Ever had one of those moments where you're left holding your head in your hands, wondering where your brilliant idea went wrong?
Our podcast usually gets down to the nitty-gritty of what it takes to plan not just fun, but also memorable activities for youth ministry.
This week we are laying out our failures, asking for help and coaching up what makes games great.
So enjoy our queasy missteps and food-related fiascos, all while highlighting the true aim of youth events—safe, inclusive, and enjoyable experiences for every student involved.
ChatGPT Games
Balloon Pop
Fruit Lumberjack
Human Bowling
We've packed this episode with innovative game ideas that steer clear of athletic prowess and instead, celebrate teamwork and pure, silly fun. So get ready to stock your youth ministry playbook with some fresh, creative game ideas that are guaranteed hits.
Ever had one of those moments where you're left holding your head in your hands, wondering where your brilliant idea went wrong?
Our podcast usually gets down to the nitty-gritty of what it takes to plan not just fun, but also memorable activities for youth ministry.
This week we are laying out our failures, asking for help and coaching up what makes games great.
So enjoy our queasy missteps and food-related fiascos, all while highlighting the true aim of youth events—safe, inclusive, and enjoyable experiences for every student involved.
ChatGPT Games
Balloon Pop
Fruit Lumberjack
Human Bowling
We've packed this episode with innovative game ideas that steer clear of athletic prowess and instead, celebrate teamwork and pure, silly fun. So get ready to stock your youth ministry playbook with some fresh, creative game ideas that are guaranteed hits.
Sniff, sniff, awww snap Music.
Speaker 2:And we're back with another episode of the Youth Ministry Booster Podcast.
Speaker 1:My name is.
Speaker 2:Zach Workin hanging out in the garage with my best friend, chad Higgins hey guys and gals, we wanted to start. So, if you tuned in, last time we talked about failure, so this time Chad advised that we should start our own personal failings. Okay, one of the things in Youth Ministry that is an ongoing conversation is the nature of fun, and good fun is hard to find. Let's be honest. Good fun is hard to come by. Planning. Great fun is big work, and sometimes we plan big fun and it goes big wrong, at least people feeling big sad. So today's episode we were going to talk about some of the fun we planned that was not had and then maybe talk to a tool that might help plan some more fun for you. So, chad Higgins, if you would like to go first, what is the greatest, either in a most meaningful or revealing way, a failure of a game, organized play in your personal tenure of Youth Ministry.
Speaker 1:So the worst game or the biggest fail I ever was a part of was very early Student Ministry. Has it often is, and I will preface with this was like early 2000s, which I don't know, shouldn't make it right, but it somehow does.
Speaker 2:It's not as it feels different. There are some things that just kind of land different of a certain age.
Speaker 1:Student Ministry has evolved and changed, so one of the things that we would do is we always wanted our interns to have more stage time and responsibility, and so this was the last time I allowed our interns to plan a game that I went into the night blind on. There was just too many other things going on, so I was like you guys, take care of the games.
Speaker 2:Did they have a tracker record of having a couple of good ones before? Yeah, a tracker was solid up until this point.
Speaker 1:But this was such a in my mind but not after this blunder that I was like OK, we're not doing that anymore, at least run the games by me, yeah.
Speaker 2:Try them at home first. It's a great way to experiment.
Speaker 1:So I was on stage for this game. Ok, I was not leading it, I was just supposed to be a helper.
Speaker 2:OK, and a helper you were.
Speaker 1:This was the game. Oh, it makes my stomach queasy thinking about it, because this was a game I would spoil or alert. I threw up on stage Wednesday night.
Speaker 2:Not playing. It Not playing, just observing.
Speaker 1:The game was this Two students had two cups with a line on the cup each cup. So there was like a fill line. So glad this is before lunch. They had to run each cup.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they had to run into the crowd and the first student that got enough spit in the cup that it crossed the line one, oh. And then the two students come running up on stage to show me that their like cup is full. Oh, dude, and it was just like yes, right, they didn't have to do anything with the cup, they just showed me it got you, didn't?
Speaker 2:it, can't imagine. It.
Speaker 1:And so, anyways, they come running up with an audience of spit and I was just like, what are we doing with our life and who is responsible?
Speaker 2:for some miracles. If anybody's suffering, suffering from loss of sight, we might have to care.
Speaker 1:Well, based off of the color, there were some side of infections going around and, dude, I was beside myself and I was like what are we doing?
Speaker 2:I've never known of a youth minister to admit it's a flu strain.
