Divide the memory verse up into sections then divide the youth group into smaller groups. Hand out a newspaper to each group and give 10 mins to slice up words and/or letters out of the newspaper to make up their section of the memory verse and glue onto a piece of paper. Awards for most creative.
Activities – smaller group
Small group is defined as 29 people or less
Memory Verse Song
Split into groups (approx. 10 people) and have each group do the memory verse in a different music genre (eg. Advertising jingle, high school musical, rap, soap opera TV theme song, Opera, Country and Western etc). Record the songs if you have the technology and use them in the coming weeks to remember the verse.
50+ Note: If you have 50 people or more, just use a memory verse song already written (eg. Colin Buchanan) to teach the memory verse. You can play the song on CD and sing along or play it live! (playing live might be best, because the CD can be a bit lame).
Pass the Parcel revision
Teach the memory verse to the group. Make a parcel with prizes in each layer. Have the group sit in a circle and pass the parcel around the group while everyone says the memory verse out loud, whoever has the parcel when the memory verse has been said through gets to unwrap a layer. Repeat the process saying the memory verse each time until all the layers have been unwrapped (some kids will miss out on a prize, but this will teach them that life isn’t always fair… they’ve got to learn somewhere!).
Total Recall
See who can recall both the memory verses for the term. For an extra challenge you can see how many verses they can recall from the year! Do this activity near the end of term, and even get them to do it in groups sometimes so they can work out the memory verses together by writing down as many as they can recall on a piece of paper.
Target Prayer
Draw 3 circles on a white board with the circles representing world issues, local issues, and individual issues respectively. After the group comes up with some prayer points for each category, pray one point each out loud as a group.
40+ Note: If there’s more than 40 people, then select just 1 person per category to pray the prayer points in each circle.
Prayer Barrel
(We made a lucky dip barrel for this at our youth group)
Ask the kids to each come up with a prayer topic (eg. Youth group, government, Africa, non Christian friends, war, etc.) Write the topics on pieces of paper and put them in the barrel (or on the wheel). Choose someone to come and spin the barrel and then pick out a topic. Repeat the process till you have 3 or 4 prayer topics and then ask the group for prayer points under those topics. When there is enough prayer points, pray through them as a whole group out loud.
40+ Note: If there’s more than 40 people, you can either: 1) limit the to just 2 topics; 2) select just a few of people (maybe 1 for each category) to pray the prayer points on the board; or 3) split into small groups to pray.
Bite Size Prayer
Bite size is designed to help people who don’t usually pray (or have never prayed), to pray out loud. Bite size prayer works by writing up two categories on the white board (usually ‘thanks’ and ‘ask’) and when the group has enough prayer points on the board for each person in the group to pray one, delegate the prayer points to everyone in the group. Go around the group and pray one bite sized prayer each – that means short i.e. “Thanks God for the rain, amen.”
30+ Note: If there’s more than 30 people, then select just a few of people (maybe 5) to pray the prayer points in both columns.
Prayer Card Shuffle
Prayer card shuffle is designed to help people who don’t usually pray (or have never prayed), to pray out loud. Give everyone a card and ask them to write a prayer for themselves in the 3rd person (eg. Mike writes on his card “dear God please help Mike…” etc). Then shuffle the cards and redistribute them. Pray out loud by going around the group one after the other, so that everyone ends up praying for another person. Ask the youth group to hold onto the cards and prayer for that person during the week.
40+ Note: If there’s more than 40 people then after the cards have been shuffles and given out, just allow 5 minutes for people to pray through their card in silence rather than out loud.
World Map
Split everyone up into groups. Give each group a massive round weather balloon (preferably filled with helium for some extra excitement!) and a couple of textas. In a time frame of about 5 minutes, each group needs to draw (and label) a world map on their balloon as accurately as possible. The group with the most accurate world map is the winner.
Important! Have information sheets prepared before hand that focus on a particular country and perhaps a missionary there. Give an information sheet to each group to discuss the country, find out about its environment, politics, issues, religion, and then pray for that country.
Bible Skit
Split into 2 groups and make a skit on the Bible teaching passage. Give each group about 5-10 minutes to work out a 2 minute skit and then perform it in front of the whole group. This will really only work with narrative parts of the Bible.
Note: This activity requires at least 20 mins.
Memory match card game
(This game really only works with a small group, otherwise it takes forever…)
Each person is given 2 cards that they write their name on, and something unique or interesting about themselves. All the cards from the group are mixed up and put on a table face down. Each person in the group then takes turns at trying to find a set of matching cards by selecting 2 cards and turning them up the right way. If a matching set is found, that set is taken off the table and that player gets another turn. If a matching set isn’t found, those cards are returned face down to the same position and the turn moves on to the next player.
Variation: Each person is given 2 cards to write 3 unique things about themselves (the same on each card) and without writing their name on the cards. All the cards from the group are mixed up and put on a table face down. Each person in the group then takes turns at trying to find a set of matching cards by selecting 2 cards and turning them up the right way. When a set of matching cards is found the player who found them must guess who the set belongs to before taking the set off the table and having another turn. If they guess incorrectly the cards are turned back over and the turn moves on to the next player.
Guess Who
Everyone writes 3 or 5 little known things about themselves on a card with their name at the top of the card and gives them to the M.C. Each person in the group will need another piece of paper to write their guesses on. The piece of paper should be numbered down one side equal to the number of people in the group. The M.C. reads out the first card saying: “person one is…” and reads out the description. After time has been given for people to write their guess, the M.C. then reads out the following card “person two is…” and so on till all the cards have been read out. Who ever guesses the most right is the winner.
