Let me state something right off the bat.
The games I am talking about have a purpose.
If someone looks into my classroom during a children's church lesson, they might think we are just playing around.
They are partly correct, but my playing has a purpose.
Bible games for children aid the learning process and kids have a blast too.
Okay, so what kinds of things can games teach? Games Teach That Church Is Fun Well, why is it important to teach that? Shouldn't church be quiet, reverent and stiff? Uh, no...
it shouldn't and especially not in the kids ministry area.
I want a church that's noisy and fun because it's alive and on fire with the living, breathing, powerful word of God.
You can disagree but I am sticking to it.
You can't move me here.
Children's church lessons should be exciting, captivating, encouraging and lighthearted.
They need to be full of Bible games, joy and laughter! Kids learn through play with a purpose.
Bible games teach kids that learning can be fun in church too.
Review the lesson I use Bible games for children to reinforce what was taught in the Bible story.
Here are a few examples: * Play a card matching game similar to concentration using images from your Bible lesson.
Make two cards of each image and turn the cards so the image can't be seen.
Kids try to make matches from the cards.
For instance a Bible lesson on creation would have images of trees, animals, fruit, etc.
Yeah this is an old concept but kids still like it.
This is a simple game for even the youngest children.
It also works great for multi-age groups.
* Play a game where kids guess and turn over the letters of the name of a character in the Bible story, a main point or the Bible memory verse.
The idea is to guess the proper letters to reveal the word.
This is an example of another tried and true Bible game that works great.
* Use a deck of cards with questions to quiz the kids on the Bible lesson.
Take it up a notch and display the questions using PowerPoint.
Play as teams or as a large group.
My experience is that kids pay attention for a longer period of time when they know the information will be used in a Bible game for review.
Apply the Lesson Application is one of the most important benefits of Bible games.
I also think it is the greatest opportunity for you to take creative liberty and inject some crazy fun.
Let's say your Bible story is about being filled with God's love, compassion or the fruit of the Spirit.
Make a masking tape heart on the floor.
Kids roll marbles or pitch paper wads into the heart to fill it up.
I did a lesson on water baptism.
Yeah, I here you...
bring on the water! I put toy figures on a plastic plate and floated the plate in a pan of water.
The kids pitched coins into the plate to immerse or baptize the figures.
I still hear them talking about the game and how much fun it was to submerse the figure.
I found out later that doing this relieved some kids of their apprehension with the immersion process.
Bible games are playing with purpose.
Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help you create games that apply the lesson.
Fun for the Sake of Fun Kids are being forced to grow up fast in our society.
4th and 5th graders are like 7th and 8th graders a few years ago.
They are exposed to serious issues at a very early age.
Often kids are pressured to act older and grow up faster than they should.
Kids need a time to relax, have fun and act like kids! Yeah, I believe in Bible games for children and playing with purpose.
But, I also believe that just allowing kids to be kids serves an important purpose too!