Free Youth Group Game: How to Play Human Hungry Hungry Hippos

Watch the above video to see Human Hungry Hungry Hippos in action! This is an unforgettable, totally awesome youth group game and activity. I've done it many times and kids always LOVE it. 

Supply List - Here is a list of what you'll need for this Human Hungry Hungry Hippos: (product links included)

• 2-4 Wooden Dollys with casters (depending on the size of your space and how many players you want to have) - link to product
• (optional) Bungee cord (product link) - as you see in the video, you can opt to use people as the "mover" of the human hippo(s), or you can tie cord securely around the handles of each dolly and have players pull their "hippos" back (but with adult supervision and maybe gloves). They also used large squares to keep the balls in play due to the size of their space and it also got more students involved. 
• 2-4 Laundry Baskets - to collect the balls (product link) You can purchase them or borrow some from your students. 
• Plastic Balls (optional: balloons) - product link

HUMAN HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPO RULES

• You'll need a flat surface, either tile or a gym floor. We tried it on indoor/outdoor carpet. Does NOT work that well.
• At go, teams attempt to collect as many balls/balloons as they can either within 30 seconds (or any time you designate) or when all the balls/balloons are gone. Which ever team collects the most at each round either wins, or moves on to play another team (if you're doing a tournament). Make sure students take turns allowing other students be the "hippo".
• Create safe lines with tape on the floor that teams have have all their balls behind in order for their score to count. Any stray balloons/balls that don't make it behind the line before time is expired do not count. Also, if balloons pop (which they will and its hilarious) those do not count toward their teams point total. 
• OPTIONAL - Have two teams, and each team takes turns (one hippo at a time) collecting as many as they can until all the balls/balloons are gone. Creates more tension, especially if you use balloons. 

Free Youth Group Christmas Party Game Idea: Bobbing for Canes

Free Youth Group Game idea: Crack Attack (chubby bunny but with crackers)

If you've been in youth ministry long enough, you've heard of the classic game "Chubby Bunny". After each round of stuffing marshmallows in the player's mouths, the players attempt to say the words "chubby bunny". It was slobbery, it was funny, and its actually really dangerous.

A safer spin on Chubby Bunny is to use crackers. Have the students place two crackers at a time (without biting them) in their mouths. After each turn, they have to say "Crack Attack". Whomever can keep all the crackers in their mouth (without biting them) and keep saying the phrase wins! Crackers tend to spray when trying to talk so this game is super hilarious.

TIPS

have trashcans and bottles of water handy


You could do a variation where students CAN chew them up as best they can and instead of saying Crack Attack they could say 'Cracker Stack". Using "S" sounds can get a good spray of crackers, which will be hilarious.

FREE YOUTH GROUP GAME: Face-Off

The simplicity of this game is its beauty. Its hilarious and awkward and it builds community. 

Have all players stand in a circle and look down at the ground. At the count of three (1-2-3 FACEOFF!) each player looks up and stares at a random person in the circle. If that same person is looking at you, then both players are out. Play until only one player remains.

NOTE:

• all players must look at someone each time (not the floor, their feet, etc)
• players cannot look at the same person every time

Youth Group Game Idea: Jedi Master

Both of our middle and high school groups played this game this week and they all LOVED it. Its called Jedi Master. 

Here is what you'll need:

• One foam pool noodle
• One blindfold
• At least 25 close pins

Pick a volunteer to be the Jedi Master. Place them in the center of the circle with the blind fold securely on. Cover their clothing and shoes with close pins. Give the Jedi Master their foam pool noodle/lightsaber and tell them to start swinging. Those standing in the circle, on the word GO, have to attempt to grab as many close pins as they can from the Jedi Master without being struck down with fury. If someone is hit with the pool noodle, they must sit down and that player is out. Whomever collects the most close pins wins the round.

