75 Fun Youth Group Games, Activities and Event Ideas (Indoors and Outdoors)

Feb 22, 2022Dec 15, 2021 by Editor in Chief

In need of some different ideas for games, activities and events for your youth group? Here we give you 75 different fun and entertaining things for your group to do.

1. The Cat Chases the Mouse

Materials Needed: This is a simple game of passing one item to the next student. There is a surprise element. There are two objects moving at the same time. The person to get caught with both items loses. All you need is a stuffed cat and mouse and someone to play the music.

How to Play:

You will need to purchase a stuffed cat and mouse, or it could be a stuffed dog and cat.
Ask your students to sit in a circle. Give the mouse to a student on one side of the circle, and the cat to someone on the opposite side.
A youth worker will play a song on a guitar or piano at a normal speed to start. Then they alternate fast and slow speeds to make the game great fun.
The students pass the mouse and the cat around the group at the same speed as the music. They repeat this until the cat catches the mouse.
The student left holding the mouse when the cat catches it is out.
You can devise a fun game for the losers that makes them feel a little less like losers.

2. Who Will Be Left Holding the Bag?

Materials Needed: This is a game that is very simple to adapt to the size of your group. You will have objects that the youth will need to do something with before passing it on to the next person. When the music stops, the person left holding the object loses. All you need is an object to pass and someone to play the music.

How to Play:

You can choose any object for the students to pass, but they must do something with the item before passing it to the next person. For example, if using a scarf, they wrap it around their neck once and then pass it to the next person. It could be a large children’s ring, and each student must put the ring on their finger before giving it to the next person. A bucket would also work. They would need to stand up and turn in a circle, then sit down and pass the bucket to the next person.
One of the youth workers will sit with their back to the group and play a song on the guitar or piano. They will set the speed at which the game moves.
The key to the fun is that they must do something with the object before passing it on, and everything must move to the speed of the music.
At the end of the game, the music suddenly stops. The last person holding the object is out.

3. Trivia 2.0

Materials Needed: This game is a unique way to play classic trivia. It is fun but also helps make sure they remember the lessons you just covered. You will need craft paper or poster board, markers, a printer, tape, and index cards.

How to Play:

Draw an easily identifiable image on a large sheet of craft paper or poster board.
The drawing could be a Bible scene, Moses, the Mona Lisa, a Christmas tree, a dog, etc. It should be something recognizable.
If you are not artistic, you can print a large image or a Bible verse on several 8 ½” x 11″ sheets of paper with a section of the picture on each sheet.
Attach the drawing or printed images on the wall.
Make numbered sheets and use them to conceal the drawing.
Write corresponding numbers on the back of index cards, and then write trivia questions based on your current lessons on the front side of the card.
Divide students into teams, and each team will take turns drawing a number. If they answer the trivia question correctly, they get to remove the matching number over the image on the wall and guess the drawing or scripture.
The questioning continues until they reveal enough of the picture, and someone guesses what it is.

4. Peter’s Sword Play

Materials Needed: This game serves no purpose but to have fun and make a big mess. Who knew aluminum paper and whipping cream could be so much fun? This is a fun and messy game. All you need to start your organized chaos is balloons, whipping cream, aluminum foil, and fishing line.

How to Play:

You will want to play this game in a space that is easy to clean.
Fill portions of large-sized balloons with whipping cream and hang them from the ceiling or a tree limb outside.
Hang the balloons with string or fishing line. The string or fishing line allows the balloon to move freely and adds a little more challenge to the game.
Give the students a time limit to design and construct a sword out of aluminum foil.
When time is up, blindfold the students and line them up in front of a balloon.
Yell “start,” and the first to pop their balloon with their sword wins.
Assign leaders to help determine the winner.

5. Name That Story

Materials Needed: This is an interesting way to test the Bible knowledge of your group. All you will need is a printer, some Bible story photos, paper, index cards, and a bucket or hat.

How to Play:

Print Bible story images from the internet and assign each photo a number.
Write the corresponding numbers on index cards, fold them and place them in a bucket or hat.
Each student will have a turn to draw a number from the bucket, and then you will show the student the corresponding photo.
If they can tell you what Bible story the photo represents, they get to keep the slip with the number.
If they guess wrong, return the number to the bucket.
When they have identified all the photos, the person with the most index cards wins the game.
You could play this game for fun or use it as a review time at the end of a series of lessons.

6. Wrap Your Mummy

Materials Needed: There is no spiritual lesson with this game; it is just crazy fun. All you need is some toilet paper or crepe paper. If you want to play this regularly, purchase material to cut in strips in and use in place of the paper.

How to Play:

Divide students into small groups and give each group several rolls of toilet paper or crepe paper.
Each group chooses a mummy, and the elected mummy stands still while their teammates roll them up.
In place of paper, you could also use fabric purchased in the clearance aisle of your local sewing store. You cut the fabric into long strips and use it in place of the paper.
For an added element of fun, have props to put on the mummy once they finish wrapping.
When all teams finish their mummies, award prizes to the first to complete their mummy and the most creative mummy.

7. Tennis Bible Trivia

Materials Needed: The object of this game is to have the most tennis balls in your basket at the end. Where is the catch? They are throwing the tennis balls from across the room. All you will need are enough tennis balls and baskets for the size group.

How to Play:

Divide students into teams and give each the same amount of tennis balls.
Ask each person a Bible trivia question. For each correct answer, they throw a tennis ball into a round laundry basket across the room.
If the ball remains in the basket, it counts as a point for their team. If it bounces out, it does not count.
At the end of all the questions, the team with the most balls that stayed inside their basket wins.

8. The Photo Puzzle

Materials Needed: With very little prep time, you can apply a lesson on God as the creator and designer of all things. All you will need is large-sized balloons and magazine photos or photos printed off the internet.

How to Play:

Take a full-page magazine photo (or printed photo) and tear it into random, jagged pieces.
Insert the pieces into a large deflated balloon. Then blow the balloon up and shake things up.
Divide students into small groups, and each group chooses a balloon.
Assign a time limit and give a warning as the end is getting close.
The game begins when the groups burst their balloons, then they try to put the photo back together.
The first team to put the picture together wins.

9. The Great Balloon Race

Materials Needed: This may be the only time that static electricity is a welcomed thing. The object of the game is to get a balloon to stick to your clothes and walk across the room without it falling off. All you will need is a lot of inflated small-sized balloons and enough baskets for each team.

How to Play:

Determine the number of players you will have and get enough small balloons for each.
You will also need enough laundry baskets for each team.
Each player has a turn at rubbing a balloon on their clothes to build enough static electricity for it to stick to them.
Then they walk over to the laundry basket without the balloon falling or them holding it in place.
If the balloon falls off, the player can reapply and start again from that spot.
Once they make it to the basket, they put the balloon in their team’s basket, and the next player can then start their turn.
The winner is the team with the most balloons in their basket.

10. The Great Detective Game

Materials Needed: The best part of this game is that there is no prep time. All you will need is a table and some items from the students. Your detective will investigate the missing item and guess who the thief is.

How to Play:

Ask for everyone to put some personal items on a table. It could be things like sunglasses, a watch, keys, a hairbrush or comb, a pen, chewing gum, etc.
Ask for a volunteer to be the detective. Allow them a few minutes to look at the objects on the table, and then they will leave the room.
Another volunteer will choose an item from the table and conceal it in their pocket, purse, or somewhere in the room.
Now the detective returns and must first determine what is missing from the table and then who took it.
Once they guess which object is missing from the table, they then interrogate the other students to discover the thief.
Allow your detective a set number of questions based on the group size and assign a time limit for each round.
The questions should lead them to who took the item. For example, is the thief a boy or a girl? Tall or short? Hair color, wearing red or blue, etc.
They interrogate the students until they guess who took the object, have used all their questions, or until time runs out.

