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I don’t know where you are, but where I live, we’ve started hearing birds chirping. My kids are starting to shed their heavy winter coats. The promise of new life is on the horizon. Spring is coming. And just beyond spring? Summer. With summer comes a chance to relax a bit, have a little more fun, and enjoy being around the various people God has placed in your life.
If you’re a youth leader, it’s not too early to start building your arsenal of summer youth ministry games so that you can have a wide range of opportunities to connect with the teens and preteens that God has entrusted to your ministry (and maybe you’ll even see some growth as schedules can relax a bit in the summer!).
Read on for a (non-exhaustive) list of summer youth ministry games that you can pull from regardless of the number of kids you have. These games range from free and no prep to some that will need materials and a little preparation. Some are outdoor games, some let you stay inside in the air conditioning. But the best thing about all these games? They’re adaptable to any size, whether you have 3 or 30 kids show up.
Why Adaptability Is So Important In Youth Ministries
One of the biggest realities youth pastors and volunteer leaders experience, especially in the summer, is that attendance can be unpredictable. One week, you might have 20 students show up, and the next, you might have 5. Planning activities for an inconsistent number of kids can be frustrating, but it’s also an opportunity!
The biggest benefit of being able to be flexible and adaptable to the games you’re playing is that you can ensure that any student who shows up (whether it’s their first time or their 200th time) feels like you want them there – you have a place for them. No one feels like a third wheel or an imposition. Instead of relying on games that require a specific number of participants, having a go-to list of adaptable games ensures that every student who comes has a great time, feels included, and experiences fellowship.
13 Summer Youth Ministry Games For Groups Of Any Size
Indoor Games!
For the days it’s too hot to play outside, here are a few indoor games:
1. Ultimate Rock-Paper-Scissors
Supplies Needed:
- None!
How To Play:
There’s nothing like a simple game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, but let’s add a twist – once you win, you move on to another person in the competition. Start everyone in pairs and have them play Rock-Paper-Scissors until one of them wins. The winner advances to compete against another pair’s winner while the loser becomes the winner’s biggest fan, cheering them on as they find a new opponent. This continues until two final players remain, with the whole group cheering for their favorite.
How Is It Adaptable?
Have an odd number of kids? A youth leader could pair up with them or the “odd one out” gets a bye for the first round.
If you only have a few kids so this game would take roughly 30 seconds, there are a few options for extending the game:
- You could extend the time by making it a best out of _____ competition each time.
- You could play more than one round.
- Make it significantly more challenging by playing “Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock.” To make a lizard, you hold your hand like you’ve got a puppet on it, and for Spock, you make the “Live Long and Prosper” sign.
You may want to print out an image of who beats what and how, but the basics are:
Rock crushes lizard, paper covers rock, scissors cut paper, lizard poisons Spock, Spock smashes scissors. Rock crushes scissors, scissors decapitate lizard, lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock, Spock vaporizes rock.
2. Hide and Seek and Sardines
Supplies Needed:
- None!
How To Play:
On some of those hot days, you don’t really want to be outside for long. Hide and Seek is a classic game that can be played any time of year but can be refreshing to escape indoors in the heat of the summer. I don’t know about your church, but several of our no-longer-youth have their special hiding spot that they’ve never revealed to anyone else. One person is the seeker, so they count to an agreed-upon number (or just set a timer depending on how big your church is) and then try to find everyone else. The last person to be found will become the new seeker.
Alternatively, you can play the opposite of Hide and Seek, also known as Sardines. One person hides, and as others find them, they hide with them. The idea of “sardines” comes because eventually you’ll be packed pretty tightly in whatever space you’re hiding in together. The last person searching is the new hider.
How Is It Adaptable?
These games can work great even with just two people and they can scale up for large groups fairly easily.
3. Bible Verse Scramble
Supplies Needed:
- Cut-up words of a Bible verse
How To Play:
Teams will work to arrange scrambled words into a correct verse. This works especially well if you’re working through a study that has some key verses that you’ve been studying so they’re fresh in their head. The team that puts their verse together the fastest wins! You can play multiple rounds by having kids do more than one verse (switch amongst the teams).
