone to arrive. They can work at their own pace, but will also interact with the rest of the group. In keeping with the "Harmonious" theme, create sun-catchers using blank or used (unwanted) CD's. Supply the youth with two-foot lengths of lanyard cord to thread through the center hole. Provide an assortment of flashy beads to thread on the cord before tying together the ends. Also provide an assortment of stickers and sequins with glue to decorate the CD's as they feel inspired. Have string and beads for bracelets as well. Make Cardboard Guitars - Have some already made and more cardboard available for self made creations.   9:30 Large Group Crafts and Mixers the Gym You can pick and choose from the following list in order to fill time as late comers arrive. Limbo This game doesn't need a winner or loser to be fun. It's just fun to challenge youth to go lower and lower under the limbo stick. Play the classic Limbo Rock from Chubby Checker during this song.   Musical Talents Give each person a blank 3x5 card and a pen. Tell people that the goal is to have their names written on their card by the end of a song-but they need to follow all the rules. Copy each of the rules below onto separate 3x5 cards and have each person pick a card. The card represents that person's "unique ability" to complete a task. Youth mingle while the music is playing to find others with unique abilities that will help them complete their names by exchanging talents. When the music stops everyone pairs up with whoever they are closest to and exchange talents. Remind youth that just as each person's unique ability is necessary to complete a name, so in the body of Christ, each person is given unique talents that can benefit others. 1. You can only draw vertical lines. (For example, only parts of the letters "b," "d," "h," and "k" all have vertical parts that you can draw.) 2. You can only draw horizontal lines, but you can't cross "t's." (For example, only parts of the letters "e," "f," and "z" all have horizontal parts that you can draw.) 3. You can only dot "i's." 4. You can only cross "t's." 5. You can only draw curves, not circles or lines. (For example, only parts of the letters "c," "e," "j," and "r" all have curved parts that you can draw.) 6. You can only draw angled lines. (For example, only parts of the letters "k," "v," "w," and "y" all have angled parts that you can draw.) 7. You can only draw circles. You may not draw partial circles, only complete circles. (For example, only parts of the letters "a," "g," "o," and "p" all have circular parts that you can draw.) 8. You can only draw capital letters. You can draw only one capital letter for each person.   Protect the Rock Star For this game you need a volleyball-sized Nerf ball. Have your students stand in a wide circle with two people in the middle. One person in the middle is the Rock Star, the other is the Bodyguard. The people in the circle have the Nerf ball, and throw it at the Rock Star. The bodyguard may do anything to block the ball with his body: jump, squat, dive, etc. The ball may NEVER touch the Rock Star. If the ball touches the Rock Star at any time, the person who threw the ball (or the last person to touch it) then becomes the Bodyguard, the Bodyguard becomes the Rock Star, and the Rock Star goes back into the circle. What makes this exciting is that from the moment the Rock Star is hit, the new Rock Star is vulnerable because the transition is instantaneous. The new bodyguard must be fast at getting into the circle to defend him or her. This sometimes makes one hit wonders pretty quick, but it's exciting. This game is EXHAUSTING, especially if the people in the middle are good. Be ready to sweat if you play. One strategy for the "shooters" is to pass the ball around the circle and keep it moving to wear the people in the middle down. They'll eventually tire and the Rock Star will get hit. As the kids get more experience at the game, they will develop strategies and tactics, and will thoroughly enjoy themselves.   U Turn Death Chairs Played like musical chairs, only the chairs face inwards. Set the chairs with a little space between the seats (for knees) but keep them tightly together otherwise. Be as careful as possible, this game is after all called U Turn "Death" Chairs! Special rules: You can move the seats only one foot in any direction. The seat must remain in contact with the floor at all times. Note: Try only 6th & 7th grades, then 8th and 9th, and finish with 10-12. This way the smaller kids don't get massacred. If anyone's willing to play an all comers round give that a try as well. Just make sure the other kids have an opportunity to see the game in action before they decide if they want to join in for the final all comers round.   