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Grab a tarp or garbage bags to protect the floor, a bucket in case
of an "emergency" and some students to duke it out in this
"that's disgusting" version of Chubby Bunny. Give each five
dill slices to start and have them say Chubby Pickle instead of Chubby
Bunny. Works great to get representatives from all grades and then
pit the guys vs. the girls. No swallowing, spitting of juice, or chewing
and the words "Chubby Pickle" must be intelligible. Prepare
to see some serious slime. |
3 volunteers and four helpers.
This is another good game for during your meetings. Have the volunteer
come up and tell them they are going to fly on (Your Group Name Here)
Airlines! Bring them in one at a time and have them stand on a wide,
strong board. They put their hands on the heads of the two volunteers
on either side of the board for stability. The other volunteers grab
the ends of the board and start to lift it to about waist high. Then
back down. Blindfold the volunteer and do it again - but have the
lifters only raise it about 2 inches off the floor. The stabilizers
slowly sink down to their knees to make it appear that the board is
again waist high. The lifters start to rock the board until the volunteer
tries to jump down 3 feet from a two inch high board. |
A unique way to get your kids to share their opinions. Hang a clothesline
across the meeting room. On one end have a sign that says, "Strongly
Agree" and the other end says "Strongly Disagree." Mark the center
of the clothesline for reference. Get wooden clothespins and allow
the youth to decorate them as they wish so they'll know which are
theirs. Each week at the close of your youth meeting, read a strong
statement to the group. Ask your youth members to think about, talk
about and research the statement during the week. At the beginning
of the next meeting, have each member clip a clothespin on the line
where it best reflects his or her opinion. Spend the first few minutes
of the meeting discussing the results. The topic can be independent
of the meeting's main lesson or it may be used as a great intro. to
a relaxed subject. |
Theme: Effect the media has on us / What shapes our thinking /
Where is our foundation
Begin with having the youth fill out the following survey. Then,
while they're working on the next activity, you can get the results
together.
What Shapes Your Thinking?
Please rank the following from 1 to 10 in how much they influence
the way you think:
(1 is least influence and 10 is the most)
__ Parents
__ Television
__ Bible
__ Teachers
__ Youth Pastor
__ Movies
__ Friends
__ Video Games
__ Music
__ Books
When they have finished this, hand out the next activity which
is to be done in a competitive manner. Have them get into groups
of two or three and work on this. Award prizes to the top two or
three teams. Do not have it be a race, but give them 15 minutes
(this gives you time to tabulate the results of the survey).
Commercial Craziness
1. Double the pleasure, double the fun Doublemint Gum.
2. The scent opens your eyes Coast
3. Oh what a feeling Toyota
4. Just for the taste of it Diet Coke
5. The choice of a new generation Pepsi
6. The way to really fly Metra
7. Something special in the air. American Airlines
8. Softens your hands while you do dishes Palmolive
9. Just do it. Nike
10. Life is short. Play hard Reebok
11. You got the right one baby, uh huh DIET Pepsi
12. Just what the doctor ordered Dr. Pepper
13. Make a run for the border Taco Bell
14. Have it your way. Burger King
15. Obey your thirst. Sprite
16. Good to the last drop. Maxwell House
17. The quicker picker upper Bounty
18. Don't squeeze the ________ Charmin
19. It does a body good Milk
20. Take me away. Calgon
21. The Uncola 7-Up
22. Finger Lickin' Good Kentucky Fried Chicken
23. I love this game! NBA
24. You can't outlast the ________. Energizer
25. What three temptations did Jesus face in the wilderness?
Go through the answers with them and announce
the top three teams. Then go through the results of the survey.
Write them on an overhead projector or dry-erase board. It has
happened twice for me (Jr. High and Sr. High) that parents, Bible,
and friends were number 1-3. Television came in 6th or 7th. And
yet in the commercial game, most groups got 20-24 of the commercial
slogans right and only one group got all three temptations right!
