July 3, 2025 • 26 mins
*** FOR A PDF OF THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE 10 NIGHT GAMES FOR YOUTH MINISTRY discussed in this episode- EMAIL US AT MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com - and put in the subject or description "NIGHT GAMES" and we will send it over to you!*** In this episode, we've compiled 5 of our favorite after-dark youth group games that are super fun and easy to play. Some of these can be played indoors but in the context of this episode, we detail them as outdoor youth group games. These games will elevate your next youth event, summer camp, mid-week program night or retreat into something your students & leaders won't soon forget!
Want five more night games? Email us at ministrycoachpodcast@gmail.com with "night games" in the subject line or click here to download instructions for all 10: https://forms.gle/jns5Y2UTFWMFFtcx9
Are you ready to grow the size and health of your youth ministry? Check out
GrowYourYouthMinistry.com ***
=======
SHOPPING LIST:
Capture the Flag (Light Up Version):
* Light Up Set: https://amzn.to/4nK1aim
* Smaller Light Up Set: https://amzn.to/40Ctvgn
* Glow Necklaces/Bracelets: https://amzn.to/46n7u90
* Light Up Cones: https://amzn.to/4lDQG28
Ultimate Frisbee (Light Up Version):
* Light Up Frisbee: https://amzn.to/45RA3LD
* Light Up Cones: https://amzn.to/4lDQG28
* Glow Necklaces/Bracelets: https://amzn.to/46n7u90
Operation: Night Scramble:
Tons of Glow Sticks
- 100 ct. 4” Multi colored: https://amzn.to/3enJMP6
- 500 ct. 8” https://amzn.to/2OAeKIV
- 400 ct. Minis https://amzn.to/3rBiN6u
Long Soccer Socks: https://amzn.to/3lfcS4N
Pool Noodles: https://amzn.to/3V26dhh (check the dollar store/Walmart for these)
Buckets: https://amzn.to/3izZdT1 (check the dollar store/Walmart for these)
Predator:
* Gator Skin Dodgeballs 6" - https://amzn.to/3Ac2IJf
* Rhino Skin Dodgeballs 6" - https://amzn.to/3w832p3
* Pool Noodles - https://amzn.to/3V26dhh
* Long Soccer Socks: https://amzn.to/3lfcS4N
You may also enjoy these episodes:
(#111) Plan a Year of Youth Group Games in Under 30 Minutes
(#044) Best Games for Summer Camp - 14 Fun Camp Game Ideas
*This episode is not sponsored. Some of the links are affiliate links which simply means, if you buy something, we will receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) Thank you!*
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we're talking about super fun night games for
you to play with your youthgroup.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we
give you weekly tips andtactics to help you fast track
the growth and health of youryouth ministry.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
My name is Jeff Lascola and this is Kristen,
kristen Laskola, and it's timefor a game episode.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's summertime the weather's warm Well, depending
on what time of the year you'rewatching this.
But it's summer right now aswe're recording this, and so
nighttime games make total sense.
Yeah, they do Summer camp, youcan have the nighttime games.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I love a midweek night summer camp game.
So fun.
We like to play a night wintercamp game too.
It's pretty fun, pretty cold,but it's a good time.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We got five of them for you today, but if you email
us at ministrycoachpodcast atgmailcom and ask for night games
, we have five more.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So you'll get 10 total, or you can just go in the
description below.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Click on the link and it'll give you all the info on
how to download it.
Yes, and number one is not likesome whoa I've never heard of
capture the flag before.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oops, I said it capture the flag, but it's a
glow-in-the-dark version ofcapture the flag, which is super
fun to play outside at summercamp at night, if you have a
field.
I'm very jealous if you have afield, because we do not, but
you could play in the parkinglot.
Wouldn't that be fun?
That's what we have to do.
Or if you're at the beach or,you know, at camp and they have
some kind of facility, we'regonna link that below.
(01:36):
I actually bought the glow inthe dark, capture the flag set.
One year I had extra money inmy budget and I was like this
looks fun, let's give it a try.
So it's just kind of a twist ona game kids already know and it
just adds that extra little, Ifeel like for junior hires,
especially anything done atnight or in the dark.
There's just a level ofexcitement or something there,
(01:59):
and even for high schoolers too.
But yes, glow in the dark,capture, capture the flag, and
you know what I just thought of.
They make these frisbees thatblink as well, and that's super
fun for ultimate frisbee, yeah,so, um, yeah, I, I mean we don't
play in pitch black, by the waylike we don't want people like
(02:22):
we had a kid lose a toothbecause he collided with another
kid's forehead.
Yes, we did, and as far as Iknow, that tooth is still gone
gone.
Every time I saw him after thateven when he was an adult,
because this was a long time agostill no tooth.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So it's in the other kid's forehead, so it's just
permanently there, so just do aquick rundown for those you
don't know how to play.
Capture the flag like how doyou play that?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
so everyone knows how to play.
Capture the flag.
If you, then you shouldn't bein youth ministry.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
You can skip to number two.
If you don't know how to play,fine, I'll do it really fast
okay, two teams.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
They're on opposite sides of the field.
There is a line in the middleto divide one side from the
other.
Each side has a flag that isprotected by a safety zone.
The point is you have to crossthe boundary to the other side's
territory, capture their flagyou're safe in the safety zone
and run it back across the lineback into your territory without
(03:20):
getting tagged.
If you get tagged, you go tojail.
Someone from your team can goacross and try to rescue you if
they make it.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And they rescue you by tagging the person in the
jail.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, you get a free walk back with them, but they
don't get a free walk to thejail, obviously, or the emcee of
the game can call jailbreak andeveryone in jail has a free
walk back to their territory.
