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| Originally posted Spring 2012. |
Prom season is upon us.
Below are a few ways we as Young Life leaders can serve our high school friends, parents, and school administrations.
PRE-PROM
Dress/Tux Shopping
Go
shopping with them. Do you think your high school friend would rather go to Men’s Warehouse with his YL
leader or his mom? It’s a toss up, but for the
female YL leaders it’s a no-brainer contact work opportunity.
Pimp That Ride
Offer
to pimp out your Rav-4 and dress up as a limo driver to escort your
high school friends and their dates to dinner and prom. Maybe even check with committee folks or adults at your church who have nice vehicles they’d be willing to let you borrow.
Chef-boy-r-prom
Offer
to cook/serve an elegant candlelight dinner for your high school
friends. Do it at your house, their house, the YL house, or outside at a
park. It’ll be much cheaper than a steakhouse and more memorable as well.
Post-a-pic
Show
up at the pre-dinner photo spot with a super-nice camera that you borrowed
from your retired uncle. Take pics, edit them, post them on Instagram and
tag your high school friends.
Pray
This
is a night full of regrets for many of our friends. Let’s beg God to
protect them and to give them courage to make wise decisions.
Prep
Help
your high school friends think through the evening ahead of time. Tell
them you know the temptations they will face. Tell them Jesus
knows those same temptations (Matthew 4). Tell them to look for a way out (1 Corinthians 10:13), because Jesus always provides one.
Who else is having these important conversations with them? It’s one
of the reasons we work so hard to earn the right to be heard.
DURING-PROM
Volunteer
You
might be surprised at how grateful the high school administration will
be to hear an adult ask if they can help supervise the prom. It’s not
like a ton of adults are lining up to referee boogie-dance wrastlin’.
Prom Alternative
Some
of your friends didn’t get asked to the prom. They say it’s not a big deal,
but no one enjoys being left out. Imagine how excited they would be if
you offered them another hangout option during prom. You could do
something low-key or even create an event like “MORP” (Prom backwards.)
Instead of the dance you could create an evening of a fancy meal
followed byvideo scavenger hunts, rolling houses, ice blocking, movies, and even your own little dance party. That’s the stuff memories are made of.
AFTER-PROM
If
your high school puts on an After-Prom event, volunteer to help. Our YL
team used to film music videos of kids during the event. We used the YL
skit closet and had kids dress up and lip-sync the song of their
choice. We got some construction lights and designed a lil stage. After
we shot the music videos we uploaded them on the YL YouTube page for
kids to view. It was a big hit. If your school doesn’t offer an
After-Prom consider offering your friends a late night alternative.
What other suggestions or ideas do you have? Feel free to share in the comments below.