Speaker 1:Oh man, it was so bad. I just remember staying on the stage being like I'm going to kill these interns and it's like I don't want to know how they got there.
Speaker 2:It was my fault?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it was my fault. I should have known.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Should have asked Interns that are dating swapping spit for mono.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:So my mind was my own fault, but it wasn't because I didn't think it through, it was because they took me up on it. Okay, so I historically am kind of anti food games because they just all I was. I was the victim of a food game that went wrong. We had a food game where we had to dig out lifesavers from a big plate of flour. Oh, and I almost choked to death, yeah as a student.
Speaker 2:And so I was like I mean, flour gets cakey and so if you're like trying to like blow and like pick and do all that moisture just becomes like a cake ball. And so did, almost did not make it. And so I was like I think I'm going to swear out food games, yeah, but this is like 14 years ago, a long time ago again, early 20s, we had a Wednesday night on April 1st, and so I was like, well, that's a, that's a historical moment, yeah. And so we dubbed it fools night, okay. And so for several weeks ahead of time, we said, come this Wednesday, it's fools night, all fools, like it's just like like overselling, like hey, everybody, it's going to be foolish, yeah. And so when they came in the door, everything was like the music was bad, the lights were off, like I had made them all like paper triangle hats with the print out fool or I'm a fool on top of it. And we're like are we going to break into some foolish teams?
Speaker 2:When we had a guy's team and a girl's team and we had a big banquet table set up and I had like cloths over stuff, I said we're going to do what Zach thinks is foolish and we're going to play food games is going to be kind of relay down, so it was like person one to two to three to four, all the way to the end, and it was just like questionable food things Like. So there was like some hot peppers. They probably shouldn't have ate as fast as they did they did. There was some like meats that were cooked by a local market but like not the cut of meat you were familiar with, like maybe some cow tongue is like safe, but also like like. And then there was some like you know, some juice boxes from brands you didn't recognize and at the very end, like the anchor leg was.
Speaker 2:It was a big tall thing because I had found two leaders of pineapple Fanta which I mean Fanta by itself, but pineapple what a treat. And so they're going down the line. Again I'm like this is foolish. Again I'm saying this is foolish. They're wearing hats that say fool on it. Because the young youth minister of mine was like I'm going to prove a point that we'll do foolish things if we have an audience. And the young lady was refusing to lose down a two liter pineapple Fanta so fast that I think she almost passed out. So we had, like our nurse volunteer like keep an eye on her the rest of the night because she was looking like, like eyes were starting to cross, because I don't think that much pineapple Fanta is supposed to hit your kidneys at once.
Speaker 2:Okay, and so, like I think I made kids sick, like real sick. I remember my sister was in the group at the time cause she's younger than me, and like she ate one of the peppers, I remember seeing like her lip be blue and quivery and thinking like you know, yeah, maybe we shouldn't have done this or whatever.
Speaker 1:It was foolish.
Speaker 2:It was foolish, but that was the point. But I think the lesson learned for me is that like they trust you, Maybe they should, I don't know. But sometimes you make a plan and then God opens a window.
Speaker 1:All right, so we're gonna do some of the different, though we're actually gonna plan some games, but not with all of them In the moment In the moment right now. This is live recording, but planning them a little bit different than we normally would? Yeah, and we are going to utilize Lever, some technology, artificial intelligence yeah, and we're gonna see how well it does Planning a game. Could it do and we'll evaluate. Do we think these are good youth ministry games or not? Do they use the tweaks?
Speaker 2:Whatever?
Speaker 1:Maybe even take them and play them. Yeah, but we're gonna use chat GBT here 4.0,.
Speaker 2:You're on premium.
Speaker 1:I'm not using my premium on this one.
Speaker 2:You don't use your premium for it. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:But we are going to we're gonna walk through this process together, yep Of even giving it the inputs. Like, what inputs do we wanna give? It matters, the recipe matters, and we're gonna ask for three games, that's for three games, three games. And then we'll kind of read explanation of the games, yeah, and determine how well it did. Yeah, and if we would make any like tweaks? To it or whatever, and how we would play these games. So we have no idea. This is just blank at this point. Blank screen here we go so let's talk about how.
Speaker 1:What do we input on this?
Speaker 2:So I always like to tell it what to do Be a game designer. I always wanna tell it what role to function in, so be a game designer.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna say, we need a student ministry game.
Speaker 2:A student ministry game for teenagers. Give it an audience for teenagers.
Speaker 1:For teenagers.