The most points wins, the mostsuccessful flags retrieved and
brought back to your territorywins.
So very fun.
It's classic PE type of game,camp game, youth group game.
(03:57):
But just yeah, an extra funthing to do A light-up version.
I shouldn't call itglow-in-the-dark, it's actually
like a light-up version which ispretty cool.
And I think here's why I likethis game for at night, because
obviously this isn'tgroundbreaking news.
Capture the flag.
But the reason it's better atnight, especially if you're
playing beyond elementary schoolage kids it's so hard to cross
(04:21):
enemy lines like students juststand at the line and it's like
I see you like and I'm going totag you, and it can be a very
low scoring game.
It's very hard to get that flagacross, so when it's dark it's
just adds an extra level ofsneakiness and invisibility,
which will make it a moreexciting game, higher scoring
(04:45):
game and easier to cross thatboundary line because you're
hidden a little bit more inplain sight kind of thing.
But like we try to play a gamesimilar to this in our
auditorium, we turn the lightskind of down low, but it is
based on our numbers too.
The more kids you have, it'sjust hard to cross that boundary
line.
So this makes it more fun.
(05:05):
Number two is one of my believeit or not adult leaders
favorite games.
We play this at our leaderretreat every single year and,
yes, we're all adults and welove this game.
It is sardines.
So sardines is a really fungame to play and you can play it
outside on a summer night.
(05:25):
It is super, super fun.
So basically, I think, thiswould work best for a youth
group kind of in that 20 to 40range or below.
If you have a youth grouplarger than 40, I would not
recommend this game.
Just save it for your leaderretreat, you know, because we're
a group of like 25.
It works great for us.
(05:53):
So basically you pick oneperson to go and hide and
everyone else stays in adesignated location and they
close their eyes and they countand then they go and disperse
and try to find that personwho's hiding, and when you find
them, you don't like announce it, you hide with them and so the
last person like sometimes it'skind of scary because you're
(06:16):
like why is it so?
quiet.
Oh my gosh, where is everybody?
And you realize, shoot, shoot,they're all hiding, right, and
so if you're the last person tohide with the group, then you
are out, or like you lose, andif you want, you can be the one
to hide next time.
Sometimes I think with studentsthat doesn't totally work,
(06:39):
because if they want to be theperson hiding, then they won't
be motivated to find anyone.
Because they want to be theperson hiding, then they won't
be motivated to find anyonebecause they want to be the last
person.
So for students, I wouldn'treally recommend doing it that
way.
It's like I've been around theblock a few times, I know how
you people work, so you couldjust, you know, designate.
Like you could just pick aperson Okay, who's going next,
(07:01):
and it has nothing to do withwho found them last and then you
could say at the end of thegame, like if you were never the
last person to find the group,you get a piece of candy and
like that would be a motivator.
So you could do something like,oh, if they're the last person,
you mark their hand and youknow, if they come out and they
don't have any marks, I don'tknow, be creative, but it's a
(07:23):
super fun game.
You can play it inside too.
We play it in like this, likepretty large cabin up in the
mountains and it's very dark andquiet up there.
So it's very scary and, hey,I'll be vulnerable and my
leaders know this.
They make fun of me.
I am afraid of the dark there.
I said said it, I'm a grownperson and I am.
(07:46):
When we play in the cabin it isso dark.
I just like stand in one spotor I like sit on the floor and
they're, like chris said get outof the way, because I'm like I
am not walking up that staircasein pitch black and if you don't
know the location super, superwell, like your own house, you'd
be able to find your waythrough it.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
But if there's kind of like a I don't really know
this place, it makes it thatmuch more you know difficult to
navigate through there and onetime I was it and I hid behind
this chair and like nobody couldfind me.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It was like this big rocking chair, but like not
wooden it was like a lazy boy,kind of rocking chair, and I was
back there there forever and Iheard everyone like that.
You hear them talking about you, but they don't know.
I'm right here.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
What were they saying ?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
They were like Kristen's the goat at this game.
They did.
Asher said that I stillremember.
So, yeah, you could play insidethe church this again.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
This game is best suited for a smaller youth group
so that's the one and only timeI've ever gotten poison oak was
playing this game really yeah,it was really bad too oh well,
be careful playing it at camp.
You don't know where you'rewalking.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, true true, true , we used to play it in college
too.
I think it's a really fun youngadult type game.
Yeah, junior hires, I think,would like it.
Don't know if I totally trustthem.
You know hiding around in thedark, but you know your kids
better than I do.
All right, number four, three,three, thank you.
I'm glad you're here.
(09:21):
You really have a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I can count Number three.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
We just compliment each other's weaknesses.
Okay, this one is definitely.
You could play it with a biggroup or a small group, doesn't
matter.
So so, so fun.
It's called Operation NightScramble, I didn't name it, so
if you don't like, the name,change it.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
But the other ones you have to stick with the names
, but this one you can change.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
You have my permission.
So basically, you need a lot ofglow sticks, like a lot, a lot,
a lot, a lot, hundreds andhundreds of glow sticks.
Whenever you think you haveenough glow sticks, add another
hundred, because you need more,always for this game to be fun.
So obviously you're going tobreak them and shake them, and
(10:11):
so what I usually do is I keepall the students in the
auditorium while I'm explainingit and all the leaders go out
and they start hiding the glowsticks.
So you send the leaders out tohide your hundreds of glow
sticks and like you can do itoutside obviously, and I say,
don't bury them, like you're notsending them on a treasure hunt
(10:32):
.
You scatter them.