How Is It Adaptable?
Bible verse scramble works for any number of players at any age level – you can adjust the difficulty level with longer or shorter verses (or more/less familiar passages). You could also have players compete individually/as partners instead of in teams if you don’t have enough for teams.
4. Minute To Win It Challenges
Supplies Needed:
- Household objects (marshmallows, straws, ping pong balls, etc.)
- One-minute timer
How To Play:
There is a veritable treasure trove of minute-to-win-it games. A quick Internet search will give you so many options of ways you can play. Here is just a short idea of minute-to-win-it games that don’t take too long to set up or require minimal supplies. Many of your options require some quick thinking or unique skills and all of them can lead to lots of laughs.
- Cup Stack – Give students a set number of cups and have them put them into a pyramid (extra challenge – do it one-handed).
- Marshmallow Race – Balance the handle of a spoon with a marshmallow on it in your mouth – get to the other side of the room.
- Flying Feather – Blow a feather across a table or into a specific location.
- Anagrams – Give students a word or phrase and have them make as many words as they can using the letters from that word.
- Toothpick Words – With a pile of toothpicks, make as many words as you can without breaking or bending the toothpicks.
- Rubber Band Shooting Range – Set up empty cups or soda cans into a pyramid then have students shoot down as many as they can from across the room.
- Cookie Face – Place a small cookie on students’ foreheads. Without using their hands, they have to get the cookie to their mouth.
How Is It Adaptable?
Players can compete solo or in teams. This works well for any group size and you can play as many or as few games as you want.
Outside Water Games!
No summer is complete without using large quantities of water! Here is a big selection of water games!
5. Sponge Tag
Supplies Needed:
- Sponge
- Bucket of water
How To Play:
This is a great game if you have a large, open space outside to play. Instead of just regular tag, one person is “it” and they tag others by throwing a soaked sponge at them. The last one to get hit is it next! In case it isn’t obvious, this is very much an outside game – but it also cools kids off quickly since there’s plenty of soaking water to go around!
A note about the sponges: Choose one that won’t hurt too bad when they get hit by it, and make sure students know that headshots are off-limits!
How Is It Adaptable?
If only a few players show up, use a time limit instead of elimination. Set it for an amount of time and the student who gets tagged the least is the winner. If you have a really large group, you can use more than one sponge-thrower to add a layer of difficulty.
6. Slip ’n Slide Kickball
Supplies Needed:
- Kickball
- Slip ‘n slides (or tarps and hoses)
- Bases
How To Play:
Play regular kickball, but replace the baselines with slip ‘n slides or wet tarps. This adds a fun layer of difficulty as players must slide to each base (whether they want to or not – the longer you’ve been playing, the more slippery it’s going to get!). Make sure students are wearing clothes they don’t mind getting wet and/or dirty in because they’re going to! Please also note that slip and slides (or tarps) can tear up the grass, so this may be a game that is played in a back part of the church property or somewhere that the grass isn’t already growing.
How Is It Adaptable?
If you are short on students, you can either adjust base distances or remove bases altogether (so have them run in a triangle or even a straight line if you don’t have enough to make 4 bases happen). Worst comes to worst, you can always just slip and slide!
7. Water Balloon Toss
Supplies Needed:
How To Play:
Partner students up and have them line up in 2 parallel lines, facing their partner. Give one student from each pair a water balloon. They will toss the balloon back and forth, taking a step back with each successful catch. Add a layer of difficulty by putting in a time limit or setting the distances that they have to step back (so students don’t take tiny steps compared to other teams).
How Is It Adaptable?
Water Balloon Toss can be played with any number of students — just rotate partners or form teams if needed!
8. Water Balloon Volleyball
Supplies Needed:
- Water balloons
- Towels
- A net or rope
How To Play:
In pairs, students use towels to toss a water balloon back and forth over a net. One student holds each side of the towel and they have to catch the water balloon in their towel and then fling it over to the other side. Teams score a point when the water balloon breaks on the opposing team’s side.
