Time for Some Prayer Games ...

Do remember that Christmas song about Rudolph?  You know, it's the one with the lyrics about 'all of the reindeer' bullying a poor red-nosed under-dog by calling him names and not allowing him to join them in their reindeer games.  Sounds like they may have been middle school reindeer!

Although I actually have no idea what the 'Reindeer Games' actually are, I have spent time playing 'Prayer Games' with students over the years and if Rudolph would have been around, I'd have invited him to join in too.

Seriously though, if the teens you get to serve and minister to are anything like the youth where I live, they love the concept of prayer and may even enjoy practising it in private, but when it comes to approaching the Lord with words in a corporate setting with their peers, the walls go up and the eyes immediately look down at the floor.  This is especially true for new believers or students who are pre-Christian.

So how do you get teens to get better at coming before their heavenly Father?  I've found that the best way to learn to pray is by praying.  Here are some 'games' that might kick-start this essential spiritual discipline in your ministry.  If you have others, please leave your ideas in the comment area below.

Prayer Game #1: International (Korean) Prayer

What is it?
My friend Denise spent a year in Korea and mentioned that now that she is back home, she has her small group often spend time praying like the ethnic Koreans at the international church she attended. Basically, she has her group huddle together, pick a topic, and pray out-loud all at once.

Note: at this point many of my charismatic friends are going, "Um, that's not very original Dan", but the truth is, many churches would see this as totally new and out of their comfort zone. 

How to do it?
Get your small group, youth group, etc. into a huddle ... give them a topic as well as some basic information on how they might pray for it (this helps those who aren't very good at prayer).  Then, announce that you'll be giving them ___ seconds to pray out-loud about it (*I generally start with a 15 second time period and will increase it from there.)

Let students know that, if they run out of things to say, they can listen to those around them for a moment and steal lines from others as they overhear them.

This 'game' gets people comfortable hearing their own voice praying out-loud, and the benefit is that it doesn't embarrass teens by putting them on the spot with all their friends focussing on them.  Plus,  the time limits mean that it's a short enough period that people generally don't run out of things to pray. Finally, because 'everyone is doing it', teens who are not Christians don't feel "outed"!

Prayer Games #2: Divide and Conquer

What is it?
I remember speaking at a retreat once that was targeted at college students and focused on the topic of prayer.  The weekend involved 20-somethings from different churches and I wanted to do an "icebreaker" so that they could meet each other and move into some prayer time right away.  What I came up with was this fun little game that worked really well and is easily transferred to youth groups.

How to do it?
Handout pens and paper to everyone (we did this when they walked in the door) and have teens write their name on it and either a statement about how they are expecting to grow in their faith during the retreat / coming semester / evening event / etc.  As another option, students could write down a question they would like to ask God to speak to them about during the retreat / coming semester / evening event / etc.

Divide the youth into two groups (just call them group 'A' and 'B'). Collect group B's papers and hang onto them for a minute. Collect group A's papers and re-distribute them to group B.

Group B people must find the person from group A named on their paper, introduce themselves, and then pray for the item listed on the paper.

When completed, handout group B's paper to group A and repeat the exercise.

============
Dan King is a Pastor to Youth and Young Adults in Parksville, on Vancouver Island.  He's a 20+ year veteran of youth ministry and has worked in large and small churches across Western Canada.  He is a husband and father of two teenagers, loves skim boarding, collects Nike sneakers, and enjoys practicing the spiritual discipline that calls him to 'be still and know'.  Read the online "Leadership and Youth Ministry" magazine he edits and contributes to or follow him @danKing_live

When Great Ideas Don't Turn Out So Great

I remember it like it was yesterday, a youth night like no other. The church foyer was filled with students, many ripe with excitement and others ripe with body odor. There was much anticipation about a game that was rumored to be played that night and for weeks leading up to it snippets of what could be were flying around the group. The students arrived in clothes that “could get dirty” and the girls were obviously not as excited as the boys. As the students filed into the gym, lights low seeing two bases made of cardboard boxes sat at opposing ends of the gym ready for a siege.

The excitement was pierced when the youth intern pulled the trigger on the Mega-phone and bellowed into the mic “ITS TIME TO PLAY TROUT-A-PULT”. As you can imagine, the high fiving amongst the guys began nearly immediately as did the steady stream of sudden and severe ailments that our young ladies began to experience that would not allow them to participate. The teams were divided and the rules explained.

The Premise: Using a water balloon launcher, each team was given several large rainbow trout that they would use to launch at the other teams base. Each team would alternate shots and the first team to knock down the other teams base was victorious. Seemed logical, they throw fish around at Pike Place Market in Seattle every day and nothing seems to go wrong there.

MISTAKE #1: The water balloon launcher was rated for 200 yards of distance, which would not be a problem except that our gym is only 50 yards long.

MISTAKE #2: Hours earlier when the new intern went to buy the fish. He chose to save the Church some money (an honorable move) and bought frozen fish instead of fresh as they were on sale and much cheaper. This would not have been a big deal, that is if he did not elect to defrost the shrink-wrapped fish in a sink of hot water.

The Outcome: The game ended as fast as it started, as the first fish was loaded up into the launcher and the very excited boys leaned back as hard as they could to ensure that the fish would travel far enough. As the guy on the trigger let go, it all went completely wrong. First, the sling shot attempted to propel the fish 4 times farther than the gym was long. It left the launcher at incredible speeds, and is it did, the speed exposed the other mistake that was made. Defrosting a fish in hot water does more than defrost, it cooks the fish, the result being that instead of one cohesive fish unit flying at light speed across the gym, it was now thousands of smaller pieces.

As what remained of the once mighty trout approached the other side of the gym, pieces peppered the opposing team, landing in student’s hair, on their clothes, and in their mouths causing them to scramble for their lives. The bulk of the fish missed the students, but instead hit the wall behind them, which would not have been a problem had it not lodged into the church’s air intake vent on the wall. The fish smell lingered for nearly a week throughout the church, and the Trout-A-Pult will be go down as the worst game we ever played.

Moral of the Story: There are many great reasons that custodial staff may never like the youth ministry and this is one of them, but its stories like this that will live on in infamy among our students and leaders. It may have been a disaster, but no one got hurt and the memories will last a lifetime and eight years later the story still gets told around campfires and youth ministry conventions. Students don’t care if the game goes as planned, they just want to have fun doing it and it can be the disaster games that are the most fun, youth ministry isn’t always serious and being ridiculous can be a good thing from time to time.

Geoff Stewart is the Youth Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C. where he oversees Journey Student Ministries. He is married to Lavonne and they have two cats, Norman and Puff Daddy. Geoff Blogs all over the place and tweets often, but not TOO often. Follow him on twitter @geoffcstewart.