10:00 Lock-in Rules Your cell phone is neither a musical instrument nor a source of music for this lock-in. If you can't limit its usage turn it in. You don't have any other friends beside the ones here tonight and your parents are glad to get rid of you. They aren't calling. Oh yea, don't use your phone for a light. No swearing/profanity - Believe it or not this category includes inappropriate sexual discussions No "extra curricular" activities permitted - For example, no sucking face with anyone No roughhousing -Yes, this includes keeping someone else's property from them by force, sneaky-ness or running away from them  Do not leave the Church - If the area you are in is not climate controlled you are outside the church. No cheating - If you are looking for a way around a rule, you are probably about to cheat and had best not attempt any deviations until you reach saint hood. Snacks and drinks are allowed in the Youth/Activity Centers and the Gym only. - If you are in transit between these two locations you may not eat or drink. Do not open locked doors - If you have to do anything to a door that is more than just gently opening it, you are probably attempting to open a locked door. Stay out of the rafters and organ loft & Respect the church property - If you have to climb to get where you want to go and then you feel yourself having to balance on a beam high above the floor, chances are you are in the rafters. Sleep only in designated sleeping rooms. - No hiding, food or drink in designated sleeping rooms. Go only where you are asked. - No sneaking off to do your own thing. If we are playing a game and you're just sitting and watching/talking alone or with friends, it better be in the Youth/Activity Center. Do not touch the Drums, Piano, any musical instrument, Spot light, or electronic equipment in the sanctuary. - If it looks like it might be fun to play with and you are not in the Youth Center, Activity Center or Gym don't mess with it. Do not dangle, hang or jump off of anything. - Why do I even have to say this&ldots; Oh yea! Because someone will do it if I don't.   Expectations are as follows: Participate as you can Respect others Listen Clean up after yourself If you would rather sit out or go to sleep, let me know where you are going and what you are doing. The leader may randomly unlock a door from time to time. Have a Blast       10:15 Harmonious Hop "Swing" Stay strictly to this genre - it really keeps everything alive! Have video games (Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, etc&ldots;) in the Youth Center and Dance in the Activity Center. Make videos and do finish the lyrics etc&ldots; For all Harmonious times!   10:30 Under Ground Church We played spooky music over the church intercom to give this lock-in favorite a harmonious twist. The players are: Underground Church, Followers, or Guards. All gather in one spot to begin the game. The Church is picked as a group of two or three and is given a set amount of time to go and hide.  The Church will become the Guards for the next round. Two Guards are picked to begin the game (subsequent Guard numbers depends on the size of the previous Church). Guards must carry visible flashlights when they are moving. No other light sources from anyone are allowed. The Guards try to keep the church from growing.  If a Guard tags a Follower the Guard and the Follower must go to the jail.  We use our court yard, weather permitting. (If you don't have a court yard use any secluded room and keep only 4 prisoners at a time. When the 5th is caught and brought to jail the 1st gets out.) Our court yard has 14 doors that lead back into the church at various levels and only one is open from the outside at a time. (We keep changing it during the round to make it more fun). The prisoners must find the open door to return to the game. The Followers try to find and hide with the Underground Church without being tagged by the Guards or giving away where the Church is. Followers may leave the Church and bring other Followers to it. If a Guard finds the Church the round is over.  But, if the Church grows to include 1/3 of the total non-original church Followers the round is over and the UNDERGROUND CHURCH has survived!   12:00 Harmonious Hop "Rock/Classic Rock"   12:30 Harmonious FOOD Keep it simple PIZZA & POP   1:00 Lesson Harmonious Living, Embracing God's Tune.  What's That?  Supplies: paper; pencils; a recording of the following sounds: a car starting, a door slamming, water dripping, a vacuum cleaner, and other similar sound effects (can be found on disk at many libraries and/or downloaded legally and free of charge from the Internet) Have students form groups of three, and give each trio a piece of paper and a pencil. Say: I'm going to play ten recorded sound effects. Each effect lasts just a couple seconds, but you've heard them all before-probably lots of times. Let's see how well you've listened in the past. After each sound effect, you'll have ten seconds to decide as a trio what you heard. Be as specific as possible in writing down what made the sound. For instance, if you hear thunder, don't just write "storm." Write "thunder." Ready? Play the ten clips. Then read the list of items you played. Ask trios that got five or more correct to stand up. Then ask trios to stay standing if they got six or more correct. Keep going until you've got the trio(s) with the highest percentage correct standing. Applaud all groups. For extra fun, add some very specific descriptions to a few sound effects that will be difficult to identify (example: a golf swing at Rolling Hills, door closing to the resource room in the Activity Center&ldots; ). Say: It's important that we listen to each other, and it's important that we listen to God. It's not enough that we just hear-we've got to actually listen. That happens when we focus our attention and seek to draw meaning out of what's communicated.   