Speaker 2:Ages 13 to 18. And then you need to give it a group size.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think that's one of the things that you'll wanna make sure 13 to 18. And adjust for your own plans.
Speaker 1:Group. So wait, hold on. Are we then? Are we asking for a game for everybody or an upfront game? So I think that's part of the question.
Speaker 2:I think we want an upfront game, okay, okay, for students 13 to 18, to be played by.
Speaker 1:We want a game that would be played upfront, upfront, with six kids, with six students, students. The game needs to be fun to watch, which I'm gonna pause right there. Okay, that is my number one thing that I'll tell.
Speaker 2:Axiom of truth for children.
Speaker 1:Every youth pastor when it comes to games.
Speaker 2:That is the defining mark.
Speaker 1:The game doesn't have to be the most fun to be played, right, it has to be the most fun to watch, yes, unless it's a crowd game, right. And then the opposite is true Right, it needs to be fun to play. It doesn't have to be fun to watch, right, right, the reason it has to be fun to watch is because the majority of your students are not playing the game. They're watching the game, right. And so you want the game to be fun to be watched.
Speaker 2:Which is often why people default to a game like a food game, because watching someone try to choke.
Speaker 1:A banana out of a panty.
Speaker 2:Hose is horrible and don't do it. But it creates a crowd moment even though it creates an uncomfortable moment for the person playing.
Speaker 1:So Okay, we need a student ministry game for teenagers Ages 13 to 18. Yeah, we want a game that would be played upfront with six students. Yes, the game needs to be fun to watch. Yes, Supplies.
Speaker 2:You're going to instruct it for what supplies we have available with minimal supplies.
Speaker 1:With.
Speaker 2:Because it always wants to know what it has to work with.
Speaker 1:Supplies that can be found at Walmart Yep Under $25.
Speaker 2:Perfect.
Speaker 1:Um Make the game unique and do we want silly?
Speaker 2:and silly yeah, silly. Yeah, I think the boys, you can create the modifiers, the audience, the silly, the time limit the game needs to be able to play in Less than Seven minutes.
Speaker 1:Seven minutes, great, anything else let's fire.
Speaker 2:Let's fire it off and see what we got, give me three examples game ideas Send, come on AI.
Speaker 1:They're super fast.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's got. Usually it's pretty fast. Usually we'll probably get a couple that are good. All right, all right.
Speaker 1:Game number one Chad Higgins some of these you've, we've, you've already thought about Pretty, pretty common. Oh wait, this one has a different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fun name.
Speaker 1:That's a little bit different twist that I've ever seen it? Balloon pop relay Okay, we've all seen it. We love a cheap balloon game. Supplies needed balloon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, affordable string and stop watch, okay.
Speaker 1:But I'm gonna save the other element to the end. Okay. Inflate the balloons yeah. Tie string yeah, each of the balloons. And then to their ankle yeah. Select six participants. Pair them up yeah. Blindfold one person, oh, and then the other one line pop holds the string, whoa, okay. So yeah, the pairs I've. That's interesting. Okay, so you're pairing off the competitors.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then the. So it's not a free-for-all.
Speaker 1:The blind folded person must guide their non-blind folded partner, who holds the pin, to pop their balloon without using their hands. Oh, we're pin popping.
Speaker 2:Oh, you've got. You've got one kid with a weapon Blindfolded, but I told you, sharp object, blindfolded, great, great, and they have to pop the balloon of the other person.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, but then here's the, the other element. What's the unique?
Speaker 2:modifier.
Speaker 1:I helium take. Oh so the balloon is floating, so it's I level.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't know Piercing yeah yeah, foolish, I don't know, we'll see no I. Kind of like it poking eye level. Well, all right.
Speaker 1:I think, depending on where you put it, all those kind of things. I here's the thing I've seen this game played a lot where you put it around your ankle, it's like dragging on the ground and everybody stomps.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like King of the Hill. We're trying to protect yourself.
Speaker 1:Double like a blindfolded trying to pop it. I think you could probably remove the pin. Yeah, and they're just trying to find the balloon. There's a trust game there. Yeah, I would probably play it To where I like. The idea of balloons are in the room. Yes, you have person on the stage. Yes, blind folded partner. Yes, three different color balloons try to find all their balloons. They find their balloons or the other two colors? Yeah, and they got.