A few extra rules (that we learned via trial by error)

• If you are hit and have close pins in your hand, you must drop all your close pins and sit down.
• Don't let the whole group rush the Jedi Master. Allow only a few to attempt to steal close pins at one time. (There will be so much swinging going on not that many will want to go initially, anyway).
• The Jedi Master MUST keep their feet set. They can pivot but can not meander around the circle. They must stand still and swing all around themselves.
• To switch to a new Jedi Master, wait 5-10 minutes and let them play. Once someone is hit, you can make them the new Jedi Master. 
• If anyone is hit ANYWHERE on their person at all, they are OUT. (head shots are fine)

Enjoy!

Experiencing the new birth of Christmas

Every since I was a little kid, I have loved Christmas. Like, at a hyperactive level. Each morning in December, I used to run down the stairs first thing in order to move the Advent calendar to the next day.

When the movie Elf was released in 2003, one of the good friends at the time told me that Elf reminded them of me.

I’ll take that as a compliment.
But honestly, I was most excited about the presents, the incandescent lighting, the decorations, and that tin box full of sugar cookies. The real meaning of Christmas, as we often hear, gets lost, and looking back when I was as a young teenager, it was awfully hard not to be distracted by all the other Christmas “stuff”.

When we hear about Christmas in church, we hear a lot of “God with us”, and that is true, but what does that mean to us today? More important, why should this matter to teenagers?

The author of the gospel of John doesn’t talk about Mary, Joseph, the wise men, or the shepherds. As John often does, he attempts to display a different angle on our Christology. Instead of beginning his gospel in a literal fashion, he does so in a philosophical and theological manner:

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4 The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Jesus’ birth occurred for a host of reasons, one of which was to bring “his life (that) brought light to everyone”. This life and light that Jesus brings is undefeated, inextinguishable, forever glorious and illuminated.

The Incarnation is a powerful mystery in its origin and reality, and yet it is simultaneously accessible to all humans on our most fundamental levels of existence.

God came to be with us so that God could live IN us. The good news of the Incarnation is that, through the new birth of the Holy Spirit, we can not just “go to heaven when we die”, but actually become like Christ here on earth, (hopefully) bringing light and life to all WE encounter as well. The Christmas story is indeed a gift to receive, but it is equally important as a gift to share.

May you experience this new birth for yourself this holiday season. Let us encourage our teenagers to do the same.

Pastoral Response/youth group response to teenage suicide

Last year I had the unfortunate and difficult task of responding and ministering to a teen suicide in our community. Adam was a young man in our youth group that took his own life. For me, it is the first time I have ever lost a close member of our youth group to death; suicide or otherwise.

It still feels surreal.

I still can’t quite believe I won’t see him again, hear his laugh, or have a great conversation with him. I’m not sure it has really sunk in yet.

All death can create feelings of mourning and sadness, but suicide is different. It is so sudden, abrupt. You feel as if a piece has been taken out of you that will never be replaced. This bright, young life with so much promise is over.

Its a punch to the gut, because so many would have told him how much they loved him. So many people would have talked him down, or tried to stop him. The 600+ people who came to the viewing or the 200+ who attended the funeral I officiated would have told him they loved the beautiful, uniquely made child of God that he was.

Ironically, I was reading the book “Tuesdays with Morrie” two days before Adam’s death, and I highlighted this phrase in my Kindle, after Morrie attended a funeral of a friend, Irv:

He came home depressed. “What a waste,” he said. “All those people saying all those wonderful things, and Irv never got to hear any of it.”

Indeed. What a waste.

As I unpack the emotions involved with this sort of tragedy, I hope and pray that my story and advice may help someone else as they walk along those who deal with the ramifications of teen suicide, and hopefully, to avoid it.

There are no easy answers, but there are specific things you can do to lend effective pastoral care:
Give clear guidance & leadership to the family – in moments of trauma, surviving family members operate in a fog or shock. They need you, as the minister, to give clear and affirming leadership. Take as much off their plate as you can.

