Youth Ministry Curriculum and Resources

It’s either your favorite carb, or you run from it and all its gluten. Either way, bread is bread – so can you tell the difference between close-ups of it and other things?

Who has had the greatest variety of friend experiences? Find out by having the whole room stand up (or having students who can’t stand raise a hand), and then having them stay standing if what’s read is true of them. Otherwise, they sit down until the game is over (or you generously let everyone back in after a few rounds) and see who is left standing.

Pro-tip: The last question has to do with karaoke and can lead to a karaoke showdown if you want to keep the fun going!

Can you identify the board game by simple looking at a single game piece?

Can you guess which one of these NBA logos has been FLIPPED and is NOT THE REAL LOGO?

As school returns, the summer heat begins to fade, and another ministry year starts to ramp up, two things are on the minds of a majority of youth pastors: 

1) Oh no, is Halloween on a Wednesday this year? 
2) I need to plan the Fall Retreat! Planning retreats are often daunting as they require attention to detail across many different areas simultaneously. 

This masterclass series in planning and programming a fall retreat will walk through everything you need to get right with creativity and programming, the questions you need to ask and answer about logistics, and will help you eliminate the potential pitfalls so many make when planning. 

It's time for another big event, camp, retreat, or outreach, and you need a game that your students will be talking about for years to come. I got you! Let me share an amazing messy game I play in my ministry that will help your next event "slide" into the Guinness Book of Epicness.

Does your group love stories from long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? Put their Star Wars knowledge to the test, be it through a faceoff on stage among your sharpest Jedis, as a crowd icebreaker or as a play-against-someone-nearby competition!

You know all those Disney movies you and your students have seen multiple times? See if they can spot the one lie hidden among two truths, whether by playing it like a gameshow faceoff, or “guys vs girls” by asking for someone from the room to stand up and shout out an answer when you call on them!

Three years into Kendall’s job as the youth pastor of Grace church, many things are going really well: Kids are connecting and growing. She’s built a solid team of adult leaders. She and her husband love their home, city, and friends. But when Kendall is blindsided by her unsupportive senior pastor, who once again takes the side of a wealthy parent over Kendall’s, it’s the impetus she needs to start reconsidering her future. Is it time for Kendall to move on? And if she does look for a role at a new church, how can she be sure it will be a better fit than this one? 

With this fiction debut, veteran youth worker Jen Bradbury’s novel explores the process of living in to your calling, listening to the voice of God, and continually asking the question, What does the right fit look like, and how do you know when you’ve found it?

Beautiful Rebellion, a book that cuts past unhelpful stereotypes and shows today’s teens that they are uniquely primed to use their whole selves—faith, skepticism, intellectualism, humor, big questions, and all—to bring about a world-changing movement empowered and driven by God’s love.

4 Views on Talking to Teenagers About Sex reflects the thoughts, experiences, and practical advice of four in-the-trenches youth workers, who have spent years having these conversations with the teenagers in their ministries. Representing an array of viewpoints, these writers don’t agree on everything—but they all know that our conversations with teens about sex must speak to God’s design, avoid shame, and go far beyond any one instance of “the talk.

Hierarchical, coercive leadership should have no place in the church. But if we move away from those unbiblical (and ineffective) forms of power-based leadership, we still need to lead. In Leading Without Power, Mark Oestreicher explores—in very pragmatic ways—what it might look like for us to replace power-based leadership modalities with other approaches.

Celebrities work hard to make their name known, so what happens when their names are all mixed up? Use this game as a fun icebreaker as your students face off to see who can decipher these famous names first. First, it’s the name scrambled on its own, and then a clue follows. Play in teams or one on one!

Life is often mixed up, so why not play a game to show how even a few moments of attention can help you unscramble it? Use this game as a fun icebreaker as your students face off to see who can decipher these popular state capitals faster. First, it’s the name scrambled on its own, and then a clue follows. Play in teams or one on one!

You will be given a picture of a specific bean. Choose the correct answer from a list of possible answers.

Sometimes it’s a question of “better” versus “best” but “worse” or the “worst.” Get your students talking or moving by either having them walk from one side of the room to the other, or by inviting up a student to represent each side of the argument. You can even do both, having the two students present their cases and then having other students respond by moving or raising their hands to vote!

Once again, you need to decide between the worst of the worst. Get your students talking or moving by either having them walk from one side of the room to the other, or by inviting up a student to represent each side of the argument. You can even do both, having the two students present their cases and then having other students respond by moving or raising their hands to vote!

How well do you know the U.S. currency? Let's find out. (Basic Trivia about U.S. bills and coins)

Can you remember which of these movies won "Best Picture" at the Oscars? Simply choose "Winner" or "Loser."

It's basic trivia, except every answer has the word "man" in it.

Dr. Seuss’s wonderfully wise Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is the perfect send-off and gift for high school and college graduates.

You will be given a list of popular TV Shows and the name of one of them in French. Simply decide which TV Show the French translation is referring to.

You will be shown a distorted image. Simply decided whether or not that distorted image is a banana.

You will be given a specific Chick-Fil-A menu item and a FALSE number of calorie count. Simply decide whether the real calorie count is more or less.

An anagram is a word formed by rearranging the letters of another word. With that, let’s see how well you can figure out what countries these anagrams are formed from.

You will be shown a picture of a famous trio. Can you name each individual member of the group?