Category: Kids Ministry

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5 Board Games for Children's Ministry

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If you’re looking for a way to help your kids and volunteers grow together, a great board game might be what you need. Keeping a few board games around your meeting space is always a good idea. While a board game might not be our first thought when it comes to fostering relationships, they’re an important piece of the puzzle. (Get it? Puzzle? ?)

A board game in children’s ministry can do more for a kid’s relationships than you might be able to pack into your object lesson or small group time. They might seem simple, but they’re great for …

• Helping kids collaborate and make decisions with their friends.
• Letting volunteers build new relationships with the teenagers they serve.
• Giving kids a quiet way to take a break from the rest of their environment.

Plus, with board games in children’s ministry, kids can play and work towards a common goal. We tend to overlook it, but play is a really important part of how kids develop. Play helps them …

• Use their creativity
• Practice their autonomy
• Operate within set boundaries
• Work on their communication skills

Each of these can help them grow as individuals and in their faith.

So, if you’re looking for a few more board games for your children’s ministry closet or if you’re ready to start building your own collection of games, we’ve put together a few of our favorite board games for children’s ministry.

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5 Board Games for Children's Ministry

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THE FLOOR IS LAVA

The Floor is Lava is one of the best games you can play in your ministry right now. In this larger, expanded version of the board game, there are ten different styles of play for you and your children’s ministry. In this game, players must reach the end of the course without losing their balance and falling off their stepping stones. Plus, setup is easy! Just throw down your stepping stones, grab your challenge cards, and set up your spinner to start playing. Learn more about The Floor is Lava here.

THROW THROW BURRITO

Throw Throw Burrito is a combination of Go Fish and dodgeball. In this game, players draw up to five cards in their hand. Then, at the same time, they pass cards to their left while trying to make three-of-a-kind matches. Each match is worth points at the end of the game. But players can also match battle cards, which trigger burrito battles. So, pass your cards quickly and watch out for flying burritos! Check out Throw Throw Burrito here.

DIXIT

Dixit is a great game for older kids. In this guessing game, one player, the storyteller, chooses a card from their hand and gives a clue about it. Then, the other players choose a card of their own that they think matches this clue. All of the cards are shuffled together and then flipped over, revealing the cards. Then, everyone but the storyteller gets to guess which card they think belongs to the storyteller. Dixit’s unique scoring gives storytellers points if their clue is not too simple or too difficult. If they can get one or more players to guess their card, they’ll earn points. But if all or none of the players guess their card, they won’t earn any points. The game is played until one player earns 30 points! Find out more about Dixit here.

MONKEY AROUND

If you’re looking for a board game for the preschool kids in your children’s ministry, check out Monkey Around! In this game, players take turns drawing a card from a pile. Each card has an action where the player must interact with the included stuffed banana, like balancing it or tossing it to another player. Once the player performs their action, they can place the card on the tree. Once the tree is full of cards, you can take off the cards and play again! Check out Monkey Around here.

UNO

For a lot of us, Uno is the first card game we remember playing. It’s a race to get rid of your cards by playing them on top of a matching color or number. Each deck comes with action cards like reveres, wilds, and skips that can make it more challenging for a player to empty their hand. Just be sure to shout “Uno!” once you’re down to your last card. Not only is the original Uno a great game, but there are tons of variations like Uno All Wild!, Uno Flex, and Dos. There’s a fun Uno variation for every children’s ministry and family! Grab your Uno set here.

These are just a few board games for your children’s ministry that can help you, your volunteers, or your families connect and play with kids.

And if you’re looking for even more games, check out Grow Games! We’ve put together a list of over 500 different types of games for your children’s ministry.

Each game comes complete with instructions, editable graphics, and a supply list, so you can start playing right away!

So, instead of searching online the next time you need a great game, download the Grow Games App instead.

Free PDF Resources

5 Board Games for Children's Ministry

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If you’ve spent any amount of time in kids ministry, you’ve probably played a few incredible games. Games are a central part of kids ministry. They give us a chance to make new connections with kids and help them relate to their peers. Games are more than just a way for us to drain kids of their energy before we head into the quieter, more reflective parts of our weekly environments. They’re a way for kids to build genuine relationships based on a shared experience. So, how can you better help your kids make these relationships? Well, take a look at the structures of your games!

