WELS Youth Night
“Youth Night” provides a series of youth-focused events, where youth will experience an inspiring evening of games, music, prayer, Bible message, small group discussion, and fun with high school youth (9th-12th grade) from local WELS congregations in your area. The goal is for our youth to see that they are not alone and to be encouraged to enjoy the faith they share with others.
This kit provides all the pieces needed to plan, train, promote, and host a Youth Night event.
WELS Youth Night Resources
To view WELS Youth Night content, press down on a title bar to expand/collapse view.
To begin planning, start with the resources below:
- Youth Night – Introduction
- Youth Night – First Steps
- Youth Night – First Steps – E-mail Communication Sample
- Youth Night – Planning Guide
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Preview the Youth Leader Training Video
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Download the youth night promo videos.
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The WELS Youth Night Planning Team hosted a Q & A webinar to answer some initial questions about this kit to help with the planning process of these youth events. Take a peek and listen in for some keys insights and examples of how this idea started and how to use this kit for your youth.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where do we host this?
Ideally, teens should drive less than an hour to attend a WELS Youth Night event. In some areas with large concentrations of WELS teens, the driving time will be less than 30 minutes. For example, in Minnesota, these are places that could ideally host a WELS Youth Night: Mankato, New Ulm, Rochester, Winona, Duluth, Redwood Falls, or St. Cloud, etc. Each state and area will split up differently. For instance, there will likely be more than one location in Watertown, Appleton, or Milwaukee, Wis., because there are so many teens in those locations.
What is the ideal size of youth night?
In some of the outlying states, you might have gatherings of 15 youth or fewer. You can still hold WELS Youth Night with a group that size—you’ll just have one group for the small group questions as opposed to several small groups. I highly encourage the teens to invite a friend. The added power to this small setting is knowing that over a thousand other teens across the country are experiencing the same games, keynote, and small group questions. Plus, the youth leaders are able to connect more personally with the teens in attendance when it is a smaller group.
In areas where there are hundreds of WELS teens, we suggest not having more than 150 teens in attendance. You will need individual space for each small group discussion and, ideally, there shouldn’t be more than 10-12 people in each small group discussion. So, if you have 150 people in attendance, you’ll need 12-13 small group locations. If you need to create more than one WELS Youth Night in the same city, you could assign certain churches to attend at one location and other churches to attend at another location.
What day do we host?
We have found the best night to hold youth activities is on Sunday night because there aren’t youth sports that night. If families go on vacation, they typically arrive home on Sunday to be ready for work and school the next day and often will come home early enough for their child to attend.
When do we start planning?
The initial planning meeting should take place in July. There is a timeline in the toolkit to help you stay on target. Right after school starts, it is wise to get the date of WELS Youth Night advertised in your local churches and schools.
What ages attend?
The teens attending WELS Youth Nights are current high school-age students. It is wise to use college-age students to help with planning, music, and as small group leaders to help engage them in leadership and connect them deeper to the church.
What if I have additional questions?
There is an amazing team of leaders ready to help you! Questions can be submitted on the WELS contact us page.
Check out this map to see which congregations who are already hosting a Youth Night or which congregations are close to yours. If you would like to request a list of congregations in your circuit or want to report your active YOUTH NIGHT location to be added to the map, please let us know!
BLUE: An active WELS congregation in the US or Canada only.
YELLOW: An organized YOUTH NIGHT event location. Report your YOUTH NIGHT event location to get added to the map!