Team building games youth ministry

This game requires no preparation, no materials, can be played anywhere, and is sure to lead to lots of great conversation, laughter and fun. Rock Paper Scissors Tournament is a fast-paced game that is easy to pull off, and your youth will want to play this one over and over again! Assemble students in a line and have one person be Sherlock. Sherlock leaves the room and the students remaining change one thing about their appearance.

They can pull their hair up or down, put on a jacket or take one off, put a sticker on, and so forth. Sherlock reenters the room and tries to identify as many changes in the appearance as they can. Equipment needed: none, other than random items they can use to change their appearance which they should be able to find in the youth room. I hope you found some new games to play with your group. Remember youth love to have fun and they love to be silly, whether they let on or not.

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Alexis Waid. She has been in professional ministry for over 15 years. She has served in ministry positions such as co-pastor, youth minister, and spiritual director. She is a mom, wife, and passionate believer that Jesus changes everything. Latest posts by Alexis Waid see all. When the game begins, everyone is going to be walking around, waiting for the leader to give an order from the list below.

Each order will require a different number of people to create a scene, and everyone has to scramble to form a group with the people around them. You can make it competitive by removing the slowest group each round or doing a countdown people have to race against, or you can just let everyone keep playing.

All hands on deck one person : Everyone stands at attention, facing the leader with a salute. Walk the plank three people : One person lays on the ground to form the plank. A second person puts their hands behind their own back and stands by the plank. And the third person stands behind person 2, pretending to hold a sword. Lifeboat six people : Each group sits on the floor in two rows of three and pretends to row their lifeboat.

If you have a lot of kids, you may want to increase the number of people to eight, ten, or twelve for fun. You can invent other scenes or choose a non-nautical theme with all new combinations if you want to bring this game back for another gathering. They also allow for friendly competition. You can give prizes for the winning teams or just play for fun.

Supplies: two or more absurd and large outfits, preferably with a couple of layers. The only prep for this youth group game is to find some weird costumes or outfits for kids to wear. You want this to be awkward to run in, and it should take a while to put it on and take it off. Make sure you have a big room, a gym, or outdoor space for kids to move around.

Break the students into even teams and have them line up on one side of the room. The first kid in line puts the outfit on and races to the other end of the room and back. As each kid runs down and back, they take off the outfit and the next person in line puts it on. The first team to have everyone make it down and back wins. If you have room for it, you can take this game to the next level by introducing an obstacle course or challenges such as hopping on one foot to the end, hula hoops they have to use for 10 seconds, objects to jump over or run around, etc.

For this youth group game you need an even number of people on each team—so have the students form teams and then fill in with leaders. Teams can be anywhere from 4—20 people. But it gets much harder the more people you have per team. Each team stands in a circle, and every person grabs a hand from two different people across from them.

The goal is to end in a circle with no hands in the middle. As the groups untangle themselves, some people will wind up facing the inside of the circle and others will face the outside.

This game takes a lot of cooperation and communication as kids try to problem-solve, give each other directions, and maneuver around. You can run a trivia night however you want, but you may want some optional supplies to make it feel more official: tables, chairs, lamps for ambiance , a projector, a microphone, speakers, a whiteboard, and snacks. The bulk of the prep work is coming up with trivia categories and questions. Obviously, the more categories and questions you come up with, the longer your trivia night will last.

This is a good task to delegate to leaders or work on as a team. Make sure your categories and questions are relevant to the kids in your group the broader the better , but here are some categories you might use:. Resist the temptation to make every question ridiculously hard. At most, you should have one really tough question per category. You can make trivia night into a really fun, out-of-the-ordinary event by putting additional effort into the ambiance. Let kids enjoy snacks while they discuss the questions together.

You can do a minimal version of this with just paper and pens, but if you take the time to make trivia night more elaborate, it could easily become an annual tradition and one of the highlights of your youth group.

When the weather is nice or at least tolerable , it opens up opportunities to play some messier, more involved games. Supplies: Lots of fruit vegetables are OK too , baseball bat, goggles optional.

Fruit baseball is exactly what it sounds like. They may already have a program they send this produce to, but if you ask the right store or the right employee , you can probably get all the fruit and veggies you need for free or at least a significant discount. If you use peppers or citrus fruits, you should probably have your batters wear eye protection of some kind.

Remember: the important thing here is that everyone gets at least one opportunity to obliterate a piece of fruit. Feel free to modify the rules or be lenient with strikes so that kids have more chances to participate. Buy at least two of them one for each team you plan on having. Have one kid from each team lay on top of the ice block and hug the sides with their arms. Someone else will hold their legs and either push or pull them to a cone or whatever you use to designate the end of the course and back.