Every great game is built upon a structure. This structure provides the basic limits of how the game will work. Let’s take Angry Birds, for example. At first glance, you might only see a slingshot full of birds you can launch toward some pigs hiding behind wooden towers. But once you strip away that theme, it’s a game about launching objects at a target. Sometimes, when we see or hear about a game, we only focus on the game’s theme, not the structure. But as we pull games apart, we’ll find many use similar structures. So, if you plan to build your own games for kids, you’ll want to grow familiar with some of these structures.

Here are a few of our favorites…

• RELAY RACES. Relay races are a great way to get multiple groups of people involved. There are a couple of different ways to handle your relays. You can have players from each team race to complete the same action at the same time, like hula hoop five times in a row, before tagging their teammate. Or, you could have players from each team perform different actions, like one player hoops five times, another whistles a Taylor Swift song, and the final player answers some trivia questions. No matter how you plan it, relay races are high-energy games that get the crowd cheering on their friends and favorite teams.
• TRIVIA. Trivia games are great for those weeks when you want something with less energy. When you do trivia right, you can make connections with kids who might not want to join in with the louder, more active games. But just because trivia takes less energy than a relay race, that doesn’t mean it needs to be less fun. To build your trivia game, just choose a topic, come up with some questions (or Google them), and then throw them up on your screen. Group your kids by age, grade, or however you want, and have some relaxed fun. If you want to raise the energy, ask a question and give kids 45 seconds to write down their answers and run them to the stage. You can do so much with trivia, but just remember to pick a theme!
• TIME TRIALS. In time trials, every player is racing the clock. The format is really simple—choose your players, give them a short amount of time, and have them compete against each other and the clock to determine a winner. You could see who can shake the most ping pong balls out of an empty box of tissue in one minute or grab a bubble machine to see which kid can pop the most bubbles in 45 seconds. Just make sure all of your actions take place where everyone can see what’s happening and make sure the goal can actually be accomplished. If no one can see what’s happening or your game is too difficult to make any progress, your players and your audience will start to check out.
• CONTESTS. These games can take a lot of different forms, but it might be best to think of them as ongoing challenges. A contest could look like the Impossible Shot, where you set up a trash can or hoop somewhere far from your stage, and kids try to throw a ball into it. You could create a series of “On the Spot” contests where kids have five minutes to paint the best picture, write the best song, or tell the best jokes. Contests are a good change of pace from your other game structures. They can be fast-paced, or they can take some focus, allowing you to build up the anticipation in your kids.

These are just a few of the game structures that exist, and they don’t always need to stand alone, either. You can create a timed trivia game or a trivia relay race. Each of these structures can be blended into the next to help you create something unique and fun for your kids ministry. Don’t be afraid to shake things up and try a new structure or combination of structures for your games. There are so many great games to create!

If you need help building a game on any of these structures, then check out our guide to creating games from scratch. Just remember you don’t have to do it alone! You can ask your volunteers for input or even empower a few of them to take over creating your games altogether. You never know what great games a volunteer has hiding in the back of their minds!

Free PDF Resource

4 Game Structures Used in Kids Ministry

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And if you’re looking for great games that you can plug into your kids ministry right now, then check out the Grow Games App. In the Grow Games App for iOS and Android, we have over 500 different games for your kids ministry. Each game comes ready to play with instructions, editable image files, and a supply list so you can get started right away. Plus, you can add your own games to build up a database of all the great games you’ve already been playing in your kids ministry. So, when you’re looking for a new game structure, you can use the Grow Games App.

Free PDF Resource

6 Ways to Make Kids Ministry Games More Fun

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The games and activities you play with your kids aren’t just a way for them to use all of their energy before you get to the more serious parts of your service or event. These games allow kids to connect and create memories around a shared experience. Ask a kid about a fun memory from their life, and they’ll probably recite it in detail—who was there, what happened, and why it’s so important to them. Fun helps ideas stick. Fun builds relationships. Fun is an essential part of kids ministry.

However, you can’t just throw a bunch of kids in a room and say, “Have fun! See you soon!” Sure, that might create fun for the kids involved, but it would not be a fun conversation with your lead pastor about the new holes in the wall, broken light fixtures, and the gallons of paint on the ceiling. There are ways you can increase the fun in all of your games and for everyone involved, regardless of their role.

