I am currently in charge of the 5th & 6th grade youth group at our church. Now this is an age group that often gets overlooked, because they are really too young to be included in the junior high group but are still too old for some of the elementary functions. So our [...]]]>

I am currently in charge of the 5th & 6th grade youth group at our church. Now this is an age group that often gets overlooked, because they are really too young to be included in the junior high group but are still too old for some of the elementary functions. So our youth group meets only once a month for a specialized event at the church, usually on Sunday afternoon when they are bored and looking for something fun to do!

One of our events was the “Cookie Bake Off”. We had selected several cookie recipes and purchased the ingredients for them prior to the event. Our goal was twofold, to have a great time baking cookies and to have cookies left over to place out after service on Sunday for the coffee hour (to teach the kids about about serving in the church). We also hoped that each youth could come away with a new recipe that they could replicate at home.

We divided the kids into teams or singles, depending on how many we had. I would suggest having one adult supervisor per two teams, since they do have a lot of questions and need a watchful eye! Their recipe they would be working on was already at their cooking station along with whatever items they needed (tools, ingredients, etc). Make sure to preheat those ovens so you are ready to go!

This entire baking session took up two hours, and yielded plenty of cookies to taste test, take home, and have 4 dozen left over for service the next day.  For the older youth groups, you could include a panel of 3 judges who must vote on the cookies and hand out awards. These categories could be best cookie, most unusual cookie, melt in your mouth cookie, etc.  Prizes could include the standard 1st, 2nd or 3rd place prize ribbons or something funky like spatulas or mixing spoons.

If your youth session was going to be longer than 2 hours, you could also include games that focus on food items, which I had originally planned for thinking I would have down time in between batches. To be quite honest, they loved the baking so much that we didn’t have time for anything else.
Then I had the kids create index cards to tent next to the platters of cookies for Sunday service. They had to come up with a fun name for their cookies (like Don’s Peanut Butter Delights) and then I also allowed them to take home a copy of any of the recipes that they wanted.  They also had to plate the cookies and wrap them so they were ready for the table.

When working with youth, you sometimes wonder what kind of impression is made at some of these silly events we do.  I was at a school event for my son and in his classroom there was a dessert table. I grabbed some samples of desserts which included some chocolate chip cookies. When my husband tasted them, he immediately recognized the recipe (they were that distinctive) and asked who made them. A youth from our church that was in my son’s class said he made them. His mom said he has really taken an interest in doing some more baking since that day! He had a great time at the event and wanted us to get him some more recipes. The connection we made with this youth in baking alongside and showing an interest in what he was doing had a lasting impression on him. Sometimes it is not always what we say, but just being there and showing God’s love that makes a difference.

Here is an indoors youth ministry game that takes some prep (mainly how not to get things broke like church stuff and yourself) but is a lot of fun. It’s glow in the dark capture the flag.

There are many ways you can twist this so be creative and come up with your [...]]]>

Here is an indoors youth ministry game that takes some prep (mainly how not to get things broke like church stuff and yourself) but is a lot of fun. It’s glow in the dark capture the flag.

There are many ways you can twist this so be creative and come up with your own version if you want to. For example you can have each team bring back 5 of their teams colored rings.

Gotta make sure your facility is safe to run in. Gotta have lots of helpers to make sure things don’t get out of hand.

Basically you are going to turn off the lights each team will have 1 ring on them (same color would be helpful) then you are going to play. Make sure you buy enough glow in the dark rings and sticks.

If you don’t know here are the rules to capture the flag:

The Official Rules of Capture the Flag

• Divide the group into two teams with an equal number of players. For an extremely large group, three groups can play.
• Set up the playing field, which is divided equally. Any obstacles in the course help players hide and dodge being tagged by an opponent.
• Establish a safe area or home base.
• Place the flag in the middle of the safe area. The flag may be attached to a ball.

The Official Rules of Capture the Flag – The Engagement

• Players patrol the boundary of the safe area but are not allowed inside their own home base.
• Only a few defenders should protect the safe area; otherwise, the opponent doesn’t have much of an opportunity to capture the flag.
• Other team members, called attackers, either search for the opposition or sneak across the enemy line to try to capture the flag.
• Tagging an opponent on your area results in her capture.
• Captured opponents are placed in the jail or safe area. This depends on what decision the entire group made prior to starting the game.
• When entering the opposition’s jail, the tagged player should hold one hand in the air so other players recognize they are in jail.
• Opponents may tag a team member who is inside the jail or safe area to release her.
• Jailed players may jog within the safe area.
• The official rules of capture the flag states that jail guards may not enter their own safe area.
• A tagged jail member receives a free pass to her side of the field. The freed player holds both hands above her head and walks to her side. She cannot be tagged until she has crossed the division line.
• When a player penetrates the safe area and captures the flag, the opposition cannot tag him until he leaves the safe area.
• Defenders should notify their team members that the flag has been captured so all attention is given to tagging that player.
• If the flag is attached to an object, such as a ball, it can be passed to teammates so the flag quickly gets to the other side.
• If the ball is not caught, the official rules of capture the flag state that the flag is returned to the safe area and the two players involved in the toss and catch of the flag head to jail.
• The opposition may intercept the ball and return it to the safe area.

The Winner Takes It All

• A team reigns victorious when the flag is captured and crossed over the division line.
• A variation of victory calls for the flag to make it into your team’s safe area.
• If both teams capture the flag simultaneously, flags are returned to each side’s safe area and the game continues according to the official rules of capture the flag.

Here are some thanksgiving youth ministry ideas and activities that you can begin preparing for around Thanksgiving day in your youth ministry.

Here is a youth ministry powerpoint game you can play with your youth. Works good as an ice-breaker thing. So get the: Which has more game   and download it and then right-click the zip file and open it up.

This is an oldie but a goodie. If you have never tried playing a game called shuffle your buns for your youth ministry, then you need to because its a great warm up ice-breaking – possibly chair-breaking experience!

How to play:

Have your students circle up with their chairs. Have one student step [...]]]>

This is an oldie but a goodie. If you have never tried playing a game called shuffle your buns for your youth ministry, then you need to because its a great warm up ice-breaking – possibly chair-breaking experience!

How to play:

Have your students circle up with their chairs. Have one student step into the center of the circle and when you say shuffle and pick a direction, the student in the middle is trying to get into the open chair but has he or she tries the group is “shuffling their buns” into the empty chair making it difficult to get into the space. If the student gets in the chair before the next person shuffles – then the person that was supposed to shuffle into the chair now has to go into the center and be the person to try and get into the open chair.

Tips:

• Switch directions. So right in the middle of playing yell out SWITCH and have the circle go the opposite direction.
• Some guys and gals are too aggressive so just remind them to take er easy
• You may have to have more then one circle going depending on how large your group is. Too big is bad and too small won’t work very well either.
• Play some music while doing this – a popular song that you may or may not want to use at the time of this post is party rock anthem – only bc its upbeat and they use the phrase, “Everyday im shuffling” but you hafta make the call what is appropriate in your church setting.

Another great thing about this is there is virtually no set up at all and it’s fun when you and or your leaders play too!