10 Teen Things (Think Trek and Journey)

Some ideas for your teens that other churches have done and done well.

1. How does your garden grow? – Does your church have a lot of property? Could the teens plant a garden to provide food for the elderly or families in need? This could be a great use of extra space.

2. The Pizza Progressive Supper – Plan a pizza progressive supper. At the first house, make the crust. Take the crusts to the second house and add the tomato sauce. At the third house, add the cheese. At the fourth house, add other toppings. Fifth house will need a big oven – a place to actually bake and eat the pizza.

3. Duck, duck, goose for your youth – If you have a large group of kids (yes, teens) have them play duck, duck, goose. Give the person who is “it” a wet sponge to tap the other players on the head. When a few of the players have been tagged and sitting in the middle of the circle – tell them to start another game of duck, duck, goose and all is mass confusion as two sets of players are chasing each other – one circle inside another. A leader of a group of 100 teens said everyone had a great time with this game.

4. Free car wash – Have your teens hold a carwash, but don’t charge anything. Do it as a service project to the neighborhood.

5. Helping the little kids – Cubbie and Sparks leaders are always looking for fun game sheets and coloring pages to entertain the kids during small group time. Challenge your teens to design some pages that reflect the verses and concepts taught in the books.

6. The statistical treasure hunt – Teams add up the following points.

*Counting January as one point, February as two points and so on through the calendar year, add up the total number of birthday points on your team color.

*Counting two points for each state name and one point for your home state, give the score for different number of birth states represented on your team.

*Total of all shoe sizes added together.

*Total number of operations everyone on your team has had. You had to have stitches for it to count.

*Two points for each car/van owned by the teen’s family.

*Total number of brothers and sisters. Two points for each.

*Ten points for every left-handed teammate.

*Add up the points for your team — seven points for a seventh grader, eight points for an eighth grader, etc.

*Give five points for each time each team member who has attended church during the past week.

*Give one point for each letter in each person’s first name. (Full first name only. No nicknames.)

8. The question/answer game – For older kids and teens. Give each kid an index card or similar-sized piece of paper. Kid rips the paper in half. On one half of the paper, the teen writes a “why” question. For example: Why does grass grow? On the other half, the child/teen writes the answer. “Because it is watered by rain.” Put all the questions in one box and all the answers in the other. Mix up. Each child/teen then chooses a question and an answer. Go around the room and have each person read their question and answer.

9. Bible collection – Have teens collect Bibles from people in the church or anyone else they know who might have one or two extra Bibles at home. Keep them on a shelf or bookcase to give to clubbers who might not have a Bible of their own.

10. Design a webpage – For those teens who are expert at designing webpages – have them design a webpage for the kids in your church with announcements, games, memorization tips, etc. An adult or two will need to oversee (sometimes youth can get carried away in their creativity), but allow them to be creative and have fun.