THINK IT THROUGH

You’re not alone if you’ve searched for “fun kids games” the night before your service. There are certainly times when you’ll need to scramble to find a new game for your kids, but if it’s happening every single week, you’re not setting yourself up to have the most fun with your kids.

As you prepare your service, you’ll want games that help to level up your teaching and the other elements of your service. Don’t just pick random games from the internet and try them out. You can do a lot to help your teaching stick by thinking about how a game connects to your main teaching points or a worship song you’ll sing. When everything feels connected, kids have more fun playing games.

Don’t just think through the connection to your environment, though. You can increase fun in your games by thinking about the different varieties of games, too. We can fall into a habit of playing a specific type of game each week, like all-play games, screen games, or outdoor games. When we think through a rotation of every kind of game or cycle out older games for newer ones, we can help kids have new experiences and new ways to have fun.

RESPECT YOUR AUDIENCE

What’s your first instinct when you’ve got a game and notice a few kids who aren’t participating? Most of the time, we’ll lead with encouragement. We want our games to be accessible and fun for everyone in the room, but occasionally, a kid might need a gentle nudge to jump in. But what do we do when they still don’t want to play?

Your response in this situation is an important indicator of how much fun the group will have. No one wants to be forced to play a game. Encourage kids to play. Gently nudge them and keep the invitation open for them to hop in when they’re comfortable and ready. Never force a kid to play a game. Instead, focus on respecting your audience.

This strategy may seem different than what you’re used to. You might expect kids to respect you and the environment you’ve worked so hard to curate for them carefully. But respect goes both ways. If you’re out there forcing kids to play games they don’t love, embarrassing them, or forcing them to pay attention, that’s not respect—it’s control—and being controlled isn’t any fun.

When kids sense that you respect them, they can lower their guard. They’ll be more likely to take healthy risks and might even be willing to embarrass themselves for some fun. Take a small step in respecting your audience by allowing kids to participate in games and other activities as they’d like. Communicate your expectations of alternate activities or responses. Focus your energy on creating a safe and respectful environment so everyone can have fun.

CONTROL THE ENERGY

Great fun can come from great energy. When planning out your games, remember to create an energy that matches what’s needed for your game. The first place to start is with your music.

Your playlist can level up the fun for your kids. When you match music to the feeling you hope to get from your games, incredible things can happen. You’ll want to pair high-energy songs with high-energy and low-energy songs with low-energy games. But focusing on music is only part of controlling energy.

You’ll also want to make sure you have the right hosts for your games. A great host can harness the energy needed for a game and draw it from the kids. They’re great at explaining instructions clearly and getting a whole room to cheer along, no matter the result. They’re also great at keeping things positive. Sometimes, a game doesn’t work out how you’d hope, or a kid might struggle to reach their goal. A great host (and a respectful environment) can turn this situation around so everyone has fun.

INVOLVE SMALL GROUP LEADERS

Your small group leaders are essential to your ministry. They spend a lot of time having conversations with your kids. They bring support and structure to your services. They can also help set the tone for your environment by engaging in your games.

When you think back on your time in kids or youth ministry, was there a leader who went all out for games? Typically, this leader’s energy is infectious. They can rally kids behind a concept or help them find the courage to try something new. Their relationship with kids can make the difference in bringing out a new level of fun.

Set out some expectations with your volunteers about how they can get involved. Like your group, give them alternate options to care for kids who may feel shy or want to try an alternate game or activity. Don’t stop inviting them to participate in your games and build new memories with your kids. Their experiences could open up a new path for conversations and connections that help kids grow closer to Jesus.

REWARD YOUR WINNERS

Prizes are an excellent motivator for games. When kids know ahead of time they’re competing for something, they’re more likely to get invested in having fun. As you plan games, create opportunities for your kids to compete for prizes and rewards. The trick is not to make things too competitive, though.

In the same way a prize can motivate a kid, too much competition can demotivate some. If your prize is so great that kids are willing to do anything to win, that’s not very fun for the people involved. Try to choose rewards that are accessible but still fun, like a gift card, free snacks, or an ice cream party for a small group. Prizes like these can build up the fun in your games without guaranteeing a free-for-all competition.

