Children & youth ministry

Game #2

Take-off Time

For this game we will need two shirts or hats. To play, you throw two shirts or hats on the ground about six feet apart. This positioning represents the aircraft launch area. Have the players line up in pairs in a double column behind and at a ninety-degree angle from the launch area. Have the partners choose who will be the airplane and who will be the pilot. Then you say, “All pilots please close your eyes. You must rely on your pilots to direct you by voice commands only- no physical contact unless a crash is imminent. Airplanes, you have been equipped with high-tech safety bumpers. Please place your hands up, your palms out, in front of your face. These bumpers should be up and in use at all altitudes. Pilots before you are granted your pilot’s liscense, please note that this exercise is meant to build trust, so verbally pilot you aircraft with care.” Launch a new plane about every five seconds by motioning a pair through the launch area and on to the room or field. The sighted pilots maneuver their airplanes as carefully and as dramatically as the trust situation will allow. As more and more planes make their way onto the field, the opportunity for excitement will dramatically increase. Remind pilots if contact with another plane is imminent, they should step in to physically prevent a collision. After all planes and pilots have been launched, begin bringing them back through a new landing strip. Reposition the two shirts or hats in another part of the field. Bring back pairs by calling out the pilot’s or planes name but not necessarily in their launch sequence. The idea is to land the pairs in a rapid succession through the entrance outlined by the shirts or hats so the pilots have to think and react quickly using only their voices. After all the planes have landed you can have the partners switch places and prepare again for takeoff (Ronhke 35).
Game #3

Alphabet Soup

This is a game for which you will need the teams that you worked out at the beginning of the night. Give each team a platter and a box of Alpha bit cereal. Each team must sift through the box in order to make words or make numbers. You can give points a number of ways:

• 
  Words of three letters
  
• 
  Words of four letters
  
• 
  Words with five or more letters
  
• 
  Spiritual words
  
• 
  The biggest words
  
• 
  Leaders’ names
  

The students will be given a time frame of like five minutes to do this and I will make sure to specify no curse words or body parts. (http://www.thesourcefym.com)

This will work into my whole theme of teamwork in that the students will have to work together in order to get the job done in the allotted time.

Game #4

Back to Back

For this game, you just need to break up into pairs. Ideally the pairs should be same sex. You start out with two people sitting back to back and they have to stand up straight without using their hands. You add one more person to the chain each time this is completed successfully (http://www.thesourcefym.com).

This works into both themes of teamwork and trust that I have for the night. It does this in that when they must work with their partner in order to accomplish the task in the beginning. The trust works in by the fact that you will have to trust your partner in order to complete this task.

Game #5

Build Your Own Snowman

For this game, we will once again divide into the predetermined teams. The object of this game is to see which team can build the prettiest snowman in the shortest amount of time. One person needs to volunteer to be the snowman and you hand them a bag with all of the proper snowman accessories, such as a hat gloves, mittens, shaving cream, a carrot, and clothes to go over the ones that they are wearing. Each team has a designated amount of time to get the shaving cream and accessories on their snowman before time is called. The team with the prettiest snowman wins or you could just give both teams points for trying.

This works into my whole teamwork theme in that the students will be working together in order to come up with the end result.
Game 6

Blind Face Painting

For this game everyone needs to have a partner. We will need a few supplies for this game as well. These supplies are blindfolds, paintbrushes, and face paints. After each student have a partner, explain that they are going to do some face painting. Then blindfold the person who will be painting first. Emphasize that the person being painted must help his or her blindfolded partner by giving painting instructions. Also explain that the person getting painted will soon be painting (Rydberg 24).

This works into the teamwork theme in that they must work together in order to make sure that they have the prettiest faces!!
Works Cited

Rohnke, Karl. On the Edge Games For Youth Ministry; Colorado: Group Publishing; 1998.

Rydberg, Dennis. Youth Group Trust Builders; Colorado: Group Publishing; 1993.

Yacconelli, Mike. Far- Out Ideas for Youth Groups; Michigan; Zondervan publishing House; 1975.

http://www.thesourcefym.com

http://www.bybo.org

Class guest speaker

Devotion:

Where do you place your trust?

Prov. 3:5-6

Ask: Did anyone catch the theme that has been portrayed tonight? (Allow for answers).

Say: You know we worked really hard together and we had to put an awful lot of trust in each other in order to accomplish these games. There is someone out there who desires our trust more than you could ever imagine.

God is up there just looking down at us and watching us. He sees us when we try to do the stuff of day to day life on our own and He wants to help us. He wants us to put our trust in Him. Like the verse in Proverbs says; He wants us to trust in Him with all our hearts even when we don’t understand sometimes. I know that this is sometimes a hard concept to grasp but we must stand and trust God in the big things as well as the little.
Close in Prayer.

