A fun movie to watch with your youth volunteer staff - especially if you work with Jr. high kids

Night at the Museum has been out for awhile now, but I just rented it last night and watched. I would suggest watching this movie with your youth volunteers. It’s a great movie because it reminded me of the first time I stepped into teaching a group of 40 Jr. high students - yeah it was crazy.  As you may know, Ben Stiller (Larry), needs a job and finally after begging, he gets a night guard job at a museum which comes to life to his suprise - Jr. High….I mean chaos….no wait a sec Jr. High was right.

It’s great because, like many of us, he quits after his first night, but after seeing his son envy him that he has a new job, he quickly changes his mind and is willing to give it another shot. As the movie progresses you can see how Larry begins to gain authority in the museum and by the end he’s in command -VICTORY! The same is true in youth ministry.

Here’s what you can do:

Before you kick-off the fall program, gather your staff together to watch this movie to get everyone pumped about the new year.

After watching the film with your volunteers ask them:

1. What similarities did you see in the movie that you see in youth ministry?
2. What actions did Larry do that were helpful? Not so helpful?
3. What kinds of things must we do to gain authority with the students?

After asking the questions, get into a huddle, quickly review some of the answers, have everyone put their hand in the center and do a 1-2-3 “______”. Maybe the word is one of the animals in the movie like “monkey” - just be creative and let it be a fun way of preparing you to dive in when you start out the school year.