How to choose a game
We all want our lessons to be fun at the same time as teaching the gospel and demonstrating God’s love for the teens or kids in our group. It’s a tall order and being interested in them as people and being willing to learn with them as you study the word will go most of the way to making your Sunday School or Youth Group enjoyable. But games and activities help with that, as well as helping classes bond and can even support the lesson you’re teaching.
The difficulty is choosing a game that contributes to your lesson rather than just taking up time, fits in the space, doesn’t require you to spend a fortune on equipment and still have time to plan a lesson.
I’ve created a spreadsheet of games which you can see:
how to play
how complicated they are
how much space you need
what equipment is required
how energetic it is
which variations can help you to match a particular passage
AND what themes it can establish or reinforce!
If you are struggling to think of a game I suggest searching the spreadsheet by theme (use control+f ) and looking at the games listed under that theme to see which you have the space and equipment for.
It can be really helpful for younger kids to make the link between the game and the main point of your lesson explicit. If you play games at the end of your lesson the you could ask them to identify where they saw the theme in the story and then explain the game specifically using that word.
“Where did we see someone get rescued in the story of Easter?
That’s right, Jesus rescued us from sin.
We’re going to play a quick gae now in which you can rescue someone from being Stuck in the Mud.”
If you play games at the beginning you can introduce the theme and then ask them to look for that theme in the Bible story.
“We’ve just played Uno and for that we needed rules. Without the rules it would have been Chaos! In today’s story look out for soe Good rules which God gives us and see if you can work out why they are good.
With older children you can ask them to work out the theme that connects the game and the story or even to suggest games which have the theme you want in.
I hope this helps you find fun games that support your lesson. All of the children’s lessons on this site come with game and activity suggestions which back up the message you’re teaching. Have a look to see how this can work or to use our free lesson material.
If you have a game you enjoy playing with your group that isn’t yet in the spreadsheet please fill in the form below and I’ll add it to the list.