So, you took the kids to camp last summer. By fall, they were ready to win their campus for Christ. Then, one of your leaders got a new girlfriend and started going to her church. Two of your students are playing soccor and their games are scheduled on Sundays. Your younger students feel discouraged because the older kids they look up to aren’t around at the activities you plan. Maybe the New Year could be time for a fresh start. Try something like this . . .

Designate one Sunday early in the year as a day to remember 2008. Plan for food. Bring tons of pictures of camp, youth activities, and kids doing stuff together. Ask two or three kids (preferably some of your leaders that have been missing in action lately) to share the most important spiritual moment of 2008 with the group. Call, email, and Facebook the kids . . . and their parents to let them know it is a special day. If you have some much loved students that have gone on to college, arrange for one or two of them to come home for the weekend.

On Sunday, put up two big sheets of paper. Lead the students to spend time laughing together and telling stories. Then, read 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. Ask youth, as you read, to pick out one idea they think is important. Read the passage twice. Then, ask: What jumped out at you? Let them share for a few minutes. Then, lead them to think about what the youth group accomplished in 2008. Write the ways they carried out the ministry of reconcilation, built fellowship, and experienced being God’s new creation on the first sheet of paper.

Then, ask them: What do you think God would have for us as a group in 2009? Write the things they suggest on the second sheet of paper. Lead them to talk about what it will take to accomplish some of these things. Ask: What is our first step? You might be able to plan a ministry project or fellowship time on the spot.

Close the time with prayer. Ask as many students who are willing to pray for the youth group to start something new.