Maybe you put a few in a treeor a few up on a table, like you
can put them around, but theyshould be in plain sight,
because it's already dark and,trust me, you don't want
competitive students diggingthrough stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
They will destroy everything.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
So you put out a ton of glow sticks, then the leaders
spread out and they are armedand dangerous.
Okay, they are armed verysimilarly to our game predator,
which I'm going to talk about ina second.
So our favorite weapons ofchoice classic dodgeball.
Um, please use soft dodgeballsif you're throwing them at
(11:10):
people, Because when kids gethit in the face, especially at
the velocity that a leader isthrowing them like I've had kids
who wear glasses and it hitstheir face and could break their
glasses or hits your nosereally hard and it hurts.
So just I would recommend thesofter gator skin, rhino skin
(11:31):
type of balls.
It's worth investing in a setof those side note.
Okay, so the leaders eitherhave a dodge ball, a foam pool
noodle or the sock weapon.
The sock weapon, Again, it'sone long like tube sock with
another sock balled up at thefoot of it, at the toe part, and
(11:53):
then you tie off the top andyou swing it like a medieval
weapon and get it all nice andstretched out and then you like
whip soccer socks make great.
You know socks for that yeah,and so it's like you can hit
them like with a sock weapon nomatter how hard you hit someone,
it's not going to hurt.
Pull noodles.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Challenge accepted.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Really don't hurt.
So those are all good options,especially sometimes when you
throw balls at kids and you missis to try to get as many glow
but they need labels on them sothey see their bucket says sixth
(12:53):
grade girls or just sixth grade.
They put the glow sticks inthere.
If they're holding glow sticksand they get whacked by a leader
, they have to surrender all theglow sticks.
And then you can decide herewhether you want them to be out
and they like go to like a jailsituation, or they're out for
the round or all they have to dois surrender their glow sticks
(13:16):
and then they can keep going.
It depends how, what type ofversion you like to play.
I feel like different youthpastors like different outs for
different reasons.
If you do send them to just ajail kind of situation, then I
think it's really fun to have ajail keeper and it's a fun
leader who lets them out of jailif they complete some fun
(13:38):
challenges.
Like if I were the jail keeper,I would say for instance, for
example, I would say do theMacarena four times, or say the
alphabet in reverse, or do thechicken dance jumping on one leg
, do 10 push-ups, like I don'tknow.
(14:00):
You can make them do funnythings, make them write you a
poem, like whatever you want todo, and then, once they do that,
you can say, okay, you can goback out now.
So it just kind of puts them ina timeout.
So then you call like when thetime is up.
You know, I would say like afour minute round, three to four
(14:21):
minutes.
Again, that depends on how manystudents you have.
If you have a lot of students,you could play a longer round, a
little bit of students, youmight want to do a two minute
round.
Then you count up the glowsticks.
Whichever team has the mostglow sticks in their bucket
obviously wins.
We play multiple rounds.
So then we send the leaders outand they re-hide the glow
sticks and we do it all overagain.
(14:42):
That one is super duper fun,and there's something so cool
about just seeing, like when thelights are off or when it's
dark, and you just see like asea of neon glow sticks all over
the floor, the street, theparking lot, the bushes,
whatever it's.
It's pretty fun, it's like acool experience when they bring
them back, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
they can only.
Each student can only bring oneback at a time.
I think that's a rule you might, might be right.
So if they did get like stopped.
They had to surrender just one.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I mean, I guess you could play.
Sorry to interrupt, but I guessyou could play where they can
get multiple ones.
But I feel like if you do itone at a time, the game lasts a
little bit longer.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah.
So that's up to you.
You could say you can onlyretrieve one glow stick at a
time and or you could say, allright, do your best, see how
many you can get.
If you get hit, you surrenderthem all.
It's up to you.
If you need, you know to buymore time instead of just like
one kid, grabbing like 20 andputting them in the basket.
You know, it's up to you.
(15:41):
I feel like some of those likesmaller nuances of a game.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It's like when you're a youth, what fits best for you
?
I was going to say when you'rea youth, what fits best for you?
Speaker 1 (15:50):
yeah, I was gonna say when you're a youth pastor
listening to this, you can siftthrough like uh yes, but I would
do this, or oh no, thatwouldn't work because of this
and that depends on yourbuilding, your space, your
students, your size.
There's a lot of things sidenote.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
That's all the more reason we talk about this a lot
of times.
But to keep a game log, becausethere's always those little
things that happen.
You're're like this was fun,but yeah.
And then, if you don't write itdown, you won't remember it,
and the next time you playyou're like oh, that's right.
I know I should have done thisand so make sure you keep track
every time you play a game.
Maybe it's just like this gamewas horrible.
We'll never play again.
Oh, yeah Again, or it's likethis we let the kids take
(16:27):
multiple glow sticks or whatever.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, and you can adjust per round.
I do that sometimes, right inthe middle of the game, I'll
like look at my leaders.
I'll be like, hey, this isn'tworking, like we played a game
last Tuesday that we learned thehard way.
Students can't come back infront of bases one and three.
They have to stay behind oneand three, or else they catch
(16:51):
the buns way too quick.
You know like we adjust on thefly, like that and it's and
because students will alsoquickly find the loopholes.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, any game they do and you can't foresee all of
these things, and so sometimes,yeah, on the fly, you have to
say hold on from now on.
You can't Exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Whatever, or I'll act like it was always a part of
the plan.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I'll be like all right, Are you ready for this
round?
Yes, I'm like all right Roundtwo.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Here's what we're going to do.
You thought that was hard.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Now listen to this.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
You are going to be blindfolded.
Yeah, um, yeah.
So game number four I love thisone, and so do the students.
