What Talk Do You Do for 250 Dodgeball Kids?

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Each year we kick off the school year with an All-Area Dodgeball tournament. It is a ton of fun. During “half-time”, we give a short club talk. Let me set the scene… 250+ high school students, many of them new to YL, they have been running, dodging, competing, arguing about rules, taunting each other, laughing, and now they are out of breath and sit down, then after some brief announcements you get to do the club talk… What would you do?

Well, several people in our area have done a talk like this (our kickball clubs, club at the local mall band stage, etc.), and I have done several of these too. Here is what I came up with for last week…

Talk: What is YL?… 3 Things

1. People

  • Different groups of people: sports people, academic people, band people, people with no group
  • At YL everyone is together, we can just relax and get to know each other.

2. Fun

  • Events like dodgeball/kickball/hot dog eating contests
  • Games, skits, laughter, not taking ourselves too seriously
  • A chance to take a break from busyness… grades, parents, relationships, balancing everyone’s expectations. At YL we hope you can take the expectations and weight of life off your shoulders and just have fun.

3. Life

  • All the YL leaders are Christians
  • If you aren’t religious you are at the right place!
  • We talk about LIFE, here is an example
  • Read Jn 10:10
    • People try to fill their lives with relationships and as good as they can be they can be STOLEN as someone breaks your friendship or your heart or your family (when I say we fill our lives I blow up a balloon in front of all of them, when I say STOLEN I pop the balloon, I do this for all three points)
    • People try to fill their lives with sports, getting good grades, and those hopes can be KILLED when we blow out our knee, or the competition is better then we are, or we get a B in a class, or a C, or a D, or an F.
    • People try to fill their lives by constantly trying new things. I tried to do that in high school with girls, parties all kinds of things. But I didn’t experience life, most of the time I felt my hopes were DESTROYED as I felt regret, guilt and depression.
  • But Jesus came to give us life to the FULL. God wants to fill our lives in a way nothing else can. (At this point I lift a balloon to my mouth but I don’t fill it.)
  • Everyone take a deep breath. You see God doesn’t want to fill a balloon, he wants to fill your life with each breath you take.

CHALLENGE: Come back to YL. Come to hear more about life, come for the fun, come for the people, come for all of those reasons or just one. You are always invited!

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