How To Make Youth Group Fun
Church youth groups are ideal places for teenagers to have fun together and stay involved in faith-based activities. There are so many things today that compete for kids’ attention, and young people are especially drawn to online connections. All the effort a church puts into making youth group fun is energy well spent.
Tips To Make Youth Group Fun
There are three kinds of youth activities that are good to have as part of every youth meeting. They are: Icebreakers, to make the teens comfortable with one another; active games, so that they can expend their youthful energy; and faith-based games related to the Bible, to encourage spiritual growth.
Activities to Break the Ice in Youth Groups
“Would you rather?” To play the “Would you rather?” game, participants gather and one person asks a question that everyone else answers. For example, “Would you rather ride in a yacht or on a hot air balloon?”
Concentric Circles. Form chairs in two circles, with the outer ring facing inside and the inner ring facing outside. Have the youth sit down. Give them a topic to discuss for a short while. Then have everyone move to a different chair facing another person and provide a different discussion question.
Active Games for Youth Groups
Gaga Ball. Create a pit of some kind, an area where the youth can all be enclosed in a space. The youth all start out inside the pit, and a ball such as a volleyball is tossed in. Anyone is allowed to hit the ball. If the ball hits a player below the knees, he or she must leave the pit. If someone catches the ball before it hits the ground, the person who threw it must leave the pit. The last player left wins.
Don’t Break the Streamers. In a hallway, tape crepe numerous streamers diagonally both high and low. Youth are to walk through the hall without breaking any streamers.
Faith-Based Games
Bible 20 Questions
Divide the youth into two groups to play Bible 20 Questions. The leader has either a person or an event from the Bible in mind. If a team can guess the answer within 5 questions, they get 20 points. The points are 5 less for each set of 5 questions needed to figure out the correct answer, from 6 to 10 questions at 15 points and so on.
Bible Trivia
The leader asks Bible-based trivia questions, and youth get a point for each correct answer. Whoever has the highest score at the end wins.
How To Make Youth Group Fun
There must be a special place in heaven for servants in the church who invest in the lives of young people. Keeping kids interested in church activities during the teenage years can be difficult unless leaders find a way to keep the young people engaged with one another and interested in growing in their faith. These games and activities, as well as many more, can help by keeping things fun.
Very helpful. It can be difficult to keep teens entertained week after week but this gave me some more ideas.