Giant Jenga

Yes, I know giant Jenga has been around for a while, but I've found it to be very versatile in a lot of creative ways. Here are some of my favorites.

Prayer Tower

Invite participants to write a short prayer request on the blocks, then gather the blocks together and build the normal Jenga tower. Once that is built, and as you talk about prayer being the foundation of our relationship with Jesus, place a chair next to the tower, step onto the chair, then onto the top of the Jenga tower. (Try this out beforehand!) It may wobble a little, but so can our prayer lives, but we can stand on it. You may be able to step back down, but I've found the easiest way down is a careful jump.

Gifts and Gaffs

Before the session, drill out a 1 inch wide hole in several of the blocks, about half way through. Repeat with as many blocks as you want, I typically do a dozen or so. When you build the tower, place either a piece of wrapped candy (gift) or a marble (gaff) in each hole, making sure the hole is on the underside of the block as you place it. When a player removes a block with a hole, if they find candy, they keep the sweet. If the block they remove releases a marble, and the marble hits the ground before they catch it, they have to do a forfeit (gaff). Pick the forfeits with your group ahead of time.

Program Planning

This will work with up to 10, maybe 12 players. Each time a player successfully removes a block and places it on top, they get to add something to their list of what they would like to do at youth group/Scouts/wherever. However, the player who knocks the tower over, has their list shredded. (Adds to the drama...) At the end tally up which activities were most popular. How it works - players soon realise that to make sure their chosen activities stay on the list and gets more votes, those activities have to appear on multiple lists. They soon start talking to each other about activities and discarding the less popular ones.