Student Ministry: Easter with the Family

Hey Parents!

We decided not to have our regularly scheduled Student Ministry this Easter weekend to give our leaders and your family more time to connect with each other. Since it’s a value of ours to encourage you, as parents, in your role as the primary relational and spiritual influence your student’s lives, we thought we’d put together a list of Students at Home ideas for your family. They range from fun games to things that are more spiritual in nature. We encourage you to go through these options as a family and vote on which ones to do! We hope you can use one or more of them, or that they’ll stir your family’s creativity to make up some of your own.

Whatever you do, we encourage you to be intentional with the level of relationship and spirituality you have in your house during this Easter holiday. Enjoy!

CCC Student Ministry Staff

Worship Together

The church can’t gather in a building together, but we invite you to get your family in one room, around one device, and worship with us! There’ll be a unique experience for Good Friday and 5 different service times on Sunday. Check out ccceaster.com for all the details and pick a time that works for your family!

Watch Together

Your family should absolutely check out the Student Ministry YouTube page, with new content every week! Gather together and watch our variety show where Ian, Brad, Allison, and Jon G do an Easter egg hunt challenge, Nick shows you how to bake some Easter bread, and Ian teaches on the true meaning of Easter!

Getting To Know You

This is a great activity to have some fun as family, while mixing in some spiritual discussion in an informal way. In Student Ministry, we find that you always get better answers out of students when they have some time to think beforehand. We recommend giving these questions to each person in your family a couple of hours or even a day ahead of when you want to discuss them! Encourage each person to answer all the questions ahead of time. You can print out a copy for each person, text or email them to everyone, or use your imagination and get the out in some other creative way!

Set this up in a way that’s fun, and let all your family members know they’ll each have a chance to tell the rest of the family all about themselves.

Once you sit down to have the discussion, start with the youngest family member! Let them pick a question, share their answer first, and then go around and have everyone share their answer. Continue on, from youngest to oldest, letting family members pick the question you’ll discuss next, until everyone has answered all of the questions. Here we go! (Feel free to modify these to fit your family.)

If you could only pick one Easter candy to have, what would it be?

What is your best Easter memory from growing up?

What are you missing because Easter is different this year?

What is 1 - 2 of your favorite Easter traditions that our family has?

What’s your favorite Easter food?

What are 2 - 3 things about the Good Friday through Easter Sunday story of Jesus that are the most cool to you?

Would you rather eat a whole package of Peeps in 30 minutes or wear a bunny costume to work or school for a day?

Write down one scripture verse about Easter that you like and why you like it.

Who is someone you could text or reach out to, outside of our family, and say something encouraging to today?

Who would win in an epic battle... a 6 foot Easter bunny or a 6 foot tall chick?

Bake Together

This Easter might look a little different for all of you folks, so I want to suggest a fun, delicious activity to do together, baking Easter Bread! As a part of the variety show on our YouTube channel, I‘ll be baking this bread on Friday, so you can follow along or you can follow the recipe below! We hope this activity will be fun for all of you while you enjoy spending some time together in the kitchen!

Nicholas Hazel, HSM Resident FOR THE BREAD • Cooking spray • 1 c lukewarm milk • 1/2 c plus 1 tsp granulated sugar, divided • 2 1/2 tsp or 1 (.25oz) package active dry yeast • 4 1/2 c all-purpose flour, plus more for surface • 2 tsp kosher salt • 2 large eggs • 1/2 c (1 stick) butter, softened and cut into cubes • Egg wash, for brushing • Sprinkles, for topping FOR THE EGGS • 4 large eggs • 1 c boiling water, divided • 2 tsp distilled white vinegar, divided • Food coloring

DIRECTIONS 1. Grease a large bowl with cooking spray. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, add milk and 1 teaspoon sugar and sprinkle yeast on top. Let sit until frothy, about 8 minutes.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine flour, remaining ½ cup sugar, and salt. Add milk-and-yeast mixture and eggs. Mix until a very soft dough forms, about 5 minutes. Increase to medium-high speed and add in butter a tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each addition, until dough pulls away from sides of bowl, about 15 minutes.