Speaker 2:It's like a maybe everybody's okay. So level up, everybody in the audience gets to play, everybody. The audience is given a balloon of one of three colors, and so they've got a balloon. And so now you're sending out blind, folded agents that are trying to pop balloon, listening to the direction of their partner. So I like again, I think, having everybody and everybody involved. Everybody has a balloon, everybody's contributing and they either get to blow it up, because that helps save you time, because they're all blowing up A balloon, and they either get to hold it, toss it or whatever. Okay, balloon pop relay. I like the combative Element of it. That's good, that's good, okay. Thanks, chat GPT.
Speaker 1:Okay, this one. Game number two this is where AI messes up. Okay, this is actually fantastic. Um, I'm so glad that this one popped up, because it makes no sense whatsoever. It's just too much going on. Fruit Ninja challenge oh, okay, okay, okay, oh like the app.
Speaker 2:Great, an app based game. Yeah, it's good. That's good, it's relevant. It's relevant. Okay, cool, cool, cool. The kids love the fruit ninja. That's great.
Speaker 1:It's like AI. It's, I feel like AI was just like what are you faster, dude? We all think it's new physics. Okay, okay, okay, here's the fruit ninja challenge. Supplies needed Foam noodles, sure, okay, pull noodles, got them Tape, okay. Various fruits Okay. Example watermelon, cantaloupe, oranges yeah, perfect, perfect. Now here's where the game goes horribly wrong Fresh produce. Okay, attach pieces of fruit securely to the top of the pool noodle. Imagine you got a pool noodle Watermelon. Just whip it in her eye. How much tape is required to strap watermelon?
Speaker 2:What do we do after we get? What are we trying to hit people with?
Speaker 1:No, divide the six participants into two teams or three On go. Each team must take turns trying to slice their fruit in midair using the pool noodle.
Speaker 2:I don't know the physics on that one.
Speaker 1:Dude, how do you slice watermelon? That's tape to your noodle.
Speaker 2:You're slicing somebody else's. I think you're holding up a watermelon and they're trying to slice it with their pool noodle. I think that's the play. I like the idea of a fruit ninja game. I like the idea of a pool noodle sword.
Speaker 1:Okay, hold on. We're gonna make it better. We're gonna play a game. Let's make it better, zach working. Yeah, you have just. You have just played this game. Yeah, okay, did it go well, or? Well, it went exactly the way you thought it would go. Now you have the parent meeting, yes, and I want you to look at your camera and I want you to pretend that you're at the parent meeting explaining why some child got hit with a watermelon at the end of a pool noodle.
Speaker 2:Hey, moms and dads, no thanks for coming out. It was a little bit well, this meeting's unplanned, but you being here, it means the world to Karen and I. You know, sometimes you try to make a kid's dream a reality and you turn a video game into a real game, and that's not what happened. Thank you for Well. I'd like to thank Ron for being there to catch the pieces. Susan, thank you for picking out the seeds. You know, listen, sometimes you buy a fruit basket and when someone's going to get well this case, they're going to have to get well because of the fruit basket. And wow, yeah, I don't know that's. I don't know what the hope is there, like just tossing fruit. Well, there you go, pricing them with a pool noodle.
Speaker 2:That's where. That's where that's the chat GPT, because the chat GPT doesn't have a brain Right. It's assimilating information, and so it's assimilating that fruit ninja is a popular app game with teenagers and that pool noodles look like swords.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When played with.
Speaker 1:Often youth ministers often play well, there's probably so many games online with pool noodles.
Speaker 2:The pool noodle swords is who have pool noodle joust, or you know combat or whatever. And you know fruit is always a fun. David Gallagher edition Wow, I don't know. Yeah, there's something there with fruit and fruit and whatever, but maybe, maybe not the actual slicing of the fruit Yikes, you know.
Speaker 1:Game number three I'm just trying to think, like is there a game that we could you know what I mean Like could you turn that into like a decent game? That's too much.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, you know, you would. Just you would get like. You would just turn it into a game where you had like foam balls, like foam, or like, or like dodgeball balls and then you throw them at students. They try to like, bat them out of the air or whatever.
Speaker 1:I mean you could make it a thing but the slicing of fruit, I feel like the explosion of fruit, though, like real fruit getting dropped, is fun to watch yeah, if you're playing outside or there's a reason the Gallagher, or what is the Gallagher?
Speaker 2:David Gallagher had made a living off of smashing watermelon with a sledgehammer.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's it.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's just the Gallagher game you just smashing watermelons, maybe. Maybe there's something.
Speaker 1:Dude, I'm telling you right now, you smashed a couple of watermelons on a Wednesday night. That's fun to watch.