• Keep your phone at your side at all hours – be ready to reach out, call, and text youth and parents at any hour. 
• Run to God in your pain – encourage others to leverage their pain as a way to lay hold of God, and not the opposite. 
• Keep the focus on Jesus – if officiating the funeral, keep the focus on Jesus as the Good Shepherd, God’s loving sovereignty, and positive memories of the deceased. 
• Keep the focus on love – people need to be reminded of why they are at a viewing or funeral: its because they love that person. All are gathered because they care, and that is to be celebrated. If you love someone, tell them immediately. 
• And mean it – Youth ministers and parents fight for teenagers daily and love them with a passionate love. Live each day to the fullest, and if God ever brings a teen to mind to pray for or reach out to, act immediately. Keep fighting for your kids, and “leave it all on the field” so that if suicide does happen, you can know you did all you could. 
• Mourn with those who mourn – don’t give advice and for goodness sakes don’t say “Everything happens for a reason.” Just be present and weep when you want to weep. 
• Avoid “If only…” – it is so tempting to torment yourself with thoughts of “if only I had done this, etc”. I chose to affirm the fact that we have loved Adam well as a Christian community, which we have. Focus on the positive memories and how you have worked on someone’s behalf. Ultimately, the choice of someone to take their own life is just that: their own choice. Beating yourself up after the fact will not change what has happened. While incredibly sad that someone has taken their own life, there are also other potential suicides you have also possibly prevented over the years. If there is any positive side to “if only” thoughts, let it be an inspiration to reach out to teenagers that much more. God will do what is absolutely best – You will be asked the question, “Is he/she in heaven? Is he/she in hell?”. The short answer is: you don’t know. The long answer: God is perfect. Honestly, none of us really know at the time of death, especially in terms of a suicide where the profession of faith of the individual is in question. It is dishonest to give a false hope, or conversely, a false judgement. The grave is very silent and death is final on this side of eternity. What we can do, however, is trust in Jesus’ words, remember Jesus as the Good Shepherd, remember that a teenager is still a child, and that God will do what is perfect, just, loving, and eternally secure. We are not God, but we can trust in God’s perfect Word and God’s perfect character.

I will always love and miss Adam. I will think of him for the rest of my life. He has made an indelible mark on my life.

Ministry and loving others is a risk. You never know what is going to occur.

However, I think we can all agree its a risk worth taking.

It is always better to love and lose someone than not to love at all.

Keep up the good fight.

Dealing with teenage suicide

Last year I had the unfortunate and difficult task of responding and ministering to a teen suicide in our community. Adam was a young man in our youth group that took his own life. For me, it is the first time I have ever lost a close member of our youth group to death; suicide or otherwise.

It still feels surreal.

I still can’t quite believe I won’t see him again, hear his laugh, or have a great conversation with him. I’m not sure it has really sunk in yet.

All death can create feelings of mourning and sadness, but suicide is different. It is so sudden, abrupt. You feel as if a piece has been taken out of you that will never be replaced. This bright, young life with so much promise is over.

Its a punch to the gut, because so many would have told him how much they loved him. So many people would have talked him down, or tried to stop him. The 600+ people who came to the viewing or the 200+ who attended the funeral I officiated would have told him they loved the beautiful, uniquely made child of God that he was.

Ironically, I was reading the book “Tuesdays with Morrie” two days before Adam’s death, and I highlighted this phrase in my Kindle, after Morrie attended a funeral of a friend, Irv:

He came home depressed. “What a waste,” he said. “All those people saying all those wonderful things, and Irv never got to hear any of it.”

Indeed. What a waste.

As I unpack the emotions involved with this sort of tragedy, I hope and pray that my story and advice may help someone else as they walk along those who deal with the ramifications of teen suicide, and hopefully, to avoid it.

There are no easy answers, but there are specific things you can do to lend effective pastoral care:
Give clear guidance & leadership to the family – in moments of trauma, surviving family members operate in a fog or shock. They need you, as the minister, to give clear and affirming leadership. Take as much off their plate as you can.

• Keep your phone at your side at all hours – be ready to reach out, call, and text youth and parents at any hour. 

• Run to God in your pain – encourage others to leverage their pain as a way to lay hold of God, and not the opposite.

