For summer camp this year, I’ve written ten Challenges (Bible activities for small groups and a leader to do together – sometimes in competition with other groups) and some large group lessons on the story of Joseph. They are all located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page (see the link at the top of the screen), and you can find them alphabetically in the list. They all start with the letters “JJ” for “Joseph’s Journey.”
Hope you can find some lessons that will be useful for you!
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Time
15-20 minutes
Description
This object lesson teaches that you need to stay connected to Jesus in order to have the power to live a godly life and produce the fruit of the Spirit.
Scriptures
Materials
Preparation
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
Time
30-45 minutes
Description
This game helps participants understand how important it is to capture every thought and take it captive before Christ. It is loosely based on the game of Othello ® (Gabriel Industries, Inc.) or Reversi.
Audience
Children, youth
Materials
• Gameboard (can be printed from the file “Capture Every Thought – Game Board and Pieces.ppt” located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page of http://www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
• Game pieces (can be printed from the file “Capture Every Thought – Game Board and Pieces.ppt” located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page of http://www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
• “Starting Positions” Gameboard (can be printed from the file “Capture Every Thought – Game Board and Pieces.ppt” located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page of http://www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
• “Move #1, #2 & #3” slide (can be printed from the file “Capture Every Thought – Game Board and Pieces.ppt” located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page of http://www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
• Glue stick
• Scissors or cutting board
• (Optional) Prizes for winners
Preparation
• Make copies of the “Debrief Questions” page at the end of this lesson (one copy per table group).
• Print copies of the game boards (1 for every two people)
• Print copies of the game pieces (60 for ever two people – 1 page makes 60 pieces)
• Print one copy each of the “Starting Positions” slide and the “Move #1, #2 & #3” example slide.
• Fold the game piece pages along the blue line that divides the two colors. Crease the page well along this fold.
• Use a glue stick to stick the two pages together. Make sure that the entire surface is covered.
• Use the scissors or the cutting board to cut out each of the rectangular game pieces. (They should now be a different color on each side. Cut closely to the rectangles, because if the pieces are too big, they are difficult to flip on the gamebaord.)
• Practice the script.
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
• “The Bible has a lot to say about what we think.”
• “Our minds are a major battlefield for the spiritual war between Satan and God.”
• “God wants our minds to be filled with good things that honor Him, because He knows that these things will bless us and help us live fulfilling lives.”
• “Satan wants our minds to be filled with bad things that dishonor God, because he hates God and hates that we are made in God’s image.”
• “Satan knows that he can’t do anything to diminish God, so he tries to hurt the Creator through His creation – and that’s us.”
• “Let’s read a few of the Scriptures related to our thoughts.” (Have volunteers read the following Scriptures out loud.)
o Romans 8:6 (mind of sinful man is death; mind of the Spirit is life)
o Proverbs 15:26 (the Lord detests thoughts of the wicked but is pleased by thoughts of the pure)
o Isaiah 55:8-9 (God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts)
o Colossians 3:2 (set minds on things above, not on earthly things)
o Philippians 4:8 (think about excellent, praiseworthy….things)
o 2 Corinthians 10:5 (take every thought captive)
• “So, we are to think about the things God thinks about and not about sinful things.”
• “This is really hard to do, and it takes a lot of prayer and practice, because Satan is going to try to mess up our thoughts as much as possible.”
• “He whispers evil thoughts to us from the spiritual realm, and if we aren’t careful, we accept his thoughts as our own.”
• “That’s terribly dangerous, because the Bible says that everything Satan ever says is a lie. Lying is his native language and the only language he speaks.” (John 8:44)
• “2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we are to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.”
• “This means that when we have a bad thought or even a thought we aren’t sure about, we should ask God about it.”
• “If is something true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy, God will confirm it for you.”
• “But if it’s a lie from Satan, God will replace it with the truth.”
• “We’re going to play a game that will help us to remember to take every thought captive to Christ.” (Divide group into pairs, and hand out the gameboards and game pieces for each pair.)