11. Will You Pass Me a Balloon, Please?

Materials Needed: A water balloon relay race is a fun summer game to play. All you need is small or medium size water balloons and enough shovels for each team. For obvious reasons, play this game outside on the playing field or grassy area.

How to Play:

Fill your balloons partially with water, and you want them jiggly.
Give each team a shovel. You could also use gardening shovels, spades, or plastic shovels from a children’s beach set, all of which will work.
Divide your teams into two groups and station them across from each other. If possible, have the same number of players on each side.
Give the first player a shovel and place a water balloon on the shovel.
They must then take the shovel and balloon as quickly as they can to their team member across from them, and this continues until every person has had a turn.
The first team to pass the shovel and balloon to all the team members wins.
If they drop the balloon, they must return to the starting point and begin again.

12. A Fun Twist on Story Time

Materials Needed: This is a good idea for an icebreaker game. All you need to play this game is a good imagination and some index cards.

How to Play:

Create several good story beginnings and write them on index cards.
Read the opening line of a story and choose the first youth to say the next part. For example, you say, “Bob, the clown felt a little sad.” The chosen student then says, “So to cheer himself up, he went into town.”
That student chooses the next person to continue the story. They may say, “While in town, Bob saw Clarice, the clown. It surprised him to see her standing where she was.”
That student then chooses another student to say the next part.
You can decide when to end a story and move on to another one.

13. Escape Room Bible Trivia

Materials Needed: As far as youth group games go, this one certainly is unique and offers a fun time! It requires a little more prep time, but you will not need any additional games for the night you use this one. You can make this into a trivia night event or maybe use it as part of your youth camp. All you will need is adult leaders, index cards, props, and paper.

How to Play:

If your church is big enough, choose different Sunday school classrooms for each escape room. If too small for this, prepare several areas of the church to use for the escape area.
Assign at least one leader to each room. They administer the questions or tasks to each team that enters.
Divide students into teams, and they choose an escape room to start with.
In the chosen room, the youth leader will administer biblical trivia questions, or they could hide an item in the room that correlates with a Bible story (child’s boat, a walking stick, etc.). It could also be a Pictionary-type task where one team member must draw a picture of a bible subject, and the others guess what it is.
Your escape rooms can be as fun and crazy as you like.
When each team completes the question/task in a room, they win a token with the room number on it. If they cannot complete the task, they move to the next room and do not receive a token.
Once all teams have attempted each room, the end the team with the most tokens wins.

14. Ping Pong Darts

Materials Needed: This is a simple game, only needing just a little preparation. All you need to play this game is poster board or cardboard, ping pong balls, and some index cards.

How to Play:

Design duct tape dartboards with some tape sticky side out.
Put it on the ground, at an angle, and not flat.
Use duct tape to put a line a few feet away from the board.
Assign a leader to keep score.
Put some duct tape, sticky side out, on each ping pong ball.
Divide your group into teams and give them enough ping pong balls for each player.
Based on your number of players and allotted time, assign the number of chances each person gets to toss their ping pong ball at the target.
You can divide your board into point sections like a dartboard and keep score that way. Or you can assign a point value to each ball that sticks and count how many are on the board after each team member has their turn. The group with the most points wins.

15. Fall Pumpkin Relay

Materials Needed: Pumpkin spice is all the rage once fall arrives. Now pumpkin relay races will be the new game to play. All you need is a large grassy area and enough pumpkins for each team. This is a hysterical game to watch, and everyone will enjoy playing.

How to Play:

Divide a playing field or grassy area into lanes. They need to be wide enough that a participant can roll their pumpkin easily.
Purchase enough pumpkins for your teams to each have one.
Get equal-sized and shaped pumpkins so that each team has the same chance of success.
Put half of a team on one side of the lane and the other half opposite them.
The object of the game is to roll a pumpkin to their team member across from them as quickly as possible.
The teams roll a pumpkin back and forth until all team members have had a turn.
The first team to finish the relay wins.

16. It’s Raining Pennies

Materials Needed: It’s raining, it’s pouring pennies! This is such a fun game as the youth try to get all their pennies into the boot. All you will need to play this game is several dollars’ worth of pennies and enough rain boots for each team.

How to Play:

Set up some rain boots along the wall with plenty of space between each boot.
Divide your youth into teams and give each team the same number of pennies.
They should work together to determine the best way to pitch the pennies into their boot.
Mark starting points at the same distance from each boot and let the pitching begin.
Each team member should have the opportunity to throw their pennies.
Once all the youth have tossed their pennies, the winning team is the one who has the most pennies in their boot.
Alternatively, you could use a bucket, an opened umbrella, or a can.

17. The Quickest Hands Win

Materials Needed: This is a great icebreaker game as the youth get to know each other by working together. All you will need is several decks of playing cards and tables.

How to Play:

Get a set of playing cards for each team and put a pack on each table.
It would be a good idea to cover your tables if they are slick.
Divide your youth group into teams and assign a table to each.
The first team who successfully builds a card house with the most cards wins.
You can award a special prize to the team who uses all their cards.

18. Hit the Cans

Materials Needed: This is a simple carnival game adapted to be played inside and with teams. To play, you will need to collect several clean, empty aluminum cans of the same size and ping pong balls for each team.

How to Play:

Assign a point value for each can.
Recruit a leader to be a scorekeeper.
If possible, recruit a leader for each location to restack the cans.
Set up a pyramid of cans on a table or the floor for each team and mark starting points at the same distance for each.
Give a ping pong ball to each team member. Each person steps up to the line and throws their ping pong ball, trying to knock the cans down.
At the end of each turn, record the score, and then the next youth takes their turn.
Once every person has had their turn, you can tally the score or do another round. The one with the most points wins.

19. Water Pitcher Relay

Materials Needed: For this fun classic game, you will need enough plastic water pitchers, round tubs, and plastic buckets for the number of teams you will have. Play the game is outside on a playing field or grassy area in the summer.

How to Play:

Divide your students into teams.
The first person for each team will start by running across the field to the round tub and filling their water pitcher. Note: the water pitcher can be as small or big as you want.
They must get back to the other side as quickly as possible to empty their pitcher into the bucket. They then pass their pitcher on to the next person in line.
You could add some fun by putting objects in the middle of the path and asking them to circle around it going and coming back.
The first team to fill their bucket wins.

20. A New Take on the Memory Game

Materials Needed: Remember playing the memory game when you were young? You tried to remember where you saw the matching card. This is the same concept, but biblical. You will need to locate giant large playing cards, removable tape, a stopwatch, or use your phone, and two each of printed Bible images.

How to Play:

Take the large playing cards and tape the printed images on the face of the card.
Mix them up and place them face down on a table.
Assign a time limit for each turn and time each student.
Each youth will come up and try to find all the matches in the quickest time.

21. Bowling Alley Fun

Materials Needed: Turn your youth room into a bowling alley. All you will need is tennis balls, tape to divide your lanes, and aluminum cans.

How to Play:

Purchase enough tennis balls for each team.
Collect enough clean aluminum cans to use as bowling pins. You can fill the cans with sand or pebbles to make the game a little harder.
Recruit leaders to help keep score for each team.
Each student gets two chances to know all their cans down.
Assign the starting score of 50 points for each turn. Deduct 10 points for each of the cans that remain upright.
The team with the most points wins.

