Embracing the Mess

Embracing the Mess 2.0 – A low-cost and disgustingly good time

Please note: This post originally was made available in the summer of 2012 at http://clbnetwork.org/2012/08/13/embracing-the-mess/ The following is a slightly updated version of that post with new game ideas.

I know a few of our churches do an annual disgusting messy event. When I served on the west coast it was called Messy Night and I know a church on the east coast that calls it Dress for the Mess. Whatever you call it, it sure is a once a year event.

For me, I use it to meet new kids, to have fun and to simply say that often life is messy and that God doesn’t call us to run from the mess but that He has a plan through it…

With all that said, here is a list of games I gathered from many of our peers and from a few other websites. Feel free to claim them as your own.

Options to begin: I start by making 5 teams of equal size which students are a part of for team events. The overall competition is an individual competition.

Rules

o Record Scores on white board after each event
 You will get a score if you participate
 Team events count for your individual score

o Each event is optional though if a team event, try to be a part of a team
o After every event I’ll give students a moment to update your score and to clean up a bit

Events and their objectives and rules

1. Frozen t-shirts
   1. Objective is for a team to get the shirt out of the ice and to get the shirt on one of their contestants
   2. Points given for order of completioni. 5,4,3,2,1
2. Chocolate Sauce Duck Duck Goose
   1. This is an individual event
   2. Objective: While playing duck duck goose take a Dixie cup of fudge and crack it on someone’s head
   3. Points given as follows

i. 1 point for playing

ii. 2 points for cracking it on someone

iii. 3 points if it gets cracked on you

3. Worms in a bucket w/ coins
   1. Objective: Individual contestants have 30 seconds to grab as many pennies as they can from the bucket filled with mud and worms
   2. They will be awarded 1 point for every coin they find
4. Rock/Paper/Scissors:
   1. The winner of each round advances to the next round and each time they win they get to smash whipped cream into the loser’s face
   2. Points given for final standings: 5,4,3,2,1
5. Classic Egg Toss
   1. Points given for final standings: 5,4,3,2,1

6. Stockings and flour wars
   1. Each student gets a stocking filled with flour and has to use it like a sling shot.They must keep track of how many hits they receive.
   2. For each hit, they get 1 point
7. Chocolate Pudding Eating competition:
   1. We blindfolded the students and told them they would have to eat chocolate pudding but when they opened their eyes, it was pudding but served in a diaper.
   2. Points given for final standings: 5,4,3,2,1
8. Steal the bacon
   1. This is a team event
   2. Two teams compete and whichever team gets 10 steals, gets 10 points and the other team gets 5 steals
   3. Students are numbered off on both teams and caller calls out numbers to steal the bacon
9. Condiment Twister
   1. Classic Twister rules on a tarp using condiments in place of colors
   2. Points given for final standings: 5,4,3,2,1
10. Whipped Head and Cereal
    1. Individuals partner up
    2. One partner places whip cream on the others head
    3. Partner then has 1 minute to drop cereal on partners head while partner sits on ground.
    4. Dropping must be from their eye level
    5. Points given for five highest scores: 5,4,3,2,1

11. Mashed Potato Launch:
    1. Teams of 5
    2. 3 team mates operate the sling shot
    3. Each team gets 3 attempts
    4. Each team earns 2 points for each that they have one of their other two players catch
12. Slip and slide everything that’s left
    1. 5 points do successfully get through the sludge

13. Jello filled water balloons
14. Bobbing for onions in slime – relay in teams
15. BBQ Relay- students split up into teams. Set up a giant tarp with tons and tons of sauces all over the place… put items needed for a barbeque on the tarp, team members must pick up items with their elbows and bring it back to their team.
16. Water Balloon Helmet Bust – Have students form two teams and have each team select a hat wearer. Give each team their water balloons and the hat. When they’re ready, have hat wearers put their hats on, and stand fifteen feet from their teams. Then, instruct teams to toss water balloons at their hat wearer. Hat wearers must pop the water balloons using only the pins in their hats. Have another youth leader help you keep track of how many balloons are popped.
17. Spin and Spew – Place cups full of mouth wash on a table at one end of the room or field. Divide students up into relay teams at the opposite end. Students run to table put mouth wash in their mouths and pick up the bat. Place one end of the bat to their forehead, other end on the ground, and spin around eight times. Then they run back to their team where they spit any remaining contents that have not spewed out into the cup or bowl. The team that gets the most contents into their cup is the winner.
18. Fill straws up with Jello and let harden. When you slide the Jello out of the straws they look like worms.
19. Food Guessing Games: Last year I wanted to try the Gross Domestic Product from The Source for youth ministry web site but didn’t get a chance to. My teens still talk about when I gave one kid a bowl of mayo and the the others got ice cream.
20. Kool-aid relay: Race to fill up a bucket with Kool-aid passing a sponge overhead then between legs and wringing it out into a container in the back of the line. Person at end runs to front to refill sponge and send it over and under again. Game ends when bucket is full.
21. I would affirm purchasing YUCK which comes in small jars and bags and when mixed with water over a 24-hour period expands to large amounts of slime. The company that sells it offers this catalog to download http://www.buckets-o-fun.com/yuckgames.pdf You can buy it at http://www.buckets-o-fun.com
22. Some of our friends in youth ministry in the CLBA have offered the following ideas this year (I spied on them on Facebook)

a. Kool Aid Drinking Race- Have two or more teams and fill pitchers with kool aid (no sugar=really gross) and have the team drink with their own straws.

2. Drip, Drip, Drop (Duck Duck Goose) with chocolate sauce/strawberry sauce (really fun)
3. Wet/Dry Fill buckets with wet or dry ingredients and have kid pick a bucket without seeing in it and decide if its wet or dry, if they’re wrong dump on their head, if they’re right they dump on someone else’s head.
4. Pop”sick”les- Buy old school popsicle makers at dollar tree and fill with condiments and random stuff from church refrigerator and freeze
5. Melissa Benson shared this picture https://www.facebook.com/photo.phpfbid=10152916332230361&set=a.90636615360.156284.641215360&type=1&theater and this picture a few weeks ago https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152866026015361&set=a.9063661 5360.156284.641215360&type=1&theater
6. The folks at the SOURCE for Youth Ministry have a link up at http://www.thesource4ym.com/eventideas/Event.aspx?id=45 that has some new ideas as well.