Invite prospective club leaders to help with a summer club meeting out-of-doors, and let them see what’s so fun about leading club.

Supplies: Shelf paper or butcher paper, bowls of tempera paints, balls of different sizes and textures that can get paint on them, hose or plenty of jugs of water and paper towels, Bible, paint chips in many shades of green and brown from a paint store, pencils, water balloons, chairs that can get wet

Do Ahead for the Event: Invite prospective club leaders. Ask experienced club leaders to come and do most of the supervision.

Get Ready (5-8 minutes)

Tell kids that they’re a very important part of this event, because they’re going to help the people who might become new leaders see what fun Pioneer Clubs is.

Play a get-acquainted game, Group and Regroup, with kids and adults. Call out a topic (favorite color, favorite food, birthday month, etc.). Players start calling out answers. When they hear others calling out the same answer, they form a group. Keep calling topics quickly, sometimes before everyone has finished grouping.

Activity (15-20 minutes)

Do Ahead: Gather supplies.

Let kids tell prospective leaders what kinds of activities they have liked in Activity Award time.

Spread large pieces of shelf paper on the ground. Let kids dip balls in paint and throw or roll them at the papers. They can also take off shoes and make footprints. Hose them off afterward!

Bible Exploration (15-20 minutes)

Do Ahead: Determine a safe route to hike.

Focus

Go on a Touch and Feel Hike. Determine safe items ahead of time. Have hikers walk along in follow-the-leader fashion. The leader does any of the following:

  1. Touch: Feel different tree barks, moss, fungus, soil, and leaves; feel with different parts of the body (palms, backs of hands, forearms, cheeks).
  2. Smell: Smell flowers, leaves, soil, etc.
  3. Taste: Only touch an item to the tip of the tongue. Taste leaves, berries, clover, bark, etc.
  • Which feels, smells or tastes did you like best? Why?
  • What do all these cool things make you think about God, who made them?

Study Scripture

Note: If your group is very large, break up into small groups, with an experienced leader and prospective leader in each. Each small group can discuss the questions as you say them, rather than trying to hear answers from kids in a large group.

The psalm writer thought about God when he looked at what God had made. Let’s see what he wrote in Psalm 8 in the Bible. Read verses 3-4.

  • What did nature make the psalm writer think about God? (We seem small and insignificant compared to God’s nature, so how could God pay attention to us?)
  • Listen for how the psalm writer answered his own question. Read verse 5.
  • How important are we to God compared to nature? (Much more important; just a little lower than the angels.)
  • How do you feel about God when you hear this verse? How do you feel about yourself?

Because we are important to God, He gave us an important job. Read verses 6-9.

  • What is our job?
  • How would good rulers rule over animals and nature? Give me a thumbs-up or thumbs-down for each idea I give: give a pet some food…tease the dog…break branches off a tree…water a plant…plant some flowers…clean up litter in a stream…keep the grass mowed…weed a garden…feed donuts to a wild animal…throw stones at ducks…stay on the path when you’re hiking.

Apply

God gave us an important job. He wants us to treat His animals and nature the way He would.

  • Tell someone next to you one thing you will do this week to be a good, careful ruler of animals and nature.

Close by praying this prayer and pausing for kids to say aloud the activity they thought of: Dear God, thank you for creating our awesome world. Thank you for trusting us to take care of it. Help us do a good job. Help me to _______________________. Amen.

Bible Memory (5 minutes)

Have everyone to your left be Group A and everyone to your right be Group B. Lead Group A in saying the first part of Psalm 8:6; lead Group B in answering with the second part. Lead Group A in saying the reference. Then Group B starts the verse again, and so on until each group has said each part several times. Have the whole group say the whole verse together.

Games (5-15 minutes)

Do Ahead: Gather supplies. Fill water balloons.

Choose one or more games. Have adults play, too!

  • Color Discovery. Hand out paint chips. Send small groups out with an adult. Have them look for plant parts that match each color and shade. Give them a pencil and let them check off the ones they find. “Color Discovery” taken from Games Galore.
  • Water Balloon Splat. Set a chair across from each relay team. Each player gets a water balloon. The first player on each team runs to the chair, bounces up and down on the water balloon until it pops, and runs back to tag the next player to go.
  • Water Balloon Pop. Each player holds a water balloon over his or her head and squeezes it until it pops. Who looks the wettest?

Prayer (3 minutes)

I’ll lead a litany prayer. You’ll respond after each thing I say with the sentence the psalm writer said: “How majestic is Your name!”

God, You made the great big world and the heavens. / How majestic is Your name!

But You still pay attention to people. / How majestic is Your name!

You made us only a little lower than angels. / How majestic is Your name!

You gave us the job of taking care of Your creation. / How majestic is Your name!

We will do a good job for You. / How majestic is Your name!

Amen.