22. Harvest Hay Maze

Materials Needed: Take advantage of the late summer hay harvest by setting up a challenging hay maze. All you will need is several square hay bales and a lot of volunteers to help set the maze up. You could do this as part of a fall festival.

How to Play:

Locate a friendly farmer who will loan you a trailer full of hay bales.
Draw your complicated maze on paper for that the volunteers can see the design they are working toward.
Recruit adult leaders to set up the maze. Bribe them with food, and you will get more to help.
Set a timer and have the youth start one at a time. Once one is halfway through the maze, start the next player.
The person who gets through the maze the quickest wins.

23. Dunk the Youth Pastor

Materials Needed: Your youth will line up for an opportunity to play this game, so you should brush up on your Bible trivia. You will need a dunking tank, proper attire, and a towel. The towel is in case you miss a question.

How to Play:

Ask the senior pastor to write bible questions on index cards, don’t peek.
Each youth gets a turn at asking you, the youth pastor, a question.
Each wrong answer results in a turn, hopefully, to dunk you.
This is a fun summer game that would be great for use with your youth Vacation Bible School.

24. Pictionary Bible Fun

Materials Needed: This is the classic game of Pictionary but with trivia questions. Youth will attempt to draw a subject good enough for their team to guess the correct answer. You will need whiteboards, markers, and index cards for the trivia question.

How to Play:

You will choose your own trivia questions or facts and write them on an index card.
The best way to select your subject is to base them on the previous month’s or quarter’s lessons.
Set up enough whiteboards for each team.
Divide your youth group into teams.
Assign a leader to keep score.
Give the first player of each team a trivia subject to draw.
Have your youth leaders keep track of the teams who successfully guess their subject. The team with the most completed trivia questions wins.

25. Pin the Answer on the Map

Materials Needed: All you will need to do this fun question-and-answer time is a map of biblical Israel, pushpins, and a list of geographical questions.

How to Play:

Prepare a list of questions on biblical geography. You should have a well-balanced list of questions, from easy to hard. Here is an example: Question: Where did Jesus walk on water? Answer: The sea of Galilee. Administer the questions according to the student’s biblical knowledge. Easier for those newer to the faith and harder for those who have been in church for a long time.
Place your map of Israel on a bulletin or corkboard. Provide enough color-coded pins to cover all your questions. You should have a different color for each team.
Divide your group into small teams. Every student should answer a question.
If the student answers the question correctly, they get to put the pin on the map at the location they answered. If they answer incorrectly, the question goes back into the mix.
Once the students have answered all the questions, the one with the most pins on the map wins.

26. Guess Who

Materials Needed: This is an easy way to just have some fun. All you need are chairs arranged in a circle, a piece of paper and some tape.

How to Play:

Choose one student to leave the room. They will be the ones asking questions.
Choose a student to be it and tape a sign that says “I am it” on the back of a student.
All remaining students in the room will sit in a circle.
The student outside now returns to the room blindfolded and enters the circle. They question the other students to determine who “is it.”
Assign a time limit on the questioning.

27. The Pyramid Game Show

Materials Needed: This is a fun take on the pyramid game show that has been famous for decades. You will give your teams random words on index cards, and they describe the word to their teammate without saying the word. To play this timed game, you will just need index cards and chairs.

How to Play:

Choose two students to start the game. They sit in chairs facing each other.
Give one of the students some index cards with random words written on them.
Assign a time limit to the game.
Start the timer, and the person holding the cards says words that will lead the person opposite of them to guess the correct word.
The team wins if they can get through all the words given to them. If they lose, they are out. If they win, they wait for a playoff.
Once all the teams have had a turn, you take all the winners and start the process all over again to pull out the next group of winners.
Now, do a playoff round. The team to guess the greatest number of cards wins.

28. Pick Your Box

Materials Needed: This is based on the millionaire game that was popular a few years ago. All you need are some cardboard boxes, balloons, treats, candy, and a special gift.

How to Play:

Get a large selection of cardboard boxes and write large, bold numbers on one side with a marker.
Fill each box with something. It could be a box of balloons (they escape when they open the box), or it could have some candy or treats. Every box should have something inside, but one should have a special gift. Maybe a gift card to Sonic or another favorite local spot. Create a list of trivia questions that are a review of material you have studied over the past few months. You should also include some basic questions to use if you have new members in your group.
Set up your room like a game show set. Organize the boxes on tables, and have the youth leaders bring the boxes to the students.
Line up the students and start the game. You go until someone gets the box with the special gift.
A student must win an opportunity to open a box. Start by asking the first student a trivia question. If they answer the question correctly, they get to choose a box.
You go until someone gets the box with the special gift.

29. Help Me, Who Am I?

Materials Needed: This is a fun twist on how to play a question and answer game. All you will need is super sticky post-it notes and markers.

How to Play:

Write the name of famous people with a marker on an index card. You can choose biblical characters, or movie stars, authors, or all these mixed.
Have the room set up so that you have chairs in groupings of two, facing each other. Have enough chairs for all the youth to sit in.
Divide your youth group into sets of two and put tape on the index cards, and tape it to their foreheads. They cannot see what’s on their card but can see what’s on the card every person in front of them.
The students take turns asking questions about who the person is that trapped to their forehead. They cannot see what’s on their forehead, only what’s on the person’s forehead in front of them.
Set a time limit and then say start.
They take turns asking questions. They ask questions until they have both identified the famous person written on the sticky note on their forehead.
This continues until all the students have had a turn or until time runs out.
The quickest score wins.

30. Crazy Fun Relay Game

Materials Needed: This is the craziest relay game you will ever play. You will set up stations with objects and instructions. The players run to the object, do what it says, and back to the start line. You will need several crazy props and even crazier instructions.

How to Play:

Set up a playing field or gym with stations of fun things. Examples of items to use are firefighter pants (real or a costume), a fun woman’s hat, a baby stroller, rain boots, a bathrobe, and a bucket.
- Example: The index card states that they must put the firefighter pants on and run back across the field to the next team member. They take the pants off and give them to the next player, who puts the pants on and runs back over to the station. Now that team member is in play. They must choose the next station to play, and it is the bucket. The instruction is to put the bucket on your head three times, turning in a circle. And they take the bucket to the next team member, who returns it to the station. The next member chooses the baby stroller station. The note says that they must push the stroller as quickly as possible around all the object staging areas. These are just some examples – you can be as creative and fun as you want to be.
All the teams will play simultaneously, so it will be chaotic fun!
A team is out when each member of the team has completed one of the staging areas.
The game is over when all teams have finished or until your set time is up. At each station, you will have an index card telling the students what they have to do with the item.

31. Silly Scavenger Hunt

Materials Needed: This game will be a scavenger hunt around the church. You can play inside or outside. All you will need are index cards and several crazy items to hide.

How to Play:

Start by locating some hysterically funny items. These may be white elephant gifts you received, or they could be things you have purchased at a local thrift store. They can be a souvenir spoon from a strange place, a homemade ashtray, a coffee mug with a funny saying on it, just really anything that you find bizarre or just hysterical.
Hide each item somewhere around the church, outside or inside. As you hide the items, stop and write a clue card.
Divide your youth group into teams.
Give each team a set of clue cards.
Assign a time limit to the game, and the team who finds the most objects wins.

