Maxi Golf
Equipment:
- Carboard boxes (lots of them)
- Sticky Tape
- Glue
- Plastics
- Egg Cartons
- Junk / Craft Material
- Scissors
- Paper
- Textas
- Crayons
- Paint
- Plastic (toy) Golf Balls
- A number of Golf Putters
- A number of score cards
Schedule:
0.00 Crowdbreakers -
Invent a game
Form small groups and try the activity suggested on page 127 of the Play chapter in Way to Live. Each group should invent a simple game for two to four players that uses only a tennis ball. Then each small group plays their game in the large group. See if spectators can guess the rules just by observing. Ask: Was your game competitive (winners and losers) or cooperative (playing together to reach a common goal)? Was it fun? (From “Way to Live Leaders Guide” pp 58)
0.20 Getting started - Creating the Course
Organise the group into a number of teams, preferably of three, maybe four members.
Give the groups 40 minutes in which to create a minimum of two mini golf holes, they can use anything from your pile of equipment and they can use items from the church/hall, with the restriction of not wanting to damage or disrespect anything, (so standing on a communion table to take the first swing would be innapropriate as would be using the baptisimal font as a water hazzard). Encourage the teams to be as creative as possible, using colours and moving objects if possible, remind them of a number of different mini golf courses, perhaps project images of some against the wall of the hall…
After 40 minutes has passed get the teams to complete their creations and rejoin you.
1.00 Playing the Game -
The maxi golf course should be completed by now, hand out the putters, score cards and golf balls to each of the teams, depending on time you may decide to have a team vs team game rather than an individual game within teams, set them up at the beginning of the course and have them go through it.
Reward the team with the most creative hole with a prize, you may also wish to reward the winner of the golf match with a prize as well.
1.40 Devotion -
Show a snippet from the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance where Bagger Vance (Will Smith) visits Rannulph on the course to help him find his swing. You may choose any number of these scenes:
Quotes from the movie:
Bagger Vance: Yeah the rythm of the game just like the rythm of life…
Bagger Vance: Yeah, I always felt a man’s grip on his club just like a man’s grip on his world…
Bagger Vance: Yep…Inside each and every one of us is one true authentic swing…Somethin’ we was born with…Somethin’ that’s ours and ours alone…Somethin’ that can’t be taught to ya or learned…Somethin’ that got to be remembered…Over time the world can, rob us of that swing…It get buried inside us under all our wouldas and couldas and shouldas…Some folk even forget what their swing was like…
Bagger Vance: Put your eyes on Bobby Jones…Look at his practice swing, almost like he’s searchin for something…Then he finds it…Watch how he settle hisself right into th emiddle of it, feel that focus…He got a lot of shots he could choose from..Duffs and tops and skulls, there’s only ONE shot that’s in perfect harmony with the feild…One shot that’s his, authentic shot, and that shot is gonna choose him…There’s a perfect shot out there tryin’ to find each and every one of us…All we got to do is get ourselves out of its way, to let it choose us…Can’t see that flag as some dragon you got to slay…You got to look with soft eyes…See the place where the tides and the seasons and the turnin’ of the Earth, all come together…where everything that is, becomes one…YOu got to seek that place with your soul Junuh…Seek it with your hands don’t think about it…Feel it…Your hands is wiser than your head ever gonna be…Now I can’t take you there Junuh…Just hopes I can help you find a way…Just you…that ball…that flag…and all you are…
Bagger Vance: What I’m talkin about is a game…A game that can’t be won only played…
Rannulph Junuh: You don’t understand…
Bagger Vance: I don’t need to understand…Ain’t a so ul on this entire earth ain’t got a burden to carry he don’t understand, you ain’t alone in that…But you been carryin’ this one long enough…Time to go on…lay it down…
Rannulph Junuh: I don’t know how…
Bagger Vance: You got a choice…You can stop…Or you can start…
Rannulph Junuh: Start?
Bagger Vance: Walkin…
Rannulph Junuh: Where?
Bagger Vance: Right back to where you always been…and then stand there…Still…real still…And remember…
Rannulph Junuh: It’s too long ago…
Bagger Vance: Oh no sir it was just a moment ago…Time for you to come on out the shadows Junuh…Time for you to choose…
Rannulph Junuh: I can’t…
Bagger Vance: Yes you can…but you ain’t alone…I”m right here with ya…I’ve been here all along…Now play the game…Your game…The one that only you was meant to play…Then one that was given to you when you come into this world…You ready?…Stike that ball Junuh don’t hold nothin back give it everything…Now’s the time…Let yourself remember…Remember YOUR swing…That’s right Junuh, settle yourself…Let’s go…Now is the time, Junuh…
ASK: What can be learned from playing a game?
ASK: What have been your best lessons ever learnt on the sports field?
ASK: Do you think that God created games/play for us to learn more about God/more about life/more about ourselves?
ASK: Is there such a thing as good(godly) play or bad play?
ASK: What examples of bad play can you think of, what makes it bad?
ASK: What kinds of things do we learn about God when we play together?
ASK: What kind of things do we learn about each other when we play together?
ASK: How do these lessons translate to your day to day life?
1.50 Supper and announcements