Divide into small groups- as many as there are leaders. ASK: Why is it important that we be good listeners? What benefits come to us when we listen well to people? to God? How do you think people hear God? How do you hear God? Ask volunteers to read aloud these passages: Psalm 115:6  They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell.  1 Peter 3:8 To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; Romans 12:16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 2 Thessalonians 3:6 Now we give you orders, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from all those whose behavior is not well ordered and in harmony with the teaching which they had from us. Job 22:21 Be in harmony and at peace with God. In this way you will have prosperity. Isa 6:8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." ASK: What is God telling you about himself? about yourself? about how to live as a Christ-follower?   Say: Research points to the fact that kids are listening to lots of music each and every day. Hard and fast data is hard to come by since teenagers often report being engaged in other activities while music is playing in the background. Estimates range from anywhere between two to five hours of time spent listening to music every day. And when they're listening, they're hearing a variety of musical themes, some of them positive, and many that take them places far beyond the bounds of God's Kingdom design and order. Does music shape your behavior? Imagine for a moment that you are going to separately visit three middle school-aged boys who live in three very different communities. One lives in the inner-city of Wichita. Another lives in wealthy upper-middle class Andover. The last lives on a remote farm situated on the plains of Sedgwick County. At each stop you arrive unannounced and knock on the door. While the three settings couldn't be more diverse, something unusual - or not so unusual - happens each time the young thirteen-year-old in the house answers the door. In every case the boys look, dress, talk, and act like rap star Jay-Z. They all wear the hip-hop clothes, speak with hip-hop slang and accent, and use the same mannerisms. They all look like they grew up in the same 'hood! Even though they all live in different settings, they've been shaped by listening to the same rap music offerings. At the recent MTV Music Video Award's show, music star Kanye West said music video shapes young lives: "The music we make is the soundtrack to our lives, and these are the visuals that influence our culture." He then described how music and music video taught him what shoes to wear, what cars to drive, how to act cool, etc. Music's lyrics, visuals, artist lifestyles, and concerts undeniably offer to shape your values, attitudes, and behaviors on everything from clothing style, to sexuality, to spirituality, and just about everything else.   ASK: Do you find music or music videos to have the ability to influence you? Why or Why not? Does the Christian music you hear have an influence on you? Do you find yourself humming lyrics from a tune that's stuck in your head? Do you ever sit down with kids at school and talk about how to be cool, dress or act? How much of what you see at school tells you how you should look? (Don't tell me you haven't looked at someone and made a judgment about style?) Say: Never underestimate the power of music to mold and shape you. Take the time to understand the themes and messages. Don't just love the beat. Be alert to the influence of music in your life. Be diligent in your efforts to choose what is good and bad. Singer Mariah Carey recalls the role music played in her life as she grew up in a difficult and broken home situation: "Music was my main source of peace and happiness. If there was something messed up going on in my house, turmoil and things that were unsettling to me, I would walk and sing to myself. It grounded me emotionally."   ASK: Do you agree or disagree with Ms. Carey? What do you claim the role of music is in your life? Does music offer suggestions on how to think, talk, act, or live? What does mainstream music say about the way the world is? Does it say anything about the way the world ought to be? Is the one true God replaced by some other idol (self, sex, money, power, etc.)? What does it say about how to treat others? What is the source of most music's happiness and satisfaction in life?   Dance Craze Freaks Adults Read this true illustration to your group: A dance trend characterized by two or more teens grinding together, legs intertwined, standing up or even bending over, freak dancing has become more and more prevalent at high school and even middle school dances. The dance's frankly sexual, hip-thrusting movements worry school administrators and dance chaperones. "You see the guy's leg going up and down the girl's leg, or a guy stooping over and spreading himself out and the girl leaning over him, or a girl sitting on a guy's lap, grinding. . . . It's so horrible," says Eve Grimaldi, dean of students at a private high school in the Washington, D.C., area. Tony Kuns, principal of a high school in Santa Cruz, California, has promised to suspend students who freak dance. "It's not about prudishness," says Kuns. "It's about respect for each other." But some teenagers say freak dancing is harmless, that it's not even about sex. "It means nothing," says Anna Gillen, a 14-year-old from Bethesda, Maryland. "I understand why [adults] think it's inappropriate, but from our perspective, it's just a way to express ourselves and have fun."   