Children's Games for Church

Weekday Activities

• Use rough-and-tumble church games for weekday activities rather than during Sunday lessons. Children can expend some energy on physical games while still feeding their spiritual side. A game of Capture the Flag is fun but does not reinforce what they are learning in church. Changing Capture the Flag to Bible Battle means that in all the running around the children also have opportunities to find and read Bible verses.

  Games can also provide a visual for lessons being taught. For instance, Follow the Leader becomes an illustration of the need for guidance.

Sunday Lessons

• Don't be reluctant to play games during a Sunday lesson for fear that things will get out of hand and the day will cease to be worshipful. Games need not be rowdy to engage children. Simple games such as Name that Tune keep them listening without encouraging them to run around. Give each child a phrase that he must listen for during the lesson, and let him piece together another sentence or paragraph as he hears the phrase. The old standard of a scripture chase gets older children looking into the Bible through a bit of friendly competition. Attach a picture that relates to your lesson to the back of a puzzle, and let the children guess the relevance of the picture when it is complete.

Home Instruction

• The best church instruction children can receive is in the home. Use games to reinforce important lessons learned in a family. Play commercially prepared board games, or play ordinary games, which can have a church-related twist as well. For instance, play Hangman with terms from the scriptures. Take popular quiz shows and play them with church subjects.