Multipurpose Youth Worker: Gym Teacher

Youth Pastor As: Gym Teacher

If you are one of the lucky youth workers whose church has a gym, then you know how often the students want to use that gym. A gym is a great place for the students to spread out, have fun, and use up energy. Plus, a gym can give you some leeway time at the beginning of a youth event, since students can just play games until all the students arrive.

However, aside from few boys that want to play a serious basketball game, most students need to be prodded and directed into a game in the gym. That is when the youth worker must become a gym teacher. You must pick a game, pick teams, and direct/referee the game.

What You Need To Know

• Pick Games Everyone Will Like. Just because the most vocal students like dodgeball does not mean everyone else will. Your goal is to get all the students involved in a game, which means the game needs to be something most, if not all, can get excited about.
• Games are For the Students. When I worked at a summer camp, we had a rarely-followed mantra “Camp is for the Campers,” implying that camp was not for the counselors. In the same way, the games are for the students, not the youth leaders and volunteers. If you are playing a game just so you can dominate and pummel the Jr. High students, then you are playing for the wrong reasons. Only play to promote involvement in the game or if the sides are uneven.

Where to Find More Information

• Youth Specialties released a series of 3 books called Ideas: Games.
• The Source for Youth Ministry has a list of Big Room Games.
• Tim at Life in Student Ministry has a whole category of game ideas.