32. Guess the Youth Group Member

Materials needed: In this game, you request for your students to make a list of interesting facts about themselves, and others guess who the fact belongs to. All you need to prepare is some index cards and pens.

How to Play:

Give each student an index card and a pen, and ask them to write an interesting fact about themselves. They should write something that other students do not know and include their names.
Collect all the cards from the students.
You then play the game show host and read the interesting facts that were provided and ask the students to guess who it is.

33. Is It True or Is It False?

Materials Needed: This game will test how well your youth know each other. Have each youth write five things about themselves. Ask them to mix the things up by having things that are true and things that are made up.

How to Play:

Make a simple sheet for each student. Make sure they write their name at the top. All you need to have is the numbers one through five with lines next to them for them to write on.
Give each student a sheet of paper and instructions to write five things on their paper. The items they write can be true or false.
Collect the sheets from each student.
Read the student’s name and ask the others to respond if the items you read are true or false.
You can have a prize for any student who fools everyone, and no one guesses correctly.

34. Cupcake Decorating Contest

Materials Needed: For this game, all you will need is cupcakes and supplies to decorate them with.

How to Play:

Purchase or bake enough cupcakes for each player to have one. You will want to have extra in case there is a visitor.
You also need plenty of decorating supplies. Be creative and come up with some ingenious decorations for them to use. We may need to make them yourself.
Create a list of prize categories. Some examples could be most creative, most colorful, craziest, or most artistic. Have a prize for each category.
Recruit enough judges for each category. Possibly two or three.
Assign a time limit for the decorating.
Yell, “start” and let the mayhem begin.

35. Jenga Trivia

Materials Needed: Your students will be brushing up on the Bible knowledge to play this classic game with a biblical spin. You will need several Jenga games and quite a few trivia questions.

How to Play:

Set up several tables with Jenga towers.
Create a large number of trivia questions.
Divide your students into teams.
The object of the game is to answer the trivia question correctly. If you answer the question correctly, you are safe and do not have to remove a piece of your tower.
If you answer your question incorrectly, then you must remove a piece from your Jenga tower.
The last tower standing wins the game.

36. Speedy Yahtzee Tournament

Materials needed: This is a perfect game for a youth camp or lock-in night. All you need are several Yahtzee games and scorepads. They will have a crazy time.

How to Play:

Collect enough Yahtzee games for each one of your groups.
Divide your youth group into small teams.
You will start each group playing their games simultaneously. They must move fast.
You will have a playoff where the winners of each table then play each other. You can do your playoff one-on-one. If your group is larger, set your tables up with multiple winners in the second round.
The winners of the second round well then play each other for the third round. This continues until you’re down to two players.
The last two players square off against each other to see who the Yahtzee grand champion will be.
Make a cheesy trophy to give to the winner.

37. Catch a Water Balloon

Materials Needed: This game is best played outside. All you will need to start the fun is a bunch of water balloons.

How to Play:

Purchase enough balloons for your group.
We will need two plastic laundry baskets or buckets. They will keep their water balloons in one and an empty one on the other side for them to fill.
Divide your students in half, and then line them up, facing each other on the grassy field.
The object of the game is to toss water balloons from one player to another. If someone successfully catches the water balloon, they can put it in that team’s basket.
At the end of the game, the most water balloons in the basket wins.

38. What Comes Next?

Materials Needed: This game is a twist on the classic Bible drill. It is a game for everyone. All you need is to make sure you have enough Bibles for each youth.

How to Play:

The students start with their Bibles closed. Then you give them the name of the book of the Bible you will read from and tell them what the radius is. For example, you plan to read starting in John 14:10. Then you would tell them you are reading from John 13, 14, or 15.
Assign a time limit for each reading.
Then someone says “start,” and you start reading from John 14:10, and they get to open their Bibles. They will search the three chapters to find where you are reading.
Once they determine where you are reading, they should start reading with you. This shows they have found the correct place.
This game helps your students learn to move easily through the Bible on their own.

39. Pass the Egg

Materials Needed: To play this game, use plastic Easter eggs. All you need to do is divide your youth into teams and let the fun begin.

How to play:

Have enough plastic Easter eggs for each team member to have a turn. You want the eggs to be empty, so they are harder to keep on the teaspoon.
You will need an egg carton for each team and some spoons. Place the egg cartons on a table.
Divide your youth group into teams and give each team an egg carton, eggs, and spoons.
The object of the game is to transfer all the eggs by spoon to the egg carton without dropping or touching with their hands. A youth leader places the egg on their spoon to start them off. If they drop the egg en route to the table, they return and start again.
Assign a time limit and let the students start.
The first team to fill their carton wins.

40. Is It Frisbee Golf, Horseshoes, or Both?

Materials Needed: This is a fun combination of classic games to play outside or indoors. All you will need are paper plates, a large paper towel roll, and a sturdy base.

How to Play:

Collect enough paper towel rolls for each team.
Purchase enough paper plates for each youth to have a shot at the target. Cut a hole out of the center large enough to fit easily over the paper towel roll.
Purchase enough paper plates for each player to be able to have a shot at the target. Cut a hole out of the center large enough to fit easily over the paper towel roll.
Assign a point amount to each plate and have enough team leaders to keep score.
Divide your youth group into teams and start the game.
Each youth should have the opportunity to toss their paper plate at the target, trying to get a ringer.
You can play a quick round and give each student two chances to through their plate, or they can have several runs at it.
The most points wins the game.

41. The Flying Saucers

Materials Needed: You will need paper plates, string, some chairs, and ping pong balls.

How to Play:

You will string your targets across an open space and will be moving. Play the game inside or outside.
Cut holes in the center of your paper plates, and punch two holes on the top edge of the plate and then two more on the bottom edge of the plate.
Use the string to thread through the plate on both sides. String 4 plates across with 12 inches between each plate.
Next, tie one side of the strings (top and bottom) to the back of a chair. Then, tie the other side’s strings to a different chair back. Next, stretch the string tight so that the plates are flat. Your target is now ready. Repeat until you have enough for each team.
You can play this game in two ways. First, have the plates running horizontally, and the object of the game is to toss 4 ping pong balls through the holes in each of the plates. The second way to play is to align the plates vertically (like skeeball) and assign points to the plates. The plate furthest from the student would get the most assigned points and the one closest to them the least points.
Assign youth leaders to help with keeping score and a runner to bring the ping pong ball back to the next player.
The game continues until all the youth have had a chance to toss all their ping pong balls.
The team with the most points wins the game.

42. Button Up

Materials Needed: Locate several very large shirts, one for each team.

How to Play:

The object of this crazy game is to see which team can put the shirt on and off the quickest.
Assign youth leaders to each team to ensure they adhere to the rules.
The rule is to put the shirt on and button it all the way up. Then, unbutton and give the shirt to the next player on your team.
The team with the quickest time wins.

43. Bowling with Bottles

Materials Needed: You will need a bunch of empty 2-Liter soda bottles, dirt or stand to partially fill the bottles, and enough round balls for each team. You will also need to mark your lanes with wide strips of plastic or chalk for outside. Inside, you can use tape.

How to Play:

Fill your bottles partially with dirt or sand. Put enough in to make them hard to knock over, but not too hard.
Assign point values to each bottle and youth leaders to keep score.
Divide your students into teams and start the fun.
Each team member has 2 turns to knock all the bottles down.
The most points wins.
This is a fun game of bowling that is easy to make a bowling alley.

You can play this game in a gymnasium or large room inside, but it is most fun outside because the ball goes a little crazy.

