16 Fun Indoor Games to Energize Your Youth Group

Youth group games are a part of every church, especially fun outdoor games. But what do you do when the weather is bad or super cold and you just can’t make it outside? That’s where indoor youth group games come into play!

We’ve compiled options for energizing youth group games indoor that can be played with large groups. Youth pastors desire to see their students equipped to change the world for Christ, but that’s challenging when teens are distracted, apathetic, or disconnected.

Students don’t open up to God’s plan for them until they feel accepted, and seen, and are having fun. Enter youth ministry fun games!

Youth ministry games are a great tool to bring students closer and break the ice in your group. And when students feel comfortable with each other, they are more likely to move into leadership within your youth ministry.

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Tips for Great Youth Ministry Games

If you’re like most youth ministry people, you probably have a love/hate relationship with youth group games. They’re a necessary ingredient to an engaging youth service, but between the supplies, the prep, and the instructions, they can take so much effort. So, you end up rotating through the same list of five games. Before you decide on your super fun game, consider these tips as part of your youth ministry strategy to have everyone having fun!

• Have a purpose: Make sure your games have a larger purpose, such as helping students build relationships or live out your church’s mission. For example, you could play a game that helps students understand that they have a mission from God. 
• Create a safe and respectful environment: Let students participate as they like, and communicate your expectations. 
• Control the energy: Match the music to the energy you want to create. For example, pair high-energy songs with high-energy games. 
• Have a great host: A good host can explain instructions clearly and get the group excited. 
• Change the rules: Try playing with a different ball, like a beach ball or a fluorescent ball. You can also create new rules, like requiring that everyone passes the ball before hitting it over the net. 
• Pick games that build a sense of community: Try games that require people to work together or bump into each other. 

Fun Games to Engage Your Youth Group

1. Giants, Wizards, and Elves

Giants, Wizards, and Elves is like rock, paper, scissors, but in different way that involves every student and gets them up and moving!

To win this game, you need to have the most points from winning the most matches, meaning each person playing is never eliminated! This game involves every student and allows everyone to break the ice by doing funny poses and making funny noises.

How to Play: In this game, Giants smash Wizards, Wizards zap Elves, and Elves bite Giant’s ankles and cause them to fall.

2. Change Places If

This is a great option for indoor youth group games and involves very little items to get started.

What You’ll Need

• Chairs (one less than the number of students playing)

How to Play:

1. Sit everyone in a circle of chairs with one student standing.
2. Have that one student call, “Change places if…” Example: “Change places if you have brown hair.”
3. Caller and students who match that call (like students with brown hair) change places as quickly as possible and try to find an empty chair until a student is left without a chair (this could be the caller again).
4. The game continues as long as you’d like with more “Change places if…” statements.

3. Sardines

You don’t need anything other than a large space with lots of hiding spots! This one is a classic youth group game and played at lock-ins quite often.

• Sardines is played exactly like reverse hide-and-seek. Start by giving only one person, “the sardine,” 30 seconds to hide within the playing area.
• After your 30-second countdown, send your group to find the player. But, instead of returning the hiding player to the camp, any students who find them will hide with them.
• Play until all students find the sardine or until time runs out. The first player to find the sardine gets to hide in the next round.

4. Signs

You don’t need any materials to play this fun game!

• Have your group sit or stand in a circle, but you may want to have smaller groups for the first couple of rounds.
• Give everyone a chance to choose their own unique sign, which can be a motion or movement like touching their hair, pulling an ear, or a quick wave.
• Go around the circle and have each player demonstrate their sign.
• Choose one person to start in the center as the “guesser.” Have them close their eyes while you select one person to start the game.
• Once the game starts, the first student must secretly pass the sign by making their own sign and then the sign of the player they’d like to pass to.
• The guesser must try and correctly guess who holds the sign. If the guesser is right, the group chooses a new guesser and plays again.

5. Human Knot

You’ve probably played this classic game before. In this super fun and simple game, form two or more teams in circles and knot together by reaching out and grabbing the hand of another person (first with their left hand, then with their right).

Then, all groups try to untangle themselves without letting go of each other’s hands, and the first to fully untangle themselves is the winner! The group might have to twist around or step over arms or legs, it’s one of many fun youth group games.

6. Board Games Tournament

A board game tournament is an excellent youth activity for building fellowship! Engaging in friendly competition and collaborative play encourages communication, teamwork, and bonding among participants.

Organize a board game tournament with games like Monopoly, Scrabble, Life, etc.! Have your youth bring in their favorite board game from home. Divide the group into teams and let them compete against each other.

Game tournaments provide opportunities for youth to practice good sportsmanship, whether they win or lose. The excitement of competition, the thrill of victory, and the memories made will last a lifetime!

7. Over the mountain

Each player sits in a chair in a circle facing the center. One player stands in the center to start the game.

Whoever is in the center makes a statement that applies to him or her and follows the format “Over the mountain if you have ever/never ___________________.”

For instance, you might say “Over the mountain if you have ever peed in a pool.” Anyone around the circle who can identify with the statement gets up and moves to a new chair. The last one left standing makes the next statement.

This game can reveal some interesting information. Some groups might need to be encouraged to keep it appropriate, but it is typically fun and hilarious.

8. Boppity Bop Bop

Have all participants form a circle facing each other then select one person who is the game leader. This person will start the game and set the pace for the actions.

The leader begins by clapping their hands or tapping a rhythm on their legs while saying “Bippity Boppity Boo” (or “Bobbity Bop Bop”). The rhythm should be fast-paced and catchy.

