5 Ways to Use a Box Full of Ping Pong Balls

For the past couple of days, I’ve been cleaning out some of the storage areas in our kids church room. I’m never ceased to be amazed by the randomness of the items that I find in any given kids ministry.

One item that I found this time was very peculiar to me. It was a small plastic bin labeled “Ping Pong Balls”. What’s peculiar about it is not the fact that it exists…but that I have found one just like it in EVERY church I’ve ever been a part of!

And after posting about it on the AGKidmin Facebook Group, I learned that I was not alone. Many kids ministry leaders have discovered these mysterious boxes in their own storage areas.

Who is obsessively storing these ping pong balls? What are these ping pong balls used for? Why do they need to be kept for generations and passed down to future ministry leaders like a prized family possession?

I may never know the answer to those questions. However, I’ve decided to embrace the mystery and come up with 5 ways to use a box of ping pong balls.

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1 Ping Pong Ball Point Counters
A great way to add some quick positive reinforcement to your kids church environments is by giving away points. You can separate your crew into teams based on whatever you decide and help them stay engaged with what's happening by rewarding one of those teams with a point. Points can lead to prizes, privileges or whatever else you'd like.

The diameter of a standard ping pong ball is just over 1.5 inches. It would take hardly any effort to procure a clear plastic tube (like this one I found on Amazon...but have not purchased or used). If a team is behaving well or following instructions or doing anything else that you'd like to reinforce, pop a ping pong ball into that tube and watch as the entire room reacts!

2 Tube Runners: The Game
It can be quite a challenge to come up with a ping pong ball game that doesn't look like beer pong. If that is not a concern for you...great.

For those of us that aren't quite as blessed and highly favored...Tube Runners: The Game.

Based on the hit movie, Tube Runners: The Game requires two-player teams that work together to move a pre-determined amount of ping pong balls from a bucket of danger and into a bucket of safety.

One player snatches a ping pong ball from the Danger Bucket and hurls it at the second player who must catch it with a long tube and then navigate it towards the Safety Bucket.

It's extreme. It's intense. And it shouldn't get anyone complaining that you're playing games reserved for drunken frat parties and youth group lock-ins.

Here are some tubes that I found on Amazon that could work perfectly! (Again, I have not purchased or used these tubes.)

3 Extra Challenge for Kids Church Games

There is an endless amount of games that you can play during your kids church services. Some games can be challenging for the players and really force them to stretch their physical or mental abilities. Other games are really easy and the players have no struggle getting through them.

So for those easy games...why not add a little more challenge?

Hula hooping requires an extra set of skills if you have to do it while trying to balance a spoon with a ping pong ball on it. Musical Chairs requires an extra set of skills if you have to do it while trying to balance a spoon with a ping pong ball on it. Bible drills require an extra set of skills if you have to do it while trying to balance a spoon with a ping pong ball on it. You get the idea.

4 Ping Pong Ball Object Lessons

There is so much spiritual truth that we can learn from ping pong balls.

First, how God guides us in the same way that the air from a hairdryer can guide a ping pong ball.

Second...I don't know. Google it. I've spent way too much time thinking about these ping pong balls and why there's a box of them in every church in history.

Is it a conspiracy?

5 Throw them out.

I mean…really.

What would you do with a box of ping pong tables? And who do you think is putting them there? Leave a comment!

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