It's probably one of ourfavorite nighttime camp games is
leader hunt, and there's somany different ways you can do
it.
I'm going to give you the basicskeleton of how to play it, and
then you can add all thetoppings on top and make it as
(17:44):
fun as you want.
So, like we have done themedleader hunts where, like, say,
we did a candy themed wintercamp and leader hunt, all the
leaders that went and hid weredifferent Candyland characters.
I was Grandma Nut, the peanutbrittle lady, ok, and I had a
(18:07):
Grandma Nut costume and I wasout in the freezing cold hiding
from kids and they had like agame card and they were almost
like Candyland.
Like they were looking forgrandma nut, they were looking
for the lollipop girl, they werelooking for a licorice guy,
they were looking for do thosehave names?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
grandma, that's the only one I know that has a name.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I doesn't matter, whatever princess frostine she's
the ice cream girl up at thetop anyways and we all dressed
up in costumes and hid around.
And then the team started tolike search for us and then
bring us their game card and wewould either stamp it or sign it
or put like a special stickeron it.
(18:47):
And when they collected all thegame pieces from the leaders
that were hiding.
Then they brought it back toKing Candy, who was in the room,
and they won you know, and sothat was really fun.
Again, they love scurryingaround at night.
We have done ones before wherekids have to bring leaders back
like literally like a deadanimal.
To bring leaders back likeliterally like a dead animal,
(19:10):
like carry them like by theirarms and legs and bring them
back, and they get a point forevery leader they bring back.
That was pretty fun.
Um, you know you could.
If you didn't have time totheme it, you could just have
leaders hide out there and thendo one very special leader, like
(19:30):
we did this before, there waslike a where's Waldo kind of
leader.
So there was all these leadershidden in places and you know
you could have students take aselfie with them.
You could have students signthe, have them sign the thing.
But then if they find Waldo andWaldo costumes are super simple
and cheap.
You know you could figure outwhat is the prize for that, like
(19:52):
, is that an automatic win or isthat worth three liters?
Or they get like a goldenticket and then they get to turn
it in for free ice cream later.
You know there's so many likefun ways you can round it out,
but leader hunts at night aresuper fun.
I remember when you and I wentto Forest Home, that camp, we
(20:15):
would like dress up.
I remember being like You'reFrench or something yeah, French
.
And like just running aroundmessing with kids.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I don't remember what my character was.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And they would try to find us.
Or like you can have someleaders detour them Like oh no,
I know where Waldo is and he'sover there.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I think that's what my role was I could stop them
and make them do random tasks orwhatever.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
That's the room where I was doing it yes, and so if
you capture him, it's like'slike okay, you have to like kind
of like the jailer we weretalking about the other game,
like you can't go on until youdo.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, make a pyramid, right.
Well, how did?
We both think of because it'slike one of the most classic.
No, this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Um, yeah, and then they can go on their way or
whatever like that, and then youcould have some leaders.
Like if you just had a lot ofleaders, some, yeah, you send
them out to sabotage or like,give false information or
something like.
Oh, are you looking for waldo?
I swear, I just saw him.
He he's in the cafe and he'sdrinking a cappuccino.
(21:28):
Hurt, you're going to miss him.
So you could just play it upand at camp.
I feel like that's kind of thefun time to pull out the theme,
pull out the costume, like pullout the characters.
Some of my best characters havebeen played at camps and events
and kids get so into it andthey love like I mean, you could
(21:49):
just hide in your normalclothes, but it would be way
more fun to be a character, whynot?
Why not, hey friend.
I just wanted to interrupt thisepisode for a second to let you
know about an awesomeopportunity for you and your
youth ministry.
So last year we launched ourcourse and coaching program
called Youth Ministry GrowthAccelerator and the response has
(22:10):
been amazing.
So we've helped tons of youthpastors grow the size and health
of their youth ministry and wewant to invite you to be a part
of that as well, because maybeyou're just sort of feeling
stuck in a rut.
Maybe you don't know what to donext.
Maybe you just have a vagueplan in your mind of what you're
doing and you want some realhelp to get you from where you
(22:31):
are to where you want to go.
So if that sounds likesomething you've been looking
for, go togrowyouryouthministrycom and
check it out for more details.
All right, let's get back tothe episode.
And lastly, our favoritepredator when you edit that, can
you put some sound effectsthere?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
sure why not.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Thanks, it'll be uh it'll be a surprise predator,
okay.
So this is really only fun,played in the dark at night,
sometimes, like I stall to waitfor the sun to go down so we can
get started on Predator.
So Predator, I don't know.
(23:13):
Guys, I've been doing youthministry for 21 years.
Never goes out of style.
They love it.
It's not like oh well, back inthe day, when kids were simpler,
you know they liked Predator.
No, it's their favorite.
So basically, two teams you geta card we just print out.
I just copy paste some googleimage and put it on a piece of
(23:37):
paper and copy it and cut it.
So like I think I've given theexample we did uh, crocs versus
stocks birkenstocks, yeah,clever stanley's versus awal,
you know, whatever they're intokind of makes it fun.
You put those on the card.
Half the kids get Stanley's,half the kids get all wallows.
(23:58):
And then you give them a headstart.
They go outside and hide andthen again leaders get the
weapons, the balls, the socks,the, the noodles and then they
go out and hunt for the kids andif they hit them like and I
always tell the kids this isn'tlike dodgeball rules, like if
you catch it it doesn't matter-you're still out if it touches
(24:20):
you in any way, you're out.
So then they, the students,surrender their predator card to
the leader who got them andthen they're out.
They have to go back to theroom and then this is the least
amount of hits wins.
