Saturday, June 24, 2006

i hate youth lock-ins


... but the sunrise made it all worth it ... and chatting all night with friends who were up anyway ...

16 comments:

John said...

Lock-ins bring back some good memories of friends, food, basketball,games, music, and feeling like a zombie.

Dawn said...

I miss you tons!!! I hope to talk to you soon!!

byron smith said...

What is a lock-in?

Chris said...

absolutely beautiful.

A lock-in is when you get as many of the youth group as you can and lock them inside a church building for an entire night. Everyone stays up for most of it playing games, talking, drinking lots of caffeine, and, if you're a youth leader, trying to prevent the teens from sneaking off into the unmonitered corners of the church for romantic trysts.

ckjolly said...

it's a teenage ritual that comes straight from Satan. parents drop their kids off at the church and expect the youth workers to babysit them all night as they stay awake till they crash ... usually around 530 a.m. ... feed them breakfast and then pack up their sorry, tired selves and send them back home with mummy and daddy.

some churches try to spiritualize it by having Bible studies throughout the night. which is what this church did. a task that could easily be spread over a period of days.

what i don't understand is that it is STILL on the schedule to go see the Pirates of the Caribbean II's midnight viewing with the youth and then sleep at the church. why?!!

yeah, not a fan of lock-ins ...

ckjolly said...

that was my job, chris.

i guarded the door ... made sure no girls left and no boys came in.

Marion said...

Christine, it all sounds a bit pointless. Youth camps work better (my kids have been leaders on such & learnt a lot).

Priscilla said...

I had fun at the one I went to as a youth...but I can see how it would lose it's appeal as a leader.

Justin said...

Bryon,

You never went to St Ives Anglican, then? We had Lock-ins with the youth. The youth pastor before me was an American.

150+ kids in a smallish facility. I didn't mind them. But I didn't mind chaos.

We did a full on teaching time when they were fresh, then let them run wild. I kept telling myself: they’ll remember this night in years to come --Hopefully the teaching. But probably not. But then that true for almost most youth activities. Its part of the pleasure and pain of it all.

As long as you had indoor soccer and an N64 Bond up the Projection screen.

These days, however, are long gone.

The Librarian said...

T'was a good time to get to know you some more Christine:)
You're a trojan, I'd be half ( mostly) dead for a week after pulling an all-nighter!

sajini said...

I hear ya... Last weekend, I went on a youth retreat... Most of the girls were under 20. I had to be a big bad meanie trying to pry them away from boys!!

Martha said...

Why do we put so much effort into pointless activities when there are so many worthwhile things to do?

I do recall a lock-in or two as a teen, but don't remember anything good ever coming from either of them. There was always someone who preferred to sneak off rather than remain in the relative safety of the group. I rather think they are a bad idea, but then nobody asked me.

Craig Schwarze said...

Ummm...fire hazard?

Martha said...

They aren't really "locked" in. The leaders might let them out, if in fact, there was a fire.

mike said...

Hmmm a very famous post... and night. I was totally stressing that you'd out me for chatting all night. I'd cop it from heaps of people and get teased. You didn't. Commendable. I was in pretty deep

ckjolly said...

our first sunrise!