Speaker 2:So maybe instead of fruit ninja, it's like fruit lumberjack. And so everybody shows up in their flannel. And so then you're having kids take turns like dressed up goggles on who can smash the fruit for the most. Distance, oh distance, for fruit smash. So you get a couple of watermelons, put them on stage and have, like a delegate from so have your six that represent your different.
Speaker 1:That's an outside. That's an outside game. That's a great outside game.
Speaker 2:You're moving everybody outside, outside, you put down drop cloths, and so that's the game you can do before your next big wet and wild whatever. Yeah, okay, there's something there. I don't know if it's fruit ninja indoors, though, all right. Game number three what do you got? Is this weird? Okay, has it gotten weird? The.
Speaker 1:Oh Okay, this is interesting Human bowling. Okay, okay, a little bit okay. So your six participants are actually going against your full crowd.
Speaker 2:Oh, I like that, which is kind of interesting. That's fun. Yeah, that's a fun little diversion.
Speaker 1:This one. You would definitely need some room. So, we didn't. I guess we said upfront. But anyways, supplies, that's one of the bowling alley, inflatable or plastic bowling pins, so like the little fish, and prize bowling pins, yep. Like soft squishy balls, Okay, and a smooth surface, okay. So Jim would be great for this.
Speaker 2:Concrete floor yep.
Speaker 1:You set up, inflate the plastic bowling pins on one end Okay. And then the six participants are human bowling balls Okay, but they're not being thrown at the pins. Here's the difference. The remaining teenager takes turns rolling the soft balls, while the bowling balls stand in a straight line holding hands. Okay, right over style.
Speaker 1:So they're trying to stop the actual balls from hitting the pins Like a bumper Like well, but they're like a straight line, okay, and so the goal is I guess you have the two teams, so three and three, trying to stop the crowd from hitting their pins. The team that has the most pins standing at the end of seven minutes wins.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:That's actually could be a really fun game that could be fun. So if you had like dodge balls, yeah, yeah yeah, and you set up the pins in the back and then you had teams of three. Can they move? Yes they move, but they have to stay locked. Oh okay so they're like trying to like get in front of the balls Okay, but what it doesn't say here, being the game expert, is you would want a line on the back to where kids can't just stand over the pins.
Speaker 2:Right, right right.
Speaker 1:They've got to have some distance.
Speaker 2:There's a zone, there's a certain zone that can be in.
Speaker 1:There's a zone and then your throwers can't pass as soon. Sure sure sure, that's actually a pretty fun game, I think. It's not a great upfront game, but it's a great game if you've got a gym or an area to play.
Speaker 2:If you've got a gym or a long floor, I think for a lot of folks that's often the like how do we maximize the space? Because I do think one of the things that for a lot of game goers people that are designing, making, choosing games we default into an upfront like two person heads up trivia, because we're unsure of how to explore the space right Like games are either basketball or they're trivia, and I think anyway that we can make it like when they're physical but silly fun. I think it's so beneficial because it doesn't clearly draw the line between like, like, nerd or athlete, cause there's, there's nobody who's like there's going to be somebody who's really good at that game, that's surprising, right Like they're going to have a dexterity or a reflex that's not going to be like, congruent with well, I'm an athlete, so I'm really good at this, or whatever. Cause it's not a trained like well, he plays basketball, so he's obviously good, or whatever. So, okay, so human bowling, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Those are our three games, Okay so balloon, pop, relay, fruit ninja with modifications and bull human bowling, all right. Well, we did it. We did it everybody. Games for your next month, all mapped out, just like that.
Speaker 1:Please send us photos of fruit ninja.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll drop some links and graphics for these games for you to try out your next weekend. Yeah, you get that fruit ninja going. We'll go and help prepare, like the public service announcement for you. You know, making the apology to the parents speech that their kid got decked with a water, a cantaloupe to the head melon to the melon.
Speaker 1:A cantaloupe tied to the top of a pool noodle just makes me laugh.
Speaker 2:I mean there's something there. There really is something there, so all right.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thanks everybody, we'll see you next time.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this episode of the Youth Ministry Booster podcast. If you have more great ideas for games or things that we should be using or doing, please let us know. Send us an email at booster at youthmenusherboostercom, or podcast at youthmenusherboostercom, or send us a DM on Facebook or Instagram at youthmenusherbooster. We'd love to hear how your ideas of fun and engaging and utilizing your space with students is happening this week in your ministry.