Board Games for Church Groups and Youth Groups

Good board games for church groups solve a specific problem: a room of people who range from twelve to eighty, who mostly know each other a little, and who need something to do together that is not another icebreaker. The games below are sorted by group size and setting, from a small group in a living room to a fellowship hall with forty people and folding tables.

Two assumptions run through this guide. First, the games should be ones anyone can join mid-evening without a long teach. Second, the content should be comfortable for a mixed-age room, which rules out some popular party games without making the list dull.

What does a church game night need that a regular one doesn’t?

Most game-night advice assumes a group of friends with similar ages and a host who owns the games. Church and youth groups are different in a few ways that change which games work.

• Mixed ages. A game that a 14-year-old and a 70-year-old can play together, and both enjoy, is rarer than it sounds. Games that run on conversation and judgment rather than speed or trivia work best.
• Fluid attendance. People arrive late and leave early. Games with short rounds that allow drop-in players beat long games with fixed seats.
• Varying familiarity. Some attendees play games weekly. Some have not played anything since childhood. Games should be easy to learn and hard to feel stupid at.
• Content. The group’s standards will vary, but the safest choice is games where the content comes from the players’ own answers rather than from cards that might be edgy.
• Budget. Churches rarely have a games budget. A few versatile games that cover many group sizes beat a closet of single-purpose ones.

Which games work for a small group of 6 to 10?

Small groups, Bible study groups, and young adult groups often meet in homes. The room is a living room, the table seats six, and the evening has a social half and a discussion half. Games here should be short and conversational.

• Codenames is the single best game for this setting. Two teams, one-word clues, and the whole table talking. It handles eight well, and people who arrive late can join a team without any explanation. For a group that meets repeatedly, Codenames is nearly endlessly replayable.
• Wavelength gives one player a hidden target on a spectrum (say, “hot” to “cold”) and asks them to give a clue that lands their team on it. It runs entirely on opinions, which makes it a surprisingly good way to learn what people actually think.
• Just One is cooperative. One player guesses a word; everyone else writes a one-word clue, but duplicate clues get removed. It is gentle, funny, and nobody loses alone.
• The Crew suits a group that wants to sit down and concentrate for thirty minutes. It is a cooperative trick-taking game. If several people know Euchre or Spades, they will pick it up immediately.

For youth groups specifically, Codenames and Wavelength get the most mileage. Teenagers who are reluctant to talk in a discussion will shout a Wavelength answer without thinking about it.

Which games scale to a youth group of 15 to 25?

Youth groups are louder, more energetic, and more likely to have a cluster of kids who do not want to look too interested. Games should be fast, forgiving, and involve the whole room at once or run at several tables in parallel.

• Telestrations is draw-the-phrase, then guess-the-drawing, passed around the circle. The 12-player edition handles a big group, and the results are reliably funny. It works because being bad at drawing is the point.
• Werewolf (or One Night Ultimate Werewolf) is a social deduction game where a few secret werewolves try to survive the village’s votes. It handles large groups, needs almost no components, and the one-night version plays in ten minutes. Some groups find the werewolf theme a poor fit; the same mechanism exists in many themes, including the card game The Resistance. We covered why these games work in why social deduction games work.
• Codenames at two tables. Split the group and run two games. A leader at each table keeps things moving.
• Sushi Go Party! is a card-drafting game that handles up to eight at a table. Two copies cover a youth group. It teaches in three minutes and plays in twenty.

A practical note: with teenagers, the first ten minutes decide the night. Start the game within five minutes of the official start time, before phones come out. Do not wait for stragglers. They will join.

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What works for a fellowship hall of 30 to 40?

A whole-congregation game night is a different kind of event. The room is big, the ages run from kids to grandparents, and you need structure or it turns into a potluck with unused games on a side table. A few formats that work:

Station rotation. Set up five or six tables, each with one simple game and one person who knows it. Groups rotate every 25 minutes. Good station games: Azul, Ticket to Ride, Qwirkle, Sushi Go Party!, Codenames, Telestrations. This format lets a grandparent and a grandchild sit at the same table, and it gives shy people a reason to move around.

One big game. Wavelength and Codenames can both be run for a whole room by projecting or by using a large board. Split the room into two teams and let the chaos happen. It is loud and it works.

Tournament of a simple game. A bracket of a quick game like Qwirkle or Sushi Go gives the evening a shape and a finish. Keep the prize small and the trash talk kind.

For a detailed plan on the large-room format, see how to run a game night for 40 people.

How do you make the game night last past the first one?

Most church game nights happen once, go well, and never recur because no one owns them. A few things that keep them alive:

1. Name an owner. One person who picks the date, brings the games, and recruits a few table leaders. Not a committee.
2. Put it on the calendar. Monthly, same week, same night. A recurring event survives low attendance in a way a one-off cannot.
3. Teach the teachers. Before the event, spend twenty minutes with your table leaders learning the games. A table leader who has to read the rulebook in front of people loses the table.
4. Buy a few games, not many. Six good games that cover every group size are better than thirty that confuse people. The table above is a reasonable starter library.
5. Invite the people who do not come to things. The game night is the easiest event to invite a new family to. Nobody has to know anyone. The game gives them something to do with their hands and a reason to talk.

FAQ

What is the best board game for a church group?

Codenames. It handles 4 to 8 players at one table, scales to a whole room with two teams, teaches in two minutes, and has nothing in it that will make anyone uncomfortable.

Are there board games for youth groups that don’t need a big budget?

Yes. Werewolf needs only a deck of cards or a free phone app, and Codenames and Wavelength each cost about the price of a pizza. Three games can cover a youth group for a year.

How do you include kids and seniors at the same game night?

Use games that run on conversation and judgment rather than speed, trivia, or dexterity. Wavelength, Just One, and Qwirkle all work across generations. Seat mixed ages at each table on purpose.

How long should a church game night run?

Ninety minutes to two hours. Long enough for a few games or a full station rotation, short enough that families with young kids can come.

Get new game-night ideas

A church game night is one of the few events where a twelve-year-old and an eighty-year-old can sit at the same table as equals. The game is the reason. The people are the point.

Subscribe to The Ludarium newsletter for new game-night ideas, including formats for groups like yours. And if you run a group in the Indianapolis area, we would like to hear what has worked.