So the leaders when the roundis over, all the leaders come in
and put their cards down on thestage in two piles awala's,
(24:42):
stanley's we count them up andthe lowest score wins, because
that's the least amount of hitsand it's super duper fun.
The kids, I think, a they lovethe hiding aspect, b, they love
to try to outsmart the leadersand they love to.
I think they just love to bechased, right, they don't like
doing the chasing all the time,they like to be chased.
(25:03):
So this game lets them do thatand it never gets old.
They love, love it.
So that is five night games,yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
And if you want the other five for 10 total, just
like I said, email us atministrycoachpodcast at gmailcom
and just put night games in thesubject or description or just
click on the link in thedescription below and it'll show
you how to download that.
Okay, let's do a communitycomment of the day.
Okay, this comes from Salem'sLife, who says I'm very
appreciative of your videos.
I'm sure they will continue tohelp me on my journey where it
(25:34):
leads me.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Oh, thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Salem's Life.
Yes, thank you guys forwatching and listening and we'll
see you next time.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Today we are talking about night games Super fun
night games.
Today we super fun night games.
Today we are talking aboutsuper fun night games that you
can play with your youth groupin the dark.
We are talking about fiveoutdoor in the dark games that
your students are gonna love inyouth.
Today we're talking about super fun night games for
you to play with your youthgroup.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we
give you weekly tips andtactics to help you fast track
the growth and health of youryouth ministry.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
My name is Jeff Lascola and this is Kristen,
kristen Laskola, and it's timefor a game episode.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It's summertime the weather's warm Well, depending
on what time of the year you'rewatching this.
But it's summer right now aswe're recording this, and so
nighttime games make total sense.
Yeah, they do Summer camp, youcan have the nighttime games.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I love a midweek night summer camp game.
So fun.
We like to play a night wintercamp game too.
It's pretty fun, pretty cold,but it's a good time.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
We got five of them for you today, but if you email
us at ministrycoachpodcast atgmailcom and ask for night games
, we have five more.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
So you'll get 10 total, or you can just go in the
description below.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Click on the link and it'll give you all the info on
how to download it.
Yes, and number one is not likesome whoa I've never heard of
capture the flag before.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Oops, I said it capture the flag, but it's a
glow-in-the-dark version ofcapture the flag, which is super
fun to play outside at summercamp at night, if you have a
field.
I'm very jealous if you have afield, because we do not, but
you could play in the parkinglot.
Wouldn't that be fun?
That's what we have to do.
Or if you're at the beach or,you know, at camp and they have
some kind of facility, we'regonna link that below.
(01:36):
I actually bought the glow inthe dark, capture the flag set.
One year I had extra money inmy budget and I was like this
looks fun, let's give it a try.
So it's just kind of a twist ona game kids already know and it
just adds that extra little, Ifeel like for junior hires,
especially anything done atnight or in the dark.
There's just a level ofexcitement or something there,
(01:59):
and even for high schoolers too.
But yes, glow in the dark,capture, capture the flag, and
you know what I just thought of.
They make these frisbees thatblink as well, and that's super
fun for ultimate frisbee, yeah,so, um, yeah, I, I mean we don't
play in pitch black, by the waylike we don't want people like
(02:22):
we had a kid lose a toothbecause he collided with another
kid's forehead.
Yes, we did, and as far as Iknow, that tooth is still gone
gone.
Every time I saw him after thateven when he was an adult,
because this was a long time agostill no tooth.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So it's in the other kid's forehead, so it's just
permanently there, so just do aquick rundown for those you
don't know how to play.
Capture the flag like how doyou play that?
Speaker 1 (02:48):
so everyone knows how to play.
Capture the flag.
If you, then you shouldn't bein youth ministry.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
You can skip to number two.
If you don't know how to play,fine, I'll do it really fast
okay, two teams.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
They're on opposite sides of the field.
There is a line in the middleto divide one side from the
other.
Each side has a flag that isprotected by a safety zone.
The point is you have to crossthe boundary to the other side's
territory, capture their flagyou're safe in the safety zone
and run it back across the lineback into your territory without
(03:20):
getting tagged.
If you get tagged, you go tojail.
Someone from your team can goacross and try to rescue you if
they make it.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
And they rescue you by tagging the person in the
jail.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Yeah, you get a free walk back with them, but they
don't get a free walk to thejail, obviously, or the emcee of
the game can call jailbreak andeveryone in jail has a free
walk back to their territory.
The most points wins, the mostsuccessful flags retrieved and
brought back to your territorywins.
So very fun.
It's classic PE type of game,camp game, youth group game.
(03:57):
But just yeah, an extra funthing to do A light-up version.
I shouldn't call itglow-in-the-dark, it's actually
like a light-up version which ispretty cool.
And I think here's why I likethis game for at night, because
obviously this isn'tgroundbreaking news.
Capture the flag.
But the reason it's better atnight, especially if you're
playing beyond elementary schoolage kids it's so hard to cross
(04:21):
enemy lines like students juststand at the line and it's like
I see you like and I'm going totag you, and it can be a very
low scoring game.
It's very hard to get that flagacross, so when it's dark it's
just adds an extra level ofsneakiness and invisibility,
which will make it a moreexciting game, higher scoring
(04:45):
game and easier to cross thatboundary line because you're
hidden a little bit more inplain sight kind of thing.
But like we try to play a gamesimilar to this in our
auditorium, we turn the lightskind of down low, but it is
based on our numbers too.
The more kids you have, it'sjust hard to cross that boundary
line.
So this makes it more fun.
(05:05):
Number two is one of my believeit or not adult leaders
favorite games.
We play this at our leaderretreat every single year and,
yes, we're all adults and welove this game.