44. Ice Breaker Game

Materials Needed: You will need a poster board, colored pens, and an empty soda bottle.

How to Play:

Draw a large circle on the poster board. Divide into sections like a pie and color each square. Write a get-to-know-you question in each square. For example: Tell me about your favorite trip? What is your favorite dessert? Do you have any pets?
Put the soda bottle in the center to use as a spinner for your wheel.
Ask your kids to sit in a circle. If the group is too big, make enough poster boards to divide your group into smaller groups.
One player spins the bottle. They ask a student they do not know the question the bottle stops on.
There is no win or lose to this game. It will help your youth to get to know each other.
You can even shuffle the players after half of the assigned time has lapsed.
This is a great game to play in the fall when there are a lot of new students entering the group. It is simple to design using a poster board and a 160z soda bottle.

45. Continental Chess

Materials Needed: You will need craft paper or poster boards, markers, tape, and missionary instructions.

How to Play:

Label the continents and countries.
Write instructions on the index cards like: Your church has sent you to work as a missionary in South America. The student will move to the South American continent. The next student gets a card that says: You have finished your work in Russia and now are going to work in Australia. That student will move from Russia to Australia.
You should also include “go home” for stateside cards. This will cause the player to leave the game.
You should add information to each card about the location and their spiritual condition.
Repeat continents and instructions with the fun potential of getting too many kids on one continent at the same time, and they can’t step off into the ocean.
Keep track of whose turn it is by writing the names of the students on a whiteboard and assigning a leader to put a mark by each name as you give an instruction to move.
You move them with the instruction cards until they get the return home for a stateside visit card.
You could play this game often and mix continents and countries, continents only, metropolitan cities, unreached people groups.
This is fun to play and can introduce your students to missionary work around the world.
This is a chess game on the floor. You will move your students around from one continent to another. The game will help your youth learn about spiritual needs in other parts of the world, and it is fun.

46. Leaves of Thanks

Materials Needed: You will need a large number of varied sizes of fall leaves (either real or fake), butcher paper, sharpies, markers, tape or staplers to attach the leaves, and bible verses.

How to Play:

Write a title like Falling into Thankfulness on a large piece of craft butcher paper and add your church name and identify that it is from the youth group. The size of this paper will correspond to the size of your youth group, but it should be a big sign.
Prepare bible verses on gratitude written on slips of paper for each student.
Give the students a scripture paper, a sharpie, and several leaves.
Instruct them to write simple reasons on the leaves for which they are grateful. You and your youth workers should keep in mind that not all the students will have happy home lives, so be prepared to help these students find reasons to be grateful.
Have the students take their leaves over to the large white paper and attach them wherever they want.
Each student should also write the scripture verse you gave to them.
Praise the students for their choices of why they are grateful.
Encourage the students to always search for reasons to be thankful.
Display the completed sign in the church. You can use it as a decoration for a Thanksgiving Fellowship event or a community meal. Alternatively, you can donate your beautiful sign to a nursing home or a children’s hospital.
Your leaf gathering will help bring color to this fall activity. The activity will provide a fun way to apply a Bible study on being thankful.

Teaching your youth the art of gratitude will help shape them into happier people, no matter the circumstances. This activity will be a fun time for your group, and it will be a great way to teach them to recognize things to be grateful for and express gratitude to the Lord.

47. Love for Seniors

Materials Needed: You will need sheets of colored stiff paper or card stock, various colors of markers, stickers, pens, scissors, glue, tape, glitter, sticky notes, or index cards.

How to Play:

Request a list of your most isolated senior adults from the church office. Write their names on sticky notes or index cards and place them in the center of each table.
Divide students into small groups, pray for them, and ask them to make cards for the people named on the sticky notes or index cards at their table.
An alternative option for youth in the older age group is to provide greeting cards.
The older students write personal messages to the people they choose.
Gather the cards and envelopes containing the names and mail them.
For an added step of service, your group could also deliver the cards to each person.
This activity is a great way to apply lessons on loving and caring for the vulnerable in our society with very little expense. It is easy to forget the seniors because many are no longer able to attend church.

This activity will teach your youth about a precious part of your church family and bless many of your senior adults.

48. Cookie Love

Materials Needed: You will need cookies (homemade or store-bought), small paper bags for the cookies, colored pens, Bible verses, and scripture stickers (optional).

How to Play:

Prepare a lesson demonstrating the love of Christ for the outcasts of society. To do this, coordinate the best time to donate cookies to your local food kitchen or homeless shelter.
Buy or bake a large number of cookies and buy cookie bags. The students will decorate the small paper cookie bags with Bible verses. Choose verses that talk about the love that God has for us and how He sees and hears us when we call out to Him for help.
To fill the bags, the students should wash their hands or use gloves. They fill the decorated bags with cookies.
If you prefer to seal the bags, you can use scripture stickers.
Arrange a time for the youth to serve the cookies at a local shelter if the group is old enough. If your group is too young to go to a shelter, you could pray over the cookies together. You and your youth workers can deliver the cookies.

This activity is a great application for lessons on how to love people who are often neglected. The youth will learn about others in the world who are living in difficult places and how much they need to hear that God loves and sees them. Cookie bags are a fun way to spread God’s love to the needy. You will also challenge your students to serve.

49. Adopt a Needy Nursing Home

Materials Needed: You will need construction paper, glitter, glue, scissors, pastor boards, markers, tape, string, etc.

How to Play:

Locate a nursing home in a needy part of town and obtain permission from the director to decorate their facility for Christmas.
Spend time over several youth group meetings making decorations. You can make snowflakes to hang from the ceiling, Christmas posters, Christmas scriptures, etc.
Choose a night to take the decorations and decorate the facility. Involve as many as possible in this activity, including any of the youth group’s family members. There are many good ways to make this a big event.
You can decorate the facility and have a Christmas party complete with music and a lesson on Christ.
You could also adopt the residents and have each student and their family bake their person a Christmas treat.

This activity will introduce the concept of being the hands and feet of Christ and bless some of the most vulnerable in our society. It will teach your youth that simple acts of love can make a huge impact. It will require a lot of help from adult leaders and will require more of your time. The actual expense will depend upon the size of the activity you choose. You could quickly adapt this activity to Easter.

50. Painting with a Purpose

Materials Needed: You will need paint, paintbrushes, and the materials to paint insides or outsides of homes such as drop cloths and painter’s tape.

How to Play:

Request a list of the elderly or single parent church members from your deacons/elders. They will know who in your church membership needs some help with painting.
Maybe your church does not have anyone who needs help. If so, research agencies working within your community and see if you can help them. For example, Good Samaritans, The Salvation Army, or your city’s senior citizen center.
Once you have obtained permission from the person who needs help with painting their home or another project, you can move ahead with planning the project. Announce the activity to your group as part of a lesson on serving those in need.
If your church does not have the funds to purchase paint for the project, you can let your youth plan great ways to raise the money. Maybe through events like a car wash, bake sale or raking leaves, etc.
Recruit as many youth workers and parents as possible to help supervise this event.

There are always those around us who need a little help around their homes. This activity will bond your group as they learn to work together to accomplish something great. It will engage your youth in the community around them, and with just the expense of the materials.

51. Agape Notes

Materials Needed: You will need some paper with the pre-printed verse, pens, and envelopes.