Steve Fritz

Theme: The Body of Christ
Icebreakers:
1.) Name Game
Sit in a circle. One person starts by using an adjective starting with the same letter as their first name, followed by their first name (i.e. Clever Claire, Kind Karen) The next person and following has to repeat the first person's adjective and name and then add their own. It goes around the circle and the last person has to repeat all other names in order and end with their own. (Ammerman)
Application: Everybody is different, what is something that describes you.
2.) Non-Verbal Birthday Lineup
Ask everyone to line up according to the month and day of birth without any talking. This should inspire some interesting means of communication towards a common goal. (Ammerman)
Application: You must find where you belong.
3.) Untangle
The whole group of teens will assemble in a circle with each person clasping a hand of someone different. (In other words, they will be holding one person's hand with their left hand and someone else's with their right hand) IMPORTANT! It cannot be the person next to them. Now that they are in a complete jumble, blow the whistle and give them one minute to get untangled without letting go of each other's hands. (Zockoll)
Application: Sometimes it takes time and effort to straighten out where you are supposed to be,
4.) Common Ground
Teams will race to create lists of things that all the team members have in common. You'll need paper and pencils. Form equal-sized teams of three to six. Give each team a sheet of paper and a pencil. Tell teams their challenge is to list everything they can think of that all team members have in common. (For example, team members might all attend the same school; prefer the same kind of music, or like the same brand of tennis shoes.)

Give the teams three minutes to create their lists, so they need to work quickly. (Groups of five or six may need more time, but don't allow more than four to five minutes.) To add to the urgency and excitement of the game, inform teams when there's one minute as well as 30 seconds remaining.

When time is up, find out which team has the longest list and ask team members to read the similarities they listed. (Hurst)
Application: Although there are many differences, everybody has some similarities, No person is any better than any on else.
5.) Argument Icebreaker
Break your teens into groups of no more than seven, but no less than four.

BEFORE the teen meeting, and IN SECRET, recruit one teen for each group that will be the one who will disagree. That teen is instructed that NO MATTER WHAT, he is to do his best to make sure that the group does not reach a unified conclusion.

As the teens gather into the room, form them into groups (with one "disruptive" teen planted in each group) and tell them that you will be teaching on unity this evening. The first group to come up with an agreed-upon decision will each win a prize. Tell them the subject of discussion is two-minutes long, and the discussion is to be about what is the most important one of the five senses, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or touching. Start your stopwatch for two minutes.

This is WHAT WILL HAPPEN: While the team tries to arrive at a unified decision, your "planted" teen will do everything to disrupt by changing his mind. Even if the group agrees with his disagreement, he is to change his mind. You will see that discussion groups will get hostile toward the teen and even personal.

After the two minutes, blow the whistle and tell the whole youth group the scheme. Many of your teens will be embarrassed as they realize they got too personal when they should have been objective. Ask each of the "spy" teens how they were treated when they disagreed, and how the rest of the team felt about it. (Hurst)
Application: Disunity makes it very hard to get anything done.
Games:
1.) Human Machine
Break your group up into groups of no smaller than five and no bigger than ten. Each person in each group now must become one of the following body parts -- eye(s), ear(s), mouth, brain, leg(s), arm(s), hand(s), etc. You can add or take away body parts, depending on the size of your group. Just keep the most important ones in place. Instruct each group to do their best to perform a simple task, with each body part performing only its function. Here is a sample task. Place a Bible across the room and have each human machine attempt to "walk" over to the Bible, find Romans 12:4 - 6 and read it out loud. Remind your machines that each body part can only perform its function. For example, the legs cannot go to the Bible until the eye tells the brain where they are and the brain tells the legs how many steps to take and in which direction. (Fane)
Application: Each individual part of the body is necessary to perform its functions. All the rest of the parts of the body rely on it.

2.) Blind Meal

Two people sit in chairs facing each other.  One person is blindfolded.  He must feed the person across from him a pint of ice cream, or something else semi-liquid.  The person getting fed directs the blindfolded feeder, OR the group around them directs the blindfolded person and the person being fed must remain silent.  This is a race between two teams to finish off the food item first. (Gunter)
Application: The absence of one part of the body makes even the simplest of actions difficult.
3.) Body Part Musical Chairs
Have everyone form a big circle of chairs with the chairs facing outward.  Remove one chair.  Have music ready.  When the music starts everyone must walk around the chairs (again its fun if you make them jog).  When the music stops, a caller yells out a body part.  Then everyone races to touch that body part to a chair, one person per chair only.  If they touch a chair before the body part is called, they are out.  The one person who doesn't get a chair is also out.  To speed it up, you can remove more chairs.  We usually start out simple - nose, hair, left elbow, etc.  But towards the end we get more complicated - your bare feet, someone else's left hand (they must grab one of the people who are already out).  The object is to be the last one left. (Larn)
Application: Each part of the body is different, it is imperative that you identify each part.

