Our students went to CIY Believe this weekend in Cincinnati, and we had a GREAT time. The Believe Team did a really good job of making Friday and Saturday a wonderful and challenging experience for our leaders and our students. It's Tuesday and my Facebook News Feed is full of inside jokes, song lyrics, memories, and pictures being shared by students and leaders from this weekend.
Cincinnati was the 3rd of 11 tour stops for Believe this year. I thought it might be helpful for other ministers, leaders, and churches for me to throw out some info that I found helpful, and to share a little bit about our group's experience. Here are some things that I thought were noteworthy, helpful to know beforehand, or things I appreciated that Believe gave us ahead of time. I hope you find it helpful, and I hope your students and leaders enjoy their weekend at Believe like we did.
Registration Process
Because our church was close enough to the arena, I went early to register without our students, and to reserve seats for the evening sessions. The early check in at Believe started at 3pm. I got there around 3:15. I was able to reserve front row seats for our whole group, but be careful that you get a seating chart for the evening to ensure you save seats that match up with your groups bracelets otherwise you might have to move unexpectedly. I loved the chance to get in early and take care of our seats.
Another thing that I wasn't expecting when I arrived early, was that we needed to turn in all of our permission forms and leader releases in order to get our small group materials and student Bibles. I did not have all of our forms etc ready, but they were very gracious and allowed me to go ahead, pick up our stuff, and turn in our forms later that evening. It was great to get the Bibles ahead of time to leave on the seats we had reserved.
Small Group Materials
The small group materials that they provide the groups this year were significantly different from previous years. This year each group will receive a 'inflatable conversation starting' ball. You toss it around the group and depending on what your hand is touching on the ball determines what question the student gets asked.
The ball is more ideal to be used outside the arena, in your hotel room, or in your church. It won't work to well if you try throwing it around your table at lunch or at a late night coffee shop etc. The ball itself doesn't provide your group leaders with much info on the sessions either. Some group leaders really like to know what topics are going to be covered so they can get their thoughts together on things. The Believe team has released a session by session, element by element overview of the weekend so that leaders can get a good grip on things for their small group times. You can find that
HERE.
Worship Materials
This is one of the areas that the Believe team really hit it out of the park. I can't speak for everybody, but I love it when I get info ahead of time about what is going to be said, sung, and done at these events. Not only did they let us know what songs we would be singing, but they provided us with an ITUNES ping list, chord charts, and an overview of what their goal was with the worship times. I hope they provide us with this type of info every year. You can access the worship info
HERE.
Oh and I can't forget to say that the band that they brought with them to help lead worship, the Sparks, did a wonderful job. I really enjoyed them.
Finding New Seats
At Believe you group switches seats throughout the weekend to give as many groups as possible a chance to be close to the action. I think its a really good idea. One thing I would give you a heads up on though is the Saturday: After Lunch switching of seats will sneak up on you. Hopefully in the future, they will just have you sitting in one area on Friday, and then one area all day Saturday. My advice for getting your seats for Saturday after lunch, is to try and find seats for your group BEFORE you all leave the venue for lunch.
Believe Bibles
I love the fact that Believe gives every student a Bible and encourages them repeatedly to read along with them in it. However, every year we have several students leave their newly received Bibles all over the place. I think what I am going to try next year is to either print out name labels to put in each of the Bibles on the first night, or have each student right their name in their Bible right away when they get it.
Lion Stencils
One of the underlying themes is that God gives us the courage to do what we are called by Him to do. They have this awesome picture of a lion that represents the courage He gives us. Throughout the weekend, they will use a stencil to spray paint on the lion to students' t-shirts. They actually have stencils for sale at the event, but I thought you might want to get a different lion stencil online to be tagging people's shirts with that weekend. Here are a couple I found:
Lion Number 1
Lion Number 2
Cardboard Box Painting
This was one thing that got me a lot more stressed than I needed to be about it. When we received our info pack with our wristbands, we also received a letter that told us to get a sample size amount of black and white pant, and things to paint with (brushes, gloves, sponges etc). We would use it in Saturday's last session to paint a box. I tried talking with other people to see what they were going to get, and I called CIY to ask how many I would need for my group of around 40. They told me that I would only need 1 box and enough paint for that box. What worried me was I was worried that not all of my students would be able to participate in the activity.
What I ended up doing turned out to work pretty well. I asked a few students to paint the box during lunch on Saturday, and then had all of our students write on it before the last session started. The element they use the boxes for is pretty cool, and it will come together whether things go smoothly on your end or not.
CIY's Event Cell
In the packet that we received our wristbands, we also had an overview letter from Corina Ferguson our event coordinator. It talked through different aspects of the weekend, and it also included a cell phone number we could reach her at during the weekend.
On Saturday as we left the arena, we ran into a girl who had been separated from her group in the parking garage. I was so thankful I had brought that letter with me. One of our small groups of girls talked with the student while I called Corina. She quickly found the girl's church, called them, and the group turned around and quickly came back to the parking garage. The Believe team (Thanks Corina!) took care of that problem in 5-10 minutes. I was so impressed, and I could see how thankful the student was to be able to quickly find her group again.
Make sure you have that number with you in case something happens with your gorup, or someone else's.
Tricycle Racing League
The goofy, entertainment element this year at Believe is a series of videos about the Tricycle Racing league. Although a lot of our students didn't really get these videos, or think they were very funny, they all thought it would be pretty fun to race tricycles some time. So if you have the time before hand, you might go out and grab some tricycles for Believe Free Time, or just start having some Tricycle races with your Middle School students right now.
Highlights:
Heather Flies- was our speaker for the weekend and she did a phenomenal job. A lot of our team said that they would love to have her come speak at our church. I love the way she was authentic, quick to the point, and the way she showed love for Middle School Students.
Roaring Like a Lion and These Are Your Words- were the two songs that our students came away from Believe singing. These were both very meaningful songs for our group, and they will be sung a few more times here at Parkside before too long.
Awesome Group Leaders- Our team of leaders here at Parkside did an incredible job this weekend. I loved overhearing conversations about reading the Bible, living your faith at school, and just seeing our leaders love their students. I also have to celebrate just how much initiative our leaders exhibited this weekend. We had a few students picked up early, and our group leaders handled all of it. Any time a student had an issue or concern the first person to hear about it was their group leader and their leaders did a great job handling those moments. We had a couple of students who didn't like heights and didn't want to sit in the upper deck. Their leaders just grabbed a couple other students, checked in with me and found a small section of seats in the lower deck. It is such a blessing to be a part of this team. They are all passionate about loving students and being a part of God's Kingdom.
No Cathedrals Preview- The focus for CIY Move this summer is on places in the world where churches aren't made up of buildings, but are simply a group of people. These are parts of the world where persecution is a huge concern for followers of Christ. The Believe team showed an extended preview of the documentary called No Cathedrals on Saturday morning. I am excited about revealing this part of the world to our students. We take our faith for granted all to often, and we need to realize just how much grace is worth.
-I hope you found this overview/field guide helpful for Believe. Don't hesitate to email me with any questions you might have. Our weekend at Believe was great, and I hope and pray you have the same experience.
