Games People Play
Ministry Moment – The value of play
We all know the reputation of youth ministry – its all fun and games (and even better if someone loses an eye!). At times, its a well deserved rep. Many youth ministries even today are based around fun, entertainment, and play with a little bit of God thrown in. On the other extreme, you have youth groups that spend hours in prayer, bible study, and devotion and no time in those “sinful games.”
I want to lay out an alternative to those extremes – The youth ministry that values play as a part of its ministry. This comes from a youth minister that for the longest time shunned games except in extreme circumstances. I hated playing games in our youth ministry, and thought they were pointless. But as I thought through the idea of games, this is what I came up with.
Play is a natural part of life. I think its a gift from God, and that the whole universe is a place of wonderment, joy, and fun. Think of the beauty of a sunset, the thrill of throwing the first snowball of the year, the calm joy of basking in the summer sun…those are all indications that our God values play and enjoyment in life. To remove play from our ministry is to remove a part of something that God values. Also, games build relationships, which are an integral part of an youth ministry. I can’t remember many lessons from my youth group days, but I sure do remember that one game where we ate Oreo Cookies filled with toothpaste instead of the cream filling (To be honest, I thought they tasted great, and were a new “Winter Green” flavor). That doesn’t mean I wasn’t taught anything, but those relationships built during game playing were invaluable to me and my spiritual growth. Games also let down student’s defenses. A student walks into church, thinks, “All we’re going to do is sing and pray and read the Bible, this is going to be awful!” Soon you have them running around with their hands full of shaving cream and they’re…having fun…in church! And these Christians seem pretty cool. Suddenly, they’re more open to listening to what you have to say, and maybe, just maybe, life change could start to take place.
Don’t misunderstand, I don’t think we should play all the time. Games without Jesus are just pointless games. But when we use the game time to build relationships and to open up student’s minds and hearts with a desire for them to know Jesus, then it plays an important role. So play games, yes, but they should be strategic (think through the why, when, and how you play them) and they should a part of your overall meeting, not the whole thing (or even a major part).
The next thing to know is how to play games and what to play. If you’re not adept at game leading, I recommend reading Jonathan McKee’s (of the Source4ym.com) 7 Deadly Sins of Game Leading. These “anti-rules” leading games are a great resource if you have never lead games before, or if when you’ve lead them they just always seem to fail. So, you know how to lead games, but where can you find quality games? The easy answer is “EVERYWHERE!” (great answer, Bill! Any more nuggets of wisdom?) You can find games online, in numerous youth ministry books, or even make them up on your own. But, since I am here to help you, here are a few good websites that I regularly use when planning games -
There are dozens of quality websites that have great games. Just look them up and see whats out there. Also, there are numerous games books out there (you remember books…those paper things with ink and words on them) that list the games. What I recommend doing, though, is taking a few hours, searching through the various websites and finding the “Best of the Best” games and saving them to one location so that you can access them easily. That way, you avoid spending two hours looking for a good game before your group time and having to settle for the dumbest game ever just because its all you have time for.
Finally, remember why we play the games – it is to point the way to the savior. Use games to help your ministry, not let the games become your ministry.
Each Monday I will give a ministry thought or tip that hopefully will help you in your ministry. If you have any suggestions for a topic, let me know!