It is sardines.
So sardines is a really fungame to play and you can play it
outside on a summer night.
(05:25):
It is super, super fun.
So basically, I think, thiswould work best for a youth
group kind of in that 20 to 40range or below.
If you have a youth grouplarger than 40, I would not
recommend this game.
Just save it for your leaderretreat, you know, because we're
a group of like 25.
It works great for us.
(05:53):
So basically you pick oneperson to go and hide and
everyone else stays in adesignated location and they
close their eyes and they countand then they go and disperse
and try to find that personwho's hiding, and when you find
them, you don't like announce it, you hide with them and so the
last person like sometimes it'skind of scary because you're
(06:16):
like why is it so?
quiet.
Oh my gosh, where is everybody?
And you realize, shoot, shoot,they're all hiding, right, and
so if you're the last person tohide with the group, then you
are out, or like you lose, andif you want, you can be the one
to hide next time.
Sometimes I think with studentsthat doesn't totally work,
(06:39):
because if they want to be theperson hiding, then they won't
be motivated to find anyone.
Because they want to be theperson hiding, then they won't
be motivated to find anyonebecause they want to be the last
person.
So for students, I wouldn'treally recommend doing it that
way.
It's like I've been around theblock a few times, I know how
you people work, so you couldjust, you know, designate.
Like you could just pick aperson Okay, who's going next,
(07:01):
and it has nothing to do withwho found them last and then you
could say at the end of thegame, like if you were never the
last person to find the group,you get a piece of candy and
like that would be a motivator.
So you could do something like,oh, if they're the last person,
you mark their hand and youknow, if they come out and they
don't have any marks, I don'tknow, be creative, but it's a
(07:23):
super fun game.
You can play it inside too.
We play it in like this, likepretty large cabin up in the
mountains and it's very dark andquiet up there.
So it's very scary and, hey,I'll be vulnerable and my
leaders know this.
They make fun of me.
I am afraid of the dark there.
I said said it, I'm a grownperson and I am.
(07:46):
When we play in the cabin it isso dark.
I just like stand in one spotor I like sit on the floor and
they're, like chris said get outof the way, because I'm like I
am not walking up that staircasein pitch black and if you don't
know the location super, superwell, like your own house, you'd
be able to find your waythrough it.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
But if there's kind of like a I don't really know
this place, it makes it thatmuch more you know difficult to
navigate through there and onetime I was it and I hid behind
this chair and like nobody couldfind me.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It was like this big rocking chair, but like not
wooden it was like a lazy boy,kind of rocking chair, and I was
back there there forever and Iheard everyone like that.
You hear them talking about you, but they don't know.
I'm right here.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
What were they saying ?
Speaker 1 (08:31):
They were like Kristen's the goat at this game.
They did.
Asher said that I stillremember.
So, yeah, you could play insidethe church this again.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
This game is best suited for a smaller youth group
so that's the one and only timeI've ever gotten poison oak was
playing this game really yeah,it was really bad too oh well,
be careful playing it at camp.
You don't know where you'rewalking.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, true true, true , we used to play it in college
too.
I think it's a really fun youngadult type game.
Yeah, junior hires, I think,would like it.
Don't know if I totally trustthem.
You know hiding around in thedark, but you know your kids
better than I do.
All right, number four, three,three, thank you.
I'm glad you're here.
(09:21):
You really have a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I can count Number three.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
We just compliment each other's weaknesses.
Okay, this one is definitely.
You could play it with a biggroup or a small group, doesn't
matter.
So so, so fun.
It's called Operation NightScramble, I didn't name it, so
if you don't like, the name,change it.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
But the other ones you have to stick with the names
, but this one you can change.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
You have my permission.
So basically, you need a lot ofglow sticks, like a lot, a lot,
a lot, a lot, hundreds andhundreds of glow sticks.
Whenever you think you haveenough glow sticks, add another
hundred, because you need more,always for this game to be fun.
So obviously you're going tobreak them and shake them, and
(10:11):
so what I usually do is I keepall the students in the
auditorium while I'm explainingit and all the leaders go out
and they start hiding the glowsticks.
So you send the leaders out tohide your hundreds of glow
sticks and like you can do itoutside obviously, and I say,
don't bury them, like you're notsending them on a treasure hunt
(10:32):
.
You scatter them.
Maybe you put a few in a treeor a few up on a table, like you
can put them around, but theyshould be in plain sight,
because it's already dark and,trust me, you don't want
competitive students diggingthrough stuff.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
They will destroy everything.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
So you put out a ton of glow sticks, then the leaders
spread out and they are armedand dangerous.
Okay, they are armed verysimilarly to our game predator,
which I'm going to talk about ina second.
So our favorite weapons ofchoice classic dodgeball.
Um, please use soft dodgeballsif you're throwing them at
(11:10):
people, Because when kids gethit in the face, especially at
the velocity that a leader isthrowing them like I've had kids
who wear glasses and it hitstheir face and could break their
glasses or hits your nosereally hard and it hurts.
So just I would recommend thesofter gator skin, rhino skin
(11:31):
type of balls.
It's worth investing in a setof those side note.
Okay, so the leaders eitherhave a dodge ball, a foam pool
noodle or the sock weapon.
The sock weapon, Again, it'sone long like tube sock with
another sock balled up at thefoot of it, at the toe part, and
(11:53):
then you tie off the top andyou swing it like a medieval
weapon and get it all nice andstretched out and then you like
whip soccer socks make great.
You know socks for that yeah,and so it's like you can hit
them like with a sock weapon nomatter how hard you hit someone,
it's not going to hurt.
Pull noodles.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Challenge accepted.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Really don't hurt.