How Is It Adaptable?
This game works with large or small groups because you can have fewer or more students on teams. If you have an odd number, a student can rotate in, or you can give them a bucket that they have to try and catch the balloons in.
9. Water Cup Relay
Supplies Needed:
- Cups (with holes poked in them)
- A full bucket of water
- An empty bucket or glass for each team.
- Optional: obstacle course items
How To Play:
Split students into teams. Have players scoop water in a cup and race to fill a bucket or glass at the finish line before the water leaks out. The first team to fill the bucket or glass wins! Add a layer of difficulty by throwing in some obstacles that they have to go over, or just add extra rules (such as “no plugging holes” or “one team member must walk backward”)
How Is It Adaptable?
If you’re low on students, you can always play individually instead of in teams. You can adjust the challenge level as needed, too – younger students may have a hard time with the obstacles while older students would appreciate the challenge.
10. Water Gun Freeze Tag
Supplies Needed:
How To Play:
This fun game is very similar to the classic game of freeze tag, but with a slight twist. The person who is “it” has a water gun, and players are tagged when they get hit with water. When they are hit, they’re frozen. Frozen players can be unfrozen when another player tags them.
How Is It Adaptable?
This game works for any number of players. You can adjust the difficulty by increasing the number of taggers or setting a minimum amount of time that students have to be frozen before they can be unfrozen. You can also play in teams if you have a larger group – each team has one person with a water gun and teammates can only unfreeze members of their own team.
Outside Games Without Water!
Sometimes, water isn’t an option, but you want to be outside! Here are a few games to play outside that don’t involve getting wet!
11. Obstacle Course
Supplies Needed:
- Cones
- Ropes
- Pool noodles
- Hula hoops
- Chalk
- Etc. (whatever’s available)
How To Play:
Take an inventory of some of the random items you have lying around, then head out to your church parking lot (if chalk is one of the things you have) or a grassy area. Set up a course with various challenges such as crawling under ropes, jumping over obstacles, balancing, bouncing a ball, etc. You can really get the kids involved by having them help you build the course or change it up once you’ve all gone through it the first time. A great way to increase their involvement in it is by having each person bring something to the course and having to work together to build it on-site without knowing what anyone else brought!
How Is It Adaptable?
Players can race individually or in teams. If there are fewer students, you could also make it a timed course instead of a race. Feel free to adapt the difficulty of the course depending on the ability levels of your students, too.
12. Frisbee Golf
Supplies Needed:
- Frisbees
- Objects to serve as “holes” (such as garbage cans, or taped/chalked squares)
How To Play:
Ahead of time, set up a course by placing markers at various intervals across your playing area. These can be trees on your property, garbage cans, chalk squares on the ground, etc. Players will work their way through the course, trying to land the Frisbee in designated spots in as few throws as possible.
How Is It Adaptable?
Players can compete solo, in teams, or as a free-for-all depending on the group size. If competing solo or as a free-for-all, each player should keep track of their own score. If competing in teams, each player will throw the frisbee and the team can take the best throw for each “hole.”
13. Capture The Flag
Supplies Needed:
- Two flags (bandanas, cones, etc.)
- Boundary markers
How To Play:
Split players into two teams, each with a flag placed in their territory (you can either place the flags or allow them to place it – just make sure they have parameters on where they can place the flag). Teams will try to capture the opposing team’s flag and bring it back to their side without getting tagged. If tagged, a player goes to a designated “jail” until freed by a teammate. The team that captures the flag and successfully brings it back to their territory wins.
How Is It Adaptable?
Capture the flag works with any group size. If you have fewer players, you can shrink the field. If you have an odd number of students, one player can be a free agent and switch sides as needed.
Keep It Adaptable
Summer is an exciting time for youth ministries, but planning activities can be tough when you have no idea how many young people you’re going to have. By keeping these flexible, engaging games in your back pocket, you can create a fun and welcoming environment—whether two or twenty students show up. Which game will you try first?
Read More:
5 Helpful Ways To Start Connecting With The Youth In Church