How to Play:

At the beginning of the week of Youth Camp, introduce the kids to Agape Notes challenging them to write as many Agape Notes to other campers, counselors, staffers, etc., as possible. Make sure the kids understand that the object of the activity is NOT who RECEIVES the most Agape Notes, but who WRITES the most Agape Notes.
Every camper has an envelope with their name on it, and people can deliver Agape Notes to their envelope.
Your youth ministry supplies the notepaper. Each Agape Note starts with a pre-printed quotation from the Bible verse Philippians 1:3, which reads, “I thank my God every time I remember you.”
Students are encouraged to write a note of encouragement to another camper, counselor, staffer, etc., and let them know how much they care about them.
Our culture can be excessively harsh in judging others. In place of tearing others down, this activity teaches your kids to look for, appreciate, and express gratitude for the good in those around them.

Agape Notes is a great youth camp activity that requires almost no expense. Agape is a Greek word that means unconditional love. There are four words in Greek that we translate into love in English:

1. Storge = general affection (such as loving Twix candy bars.),
2. Phileo = brotherly love (This is why Philadelphia is called the city of brotherly love.),
3. Eros = romantic love, and
4. Agape = unconditional love.

52. How Can I Pray for You?

Materials Needed: You will need poster board, colored pens, a writing pen, index cards or a pad.

How to Play:

Enlist enough parents and youth leaders to work with each student.
Choose a safe outdoor shopping mall or another shopping venue.
Make poster board signs that say, “How Can I Pray for You?”
It may be a good idea to provide a list of questions to help guide the conversation.
Once in the shopping area, divide students up and assign parents and youth leaders to work with them.
Each small group can set up somewhere and wait for people to read their signs and approach them. However, the best way is for each group to walk up to people and explain that they are from your church’s youth ministry and would like to pray for them.
Designate one person from the team to write down the prayer request, and if the person allows, pray for them on the spot.
Your follow-up time for this outing should be to pray for each name the group collects.
You will be amazed at the number of strangers who will share their hurt and concerns with you. Equally, you will be surprised at how thankful they are that you prayed with them.

With very little expense, this activity will teach your youth that there are many lost and hurting people in need of prayer. Prayer should always be our first resource when helping others. However, for many, it is the only way we can help. This activity will give your students a small opening into the lives of others that we would never get otherwise.

53. Adopt a Stranger

Materials Needed: You will need paper or poster board, tape, markers, a color printer, or a place to print color photographs.

How to Play:

E-mail a note to all the parents explaining the activity and purpose. Ask your youth to take random photos of strangers with their phones when out in public places. Note: The trick is for them to be candid shots, and the person does not know that they are taking the photo. There should be no contact between the students and the strangers!
They then text or e-mail you the photos they have taken.
You will design a frame of bible verses that will go around the edges of each 5 ½ x 8 ½ photo page (2 frames to a page).
Below the photo space, add a paragraph with the following list of questions:

1. How many people do you pray for each day?
2. How many people are paying for you?
3. Perhaps the person in this photo is not saved and does not know how to pray.
4. Maybe no one ever prays for them.
5. Can you imagine how that feels?
6. Would you be the one to pray for them?

Then add the photos to your document and print or print several pages with the frame and attach the photographs to them.
Mix the photos up and give them to the youth group to help them learn to be led by the Lord to pray for strangers.
Alternatively, you could make one large scripture frame sign on a poster board or craft paper. Put all the photos on the sign with the list of questions and pray for a few people each time you meet.
Teaching your youth how to pray for people they do not know will have an unknown but beautiful impact.

The Lord knows their names and cares for each person in the photographs. He will hear the prayers prayed on their behalf. You will not know how many marriages are rescued or how many souls are saved. Pray for the unknown and expect the Lord to move powerfully.

The fruits of this activity are exponential as your youth ministry impacts the community. The illustration is to care and pray for those we do not know. You will need very few supplies to bring the prayer project together.

54. Notes of Random Kindness

Materials Needed: You will need notecards, envelopes, and pens.

How to Play:

Teach a lesson on kindness, using the many scriptures that demonstrate the random acts of kindness of Christ. Note how his actions led to blessings, healings, and salvation.
Your application to this lesson is to have your youth group write random notes of kindness.
Pray and ask God to guide their words to encourage those who will receive them.
As they write their notes, ask the students to pray for the person who will receive the card.
Once the cards are complete, they will take them to the next church worship service and hand them out to random people. The object of the activity is to give the cards to people they do not know.

This activity will teach your youth to understand that God guides our words and actions so that we can be instruments of blessings in His hands. It allows your youth to discover the blessing of God’s leading as they seek to deliver encouragement to those who need it, and all it takes is a little time, effort, and paper.

Many people around us put on a good face while in public. However, inside, what they are in desperate need of is encouragement. People in our church family are carrying huge burdens every day, and we will never know.

55. Working for a Good Cause

Materials Needed: You will need teamwork and energy.

How to Play:

Choose an agency that works with high-risk families for your youth ministry to partner with on this project. Your students could choose to bless a struggling single mom, a homeless family living in a shelter, or children in a local orphanage.
The youth group will work together to raise funds for their special project. Raising funds can be great fun for your group! You will find your students full of great ideas. You can hold a car wash, dessert auction at the Thanksgiving Fellowship, sell baked goods, etc.
As your youth work together to raise money, they not only build relationships, but they tell others about their project. Their story will raise awareness for the agency or home and encourage those listening to do more for the needy.
Once the students raise enough funds, pray together on how the Lord wants you to use the funds. You could purchase a Christmas meal for your family, Christmas gifts for the orphans. Perhaps you could gift diapers, school clothes, or supplies for children in need, etc. In reality, because of the tremendous needs, the possibilities on how to serve are numerous and various.

The purpose of this activity is to teach your kids to work together as the body of Christ. It will teach them that with just a little effort, they can meet many needs through prayer and teamwork. They will also learn to be led by the Lord in their service. If they pray and work together, there is nothing they cannot do with the Lord’s help.

56. Mission Not Impossible

Materials Needed: You will need teamwork and energy.

How to Play:

Check to see if your church/denomination has an agency that sends missionaries overseas to do God’s work. If your church or denomination does not have a sending agency, pray and research other sending agencies and choose one.
Request a list of missionaries and where they are working. Take a little bit of time to pray over the list and ask the Lord to lead you to the person or persons who most need a touch from Him.
Once you have chosen a person or family for your youth group to adopt, you can introduce the new project as an application for lessons on the first missionaries, their journeys, and how the early church supported their work.
This project should be a long-term project providing many opportunities for your youth to support and pray for the missionaries.
Raise funds to send Christmas gifts. Send cards for birthdays and just for encouragement.
Work together to find good ways to let your missionaries know that someone at home cares and is praying for them.
Ask the missionaries to send your group regular e-mail updates. Reading their updates will help your group pray for them and learn many new interesting facts. It also will help them see that even though they are on the other side of the world, they can be a part of the missionary’s work.
Help your students learn how they can partner with overseas missionaries, and the desire to be a part of God’s work may stay with them for the rest of their lives.

With little effort, you can introduce your youth group to what God is doing around the world. Instill the concept of working together to extend the Kingdom of Christ while they are still young, and the impact will be exponential.

57. Packing for Jesus

Materials Needed: You will need teamwork and energy.

How to Play:

Prepare lessons on show the early church served the needy and use this activity as an application.
Research local food kitchens you might partner with and set up a time to tour their facility.
After choosing an agency to work with, schedule a time for your group to help pack their holiday meal boxes.
You could use the youth group to organize a food drive to help the kitchen with supplies to put in the boxes.
During the Thanksgiving and Christmas season, food kitchens are busy boxing up the holiday meals that they will be handing out to the families in need. This is a wonderful time to introduce your students to serving the needy.