So those are all good options,especially sometimes when you
throw balls at kids and you missis to try to get as many glow
but they need labels on them sothey see their bucket says sixth
(12:53):
grade girls or just sixth grade.
They put the glow sticks inthere.
If they're holding glow sticksand they get whacked by a leader
, they have to surrender all theglow sticks.
And then you can decide herewhether you want them to be out
and they like go to like a jailsituation, or they're out for
the round or all they have to dois surrender their glow sticks
(13:16):
and then they can keep going.
It depends how, what type ofversion you like to play.
I feel like different youthpastors like different outs for
different reasons.
If you do send them to just ajail kind of situation, then I
think it's really fun to have ajail keeper and it's a fun
leader who lets them out of jailif they complete some fun
(13:38):
challenges.
Like if I were the jail keeper,I would say for instance, for
example, I would say do theMacarena four times, or say the
alphabet in reverse, or do thechicken dance jumping on one leg
, do 10 push-ups, like I don'tknow.
(14:00):
You can make them do funnythings, make them write you a
poem, like whatever you want todo, and then, once they do that,
you can say, okay, you can goback out now.
So it just kind of puts them ina timeout.
So then you call like when thetime is up.
You know, I would say like afour minute round, three to four
(14:21):
minutes.
Again, that depends on how manystudents you have.
If you have a lot of students,you could play a longer round, a
little bit of students, youmight want to do a two minute
round.
Then you count up the glowsticks.
Whichever team has the mostglow sticks in their bucket
obviously wins.
We play multiple rounds.
So then we send the leaders outand they re-hide the glow
sticks and we do it all overagain.
(14:42):
That one is super duper fun,and there's something so cool
about just seeing, like when thelights are off or when it's
dark, and you just see like asea of neon glow sticks all over
the floor, the street, theparking lot, the bushes,
whatever it's.
It's pretty fun, it's like acool experience when they bring
them back, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
they can only.
Each student can only bring oneback at a time.
I think that's a rule you might, might be right.
So if they did get like stopped.
They had to surrender just one.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
I mean, I guess you could play.
Sorry to interrupt, but I guessyou could play where they can
get multiple ones.
But I feel like if you do itone at a time, the game lasts a
little bit longer.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah.
So that's up to you.
You could say you can onlyretrieve one glow stick at a
time and or you could say, allright, do your best, see how
many you can get.
If you get hit, you surrenderthem all.
It's up to you.
If you need, you know to buymore time instead of just like
one kid, grabbing like 20 andputting them in the basket.
You know, it's up to you.
(15:41):
I feel like some of those likesmaller nuances of a game.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It's like when you're a youth, what fits best for you
?
I was going to say when you'rea youth, what fits best for you?
Speaker 1 (15:50):
yeah, I was gonna say when you're a youth pastor
listening to this, you can siftthrough like uh yes, but I would
do this, or oh no, thatwouldn't work because of this
and that depends on yourbuilding, your space, your
students, your size.
There's a lot of things sidenote.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
That's all the more reason we talk about this a lot
of times.
But to keep a game log, becausethere's always those little
things that happen.
You're're like this was fun,but yeah.
And then, if you don't write itdown, you won't remember it,
and the next time you playyou're like oh, that's right.
I know I should have done thisand so make sure you keep track
every time you play a game.
Maybe it's just like this gamewas horrible.
We'll never play again.
Oh, yeah Again, or it's likethis we let the kids take
(16:27):
multiple glow sticks or whatever.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Yeah, and you can adjust per round.
I do that sometimes, right inthe middle of the game, I'll
like look at my leaders.
I'll be like, hey, this isn'tworking, like we played a game
last Tuesday that we learned thehard way.
Students can't come back infront of bases one and three.
They have to stay behind oneand three, or else they catch
(16:51):
the buns way too quick.
You know like we adjust on thefly, like that and it's and
because students will alsoquickly find the loopholes.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, any game they do and you can't foresee all of
these things, and so sometimes,yeah, on the fly, you have to
say hold on from now on.
You can't Exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Whatever, or I'll act like it was always a part of
the plan.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
I'll be like all right, Are you ready for this
round?
Yes, I'm like all right Roundtwo.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Here's what we're going to do.
You thought that was hard.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Now listen to this.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
You are going to be blindfolded.
Yeah, um, yeah.
So game number four I love thisone, and so do the students.
It's probably one of ourfavorite nighttime camp games is
leader hunt, and there's somany different ways you can do
it.
I'm going to give you the basicskeleton of how to play it, and
then you can add all thetoppings on top and make it as
(17:44):
fun as you want.
So, like we have done themedleader hunts where, like, say,
we did a candy themed wintercamp and leader hunt, all the
leaders that went and hid weredifferent Candyland characters.
I was Grandma Nut, the peanutbrittle lady, ok, and I had a
(18:07):
Grandma Nut costume and I wasout in the freezing cold hiding
from kids and they had like agame card and they were almost
like Candyland.
Like they were looking forgrandma nut, they were looking
for the lollipop girl, they werelooking for a licorice guy,
they were looking for do thosehave names?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
grandma, that's the only one I know that has a name.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I doesn't matter, whatever princess frostine she's
the ice cream girl up at thetop anyways and we all dressed
up in costumes and hid around.
And then the team started tolike search for us and then
bring us their game card and wewould either stamp it or sign it
or put like a special stickeron it.
(18:47):
And when they collected all thegame pieces from the leaders
that were hiding.
Then they brought it back toKing Candy, who was in the room,
and they won you know, and sothat was really fun.
Again, they love scurryingaround at night.
