Why We Built PAKA

You know that moment.

The one where you just asked what you thought was a really solid small group question, and now six teenagers are staring at the floor like you asked the question in a language that they can’t understand. The silence stretches on for what feels like eternity. Someone picks at their shoelace. Another one checks the phone that they’re hiding under their leg (as if you can’t see it).

And you’re sitting there thinking, “I spent 45 minutes prepping for this discussion… and we’re only three minutes in…“

Yeah. We know that moment too. Because every single person on our team has also been that small group leader.

Here’s the thing about DYM that I think sometimes gets lost…. we’re not a tech company that decided to make youth ministry products. We’re youth workers who are trying to make tools that we wish we had when we were first getting started. Every person on this team has sat in a circle of folding chairs, tried to get a 7th grader to open up about literally anything, and done the mental math on how many pizzas to order for 23 kids (but also Trevor eats like four people, so really it’s 26).

We’ve led the small groups. We’ve run the games. We’ve been the ones frantically googling “fun (but not lame) ice breaker questions for teens” in the church parking lot five minutes before students show up.

And that’s why PAKA exists. It’s because we kept building the same little tools for ourselves and finally thought, “Why don’t we just put all of this in one place?”

You see, for most of us, the hardest part of small group isn’t the lesson. It’s the talking. Getting students to actually engage in conversation is an art form… especially if you’re new to leading a group and you’re still building trust with your students. You ask a deep question and get… nothing. You ask a silly question and get… still nothing. It’s brutal.

So we started thinking about all the little things that actually work when you’re in the trenches. The stuff that doesn’t require a projector (or a felt board??) or hours of planning. We were looking for the ideas and activities you can pull out of your back pocket if (…let’s face it, it’s usually when) the plan falls apart.

That’s PAKA. It’s a “pack a” (get it??!?!?) tools like ice-breaker questions, Would You Rather questions, low-prep games, a spinning wheel, a pizza calculator, and yes, an awkward silence detector that plays cricket sounds when nobody’s talking. Because sometimes the best way to break the tension is to just name it.

But there’s a key part to PAKA that makes it even more magical… It’s free.

Yeah, we made PAKA free. No account required. No subscription. You just download it and go.

Why? It all goes back to the fact that our entire team knows what it’s like to be a volunteer small group leader with a full-time job, two kids, and about eleven minutes to “prep” for Wednesday night. We didn’t need another platform to log into. We needed something we could open on our phone while walking from the car to the youth room.

That’s the whole idea. You’re five minutes out from small group time, you don’t have a plan, your co-leader just texted that they’re sick… open PAKA, tap an ice-breaker or a would you rather, and you’re good to go. Your group is talking, laughing, and engaging before they even sit down.