• “You have a gameboard in front of you. It has 64 spaces on it.”
• “You also have 64 colored game pieces. They are blue on one side and yellow on the other.”
• “Each person should take 30 game pieces for himself and decide if he wants to be either blue or yellow.” (Have them divide the pieces and pick a color.)
• “Alright, everyone who chose blue, raise your hands.” (Demonstrate.)
• “In this battle, you represent the devil. Sorry about that.”
• “Everyone who chose yellow, you represent God.”
• “The gameboard represents a human mind, and the game pieces each represent thoughts.”
• “Dark blue pieces represent the bad thoughts and lies Satan tries to get us to believe and take as our own.”
• “Yellow pieces represent the good thoughts and truth God wants us to believe and act on.”
• “Each player starts with two thoughts (game pieces) on the board in the center squares. They should look like this.” (Show the “Starting Positions” slide. Have all players put two of their game pieces down.)
• “The goal of each player is to trap your opponents pieces between two of your own.”
• “If you have one piece down already and then lay another one, you capture all of your opponent’s pieces that are between your two pieces. You can then flip all those captured pieces over so that they are now your color.” (Show “Move #1, #2 and #3” slide to give them examples.)
• “You can capture pieces diagonally, horizontally or vertically.”
• “You capture all the opponents’ pieces between your two pieces, so as the game progresses, you should be able to capture two, three, four or more pieces at a time.”
• “You can even capture pieces in two or more directions at the same time as long as they are all between two of your pieces.”
• “It’s important to know that you cannot play on spaces unless it allow you to capture at least one of your opponent’s pieces.”
• “The winner is the person who has the most of their colored pieces on the board when it gets to a point that no one can make a move.”
• “Dark blue pieces get to go first.”
• “Do you have any questions about how to play?” (Answer questions, and then allow them to play a round. If they finish the first round quickly and you have the time, let them play several rounds. Then, award a prize to the winners if you choose. Pass out the Debrief Questions sheet to each group, and allow them 10-15 minutes to talk about the questions. Then ask the large group for any general insights from the activity.)
Debrief Questions
o How does this game reflect the battle between God and Satan for your mind?
o Why would some bad thoughts from Satan change your good thoughts to bad ones (like capturing pieces in the game)?
o The corners are the most strategic spaces on the gameboard, because they cannot be trapped once they belong to someone. What might these represent in the battle for your mind?
o Why is it important to guard your mind against Satan’s influence? How can you do this?
o How could you capture more thoughts for Christ?
Time
30 minutes
Description
This game teaches that we have God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense (G.R.A.C.E.), but we have to keep returning to God every time we sin in order to keep the relationship strong. If we don’t, we wander further and further from God.
Audience
Children, youth
Materials
• Copies of the Grace or Guilt Gameboard (See the file, “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense – Gameboard.ppt” on the “Lesson and Material Downloads” page.)
• Copies of “Grace Cards” (included at the end of this lesson text) – You will need a set for every group of six.
• A copy of the “Debrief Questions” at the end of this lesson. You will need one printout per group.
• Something to act as game pieces. You can use coins, torn pieces of paper, poker chips… You will need enough for all the children to have one.
• Dice (one per group)
• Optional – Prizes for the winners.
Preparation
• Print the “Grace or Guilt – Gameboard,” and tape the two pages end-to-end. You will need one gameboard for each group of up to six children.
• Print out a copy of the “Grace Cards” at the end of the lesson, and cut them out. Place them face down beside the gameboard.
• Print out a copy of the Debrief Question (one per group).
• Practice the script
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
• “We’re going to play a game to help us understand how sin takes us away from God and the many blessings He wants us to have.”
• “It’s called, ‘God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.”
• “First, I’ll need to divide you into small groups.” (Divide children into small groups of no more than six each. Then, hand out the gameboards and game pieces.)