And yet the young people place the Bible higher than TV as far
as what shapes their thinking. It was a real eye-opener for a
lot of my young people. I then followed it up with a teaching
on Matt. 7:24-27 "The Wise and Foolish Builder." Where is our
foundation? How are we building it? Some important scriptures:
Php. 4:8, 2 Pet. 3:1, Prov. 1:8, Isa. 26:4. I hope this helps
some of you.
If any of you find this interesting, I'd love
to hear how it worked out for your group. Please let me know.
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Write lots and lots of general CHARACTER compliments on small peices
of paper (things like: ''you are a good listener'' or ''Youth Group
is more fun when you are here''etc..) I wrote enough so that each
kid would have approximately 5 each. Then write each kid's name on
an envelope. During youth group, lay all the evelopes in the center
of the circle and pass out all the compliment cards to the kids. The
kids then put each compliment card in the envelope of the person that
they think it fits too. At the end, give each kid his or her envelope
so they can read how great the others think they are! It sounds cheezy,
but our junior highers LOVED this 'game'. A little encouragement never
hurts! |
This is a funny game to play during your meeting. Have two people
come up and kneel on either side of a low table. Spread a bag of cotton
balls on the table and have each person put on gloves. They are then
blindfolded. Tell them they have to sweep all the cotton balls off
their own side of the table. Quietly remove all the cotton balls and
yell go. The teens are wildly sweeping an empty table as the group
keeps screaming for them to hurry. |
This game is a relay between however many players you would like.
Simply have one person eat crackers before attempting to blow up a
balloon ... then, have the person put the balloon between there ankles
while another participant tries to pop the balloon (after first chugging
a can of root beer) without using his hands or feet (ie mouth, or
any other part) |
Get 2 volunteers to kneel at opposite sides of a table with hands
behind their back. With masking tape, mark a horizontal line down
the center of table, representing the division of the two sides of
the table. Tell them the object of the game is when the leaders places
the ping pong ball on the table, they have to blow it (no hands!)and
try to get it past their opponent (off the side) They can only blow
and block the ball with their chest to keep it on the table. The catch
is that before placing the ball on the table, each contestant is given
a dry cracker, such as a Saltine to chew quickly before they begin
blowing! Hilarious fun! They laugh so hard when they blow and cracker
crumbs fly out of their mouths that the game gets really goofy! |
Gather various products from around the church or home. We used
breath mints, fabric stain spray, a can of pinto beans, a stapler,
vitamins, etc. Divide the kids into small groups. The size of the
group may depend on the number of items. Aim for four or five in each
group. Get more items if needed. Tell the kids to come up with a 30
to 60 second television commercial for their assigned product. Don't
tell the other groups what your product is. Give them five or ten
minutes to develop their commercial, then begin taking them into a
prepared studio (a small classroom is fine) where they will do their
commercial. Of course, a leader will be filming with the video camera.
The other groups can be working on their commercials or doing another
game while waiting for their "studio time."
After all the commercials are filmed, show them on TV to the whole
group.
This is ideal for a lock-in. We had lots of fun. The pinto bean commercial
was a real "gas." |
This idea works well in a worship service stressing hunger
and starvation in the world. According to statistics (need to be updated)
someone dies of starvation every eight seconds. During the worship
service, have someone beat a drum every eight seconds to symbolize
another death taking place. The drum interrupting the normal course
of the service dramatically illustrates how often we try to ignore
the problem of hunger in the world but it just won't go away unless
we do something about it. *** My twist: Show slides of hungry children,
etc. and in silence, have the drum beat while the kids watch the slides.
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Devotional
- The "Sin" Rock
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For devotional, how about giving everyone ten minutes to go off
and find something that reminds them of their relationship with God.
Tell them that they will have to explain why their item reminds them
of God. You'll get lots of flowers, a few rocks, and some surprises.
Talk about how beautiful or solid or amazing that a relationship with
God is.
