Rock Solid

Youth club leaders decided to make a move away from the traditional youth club activities and to introduce a Youth-for-Christ series of activities called Rock Solid. We went and saw this in practice at the Baptist Church and were generally impressed and thought that it would suit the St George’s Youth group. Up to now youth club evenings have comprised a mixture of hall games and “out” activities such as bowling, swimming, playzone etc. with little religious input.

The change involved a reduction to only one “out” activity a term, and a mix of Rock Solid evenings and traditional evenings with cooking, debates, drama etc. The Rock Solid programme is rooted in the following six main principles: Fun and excitement, Relationship Building, Life skills, Presenting the Good News, Mobilising Leaders and Partnership.

This term we have undertaken five Rock Solid evenings, which have been generally well received. They comprise of a host of games, quizzes, chats and thoughts. Some of the games can get quite messy. A recent game comprised eating doughnuts dangling from strings and another with the general heading of ‘movie night’ involved the children trying to make a red carpet from a strip of wallpaper. The only snag was that they had to do it using tomato sauce on the soles of their feet! Not all children appreciate these sort of games but no one is forced to do them all; however there is something in there for everyone. Each evening has a theme: This term we have undertaken themes entitled All New, Movie Night, United, Think Big and ‘Tis the Season.

The one thing that Rock Solid has done is to reduce the pressure on leaders to be constantly devising varied and appropriate activities for the group each week. The Rock Solid themes and activities are clearly set and it just leaves the leaders to buy the “ingredients”, operate the games and clear up the mess!

At the end of the first term we will undertake a survey of the children to judge their reaction. Several are at Youth Club for the first time so they have little with which to compare their thoughts. However some of the old hands opinions will be very valuable and will help to decide the future of this project.