• “Here’s the way this game is played.
o First, you will all roll the die (singular for dice) to see who goes first. The highest role wins and goes first. The next-highest roll goes second and so on. If you get a tie, those people should re-roll until someone rolls a higher number.
o Players should put their game pieces on the paths that match their playing order. For example, Path 1 for the first player, Path 2 for the second, and so on.
o Next, you will roll the die to see how many spaces to move your game piece.
o Each player starts in the “God’s Riches” space.
o At the end of every turn, you will draw a card.
o The card has a letter (or letters) on it.
o You want to collect all the letters in the word, “GRACE.”
o It’s okay if you have extra letters, but you need to have at least one of each of the letters on your cards.
o If you get the right letters to spell, “GRACE,” you can return to the “God’s Riches” space.
o You should put any cards you used to spell “GRACE” in a discard pile. If the group draws all the card in the draw pile, the discard pile will be shuffled and used as the new draw pile.
o The game ends when someone rolls a number that forces them to move more spaces than are left on the path.
o The winner of the game is the person who is closest to “God’s Riches.”
o In the event of a tie, you can let the tied players roll again to see who is the closest to “God’s Riches” after the roll.”
• “Does anyone have questions about how you will play?” (Answer questions. Then, let them get started. When they are done, award a prize for the winners if you like, and hand out a copy of the Debrief Questions on the next page. Give groups ten minutes to discuss the debrief questions, and then talk with the entire group about their answers.)
Debrief Questions
o Why is the game called, “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense?
o What are “God’s Riches?”
o What does “Christ’s Expense” mean?
o How is this game like our Christian walk?
o Read Proverbs 4:14-15. What do you think the spaces represented?
o Read Proverbs 4:26-27. What do you think it means?
o Grace allows us to return to God after we have sinned, but what do we actually need to do to return to Him?
Filed under Christianity, Confession, Daily walk, forgiveness, Game, Games that Teach, Obedience, Repentance, Spiritual Health
Time
15-20 minutes
Description
This object lesson teaches how important it is to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit. It uses the popular Jenga ® game from Hasbro.
Materials
Preparation
· Jesus (16 blocks)
· Love (4 blocks)
· Joy (4 blocks)
· Peace (4 blocks)
· Patience (4 blocks)
· Kindness (4 blocks)
· Goodness (3 blocks)
· Faithfulness (3 blocks)
· Gentleness (3 blocks)
· Self-control (3 blocks)
· Repeat the labeling process for each Jenga ® set until you have enough for each table group or for each set of 6-8 participants.
· Set up the towers (each level should run perpendicular to the one below it), and return them to their packaging.
o The “Jesus” blocks should be the center block of each level.
· Set out one tower per table group.
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
· “We’re going to play a game using the block towers in the middle of your tables.”
· “Carefully remove the packaging so that your tower will continue standing.”
· “Here are the rules of the game:
o Each person will use one hand (and one hand only) to remove a block from the tower.
o Be careful not to make the tower fall when you remove the block, because if the tower falls after you’ve touched it, you lose.
o If one person successfully removes a block without knocking down the tower, it becomes the next person’s turn. Play moves clockwise around the table.
o Keep playing until someone knocks the tower over – just make sure it isn’t you!
o And be sure not to bump the table, because you might accidentally cause the tower to fall.
o We will continue playing until all groups have the tower fall, so if your group finishes a game before the others, you can rebuild your tower and start again.”
· “Does anyone have any questions about how to play?” (Allow groups to play, and celebrate the team that was able to hold out the longest.)
· “Did you notice anything about the pieces you pulled out of the towers?” (Listen for them to acknowledge that the pieces had words written on them and that many had “Jesus” written on them.)
· “Right. Each level had ‘Jesus’ as the center block. Does anyone know what the other words represented?” (Listen for someone to mention the fruit of the Spirit, but if they don’t, have someone read Galatians 5:22-23.)
· “Those nine words represent what we call “the fruit of the Spirit.”
· “When we are walking closely with the Lord, our lives should show some fruit of the Spirit’s work within us.”
Filed under Authenticity, Character, Christianity, Daily walk, Game, Games that Teach, Hands-on, Jesus, Kindness, Love, Object Lesson, Spiritual Health
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