CentriKid

Games

Unpack This Verse with Your Kids

By

This past summer at CentriKid, we taught kids how the armor of God is real and powerful, although it is “Unseen!” On Day 4 of camp, we taught kids how God gives us unseen truth, strength, and peace, and equips us to live those out with “Visible Faith.” During worship that night, we unpacked Ephesians 6:16.

In every situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

You can unpack this verse with the kids in your ministry just like we did at camp using this kids ministry illustration!Luggage

Supplies needed:

  • a Bible
  • a large suitcase
  • several clean pairs of wacky socks
  • a toy shield
  • a Nerf gun with foam darts

Illustration:

Say: I want us to look at this verse in God’s word like we were examining a piece of luggage at the airport. I want us to think about each word and phrase to try and squeeze out of it everything the verse can teach us about our faith in Jesus. We will unpack this verse, while I unpack this suitcase! (pull items out of the suitcase one-by-one)

  1. Several pairs of socks. “In every situation…” Have your ever been told to take extra socks with you when you spent the night at your friends’ house or with you grandparents. No matter where you go, you need to take your visible faith with you. You need your faith in every situation. In every situation at home. In every situation at school. In every situation at your church, with your friends, and especially with those that might be your enemies. You need your faith in Jesus in every situation.
  2. A toy shield. “..take the shield of faith…”  We are encouraged to take hold of our visible shield of faith in every situation. A shield that we are able to feel secure behind. A shield used for protection. Our faith in Christ is our shield. Our faith in God is our shield. He is our protection. (Psalm 18:2; Psalm 18:30) It was also a symbol who you belonged to. The colors and images on the front of the shield explained which family you were part of and what commitments or loyalties you held. When you become a follower of Jesus, the Bible says you’ve been born again, made new, given a fresh start. And with that comes a new identity, a new family, a new allegiance to God. Our faith in Christ is a new allegiance, a new family, a place of protection and belonging. (Colossians 3:3)
  3. A Nerf gun and foam darts. “… with it you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Why do we need the shield of faith? These darts are things that tempt you to disobey God, to sin against Him. (Ex. To lie. To steal. To cheat on a test. To hurt other people with your words or actions.) Temptation, like these darts, can come out of nowhere. They fly at you when you are least expecting it. And before you know it, you’ve done something you really regret. We’ve all sinned and all have fallen short. We’ve all messed up and all made mistakes, big ones and little ones. We’ve all done things that we really regret and wished we’d never done. This is why we need the gospel of Jesus!

We hope that you’ll use this easy illustration with the kids in your ministry to clearly illustration Ephesians 6:13! Let us know how it goes by emailing centrikid@lifeway.com!

Christmas Games to Celebrate the Season

By

As you are putting the finishing touches to all of the Christmas parties that you are hosting this season, sometimes you need just one more activity to have fun with the kids and connect it back to the story of Jesus coming to earth. We know that, just like at camp, you love to have fun with your kids. This can also be a wonderful time to remind the kids about the reason that Jesus came to earth. Here are two of my favorite Christmas games that will help your kids remember the importance of this season.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?
Materials:
(One for each team)
Toilet Paper
Hat
Gloves
Scarf

Split your kids into teams depending on how many materials you have. Designate one person per team to be the snowman. When you say go, each team will race to dress their snowman using the materials. Give them 3 minutes to completely dress their snowman. Give each of the snowmen a chance to show off their attire. Using a loudness vote, chose a game winner!

In the Bible, it tells us that we can be made new through Christ. Ask the kids if they could recognize the person you dressed up as a snowman? When Jesus came to earth, He had a plan to make us new. Luke 19:10 says that Jesus came to save the lost. He came to earth to give us a new life with His father and just like we can not recognize the snowman when he is dressed up, we will be changed when we accept Christ into our lives. Unlike the snowmen, we will not be changed on the outside, instead God will come into our lives and we will have a relationship with Him!

The Gift
Materials:
Wrap a gift such as a $5 gift card or small toy
Wrap the present multiple times with different wrapping paper
Be sure not to tape the paper layers together!
Have some music that is easy to play/pause

Sit the kids in a circle and start the music. As the music plays, pass the present around the circle. When the music stops, whoever is holding the present gets to open a layer of it. Keep playing until the someone gets to the present.

The Bible talks about how Jesus came to earth to be the free gift for everyone. Romans 6:23 says that we do not deserve this gift of life but because Jesus came to earth we can be saved. Ask the kid who unwrapped the present if they did anything special to deserve the gift. They get to keep that gift because they unwrapped it. Just like all they had to do was unwrap the gift, all we have to do is accept Christ ourselves.

