Bible Tags

Last night at youth group we played a skit-based game involving Bible stories. Even as I write these words today I get nervous that it will flop if we ever did something like this again. However, the game worked great, so maybe I ought to be changing my perception and giving my kids a little more credit. The game began by giving each student a sticky label that contained a word which would be identified with a Bible story (trumpet, donkey, burning bush). Kids were directed to find other students who would be part of their story and then sit down together at tables labeled with story titles and the total number of people who should be in the group (Jericho - 4, Christmas - 5, Exodus - 5...). Once everyone found their group, they could turn over their title page and read the story together in order to create a skit retelling this story in 30-60 seconds. I gave groups 5 minutes before I started calling them forward to perform.

All the Bible stories were relatively familiar, but of course there are always new kids in the groups, always different levels of biblical knowledge, and different personalities. For our large group though, it worked really well! Our leaders all participated in groups which helped them steer groups, and the kids did a great job making the skits funny. Telling the story in 60 seconds or less was critical to the comedy as teams got really creative in their approach, some even getting done in 10 seconds, laughing the whole time. The labels mixed the kids well and we made sure to give new kids to the group easier labels.

This game also setup our discussion nicely about John 9. For the first time ever, I began our lesson by reading a poem about perception! then I summarized the story as kids followed along in their Bibles. The blind man who struggles to find a new identity because he is judged by who he used to be... it was perfect for teenagers. They really dove into discussions about judgement and perception, revealing who they are and how hard it is to change in a social group.

Our evening concluded with worship and our announcement again that God loves them and that God has judged them as worthy!