Sardines

This is an oldie but a goodie, and a fun one to play during a lock-in.

It’s simple. You need a pitch black church. One person goes and hides, and everyone tries to find them. Once a person finds them, though, they hide with them. As more people find them, it becomes quite the crowd. Once they have been found by everyone

(or when enough time has gone by), start a new round.

A couple of pieces of advice. To avoid PDA, we always have adults making the rounds through the building at all times. Also, we have people team up in same-sex groups of 2. It cuts down on any temptation. Keep the game going quickly, and end it once you start to sense that some of the teens are beginning to check out and get bored. Also, you might want to confiscate cell phones and ipods before the game, because those quickly become flashlights and aids to cheating. If the game is getting long and people are having trouble, be willing to give out hints.

I’ll share one awesome Sardines story – one church I served at was the perfect “sardines” church…lots of hiding spots, few windows, and some really creepy old church stuff that made it fun. In an old storage room there was this 3-d depiction of the top half of Jesus on the cross, and it was terrifying in the light. In the dark…forget about it. One of our students hid underneath that picture for well over an hour without being found. It was epic.

Have you played Sardines? Any great stories? Any idea as to why its called “Sardines?”