Working in a food pantry will be a lot of fun for your youth, who all love to be active and serve. Allowing your kids to become a part of a local food kitchen helps them see how God uses His children to bless those in need.

58. Notes for Children’s Hospital

Materials Needed: You will need notecards and colored pens or pencils.

How to play:

Choose a fundraising activity to help provide the funds to purchase small stuffed animals to send to your local children’s hospital.
Your youth group can write or create cards of encouragement for the children. Choose scripture references for your youth to include in the cards. The sick children could use some scripture to remind them that the Lord loves and cares for them.
Organize a time to take the stuffed animals and cards to the local children’s hospital or children’s ward.
You and your youth leaders can deliver the card and gift, or if your youth are older, they can go with you.
Your kids can also send special gifts and cards for Christmas and Easter.

Many children and youth are fighting grave illness, and hospitals and doctors are all the life they know. Teach your youth group how to help lift the spirits of these children, and you will also be modeling empathy on of the many gifts Christians use to imitate Jesus.

These activities will also teach your children the blessing of serving the sick and hurting. Working with sick children can be a long-term project for your youth.

59. Military Encouragement

Materials needed: Notecards, colored pens, gift boxes or treats of some kind like cookies.

How to Play:

Advertise in the church bulletin to see how many church members have family serving in the armed forces. Pull together a list to use for your activity.
Your youth group can put together gift boxes for those connected to your church and send them regularly.
The youth should also be encouraged to write notes of encouragement to the servicemen and women.
If your church family does not have anyone serving, you can contact the closest Military Base and see if they will allow you to bless some of their servicemen and women.
Your youth group could bake cookies and other treats and deliver them to the base.
Another way your student can serve is to write cards to soldiers on the local base.
Divide the base into groups, for example, new recruits, singles, families, units, or officers. Your group can alternate writing notes of encouragement to the groups each month or quarter. This way, the youth group will eventually have prayed for and encouraged everyone serving at the base.

A good thing to remember is that many servicemen and women are not Christians. Your youth group praying for and encouraging them may be just the open door they need to turn to Christ.

Freedom to have church and choose what we believe has not and does not come free. Our military men and women help maintain our freedom to choose and to help others in need. Your church may have members who are serving or loved ones serving in the military. Utilize your youth group as instruments of blessings for our brave men and women who serve in the military.

60. Singing for Christ

Materials Needed: You will need teamwork and some decent singers.

How to Play:

You can have a large group of youth sing at all different types of events. They will have fun performing doing pop-up singing in outdoor shopping areas. Maybe they could sing at church BBQs, fellowship meals, orphanages, children’s wards, cancer hospitals, or many more.
During Christmas time, they can go caroling. Choose neighborhoods around the church and hand out goodie bags with the church’s information.
Invest a little bit of time teaching your youth group meaningful songs, and then let them be a bright light in a dark world.

People love to hear youth performances. Taking your youth group out for singing provides opportunities to share Christ through song.

61. Storm Relief Mission Project

Materials Needed: Construction supplies such as lumber and paint, transportation, knowledgeable adult supervision.

How to Play:

Locate a relief agency or church in an area that has been affected by a storm and take your youth to help rebuild the damaged area.
Use funds from your Youth Ministry budget to cover the lumber and paint supplies.
Alternatively, you can check with your church office to see if other funds are available for you could use for this work project or if a local company is willing to donate or sponsor supplies.
Check with the church or agencies to see if there is a place to house your youth while there.
Reserve transportation to and from the trip.
Recruit the proper adult leadership to help.

Young people are a boundless supply of energy, and they love to serve. This type of mission trip is popular among the youth. It is also an effective way to teach them to be the hands and feet of Christ.

62. Vacation Bible School at Local Orphanage

Materials Needed: You will need supplies to run a Vacation Bible School.

How to Play:

Arrange a Vacation Bible School for a local orphanage using your church’s leftover VBS supplies and your youth group.
Purchase any missing VBS materials to supplement any missing items. Suppliers of VBS supplies have materials available to purchase for a while after summer.
A way to make sure your event is a success is to recruit youth to help serve in the church’s VBS. They will then be ready to lead at your orphanage event.

Putting on a VBS at an orphanage is a beautiful way to bring Christ into the lives of children who have very little hope and engage your students in the needs of others.

63. Progressive Dinner Nights

Materials Needed: You will need three homes for hosting various parts of the dinner.

How to Play:

Send an e-mail to the parents looking for homes to host a party night. The progressive dinners could even become a regular part of your ministry plans.
Choose three homes to host an appetizer party, dinner party, and dessert party. The first home will provide an appetizer and a fun game for the youth. The second home will provide the main meal, a devotional time, and games. The third home will offer a dessert, followed by more youth games and prayer to finish the evening.
It would also be a good idea to do the parties in themes, such as Mexican night, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.

Progressive dinners for adults have been around for years. However, you can plan a progressive dinner designed specifically for your students. You can use the homes of the youth’s parents or the homes of the youth leaders.

64. Christian Concert Outing

Materials Needed: You will need money for concert tickets, transportation and adult supervision.

How to Play:

Many Christian artists perform in churches. Research some of the popular artists and check their websites for their tour schedules.
Check to see if there are any group discounts to help lower the cost.
Many of your kids will not have the money to pay for their tickets, so look for scholarship opportunities to ensure all can participate.
Arrange transportation, either a bus or, if your group is small, you can use some of the cars belonging to the adult leaders.
Recruit enough adult leaders to chaperone.

Christian concerts are an absolute favorite for many. There is something unique about the experience. It is unlikely they will forget the outing. Your prayer should be that this concert will be a pivotal event for your kids, one which solidifies their faith as they see so many other young people worshiping the Lord.

65. Zoom Movie Night

Materials Needed: You will need a movie on a DVD or through a streaming subscription, a place to watch the movie with your group, and snacks.

How to Play:

Choose a suitable DVD for you to watch together.
Make sure you do not need a license to show the movie.
Handle the movie night the same as if you were doing a Bible study time. Provide snacks and make it fun.

Using a Zoom movie night is an easy way to keep your youth connected. Frequently, it is hard for youth to get to spend time together. Reasons could be weather-related or, it could be pandemic-related. However, the fun does not have to stop for your youth group.

66. Youth Group Ski Trip

Materials Needed: You will need money for a ski trip, appropriate clothing and ski equipment, and adult chaperones.

How to Play:

For this type of outing, you will want to plan your trip well in advance. Purchase your trip and book your cabins or other accommodations early because they are reserved very early.
Select the more spiritually advanced from your group to do devotions while there.
You will also need to secure enough youth leaders to help chaperone.
Many of the youth cannot afford a trip of this nature. Solicit scholarships from the church membership and plan fundraising activities to help cover the costs.
Involving the youth in fundraising activities and devotion responsibilities will help them feel ownership of the trip.

A ski trip will be a great opportunity to have focused time with your students. It will be easier to spend time with your group every day there because they will be away from the distractions of home.

67. Pop-Up Events with Youth Games

Many churches do pop-up events for small children, but your pop-up events would take place in the neighborhoods where your youth live.

Materials Needed: You will need materials/internet to send an invitation to people in the neighborhood, board games, carnival games, popcorn, hotdogs, drinks you would find at a carnival, and goody bags.