People Pictionary
Split the group into 2 teams, A and B. Everyone has to write down some things about themselves and what they like on a card that can be used as clues in a game of Pictionary (eg. For Mike – a motorbike, drums etc.). The leader of the game then calls up the first delegated drawer from each team and shows them a card from a person on the opposite team, they go back and try to draw the clues on a piece of paper so their team can guess who it is. When the team has guessed, another drawer runs up to the game leader to grab another card from the opposite team and so on until the team to guess all their cards first is the winner. It will be important for the cards to have a name on them so the drawer will know if their team’s guess is the right answer.
Secret portrait
The group sits in a circle. Write everybody’s name on a piece of paper and place the names in a hat or bowl. Give each person a piece of A4 paper and a pen or pencil. Each person draws a name from the hat or bowl – they are not to tell anyone whose name. When everyone has a name, they draw the face of that person without anyone knowing who they are drawing. When every one has finished drawing, the activity leader collects the portraits and shows them to the group one at a time while the group tries to guess who the subject of the portrait is and who drew it.
Bible Taboo
This is a rip off of a popular board game Taboo. Make a bunch of cards that have Bible characters or recognisable Bible things (eg. Noah’s ark, temple, Ark of the covenant, etc.) and list about five words on the card that can’t be used to describe the person or object (Taboo words). Split the group into teams and have each team taking turns at going through the cards and trying to describe the Bible character or thing to their group. 1 pt. per correct guess to that team, and -1 pt. if that team takes a pass on a card or says one of the Taboo words.
Note: I’ve done this game with 120 teenagers and it works a treat!
Here is a pdf of Bible Taboo cards (email me if you want the Word doc.)
JUST ADDED! A pdf of the Bible Taboo Cards in Deutsch (German)!
** If you like this, you might also want to check out:
- Guess Who? Bible Characters (personal favourite!)
- Don’t Forget the Bible Verse (with powerpoint file)
- The Hit List
- Bible Charades/Pictionary
- Scattagories
Props
Taken from the theatre sport game show “who’s line is it anyway?”. Split into 2 or more teams of 3-5 people and give each teams a set of props (eg. broom, cushion, hat, hula-hoop, brick, aqua noodle, etc…). Give each team 5 minutes to come up with as many Bible stories as possible which they can act out in 30 second skits using the props. Have the teams perform in front of a judging panel (probably made up of leaders) and score each skit on: Use of props; team participation; comedy value, paraphrased biblical accuracy etc… Rotate through the teams as they perform their skits. If a story is acted out by more than one team then the points for that 30 second skit are halved.
30+ Note: If there are 30 people or more, then give each team a Bible story and let them find a way to work the props into the story (could use broom as a horse etc…). The groups will need time to read the story and prepare a skit, at least 10 minutes for prep and 2 minutes to perform. Depending on the number of groups this activity may take about 30 minutes.
Here is s clip of the ‘props’ activity in action at salt youth group petersham:
A Perfect Match
This game takes a lot of preparation!
Pick some famous couples from the Bible (eg. Samson & Delilah, Mary & Joseph, Ruth & Boaz, Abraham & Sarah, David & Bathsheba, etc. Or some famous groups of people from the Bible, eg. Shadrach & Meshach & Abednego, the 12 sons of Israel, 12 disciples of Jesus, etc.) and create some information sheets about them (including details of where you’d read about them in the Bible, who they are, their role in the salvation story of the Bible, and some prayer points to thank God for). Here is a link to an online dictionary of bible characters that is very useful. Put up the information sheets about the Bible characters on the walls around the room.
Create some sticky name labels for each name in the famous couple or group (eg. a label for Samson and a label for Delilah etc.) and distribute the labels randomly to each person. Give everybody 5 minutes to check out the information sheets and discover who they are and who their match is (eg. If it’s “Samson” they need to find “Delilah”). Once everybody has made their match and formed their pair or group, they sit together with the info sheet and talk about what they discovered about their bible character and then pray the prayer points. Bring everybody back together and pick some people to share who they were and what they discovered.
Note: Even if people have little or no Bible knowledge they should be able to work it out from the info sheets.
Bubble Gum Sculpture
This is a good revision game, but you’ll probably only want to do this once a year… it’s pretty gross. You will need rubber gloves and lots of bubble gum. Divide kids into groups. Give each group a plate or flat dish and 3 or 4 packets of bubble gum. In 10 minutes each group needs to chew their bubble gum and make a sculpture out of the gum that relates to a Bible story or teaching point from past weeks (or that night). Warning: it smells pretty bad and rubber or latex gloves are a must!
Variation: Can do with play-doh for something less gross…
Don’t forget the bible verse!
A version of the TV game show “Don’t forget the lyrics!”. This game is played in teams. Read out a verse in the Bible and leave off the last few words. Tell the contestants how many words are missing and the contestants have to guess what the missing words are. You can play this game in rounds ie. New Testament verses, Old Testament verse, Obscure verses (for more points), Well Known verses (less points), and you can have rounds where the number of missing words increases each round. The aim of this game is to teach Bible verses and significant points of Biblical theology.
Here’s an example: Mark 10:43 Jesus said “whoever wants to become great among you must ___ /_____ /_________” (be your servant). We might expect that whoever wants to be great must be the smartest or have the best skills, but Jesus says be a servant, and that’s a significant theological point for Christianity.
You can find a list of good Bible verses at the back of “Changing the World through Effective Youth Ministry 2” K. Moser, Aquilia Press, 2005.
-40 Note: This game works best with a maximum of 4 groups of 10 people… otherwise it takes too long and there’s too much down time for other groups while they wait for their turn.
Here’s 2 versions of the game in powerpoint (.pptx)
(x) christian (m) ministry (2) to (y) youth 