Minute to Win It!

Great Idea for Family Event

This past weekend, we had our annual Missions Conference. Saturday night was family night with the “Minute to Win it Theme”. Our Missionary, Steve Clouser, talked about the “one-minute” opportunities we have throughout life to plant the seed of the gospel, to water it, or sometimes to even see the harvest. The event was great. Here are few things I learned:

DO THESE THINGS:

1. Have a variety of games. We had 10 games picked out, one for each level, with a few alternatives in case the crowds got restless. Well, after watching level 1 game three times, they were completely tired of it. We didn’t consider the fact that Level 1-3 games would be played A LOT as people got eliminated and new contestants started. So, plan for 4-5 Level 1 games and 2-3 Level 2 and 3 games. After that, have Level 4-8 games interchangable and reserve a few super hard ones for Level 9 and 10. About half-way through the game, we just started throwing games at the contestants without rhyme or reason because we wanted to keep things interesting. Not exactly fair to the constentants, but much more fun to watch. oops.

2. Have sign-ups ahead of time. We had sign-ups the week before and the put everyone’s name in a bowl (one bowl for kids and one bowl for adults). This prevented the “Oh oh! I want to play, pick me! Pick Me!” phenomenon.

3. Play the cup stacking game. For some reason, no matter when we brought this game out, people loved it!

4. Have simple prizes, if any at at all. People were way more interested in playing the game and attaining the prestige of the next level than they were about any prizes. Most forgot to pick theirs up and had to be reminded. I wish I would have known that before my $80 trip to Sam’s Club. Oh well, you can also use chocolate!

5. Have seperate divisions for adults and kids. We played a few games simultaneously to keep the audience engaged, but mostly we played the kid side while the adult side was getting set up. Then we immediately went to the adult side and set up for the next kid game. Etc Etc Etc. So there were no lulls in the program.
Our arena looked like this: minute to win it set up (We used masking tape to mark it out).

6. Have someone running the music. My husband downloaded a techno CD from Itunes for $10 with 30 songs on it or something. They were perfect for the games, but they needed to be turned on and off so we could hear the host announce what was next.

DON’T DO THESE THINGS:

1. Give people extra lives. We only game them one life, but we had a few contestants playing for 30-40 minutes and we ended up running out of time (not everyone got to play). So, one shot folks! The games were pretty easy, so maybe if you pick harder games, an extra life is needed.

2. Bother giving out practice packets. We picked out 14 possible games, copied the instructions, made packets and handed them out to all the Sunday School classes. Then, on the big night, pretty much everyone confessed they hadn’t even looked at them. You can always make a list of potential games and direct them to the website. Or just keep them guessing!

3. Play Fishhead. It’s impossible to set up and even more impossible to play!

What about you guys out there? Any tips you want to share? I’ll love to hear it, because we’ll be repeating this event as a Family night in the furture. Thanks!

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More Minute to Win It Posts:

More Minute to Win It for Church (part one) * Minute to Win It Summer Edition * The Do’s and Don’ts of Minute to Win it for Churches * Last Beauty Standing * Double Trouble * Back to School Bash Videos * Coffee Break * Back to School Bash Game List * Perfect Strangers * National Heroes * and more!

Click on the Minute to Win it tag below for all the M2WI posts!

Check out today’s post on Growing Kids Ministry!

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