How to Play:

Solicit youth group families to host the events in their neighborhood. The parents and, if necessary, other youth workers would help the youth with the event.
Center the whole pop-up event around youth activities. Board games, carnival games, popcorn, and hotdogs are sure to bring the youth in the surrounding area to your event.
Create an invitation to the pop-up event and have your youth and adult workers pass them out in the area.
Put together goody bags for your event. These will be a great way to introduce your youth group and church.

A youth pop-up event will be fun for your students. It is an opportunity to intentionally work toward reaching the youth in the surrounding neighborhoods of your church.

68. Build Your Own Pizza Night

Are you looking for a great way to get your group back together after a long summer? Holding a pizza night will be a temptation that most could not resist.

Materials Needed: You will need materials/internet to send an invitation to your youth group, someone’s kitchen, pizza dough, pizza sauce, cheese for your pizza, and various toppings.

How to Play:

Create an invitation to invite your youth group and ask them to bring a friend.
Locate a kitchen to use, either in your church or the home of a church member.
Purchase various types of toppings, dough, and be sure to purchase enough so that every taste can be satisfied.

A build your own pizza night is a simple way to get your kids back through the doors and prayerfully bring new youth into the youth group.

69. Missions Prayer Evening

This event will be the first time for many of your kids to pray for other areas in the world. When we pray for the lost and suffering of this world, the Lord allows us a glimpse into His heart.

Materials Needed: You will need some world maps, black markers, paper, and pens.

How to Play:

Purchase some world maps and section them off with a black marker.
Divide the students into small groups and assign youth workers to each group.
Make a list of interesting facts for each section of the maps. Also include fact sheets about the countries and their spiritual condition.
Each small group should work together to write a list of prayer requests for their assigned map section.
Call everyone back together as a large group and pray for all the requests.
You could invite some students to share what they learned.

It is exciting to think that if your group is big enough, you can pray for the world in just one night!

70. Movie Night in the Park

Movies in the park, what great fun for your youth group! Your movie night will provide a perfect avenue to invite their friends.

Materials Needed: You will need a projector, DVD player or any other streaming device, a projector, a king-sized sheet hung from two trees or two net frames for sports like soccer or volleyball, blankets and snacks.

How to Play:

Ask the students to bring blankets and snacks.
Check to see if permission from the city authorities to use the park.
Create an invitation for your students to invite their friends. Many young kids would never attend a church meeting, but maybe they would come to a movie in the park
Create an invitation to invite visitors to your youth group and church.
You will need a lot of youth workers and parents for this event.

71. Diaper Donation and Fundraiser

This is an incredible way to bless your local refugee agency or Christian clinic. They tirelessly work to help women find ways to keep their babies or assist them with putting their babies up for adoption. Many young women would welcome a gift, and the agency could use any funds you raise.

Materials Needed: You will need materials to make diaper trees, bags for bagging the completed diaper trees, and pizza for the volunteers.

How to Play:

If your church does not have an affiliation with a local clinic or agency, check around and find one to partner with.
Plan an event at your church that will center around raising funds and collecting boxes of diapers to donate. You can use new baby bottles to hand out in a church service for raising money. People will fill them with cash or checks and bring them back to the church on a specified day as an offering for the clinic.
Collect the donated diapers and plan a pizza night for your youth.
Purchase materials to make diaper trees out of the donated diapers and bag them like a gift. These decorated bags will make a beautiful gift for the clinic to give to the new mothers.
If possible, the youth should be involved in the presentation of the funds and gifts. Taking part in the gift presentation makes all their hard work quite satisfying.

72. Volunteer Day at a Refugee Agency

Many agencies are working to help refugees assimilate into our culture. There are many beneficial ways that your youth could be a part of their ministry.

Materials Needed: You will need transportation and food for a meal together.

How to Play:

Set up a tour of a local agency to observe all the services that they offer to refugees. Look for areas where your youth can volunteer for the day, or possibly you could do it monthly. A good possibility is to help with afternoon tutoring or ESL classes.
Arrange transportation to the agency.
Plan a meal after the event to debrief.

When we teach our students to serve while still young, God will use their service to shape them into His instruments. Serving others is an experience that will stay with your kids for the rest of their lives.

73. Welcome Teams for Refugees

God says in Acts 17:26 that He is who moves the boundaries of people so that perhaps they will seek Him. Involving your youth in serving vulnerable members of our world population will help them see that some need prayers and help. Additionally, the Lord may use this event to call some of your youth into the ministry.

Materials Needed: You will need basic household items and furniture.

How to Play:

Locate your local resettlement agency. They can provide training for you and your kids.
A welcome team helps a refugee family by preparing their new home for their arrival. The welcome team collects household items and furniture the family will need to start their new lives. You can involve the whole church in the provision of goods. They can donate dishes, microwaves, towels, etc.
If you are still short items for the home or apartment, going to garage sales is a perfect way to find the missing pieces. Youth, their families, and your leaders can all be involved in scouring local garage sales for the items you lack.
Divide into small teams and have your list separated to give each group a section. You can treat the outing like a scavenger hunt, and the first ones back will win.
You will need the help of the youth and adult leadership to prepare the refugee’s new home with all the items you have located for the family.
After the family arrives, your youth group can still be involved with the refugee family. They can help with tutoring the refugee children or spend time with the family playing games, etc. Additional time with the family will require parental permission, and all visits will require supervision.
Reach out to your local resettlement agency and join God in His great global movement of people.

74. Hike a National Park

There is so much emphasis on our digital life in our culture. Take some time to unplug from all the distractions that come from technological lives. Set up a camping trip at a national park or some other camping area and make a memorable event that your youth will not forget.

Materials Needed: You will need money for the trip, appropriate footwear and supplies, and adult chaperones.

How to Play:

Recruit enough adult works to keep the students safe.
Arrange transportation.
During the day, take short hikes with your youth and discuss the many signs of God’s creative hands, which will be all around.
Back at the camp, settle back in for the night with a meal around the fire and end a devotional time encouraging them to set aside time to seek God.

We all hear God better when we take time away from distractions, and the youth need it more than ever. Perhaps this will be the first time they experience the closeness of God as He woos them to be set apart for Him. This trip will be an incredible opportunity to see Him work!

75. Plan a Road Trip to a Youth Conference

What an exciting road trip when you are going to a conference! Load up your youth group and take them to a youth conference to be recharged and refreshed. How often do we need this as adults? If adults need spiritual uplifting from time to time, imagine what our youth need.

Materials Needed: You will need funds for a trip, transportation and adult chaperones.

How to Play:

Obtain the needed transportation to take your students on a much-needed road trip to recharge their spiritual batteries.
Locate a ministry with a youth conference scheduled for your area and purchase tickets to the event for your youth.
Most youth conferences offer package deals that will include housing accommodations. If not, make suitable arrangements for your group.
Recruit plenty of adult workers to ensure the safety and well-being of your students.
Plan for nightly devotion times with your group.
If your budget can not cover the trip costs, prepare fundraising activities to cover the cost. If traveling is out of the question, almost everything is being live-streamed.
Host a watching event at your church and invite all the youth from your area. It will be a mini Youth Conference, and it will encourage the kids as they see others their age seeking God.

Our youth are facing challenges and stresses every day that we never had to handle. Give them a break from the sometimes toxic culture we live in and help them learn how to focus on Christ.

Conclusion

We hope there are some fun activities and ideas here to help your youth group pray together and stay together!

Author Bio
Natalie Regoli is a child of God, devoted wife, and mother of two boys. She has a Master's Degree in Law from The University of Texas. Natalie has been published in several national journals and has been practicing law for 18 years.