We have done ones before wherekids have to bring leaders back
like literally like a deadanimal.
To bring leaders back likeliterally like a dead animal,
(19:10):
like carry them like by theirarms and legs and bring them
back, and they get a point forevery leader they bring back.
That was pretty fun.
Um, you know you could.
If you didn't have time totheme it, you could just have
leaders hide out there and thendo one very special leader, like
(19:30):
we did this before, there waslike a where's Waldo kind of
leader.
So there was all these leadershidden in places and you know
you could have students take aselfie with them.
You could have students signthe, have them sign the thing.
But then if they find Waldo andWaldo costumes are super simple
and cheap.
You know you could figure outwhat is the prize for that, like
(19:52):
, is that an automatic win or isthat worth three liters?
Or they get like a goldenticket and then they get to turn
it in for free ice cream later.
You know there's so many likefun ways you can round it out,
but leader hunts at night aresuper fun.
I remember when you and I wentto Forest Home, that camp, we
(20:15):
would like dress up.
I remember being like You'reFrench or something yeah, French
.
And like just running aroundmessing with kids.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
I don't remember what my character was.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And they would try to find us.
Or like you can have someleaders detour them Like oh no,
I know where Waldo is and he'sover there.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
I think that's what my role was I could stop them
and make them do random tasks orwhatever.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
That's the room where I was doing it yes, and so if
you capture him, it's like'slike okay, you have to like kind
of like the jailer we weretalking about the other game,
like you can't go on until youdo.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Yeah, make a pyramid, right.
Well, how did?
We both think of because it'slike one of the most classic.
No, this is crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Um, yeah, and then they can go on their way or
whatever like that, and then youcould have some leaders.
Like if you just had a lot ofleaders, some, yeah, you send
them out to sabotage or like,give false information or
something like.
Oh, are you looking for waldo?
I swear, I just saw him.
He he's in the cafe and he'sdrinking a cappuccino.
(21:28):
Hurt, you're going to miss him.
So you could just play it upand at camp.
I feel like that's kind of thefun time to pull out the theme,
pull out the costume, like pullout the characters.
Some of my best characters havebeen played at camps and events
and kids get so into it andthey love like I mean, you could
(21:49):
just hide in your normalclothes, but it would be way
more fun to be a character, whynot?
Why not, hey friend.
I just wanted to interrupt thisepisode for a second to let you
know about an awesomeopportunity for you and your
youth ministry.
So last year we launched ourcourse and coaching program
called Youth Ministry GrowthAccelerator and the response has
(22:10):
been amazing.
So we've helped tons of youthpastors grow the size and health
of their youth ministry and wewant to invite you to be a part
of that as well, because maybeyou're just sort of feeling
stuck in a rut.
Maybe you don't know what to donext.
Maybe you just have a vagueplan in your mind of what you're
doing and you want some realhelp to get you from where you
(22:31):
are to where you want to go.
So if that sounds likesomething you've been looking
for, go togrowyouryouthministrycom and
check it out for more details.
All right, let's get back tothe episode.
And lastly, our favoritepredator when you edit that, can
you put some sound effectsthere?
Speaker 2 (22:50):
sure why not.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
Thanks, it'll be uh it'll be a surprise predator,
okay.
So this is really only fun,played in the dark at night,
sometimes, like I stall to waitfor the sun to go down so we can
get started on Predator.
So Predator, I don't know.
(23:13):
Guys, I've been doing youthministry for 21 years.
Never goes out of style.
They love it.
It's not like oh well, back inthe day, when kids were simpler,
you know they liked Predator.
No, it's their favorite.
So basically, two teams you geta card we just print out.
I just copy paste some googleimage and put it on a piece of
(23:37):
paper and copy it and cut it.
So like I think I've given theexample we did uh, crocs versus
stocks birkenstocks, yeah,clever stanley's versus awal,
you know, whatever they're intokind of makes it fun.
You put those on the card.
Half the kids get Stanley's,half the kids get all wallows.
(23:58):
And then you give them a headstart.
They go outside and hide andthen again leaders get the
weapons, the balls, the socks,the, the noodles and then they
go out and hunt for the kids andif they hit them like and I
always tell the kids this isn'tlike dodgeball rules, like if
you catch it it doesn't matter-you're still out if it touches
(24:20):
you in any way, you're out.
So then they, the students,surrender their predator card to
the leader who got them andthen they're out.
They have to go back to theroom and then this is the least
amount of hits wins.
So the leaders when the roundis over, all the leaders come in
and put their cards down on thestage in two piles awala's,
(24:42):
stanley's we count them up andthe lowest score wins, because
that's the least amount of hitsand it's super duper fun.
The kids, I think, a they lovethe hiding aspect, b, they love
to try to outsmart the leadersand they love to.
I think they just love to bechased, right, they don't like
doing the chasing all the time,they like to be chased.
(25:03):
So this game lets them do thatand it never gets old.
They love, love it.
So that is five night games,yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
And if you want the other five for 10 total, just
like I said, email us atministrycoachpodcast at gmailcom
and just put night games in thesubject or description or just
click on the link in thedescription below and it'll show
you how to download that.
Okay, let's do a communitycomment of the day.
Okay, this comes from Salem'sLife, who says I'm very
appreciative of your videos.
I'm sure they will continue tohelp me on my journey where it
(25:34):
leads me.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Oh, thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Salem's Life.
Yes, thank you guys forwatching and listening and we'll
see you next time.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Today we are talking about night games Super fun
night games.
Today we super fun night games.
Today we are talking aboutsuper fun night games that you
can play with your youth groupin the dark.
We are talking about fiveoutdoor in the dark games that
your students are gonna love inyouth.
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