Bring it together: about 7:15pm
"Hey, glad to see you all here. Welcome to ??????

Introduce new people: give them a blow-pop, skittles, or snickers bar, etc.

Youth Challenge:
(an up front game/crowdbreaker) Have two students come up and do some challenge against each other. (Chubby bunnies, dollar hop, baby food eating contest, burp contest, etc. Be creative!!!

Announcements: upcoming activities, events

Games:

The Big Bad Wolf
Divide into groups of three. Give each group a small stack of newspapers and some tape. They must build a newspaper shelter of some kind. It must be big enough to get all three team members inside. The wolf or wolves (staff) then attempt to blow the shelter down. Afterwards, have a giant paper fight.

Discussion Starter:

" I need 5 volunteers to help me be the average American family- Dad Mom and 3 kids- Tim, you would be a good Dad... "

have a paper labeled Dad ready to stick on him. Do the same for the whole family, labeling 4 more volunteers. Have 3x5 cards ready to right down responsibilities of each family members

"So what does a Dad do?"
"Nothing"
"Beats his kids"
"Goes to Work"

Try to filter the joke answers and encourage the truthful ones

"So, would every body agree that the average family has Dad as the primary wage-earner?
Cool, is he also the one who handles discipline?

write $ on a piece of paper and stick it on Dad (with tape)when they say he is the wage earner- and write discipline on a piece of paper and stick it on Dad when they agree that he is the discipliner.

Repeat the steps for each family member until each has several pieces of paper stuck on them.

e.g. Dad- Discipline, money
Mom- money, nurture
Oldest Bro- chores, beat up kid
Middle child- babysit, fun
Little sis- no responsibilities

"Now if this is the typical home in America- let's say that Dad leaves."

Tear up the Dad sign, pull off Dad's responsibilities (that were taped onto him), and sit Dad down

"Now we have to transfer Dad's responsibilities to the rest of the family. (holding up the $ piece of paper) Who is going to replace the income?"

"A boyfriend"

"Alimony"

"Well might some of this financial responsibility fall on mom? Well she is already working some now she will have to increase hours and we'll give some of the responsibility to older brother"

tear $ in half, tape half on Mom and half on older brother
Divide the rest of the responsibilities and adjust everyone's so it balances (those little pieces of paper being switched from person to person and the adding of more responsibilities on each family member really demonstrates the drastic affect of divorce in a very visual way)

"Now what if a step dad shows?

Bring guy in from audience and put Step Dad sign on him

"What responsibilities does he take?"

" Does he marry the mom or the whole family?" (* this question will affect whether the rest of the family will rely on him to take responsibilities. If there is no trust- then there probably won't be any transfer except from the mom)

continue discussion and switching as desired

Wrap up: Rehearse a modern prodigal son story.

Pass out React Cards: (blank 3x5 cards) Have everyone follow instructions

Close:
Please ask us if you have any questions about tonight's subject, we'll be happy to answer them. Have a good night, we'll see you next week.