We are continuing with our focus on Ecclesial family days and this week we start on some specific ideas that you can use with your Ecclesia.
Bible based team games are a great way to involve both young and old together. Any age can participate! Ideally it’s best to play these games outside, but when we did this family day with our Ecclesia, it ended up being inside because of the weather. So it’s possible!
It’s nice to either start or end this family day with a meal and daily Bible readings.
Teams
- We had four groups in total. We played games 1 to 4 first and rotated through those, then played games 5 to 8.
- If you have a larger group, you could split into 8 teams and rotate through all the games at once. You will just need to have 8 “game organizers” who explain the rules to each team and keeps track of the score.
Timing of Games
- 8 games in total.
- 4 minutes for each game / about 3 minutes in between each game to get to the next game and allow time to explain the next game. (TOTAL – approximately 1 hour)
You could adjust the timing to suit your own needs.
Short Description of the Games
- Fishers of Men – catch as many “fish” from the swimming pool that have one of the disciple’s names on it.
- Nehemiah the King’s Cupbearer – team members to identify various drinks before giving it to the king.
- Lydia, Seller of Purple – relay to hang as many purple clothes on the clothes line.
- Wilderness Journey – obstacle course to represent the children of Israel travelling through the wilderness.
- Pin the Jewel on King David’s Crown – similar to “pin the tail on the donkey”.
- Build the Walls of Jerusalem – see how high each team can build the walls of Jerusalem out of blocks of wood.
- Elijah’s Altar – help Elijah collect water to put on his altar on Mt Carmel.
- Food in the Wilderness – help the children of Israel collect the hidden manna and quails.
This document has details of the “rules”, all the materials required for each game and the scoring system (PDF) or (Word).
Signs for each station / game (PDF) or (Word)
Quiz to Go Along with the Games
If you would like an extra element of learning to go along with each game, this quiz can be completed by each team as they go around to the various games. The questions relate to the time period each of the games is set in. It’s a great way to get the older ones involved in the team games!