Bible racing
The all-important combination of the physical and spiritual.
5 mins
Write out a selection of Bible references on to separate slips of paper, making sure that you have at least one slip per group member (it’s up to you whether your choice of verse is carefully selected to carry a message, or if they’re simply random), and then get your group into equal-sized teams. Put one Bible for each team at one end of your meeting space, with an accompanying leader equipped with a list of the Bible references and a copy of the accompanying verses; at the other end of the room place one bowl per team, containing enough of the slips of paper for the team members to have one each.
Get the teams lined up behind the bowl, and explain that one at a time they have to pick up a slip of paper from the bowl, run down to the Bibles, find the appropriate reference and read it or show it to the leader, before returning to the team and allowing the next player their turn. This can be made more complex and active dependent on your group and space limitations with obstacles etc. Be aware of any young people who may not be familiar with the Bible or who struggle with reading – make sure no-one is left feeling silly.
Who am I - yes /no game
An excuse to test young people’s Bible knowledge AND make one of your leaders look daft. Perfect.
10 mins
This is an activity that probably works best with a group that has a good familiarity with a range of Bible stories. Get one of your leaders to dress- up as a Bible character, with one or two props that indicate their identity (without being too obvious), and divide your group into two teams who have to identify the character by means of asking questions that your ‘character’ has to answer with yes or no only.
Allow the teams to take it in turns asking questions, or having a guess. You could use this game to introduce a topic, or alternatively you could have a number of other characters in mind to play other rounds with. Be warned: you will need your characters to have done some research into their background for this to work well.
Bible concentration
Less of a test in biblical knowledge, more a gospel-infused drum kit.
15 mins
Get your group seated in a horseshoe shape. Starting from one side of the gap go around naming each seat consecutively as a book from the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John etc.) as far as you have players on seats. (This game works best with about a dozen players, so if you need to go beyond Revelation you might struggle to play the game anyway!)
Explain carefully that there is no hierarchy of books in the Bible, but in this game there is, and that the aim is to get to sit on one of the top four (Gospel) chairs. To create the rhythm the group gets a regular pattern going, by everyone slapping their hands on their legs, then clapping them together, then by clicking the fingers on the left hand, then the fingers of the right hand and repeating ad infinitum. (So the pattern goes slap… clap… click… click… slap… clap…etc. at a manageable pace.) Once everyone has got this, explain the competitive element.
This is where the identity of seat is important as the ‘books’ take turns to ‘pass’ to another ‘book’ in rhythm, over the clicks. The game always starts with Matthew (as the ‘top’ book) who passes on to another book, that book then passes on to another book and so on.
So while everyone continues doing the [slap, clap, click, click] the book who is passing says their name (e.g. Matthew) on the first click and the name of the book they are passing to (e.g. Romans), on the second click. So it would go: slap, clap, ‘Matthew, Romans’. The person on the Romans chair would then have to pass it on without breaking rhythm: slap, clap, ‘Romans, Luke,’ and so on.
If anyone breaks the rhythm they are immediately relegated to the lowest seat in the circle, and those who’d been beneath them move up one space, adopting the identity (book) of the chair they move to. Additionally if any player attempts to pass back to the book which passed to them originally they are relegated, or if anyone makes any other kind of mistake they get sent down (e.g. speaking when they’re not it, failing to maintain the [slap, clap, click, click] pattern etc.). Restart passing again with the person who has moved into the empty seat.
After a bit of practice the rhythm becomes second nature and you can even speed it up to enhance the difficulty. Set a time limit and award prizes to the players in the top four Gospel seats when time is up.
Bible numbers treasure hunt
Hunting! Bible verses! Maths!
15 mins
This game requires plenty of space and a certain amount of preparation! Firstly you need to find about 12 Bible verses which include a number as part of the text (e.g. Revelation 7:4 – 144,000) and write down each reference on a separate piece of paper (making a note of the numbers as you go along!). Then hide each piece of paper somewhere around your building.
Divide your group into pairs and equip each pair with a Bible, pen and paper and explain that you have hidden twelve Bible references around the building, and that their task is to find each reference, look it up and add up the total of all numbers in all the verses they find – the winners are the first team to come back to you with the correct answer.
Be sensitive to any young people for whom numbers are a struggle. Also make sure the pieces of paper with the Bible reference on them are replaced by each pair once they’ve found the verse.
