Games for Youth Group
Recently, I learned something: in youth ministry, youth group games are very important. Like really important.
I was teaching middle school class at Bible School two weeks ago, and I realized that I got glazed eyes and crickets as I was going straight into the first lesson. It was obvious that my approach wasn’t working.
Despite I had planned a second lesson with some small activities, my quiet group had zoomed through the second lesson when I still had an hour left! As it was a beautiful evening, we grabbed our snacks and went outside to eat it. This group of quiet and shy students became this talkative group that ended up having a great time while playing different versions of “The Tag” game.
The games played the role of an icebreaker, helping them overcome the initial awkwardness of meeting new people, so they also ended up being team-building exercises. They were necessary because they had to feel comfortable to be able to participate in discussions about the class lesson.
I realize now that youth group games are essential to create community in youth groups. After some research, our team has come up with the 10 best youth group games we would like to share with you. I strongly feel these youth group game ideas will help you and your students!
You can always come back to look for new youth group games, as we keep them updated based on feedback we get from youth leaders.
All right! Here we have 10 fun games for youth groups:
Grog
You take a flashlight apart and hide the parts throughout the play area, while one kid is the Grog, which is a monster that can freeze you in place by tagging you. The goal is to assemble the flashlight and shine it to the Grog to defeat “it”, so everyone must work together to find the parts of the flashlight. It was our group’s favorite game, they LOVED it.
Christians or Sardines in the Catacombs
This is like the sardines’ game but it uses the story of how the early Christians met in the catacombs and they still increased in number. Basically, it’s “Hide and seek” game, only played backward: someone hides in a dark place, and when somebody else finds them, they join in hiding, and so on. The game ends when only one person is left.
Baby Bird
After splitting your group into two teams, students will compete in pairs. On each team, one student will act as the mother bird and the other one as the baby bird. The “mama bird” will grab gummy worms from a pile of smashed up Oreo's using chopsticks, and then will drop them into the mouth of the “baby bird”, who will then spit them into plastic eggshells. At the end of 20 seconds, the team with the most worms in their eggshell wins. If there’s a tie, the tie-breaker will be a bird-calling contest.
Draw It
Divide the group into two teams and give each team a whiteboard. Give both teams a word and the rest of the team must guess the word the students are drawing. If you tie in themes from the lesson into the drawings, this game could be a great icebreaker.
Slip ‘N Slide Kickball
This is one of the best youth group games for athletic and competitive groups. It’s basically kickball game but you add a slip ‘n slide between the bases. Keep some band-aids at hand when you play this game, just in case.
Capture the Flag
If you’re looking for simple games to play with youth groups, this one’s yours. To make it more challenging, add creative twists: play with three or four teams going against each other, include more than one flag, have the teams taking turns to play offense and defense, etc.
Tug of War
Despite it’s classic, it’s one of the top games for youth groups. Increase the fun by playing it once a year and using interesting competitions, such as senior high vs junior high, boys vs girls, students vs leaders, etc. Put a large number of the weakest against a small number of the strongest to make it more exciting. You can take a small group of senior high boys against 30 middle schoolers, for instance.
Tap It Out Telephone
This fun game is one of the easiest youth group games because you don’t need extra supplies. Basically, it’s like “The Telephone” game, but you use your finger and draw the word on the other person’s back instead of whispering a message to them. Divide your group into multiple teams and tell them to make a straight line. The first team that gets to the last person with the correct word wins.
Name That Tune
This game is a good option when you think about games for youth groups and you want to get a little musical. Divide students into teams and have one student compete against another student from the other team. Choose a popular song from iTunes and play it for five seconds so they can guess its name. If neither of them knows the title, let someone else participate.
Penny Chinny
Give everyone a penny. When you say “Go!” they must try to knock everyone else’s penny off while they balance theirs on their chin. This way the students will be looking up while the penny lays flat on their chins. The last student standing with their penny balanced is the winner. It’s one of the easy and fun games for youth groups you can play when you have to wait, like when you’re waiting before a youth conference or a Christian artist concert, for instance.