After that, hand each of them a softball size rock that you
had collected before that day in private. Call each of these rocks
"sin." Talk about what sin is and how heavy and ugly it is. Talk
about how rough sin is and how, after awhile, we all get tired of
carrying sin around. Make sure that everyone gets a good idea in
their little noggins about what sin is then challenge them to, silently,
think of what their sins are and the areas in their lives that need
improvement. Talk about how if this rock was really like sin, it
would grow and grow and grow to a point that it would be too big
for us to carry. Read Romans 3:23 ("for all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God,"), then go on to tell them about what
Jesus did and the read the second part of the sentence ("and are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus.") Talk about how God allows us to "throw off" our
sin (Hebrew 12:1-2 - "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such
a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders
and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus...") and
how God can take away our sins and throw them far away (Psalm 103:12
--"... as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed
our transgressions from us.")
Finally, have each kid, individually take their "sin" rock down
to the shoreline and toss it as far out into the lake as they can,
never to be seen again. If you want to, have them go to the shoreline
in pairs (to bring in the example of helping each with their problems
(Galatians 6:2 - "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you
will fulfill the law of Christ.")
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Supplies :
1. Bowling ball
2. Colored paper house, water, silo, and land
3. Pencil and paper
Object: to survive
Opposition to survival: Natural disaster and man made calamity
Play begins in this way; participants each form the following from
the corresponding paper:
1. Paper house (fold paper in half to form a frame dwelling)
2. Paper water blue square of paper
3. Land (for income and food) brown paper square
4. Roll yellow paper into a tube to form a grain silo
Place items on the floor according to your own personal strategy.
The disasters come one each day in this game. They come in the form
of a bowling ball rolled slowly (very, very s l o w l y). Each object
covered by the ball is considered destroyed and removed from the game.
Special note: This is a game of reliance. Because one person cannot
survive without all four items sharing becomes strategic and necessary.
One person may survive without some of these things for the following
time.
Shelter
(paper house) ………………………….3
days
Water
……………………………………………..1
day
Food
(paper silo) .………………………………
2 days
Land
………………………………………………4
days
Resources can be shared in the following manner:
One
shelter will support 3 people
One
food will support 2 people
1
water will support 3 people
1
land will support 4 people
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Do
You Love Your Neighbor?
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Here's a icebreaker that they can play as a group. With chairs formed
in a circle, make sure everyone has a chair, you will then take away
one chair and you can decide who will be the person that's "it".
The person that is "it" will go up to another person, and
have that person stand up and they will switch places (person "it"
now has that person's chair) still remain standing and face to face
person that was "it", asks "do you love your neighbor" ?
New person "it" says Yes especially those who have eyebrows!
Then all must leave their seats and can only run to the chair open
across from them, they may not move to the seat that is to either
side of them. The group has only three chances to say no, to the question
"do you love your neighbor"? When saying no, all must leave their
seats and find another seat. Example for other replies to do you love
your neighbor are, especially those who love Jesus, those who play
basketball, those who are wearing T-shirts, or the color of clothing,
etc... If no is replied the fourth time, the game is over. It gets
pretty loud, but the teenagers love this game. |
Here's a simple, fun and easy idea.
Get a bunch of dominoes. In a small group, give each kid 20
dominoes and have a race challenging them to set them up in a line,
on edge (you know, so they tumble and knock each other over...).
Tell 'em it's a race to see who can set them up first.
Applications:
1) The domino effect as it relates to lying, drugs, sex ...
any sin. It always has its effect on other aspects of life.
2) Start them off on a carpet to make it more difficult. Tell
the kids their dominoes have to be less than 3 inches from the floor
at all times (no tables). Kids may figure out to use books, board-games
or something else as a more stable foundation. Then the discussion
focuses on putting Christ as the foundation to our lives.
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You have everyone sit in a large circle, in chairs. One person
is in the middle (There should be one less chair than people like
in musical Chairs). The person in the middle had a set of keys. They
go around the circle, and grab a person, who in turn grabs another.
This goes on until the first person drops the keys, then everyone
has to find a seat. The last on standing is "it" and the whole process
starts again. |
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