Then they switch: the student who was pushing or pulling hugs the ice block, and the next student in line takes their place. Have kids sit in the back of the line when they finish their leg of the relay. This youth group is a total free-for-all where kids and leaders get to pelt each other with giant marshmallows. If you have the time to plan and prepare, you can turn part of your town or a local park into a course for The Amazing Race. The signal can be a cheer, a slogan, a whistle pattern, a clapping pattern, or anything else that the teens are familiar with.

This signal is a cue to stop the activity, regroup, and discuss a few things. If any teen exhibits behavior that calls for a regroup or the activity is taken a different route, the signal can be used to call for a quick discussion. Make sure to practice the signal and their response to the signal before starting the activity so they are completely familiar with the signal.

Practice the signal until all the responses you receive are satisfactory. They will be warned about the behavior and urged to do better. When the teen assures the organizers of the activities that they will not behave in the same manner for the rest of the game, they are allowed to participate again.

Team building is the goal , not victory. Teens must share their experiences and learn from the activity. Speaking about their Learnings will help retain them for a longer period of time. Paper, pencils, a bowl are all the items required. All members are given pieces of paper. They must write a phrase of three words on the paper. The phrases must be relevant to the Bible trivia or Christian practices. The pieces of paper are folded into chits and put into the bowl.

The group is now divided into teams, each consisting of 4 members. Three members from each team must come forward and pick a single chit from the bowl. They must then act out one word each. The fourth member of their team must try to guess all three words correctly. One point is awarded to each word guessed correctly.

If the member is not able to guess all three words in one minute, it is passed to the next team. If the question is passed and all three words are guessed successfully by any team, 1 point is awarded. If all three are not guessed, they do not get any points.

This exercise helps build non-verbal communication skills. It also works as a team-building activity as members must cooperate with each other and understand each other to guess all three words perfectly. Further, they are made to recall the Bible while making chits. This will help further their faith in Christ. The game is fairly easy to set up. An eye mask or an opaque cloth that will serve as a blindfold is required. The furniture in the room can be used to make the obstacle course.

Extra chairs and cushions can be brought to increase the number of obstacles. Keep a stopwatch to let the members know how much time they took to complete the course with the help and alone. Members are divided into teams of three. One of the members is blindfolded.

The other two flank the blindfolded person in the front and in the back. They must direct the blindfolded person across the obstacle course set up by the organizers. Once it has been completed, the blindfolded person must try to retrace the course and get through it successfully without the help of the other team members.

After the blindfolded person comes back, another member of the team must be blindfolded. The course must be changed before the second person starts their course. This exercise teaches teens to put their faith in Christ as they have in the members of their team. He is present to help them at all times.

Friends and family are the conduits through which he guides and helps mold lives. The game also helps better communication skills among the team. Precise direction and understanding are required for the blindfolded person to get through the course the first time. Fruit is the focus of this exercise — a variety of fruits like apples, oranges, and bananas will be needed. Items like floss, needles, toothpicks and tape will serve as the instruments of the ER. Divide the group into teams of members.

Each team gets fruit. They are instructed to cut up the fruit into medium-sized pieces. At this point, do not disclose to them what they must do with the fruit later. After they cut up the fruits, instruct them to put the fruit back together. Provide them with the other instruments to put together the fruit. The aim of the activity is to help the participants realize how difficult it is to put together something that is broken. Mindful actions and behavior will result in preventing damage to relationships with God and earthly companions.

Relationships are dependant on trust and companionship, once it is broken it is extremely hard to piece back to exactly the way it was. Preserving it is the lesson that the activity teaches. Permanent markers are required to write on the balloons. Make sure to write on the balloon well in advance so that the ink has sufficient time to dry.

Blow up all the balloons. On one-half of the balloons, put down behaviors and actions that bring one closer to God. Make sure to spread both good and bad behaviors across all colors of balloons.

Next, divide the room into two equal halves. Keep a garbage bag filled with the labeled balloons on both sides of the room.

Ensure that both sides have an equal number of balloons with good and bad behaviors. When the youth come in, divide them into two teams. The aim of each team is to try and eliminate as many bad behaviors as they can and keep the most amount of good behaviors with them. If they decide the behavior written would drive them further away from God, they must throw it to the other side of the room. If the behavior draws them closer to God, they must keep it with them.

After all the balloons are out of the garbage bag, let the game go on for minutes to toss the balloons around. Signal the end of the game after the time has elapsed. At the end of the game, leaders will check the balloons they have.

The team gets a point for each positive behavior that the players hold in their hands. It also promotes teamwork and strategic thinking. Different team members can be in different positions to defend their good balloons and eliminate their bad balloons. Keep small clothing items and accessories to aid players during the game. Divide all the members of the youth group into two teams. One of the teams is chosen to be Sherlock for the first round.

Both the teams stand face to face for two minutes so that the detective team can observe them thoroughly. After two minutes, the detective team leaves the group.