The game continues with each player taking turns doing the rhythm and saying the phrase. After a few repetitions of the rhythm and phrase, the leader points to another player in the circle. That player must then continue the rhythm and phrase exactly as the leader did. If a player fails to keep up with the rhythm, says the wrong phrase, or hesitates, they are out of the game. The last person remaining is the winner!

9. Pass the emotion

This is a variation of the classic “Hot Potato” game, but instead of passing an object, players pass around an imaginary emotion or feeling.

Have everyone sit in a circle. Play some music or set a timer for a predetermined length of time. Choose an initial emotion or feeling to start with (e.g., excitement, nervousness, laughter). The first player begins by miming or expressing this emotion in some way (e.g., through facial expressions, gestures, or sounds).

As the music, each participant continues to express and pass along the emotion they received from the previous player. After a certain amount of time, pause the music or stop the timer. Choose a new emotion or feeling to start passing around the circle.

Repeat the process, passing different emotions around the circle until everyone has had a chance to participate.

10. Minute to Win It Games

Minute to Win It games are designed to be fast-paced, entertaining, and easy to understand. They involve simple challenges or tasks that can be completed in under a minute, making them perfect for capturing the attention and enthusiasm of youth.

These fun games can be adapted to accommodate various skill levels and abilities, ensuring that everyone in the youth group can participate and feel included. Not every attempt at a Minute to Win It challenge will be successful, but that’s part of the fun!

Games like this will teach youth the importance of perseverance and resilience in the face of setbacks! Set up a series of quick and fun challenges inspired by the TV show “Minute to Win It.” Examples include stacking cups, cookie face, or balloon pop.

11. 4 Corners

All you need for this game is a room with four corners.

• Assign a number to each corner of the room.
• Choose one person to be “it” and have them stand in the center of the room with their eyes closed (or wearing a blindfold).
• Have them count to 20 while everyone else runs to one of the room’s four corners. After the countdown, everyone must freeze.
• The person who’s “it” calls out a number, and everyone in that corner is out.
• Keep playing until a few students or one student wins.

12. Find One in Five

Give your group five seconds to find one person who has something in common with them, but make it something unusual like their shoe size or a place they have traveled. Once they find someone, they yell, “FOUND ONE!” Then do it again, but they must find two people, and so on.

Other possible questions: Find someone who has as many siblings as you, someone whose last name starts with the same letter, or someone whose dad’s name is the same as your dad’s name. This is a great game to get people talking to each other and finding out information they otherwise wouldn’t have known.

13. Heads or Tails

All you need for this game is a single coin.

• Have everyone stand up.
• Ask them to pick heads or tails. If they choose heads, they’ll need to put their hands on their heads. If they choose tails, they must put their hands on their hips.
• Flip the coin.
• If it’s heads, all the heads win and advance to the next round, and the tails are out, or vice versa. Keep playing until one or a few students remain.

14. Five Second Rule

In this fun game, students will have five seconds to name five items related to a random topic.

• Split the room into two teams and select one person from each team to compete.
• Decide which team will go first and then call out a random topic like social media apps, countries in South America, or flavors of ice cream.
• If it is a player’s turn, they have five seconds to name five items in the category.
• If they are successful, they win a point for their team. Otherwise, the point goes to the other team.
• You can play for a specific amount of time or until a team hits seven points.

15. Would You Rather

“Would you Rather” is a fantastic icebreaker game. It’s easy to modify so it has a perfect place amongst faith-based icebreaker games. This is also a game that you can keep going endlessly if you choose to, and it doesn’t require a lot of preparation. 

How to Play

As far as the prep goes, if you want to use materials, write down scenarios on each strip of paper. These scenarios will be the “would you rather” questions. They can range from simple to difficult and then you’ll place these slips of paper into a bowl. 

Good examples include: 

• Live through famine or live through the 10 plagues? 

• Live on the Ark or in an isolated room for the same duration? 
• Be baptized by John or hear Paul speak of Jesus? 

You could have people choose their questions, but that may feel like too much pressure. Prepping questions ahead of time is helpful so people won’t spend too much time on the beginning part of this game. Now when you’re ready for the faith-based icebreaker games to start, have a volunteer pick a slip from the bowl and read it aloud. They should be the first person to answer the question. They can choose to give their reasoning or not. 

Everyone else will also give their answer. This is a great way to generate discussion and even friendly debates. Remember, there are no wrong answers! 

16. Head, Shoulders, Knees, Cup

You can play this simple game with just a few students or with your whole group! All you need are some disposable cups.

• Split everyone into pairs. Put a cup on the floor between each pair.
• Call out a series of commands (“Head! Shoulders! Knees!”) and have the students place their hands on the part of their body you just shouted.
• To end the round, yell, “Cup!” The first person from each pair to grab the cup from the ground wins.
• Keep playing until only one player remains.

Remember to Have Fun!

Whether you have a super large group or a small youth group, the objective is to always have fun. It may seem silly or that these games don’t have a purpose, but they do. By playing together, it creates a sense of community and lets people let loose.

Indoor games are a great way to fill any empty time after a Sunday service. Have a couple of these in your back pocket so that no moment goes wasted.

More Resources on Youth Group Games

• 25 Best Youth Group Games Your Students Will Love
• Church Icebreaker Games: 11 Ideas Guaranteed To Build Community
• 20 Fun and Exciting VBS Games to Try this Summer!
• Engaging Gen Z: Top 5 Digital Tools for Modern Youth Ministry
• 37 Fantastic & Fun Church Fall Festival Games

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