4.) Bottomless pyramid

Assemble groups of 5 students. Each group must race to build a 6 person pyramid. Since the teams are made up of only 5 persons, they must construct the pyramid without the center base. There is a time limit of 2 minutes. First group to succeed wins.
Application: When one part is missing, the others will suffer.

5.) Hand Chain

You will need a handkerchief and a coin. Split up the students into 2 groups.  Each group joins hands and gets in a line facing the other group.  The leader is at one end and a handkerchief is at the other end.  Everyone in the 2 teams closes their eyes except the person at the beginning closest to the leader.  The leader flips the coin until it lands on 'heads'.  When the person with his eyes open sees that it has landed on 'heads', he squeezes the hand of the person next to him and that person squeezes the hand of the next person and it goes down the line.  When the person sitting at the end of the line feels the squeeze, he reaches for the handkerchief.  The team that grabs the handkerchief first wins the round.  Then the person who was at the end of the line moves to the front and everyone else moves down so that everyone gets a turn to grab the handkerchief.  Keep score and the team with more points wins. (Foley)
Application: Whenever we learn to effectively work together to achieve one goal, things get done.
6.) Moving Bridge
You will need about 20 wooden 2 x 4's. Divide your kids up into two groups of equal numbers. The object is this. They have one person that runs across the boards. The others take the board that the runner crosses and transports it to the front. This continues until the runner has crossed the finish line. It's a race. If the runner falls off they have to start all over. However, the runner is dependant on the others because they are holding up the bridge. (Nielsen)
Application: When each piece is in its place at the right time, things get done.

Devotion:

Note: Prepare a picture of yourself on a computer, digitally remove your nose, and have it either on a slide or an overhead if possible. Also prepare the Lip Song from “Veggietales: Josh and the Big Wall.”
Text: 1 Cor. 12:14 – 27 (NIV)
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Now, this is a long passage, but I hope that we can all understand what the meaning behind it is. It is the same meaning that has been proven in each one of the game that we played tonight. That is that God has made each one of us entirely different than the person that is sitting next to us. Turn to your neighbor and tell them that it don’t matter how much they want to be like you, THEY CAN’T. You are the only you that there is. Now I was thinking about this earlier. You know how we had you in your groups to decide which sense you thought was the least important. Well, I thought about it and I decided that if I had to choose it would probably be the sense of smell. I don’t know what you decided to be the least important sense. But just imagine that you didn’t have a nose. First of all, you would look pretty funny. (Hold up picture of yourself with no nose). On top of that, just imagine that you walk into your house on Thanksgiving Day, and you don’t smell the food cooking. I would probably end up walking next door, and asking to eat with them, it would be a pretty traumatic event in my life. I love thanksgiving. Here is another person that had to deal with loosing a part of his body; I think this will be very educational. (Show silly song, the lip song.)

You see, just like you would not like to loose even the most insignificant part of your body, you are an important member of the body of Christ. If you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, then you are a part of the body of Christ. And if you are a part of the body of Christ, there is a special function that God has given you to do that no one else can do. And if you do not do it, then there is a good chance that it will not get done. Just like when we were playing the game where the person who was the leg could not do anything unless the brain told him to and the brain could not know about something without the eyes telling him where it is at. Say you are the eye. How would the legs be able to reach someone, if you do not tell the brain or the person in charge about the need? You see, each of you have a very vital part to play in the Body of Christ. No one else can do it, so step up and be what God has mad you to be.

Bibliography / Works Cited

Ammerman, Emily. “Icebreakers/Mixers”. March 26, 2003. Accessed April 13, <2003. http://www.bbyo.org/bbg/ideas/mixers.html>

Fane, Christopher, “Indoor Games“. 2003. Accessed April 13, 2003
Foley, Laura. “Indoor Games“. 2003. Accessed April 13, 2003
Gunter, Shannon. “Indoor Games“. 2003. Accessed April 13, 2003
Hurst, Ian. “Youth Worker Resources Index: Icebreakers”. 2001. Accessed April 13, 2003.
Lam, Kevin. “Indoor Games“. 2003. Accessed April 13, 2003
Ryan C. Nielsen. “Youth Ministry Resources Galore”. 2003. Accessed April 13, 2003.
Zockoll, Brad. “Icebreakers”. 2001 Accessed April 13, 2003.
Allison Gedrose

Theme: CANDY LAND

Icebreakers:

1. 
   Silent But Sticky: Give each person a laffy taffy (they cannot eat it yet) and instruct your students to form a huge U shape or circle if the group is too large. They must form the U or circle silently and must line up in alphabetical order by first name. No talking, laughing, or noises of any kind are aloud. No forms of identification can be used either. They must communicate silently through sign language only, whether made up or real. They must also make sure that Sally goes before Scott alphabetically. Once all are in line, have the first “A” eat his or her taffy and say his or her name while the taffy is in their mouth. (This is just for fun.) Once the student has said it understandably, go to next person and so on and so forth until all have shared their names.