You could even choose rewards and prizes that are strategic to what’s happening in your ministry. You could give away early entry or free admission to an event you’re throwing or give out a discount on camp. If you connect your rewards to your ministry strategy, you can create incentives for kids and their families to stay connected to what’s happening in your ministry and church!

PLAN YOUR TRANSITION

This last point is probably the most important. If you’re moving from a higher energy portion of your weekly environment to something lower energy, you’ll need to nail this transition. Smooth transitions aren’t just about harnessing your kids’ energy but also about connecting each part of your environment.

As you think through your games, you’ll want to know what’s coming up next throughout your service. How will you move from one point in your service to the next? What can you say to ease the transition? What items can you set up ahead of time to help you move from one activity to the next? There are many questions to consider when transitioning between parts of your service, but each is important.

Creating smooth transitions requires some strategy, which takes us back to our first point of thinking through your service. Each week, you’ll want to know which components make up your service and how they connect to the main point, or Big Idea, of your service. Knowing why you’ve included each element in your environment, you’ll better understand how to connect and transition between the different parts. When everything connects seamlessly (or, let’s be honest, mostly seamlessly), you’ll be able to maintain momentum and fun for your kids and your leaders!

These are just a few ways to make the kids ministry games you play more fun. Best of all, these strategies work with every type of game—indoor, outdoor, screen games, all-play games, and more. And if you’re looking for new kinds of games for your kids ministry, we’ve got you covered. In the Grow Games App for iOS and Android, we have over 500 different games for your kids ministry. Each game comes with instructions, a supply list, and editable graphics so you can be ready to play with your kids. Plus, you can add your own games to build up a database of all the great games you’ve been playing in your kids ministry. So, if you’re ready to make your games more fun, just follow these six strategies and check out the Grow Games App!

Free PDF Resource

6 Ways to Make Kids Ministry Games More Fun

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Free PDF Resources

How to Create Simple Church Games for Kids

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If you’ve spent more than a few weeks in kids ministry, chances are you’ve played a lot of games. Games sit at the center of ministry because it gives kids (and leaders) a chance to make connections. When you’re playing a game with a kid or watching them play with one of their peers, you’re experiencing connection in action. Ultimately, games are more than a way for us to empty our kids of all of their energy. They help us create memories through common experiences.

Sometimes, we can fall into a pattern of playing the same handful of games on a rotation. There are a ton of reasons why that happens, from our levels of comfort to our genuine enjoyment of the game. But what if you wanted to create your own game? What if you wanted to make something special for your ministry’s kids? You might be surprised to find out it’s a lot easier than it seems. So what does it take? First, you’ll want to ensure you have the right host for your games, space, and mood and energy level. But once you’ve secured those things, you can follow this simple formula.

PICK A THEME

The first step to building a great game from scratch is to find a theme. You might want this to connect to what you’re teaching that week, but you might want something more universal that you could play every week. Regardless of how well your game does (or doesn’t) connect to your teaching content, you’ll need a theme to hold everything together. A strong theme is what draws people into the game.

Think about something like Angry Birds. It’s a classic game about launching birds toward some pigs hiding behind blocks of wood, ice, or steel. But most of what we know about Angry Birds is really related to the theme. If you took away the theme, you’d just have someone launching soccer balls at wooden structures. It might be fun, but having a theme on top of the gameplay is what makes the game compelling and fun.

So, start your game construction by choosing a strong theme. Maybe look to random holidays for inspiration and build a game off of that. You could look at the events in your calendar, like the Super Bowl and the Olympics. You might even be inspired to build a game based on a popular TV show, movie, or song. The possibilities for your theme are endless, but what’s most important is to choose a theme.

PICK A STRUCTURE

Once you’ve selected your theme, you’re ready to move on to the next step—pick a structure. Every game is built around a simple structure or framework. We’ll take a look at four different structures for your games, but this isn’t an exhaustive list by any means. There are so many structures for games, but these are just some of our favorites.