These games can be a lot of fun and a great way to celebrate Christmas with your children’s ministry. Let us know what you do with the kids at your church to celebrate the birth of Christ and His amazing gift to us!

CentriKid Game: Big Frizz

By

Here is a great game that is simple, tons of fun, and you can scale up or down depending on how many will be playing the game. If you came to camp in 2015, your kids played this game, so they might still remember it.

Equipment needed:
–Large area space (depending on number of kids, the area of half a basketball court can work…a larger space just works better, especially with larger groups).
–Lots and lots of frisbees.. the more the merrier
–Buckets or hula hoops
–Boundary markers

Setting up the playing field: Big Frizz layout
–The field should be a large, flat area. Ideally outside, but inside a gym is plenty of space and tons of fun too!
–You should mark off a launch zone in the center of the field (this is where a few volunteers will be launching frisbees the entire time).

–Depending on the number of teams, you’ll need that same number of buckets or collecting zones where each team will bring their frisbees back to.
–At the beginning of the game the frisbees start in the center launch zone.

Game play and rules:
Once the game begins, the volunteers in the center circle will start throwing out the frisbees every which way, and this should continue happening essentially the whole time. The goal of the game is to get the frisbees into your team’s bucket/collecting zone. The winner in the end is the team who gets the most frisbees to its bucket.

Once a player has a frisbee in hand he cannot move his feet. Instead he must throw the frisbee to someone else on his team. A member of another team cannot steal a frisbee from the hands of another player, but can intercept or knock down a pass in the air.

Helpful tips:
–Have a goalie who catches all the frisbees to put them in the bucket.
–Make a rule that players cannot steal from the buckets.
–Assign runners (either volunteers or players) whose job it is to bring frisbees from the buckets to the center circle..bringing them back in groups of ten helps keep track of points.

We all love this game, and we hope this game helps you in your ministry. Have fun!

Fall Festival Games

By

It is that time of year again: the weather gets a little cooler, the leaves begin to change, and you need to start thinking about what in the world you are going to do for the fall festival. If you are looking for some additional game ideas…look no more! Here are four of my favorite fall game ideas:

Pumpkin Ring Toss
For this game you need a few good sized pumpkins with long stems and a few round objects (maybe ropes, or rings of some sort.) If you are doing your fall fest at night, glow sticks might work well. Place the pumpkins and assign different point values for each one. Then, mark a throwing line, and you are ready to play Pumpkin Ring Toss!

Haystack Find
This is a game that will look good tying in with the fall theme and is simple to do. All you need to do is hide a few items of your choice preferably in some hay bales, but loose hay can work fine as well. You’ll want to spread the hay a bit so kids can reach down inside. Before you begin, determine the amount of items you will allow each kid to find and how many kids can be searching at once.

Mummy Wrap
All you need is a few rolls of toilet paper. The object is to see how fast one person can wrap the other, like a mummy, with a whole roll of toilet paper. I would suggest making this a race between two teams of two. Maybe I like this one so much because it reminds me of OMC…nonetheless, kids are bound to love this game.

Fall Fest OMC
Add a fall twist to our timeless game: check out the additional fall-themed cards here.

I hope these ideas are able to help you out, and that you are able to use your fall festival to allow kids to have a ton of fun and be in a Christ-centered environment.

Valentine’s Day Games

By

Hearts, cupid, pink, and purple is not my thing. However, I can get excited about games and celebrating love. Kids need to know we love them. Some of your kids may not receive love at their home, so use this holiday to show you love them and even more so God loves them. Here are some Valentine’s Day games to help you accomplish your mission.

Verse Relay
Cut out gigantic Sweet Hearts and write one word of a verse you are learning on each Sweet Heart. Have all the Sweet Hearts in a big brown bag and one at a time kids will have to run down grab a Sweet Heart with a word and tag the next person in line. Once all the Sweet Hearts are retrieved the teams will have to put the Sweet Hearts in order to win.

Shapes
Separate your kids into teams of 7-10 and tell them shapes to make with their bodies. The group to make the shapes fastest each round will win. Shapes could include: hearts, balloons, cross, circle, bow, etc.

Keep Cupid Up
Take a Ominkin Ball (if you do not have one of these in your kids ministry, you should) and challenge the kids in your group to keep The Omnikin in the air. The Omnikin is Cupid! Each time you hit Cupid in the air you get one point. How many points can you get?

Don’t Forget

Take it the extra mile. Having fun and playing games is good and all, but you want heart transformation. Take the time to debrief one or all the games with your kids. For example when we played Keep Cupid Up we did a really great job. However, at some point we dropped Cupid. In Psalm 136: 1-3 we learn that God’s love never fails or gives up on us. We will mess up all the time, but He never fails to deliver His promises. He loves us.