• Keep the focus on Jesus – if officiating the funeral, keep the focus on Jesus as the Good Shepherd, God’s loving sovereignty, and positive memories of the deceased. 

• Keep the focus on love – people need to be reminded of why they are at a viewing or funeral: its because they love that person. All are gathered because they care, and that is to be celebrated. If you love someone, tell them immediately.

• And mean it – Youth ministers and parents fight for teenagers daily and love them with a passionate love. Live each day to the fullest, and if God ever brings a teen to mind to pray for or reach out to, act immediately. Keep fighting for your kids, and “leave it all on the field” so that if suicide does happen, you can know you did all you could.

• Mourn with those who mourn – don’t give advice and for goodness sakes don’t say “Everything happens for a reason.” Just be present and weep when you want to weep. 

• Avoid “If only…” – it is so tempting to torment yourself with thoughts of “if only I had done this, etc”. I chose to affirm the fact that we have loved Adam well as a Christian community, which we have. Focus on the positive memories and how you have worked on someone’s behalf. Ultimately, the choice of someone to take their own life is just that: their own choice. Beating yourself up after the fact will not change what has happened. While incredibly sad that someone has taken their own life, there are also other potential suicides you have also possibly prevented over the years. If there is any positive side to “if only” thoughts, let it be an inspiration to reach out to teenagers that much more. God will do what is absolutely best – You will be asked the question, “Is he/she in heaven? Is he/she in hell?”. The short answer is: you don’t know. The long answer: God is perfect. Honestly, none of us really know at the time of death, especially in terms of a suicide where the profession of faith of the individual is in question. It is dishonest to give a false hope, or conversely, a false judgement. The grave is very silent and death is final on this side of eternity. What we can do, however, is trust in Jesus’ words, remember Jesus as the Good Shepherd, remember that a teenager is still a child, and that God will do what is perfect, just, loving, and eternally secure. We are not God, but we can trust in God’s perfect Word and God’s perfect character. 

I will always love and miss Adam. I will think of him for the rest of my life. He has made an indelible mark on my life.

Ministry and loving others is a risk. You never know what is going to occur.

However, I think we can all agree its a risk worth taking.

It is always better to love and lose someone than not to love at all.

Keep up the good fight.

People over Programs

Our middle school ministry has really be exploding lately, as in numerically. Not the violent sort. Its been a tough lesson learned, but over the years I've realized the importance of people over programs. Youth workers/ministers are notorious for pumping up games, pizza, crazy antics, pizza, games, etc. When a huge crowd arrives it may temporarily pump up our ego, but what measurable results are there after its over?

I recently went to a National Day of Prayer gathering in my community and there were three other youth ministers present from churches in my community. One of these peers walked from student to student, talking very briefly with them, and began pitching his upcoming summer camp, handing out flyers and the whole bit. It seemed like he only showed up to partially pray, but mostly to further his ministry’s event.

I’m all for evangelism, and I love summer camp, but it felt like the wrong venue.

I realized that youth ministers (myself included) have a tendency to focus so much on the EVENT that we forget about PEOPLE. If we aren’t careful, we can fall into a sort of evangelical-pharisaical ministry practice, focusing more on “doing” and less on simply “being” with God’s people.

Jesus always focused on the person in a relational sense, and then ministry could flow from that. Flipped the other way, it can quickly become about ego, numbers, and “salvations”. I’m all about seeing students get saved, but I want to do it God’s way, not in a way that has me charging ahead without listening to the Spirit’s guidance.

Ministry is about relationships: our relationship with students, (more importantly) our volunteers relationship with students, and everyone’s relationship with God. If we forget that and focus only on events and flash, our ministries can have the outward appearance of “health” when in reality they will have no longevity, and the discipleship we worked so hard for in the live of teenagers will not carry over into their young adult years.

Its a lot harder to slow down and seek relationships with students over event planning. It takes time, patience, risk (especially if you’re an introvert) and so much more. But it is what God is calling us to do.

God sought us out first for a relationship with us (1 John 4), shouldn’t we seek to do the same with students?