• RELAY RACES: Relay races are a great way to get multiple groups of people involved. There are a couple of different ways to handle your relays. You can have players from each team race to complete the same action at the same time, like hula hoop five times in a row, before tagging their teammate. Or, you could have players from each team perform different actions like one player hula hoops five times, another whistles a Taylor Swift song, and the final player answering some trivia questions. No matter how you plan it, relay races are high-energy games that get the crowd cheering their friends and favorite teams on.
• TRIVIA: Not every week needs to have a high-energy game! For those weeks, try out some trivia. When you do trivia right, you can make connections with kids who might not want to join in with the louder, more active games. But just because trivia takes less energy than a relay race, that doesn’t mean it needs to be less fun. To build your trivia game, just choose a topic, come up with some questions (or Google them), and then throw them up on your screen. Group your kids by age, grade, or however you want, and have some relaxed fun. If you want to raise the energy, ask a question and give kids 45 seconds to write down their answers and run them to the stage. You can do so much with trivia, but just remember to pick a theme!
• TIME TRIALS: In time trials, every player is racing the clock. The format is really simple—choose your players, give them a short amount of time, and have them compete against each other and the clock to determine a winner. You could see who can shake the most ping pong balls out of an empty box of tissue in one minute or grab a bubble machine to see which kid can pop the most bubbles in 45 seconds. Just make sure all of your actions take place where everyone can see what’s happening and make sure the goal can actually be accomplished. If no one can see what’s happening or your game is too difficult to make any progress, your players and your audience will start to check out.
• CONTESTS: These games can take a lot of different forms, but it might be best to think of them as ongoing challenges. A contest could look like the “Impossible Shot,” where you set up a trash can or hoop somewhere far from your stage, and kids try to throw a ball into it. You could create a series of “On the Spot” contests where kids have five minutes to paint the best picture, write the best song, or tell the best jokes. Contests are a good change of pace from your other game structures. They can be fast-paced, or they can take some focus, allowing you to build up the anticipation in your kids.

Just remember to rotate your game structures at least every other week. When you play the same types of games over and over, your games can become predictable and less exciting for kids. Don’t be afraid to shake things up and try a new structure or even combine a few structures together. There are so many games you can create within these structures!

FIND SUPPLIES

Once you’ve established your structure and your theme, it’s time to get your supplies. Sometimes, your supplies can inspire your games, like Random Object Mini Golf, where kids use anything but a golf club to play. But when it comes to creating your game, there aren’t many with unlimited supplies. Clean toilet plungers can become pool cues. A volleyball net can become a slingshot, pool noodles can become javelins, baseball bats, and anything else you can imagine. If your church doesn’t have a lot of supplies for games, ask your volunteer team what they have. You might even consider calling up another church in the area to see if you can borrow some of their supplies. You don’t need an enormous budget to create great games. You just need a little imagination (and maybe the phone number for the church down the road).

TEST IT

You’ve done it! You have a theme, you have your structure, and you found your supplies when you realized carrying the fake plants around the church could make a great relay. Now, the last step in creating your game is to test it. You should test every single game you ever play—whether you created it or not. You can make this easier on yourself by picking a few volunteers to test out each of your games during the week or before your weekly environment. When you test out your games before you play them, you can see what parts of your game need adjustment. Maybe you need more time during your time trial. Maybe one of your trivia questions is incorrect. Maybe the plants are too heavy for kids to carry safely. Whatever it is, testing your games before you let your kids play them gives you the time to find the problems, make adjustments, and increase the fun for everyone involved. Plus, it makes for great social media content and fun staff meetings!

EMPOWER YOUR TEAM

Creating games from scratch can take a lot of time and energy. It might be something you don’t always have time to do. If that’s the case, consider empowering your volunteer team to help you in the process. We love it when churches ask their volunteers to invest in big ways (we think it’s the first step in creating a great volunteer culture). Asking your volunteers to help you create games isn’t just about your time and schedule, but it’s about pulling out incredible ideas from your team. Consider making a game creation a part of your volunteer meetings, or maybe you could set up a way for volunteers to share the random, silly game ideas that pop into their heads. Give them the space to be creative, have fun, and make something special just for your kids. You might be amazed at the great things they come up with!

And if you’re looking for great games, you can plug into your kids ministry right now, then check outcheck out the Grow Games App for iOS and Android. Inside the app, we have over 500 games ready for you to add to your kids ministry. Each game comes ready to play with instructions, editable image files, and a supply list so you can get started right away. Plus, you can add your own games to build up a database of all the great games you’ve already been playing in your kids ministry. So, for the times when you need a break from creating your games from scratch, you can use the Grow Games App.

Free PDF Resources

How to Create Simple Church Games for Kids

Download Now