ASK: Is freak dancing popular at your school? Do you agree with Anna that it means nothing, or do you think it's wrong? Explain. Do you think freak dancing leads to sex? What, if anything, makes freak dancing different from the disco dancing or twisting that your parents might have done? What kind of dancing do you think your children might be participating in someday? What kind of limits would you set on dancing if you were in charge of a school dance? How do you decide on where to set personal boundaries?   1:30 Flute Darts We've invented a game called "Flute Darts". It's basically like paint ball without the mess! Here's the really cool part Nerf darts will fly the length of our gym - the long way - when loaded in the pipe and blown down its full length. We found the suction tipped ones went about half as far as the round tipped, Velcro or other. Divide the youth into two teams however the kids want to divide themselves "harmoniously". For Boys v Girls try: Acafellas and the Sopranos. For other groups try some of the following: Dynamics, Ensembles, Fanfares, Fortes, Harmonics, Legatos, Majors, Minstrels, Octaves, Preludes, Sonatas, Troubadours, Vibratos Let the kids come up with the rules for Flute Darts!     2:30 Harmonious Hop "Country"   3:00 Large Group games In the Gym Stay divided in the previous sessions 2 teams Battle of the Rubber Bands  Have each youth join hands face to face with a partner. Put a large rubber band on their heads, over the middle of their ears and on the point of their nose. At the signal, they race, using only facial expressions and contortions, to move the band down to their neck. Their hands are joined to help prevent the illegal use of hands, plus it really focuses each other on how silly the whole thing looks. No one is allowed to touch any other person or thing. This activity produces great photo opportunities.   Guitar, Singer, Drummer  This is a variation of the "Rock, Scissors, Paper" game. Ask people to pair off. Then, when the signal is given each person strikes a pose like a guitar player, singer or drummer. Be sure to demonstrate what each looks like ahead of time. The singer beats the guitar, guitar beats the drummer, and drummer beats the singer. Make a poster with the order for everyone to see.   "Hot Harmonious"  Have two teams gather in one large circle with teammates spaced every other player. Play "Hot Potato" but instead of using a potato, use an Elvis doll or something else non-breakable, but along the harmonious theme. Play music and have the youth pass the Elvis around the circle until the music stops. The person holding Elvis when the music stops is out. Variation:  For a quicker game pass two or three items at a time and add the rule that you can't be holding more than one item at a time. Send one item one way and one item the other.  Have a specific way to pass for each round i.e. under the leg, above the head, behind the back, left or right hand only, teeth only&ldots;!    Musical Body Parts Have two teams gather in one large circle, teammates spaced every other player with chairs facing outward. Remove one chair. Have music ready. When the music starts everyone must walk around the chairs (it's fun if you make them jog). When the music stops, a caller yells out a body part. Then everyone races to touch that body part to a chair, one person per chair only. If they touch a chair before the body part is called, they are out. The one person who doesn't get a chair is also out. To speed it up, you can remove more chairs. We usually start out simple - nose, hair, left elbow, etc. but towards the end we get more complicated - your bare feet, someone already out's left hand. The object is to be the last one left.   Do-Si-Do Form two equal teams. If teams are unequal, join one of them. At one end of the room, have teams each line up single file, hands on hips, one behind the other, with about a foot of space between each team member. On "go," the last person in each line begins moving to the front of the line in a do-si-do fashion. Instead of moving back-to-back, like in square dancing, teenagers each grab the right elbow of the person in front, then the left elbow of the next person, then the right elbow of the next, and so on, until they reach the front of their line. Then the next person at the end of the line starts moving up the same way. This light-on-your-feet relay continues until one team has successfully moved all the way across the room. Depending on the size of your room, players may have to do-si-do several times in order to win. Play country music in the background while you run the relay.   4:30 Harmonious Hop "Free Style"  Electronica, Dance, Disco, Pop, Hip Hop, Rap    5:00 Movie A PG movie that follows our theme or just crash! Hair Spray, High School Musical, School of Rock, etc&ldots;   7:00 Go Home!