Welcome to another episode of Real Time Training. In this special two part episode we do a walk through our new youth facility. This is not a “look how col we are” video, but a video to show God’s faithfulness and hopefully shares some ideas for your youth room or facility.

Ran across this display from a youth group retreat where they had glued the scrabble pieces into place and then framed it. Pretty cool idea to take some of the items and creations from a retreat and put them into an ongoing display. We have used this scrabble board idea for a prayer station in years past, which might have been what they did here. So making it a permanent piece of the youth room gives cool memory.

It seems to becoming a youth room norm. It is the chalkboard paint wall. Pretty simply, use some of this chalkboard paint painting a wall or area of your youth room and voila you have an active signage spot for the teenagers. Paint a whole wall, or just a sign area. Put a frame around the chalkboard painted area for a cool effect.

If there are two things we can count on in life it is death, taxes and youth group t-shirts. We do not have any grand ideas on integrating death or taxes to your youth room. However, you can take those old t-shirts and make them into a neat quilt that holds some of the history of the youth ministry. Hanging them on a wall for decorations, or using for back drops is a good idea.

NOTE: I am not sure the relation all of these shirts have to the youth ministry, but this was found in a youth room.

You might not have a use for Neil Armstrong or JFK. But if you had some audio recording of the Apostles Creed, the youth group benediction, the Lord Prayer, or a favorite song. How cool would it be to have some visual art that represented those foundational, theological, and ritual aspects to the ministry. They could become some really cool conversation pieces for the youth room as well. See this conversation

Non-Youth Member: “What is that?”
Youth Member: “That is our Apostles Creed.”
Non-Youth Member: “Our creed, our statement of belief in the nature of God and Jesus Christ as well as the base tenets of the faith spoken out. This is what it looks like in waveform so that we have a visual reminder of our statements of faith and belief.” (okay, they might not say all that)
Non-Youth Member: “Cool! So do you want to chug some Mountain Dew?”
Youth Member: “Absolutely!”

These things do not come cheap. Artwork rarely is cheap.. and good. So give it some thought.

Not the most artistic in design (note the new Microsoft logo set up with the post it notes), but a cool idea to pull photos and tweets from the group.

Not sure how to get these things? Use a screen capture from your phone or computer to grab the image then email to yourself. Chris was pretty adamant about cutting out the youths usernames just to keep their public profiles to the digital sphere.

I am not sure how to find this one, but it is just too cool not to share.

Maybe you can get some of the dads to take building a few of these as a weekend warrior project. Hey, you never know.

Check out Xorbee’s website for their slate of styles of chairs (or their Facebook for more photos). They are sure to be a hit in the youth room.. or the office. Warning, you are probably going to want one for your own home. They are that great.

However, done with some intentionality recycling some of those home donated items can make a great space.

Be sure to, Keep it Simple. The more complex your set up the more complicated to keep looking nice. Simplicity rules here. Less really is more.

Cool thing with this is that you have a visual display, the items are held together in a clean design, they are not folding or bending on themselves, a consistent spot for folks to find information, and if you keep some stock posters available (ie. worship time posters) then you always have a consistent look.

Drawback to always having a consistent physical set up is that people might become so used to it that they stop seeing the layout. So it is important to vary the design of the posters to keep peoples brains on their toes.