Summer in Youth Ministry often means laid back devotionals and fun events. It is a chance for teens to get together on a summer night and hang out. Summers also provide a better opportunity for teens to bring their friends along and get to know what having fun Christian-style is all about.
Use these ideas to make your Youth Ministry the place to be this summer.
Outdoor Games
For this event, you can either meet at church or a local park. Outdoor games that are popular with teens include flag football, ultimate Frisbee, kickball, volleyball, and other games that are appropriate for outdoors. Be sure to bring snacks and drinks for everyone (boys can bring the drinks, girls can bring the snacks). Make sure you have the equipment you need, and advertise early if you need the teens to bring anything with them.
Ice Cream Social
The church supplies the ice cream flavors, bowls, cones, serving spoons, and paper towels. The teens bring their favorite toppings to share. Play ice cream themed games such as:
- Divide the teens into two groups and see who can scream, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream."
- Have a "favorite flavor" vote. On paper plates glue construction paper ice cream cones. Have 3 or 4 flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, butter pecan, pistachio, etc. Give each teen a spring clothes pin and invite them to clip their "voting clip" on their favorite flavor of ice cream. Have blank paper plates for flavors that you did not include.
- Use this simple recipe for homemade ice cream to have a contest of who can make their ice cream the fastest. This will not be easy, as hands get very cold making ice cream this way.
- Have an ice cream eating contest to see who can eat the most ice cream or eat their ice cream the fastest.
Old-Fashioned Cook and Karaoke
This event can be held both indoors and outdoors. Have a cookout where the church supplies the hamburgers, hot dogs, and party goods. The girls bring the drinks, the boys bring the snacks and side dishes. Let the teens help with the cooking and set up.
After the cookout, bring everyone inside for a karaoke session. Have a live microphone to use, and someone in charge of playing CDs. It doesn't matter if they sing along to a favorite CD. It is just for fun. Advertise that the music has to be from a contemporary Christian artist. If you decide to allow secular music, you can advertise that the song has to be pre-approved by the Youth Minister before allowed.
Amateur Olympics
Rent a local gymnastics club for the night. Set the night up like an Olympic gymnastics meet. Plan events like beam, vault, floor, and trampoline exercises. Divide the teens into teams and have them create a team name and flag. Then they can march into the gym waving their flag. Have judges at each event who judge the teens on creativity, style, fun factor, and anything else you like. Hold up the scores at the end of each event that they complete (10 - "great"; 1 - "keep your day job"). Keep a total track of all the scores for the event, as the teens rotate through each event.
Event Ideas:
- For the beam use a low beam that is only a few inches off of the floor.
- For the floor have a CD player and use random music that the teens have to create a routine for.
- For the trampoline judge on how high they jump, creativity, and style.
- For the vault, give each teen two tries to get over, under, or around it as creatively as possible.
After the teens rotate through all the events, hold an awards ceremony. You can give out medals for each event. You can give gold, silver and bronze for each of the 4 events and then an award to the team who had the highest total of points.
Swim Party
If you know of someone who has a built-in pool or belongs to a pool association, this would make a great late summer evening activity.
Camps
Encourage the teens in Youth Ministry to attend a local Christian camp. Many souls are saved through camping trips, and they are lots of fun with constant activity.
Pass these fun Children's Ministry Ideas on to your director today!
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