3. Transfer dough to greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

4. Meanwhile make hard-boiled eggs: Place eggs in a medium pot and cover with water. Over medium heat, bring to a boil. Cover and turn off heat.

Let sit for 11 minutes, then remove from pan and dunk in ice water.

5. Divide 1 cup boiling water between 2 bowls. Add 1 teaspoon vinegar and desired food coloring to each bowl. Add one egg at a time and let sit 5 to 10 minutes, depending on preferred color. Use a slotted spoon to remove from bowl and let dry on a wire rack fitted over a baking sheet.

6. Preheat oven to 375° and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into 3 equal parts. Roll each piece into a 16” long rope. Place ropes side by side lengthwise on prepared baking sheet. Pinch top ends together, then tightly braid ropes together. Bring ends together to form a circle and pinch together.

7. Press dyed eggs into braid, then cover dough and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

8. Brush with egg wash and top with sprinkles. Bake until golden, 30 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of delish.com

Jellybean Jam

For this fun family game, you will need a candy that has a variety of colors like jellybeans! (Skittles, M&M’s, or something similar will also work.) Pour the candy into a bowl or give each person 3 - 5 pieces. Each bean represents a question the person has to answer, so pour out the candy according to how much time you are setting aside for this. Once everyone has jellybeans, pick someone to go first and they’ll select which jellybean (aka question) they want to answer. Find the color below and ask the corresponding question! Once they’ve answered, they can eat the bean! Continue on until everyone has answered all their questions and eaten all their jellybeans.

If someone has multiple beans of the same color, they can answer the question again, with a close second choice, or you can use the alternative question.

Want to continue the fun? Have each family member pick a color and come up with a question they would want everyone to answer!

If you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would you chose and why?

Alternate: If you could swap families for a day which family would you want to swap with and why?

Which bible character do you most identify with and why?

Alternate: Which book character has grabbed your attention lately?

If you could own any vehicle what would you choose? What color would it be?

Alternate: If you had to smell one smell for the rest of your life what smell would you choose and why?

If you could have your family all join in a hobby or activity with you what would it be?

Alternate: If you had to get rid of all gaming systems/board games but one, which game would you hold onto? Why? What was the last TV show you watched, then take 20 seconds and explain it as if you were explaining it to your great grandparents.

Alternate: Top three TV shows If you had to choose one meal to eat for the whole year what would you choose, why?

Alternative: If you could only have one dessert for a year, what would you choose?

What is the best meme you have seen lately? Find it and show it to the family.

Alternate: Share the best Tik tok you have seen recently.

Do you know?

Hey families! While you’re all cooped up in the same house we thought you might as well have some fun and see how well you know each other! with this newlywed-esque game. Make sure each person has some paper and something to write with. Everyone gets to look at the questions, but be sure not to let anyone see what you write. There will be four rounds in the game.

In rounds 1 and 3, kids will answer the questions about themselves and parents should write down what they think the kids’ answers will be. If the parents get it right, that is worth a point!

In rounds 2 and 4, parents will answer the questions about themselves and kids should write down what they think their parents’ answers will be. If the kids get it right, that is worth a point!

There are a total of 10 points available for each person and of course the highest score wins! We’d love to see the final scores, so feel free to tag us on social media to congratulate the winners!

ROUND 1 (children answer / parents guess) What is your favorite dessert?

Do you prefer salty or sweet snacks?

What do you like most about your parents?

What is your shoe size?

Which celebrity would you most love to share a meal with?

ROUND 2 (parents answer / children guess) What was your favorite subject in middle/high school?

What is your favorite season?

Who would you visit first if we were not in quarantine?

What is your favorite room in the house?

What is your worst habit?

ROUND 3 (children answer / parents guess) What is your favorite pizza topping?

What is your weirdest quirk?

Which Disney character are you most similar to?

How do you like your eggs cooked?

What are you most likely to go viral for?

ROUND 4 (parents answer / children guess) What is the first thing you would buy with one million dollars?

What is your favorite beverage?

What was the first movie you saw in theaters?

How old were you when you went on your first date?

What is your dream car?