Board gaming ministry

What is one thing families across the country do on wet and miserable days whilst on holiday?  They break out board games… Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble….yawn…more like bored games!  The world of board gaming is going through something of a golden age at the moment.  There are hundreds of thousands of new, more exciting games out there with a wide variety of mechanics – from fun party games that can be played in 15 minutes, to epic legacy games which can provide hundreds of hours of entertainment to a group of friends.  It’s so popular that there are multiple websites and YouTube channels that are dedicated to them (check out Wil Wheaton's Tabletop, a YouTube series which has celebrities playing board games with Wil Wheaton from Star Trek that in 2014 broke records by crowdfunding $1,414,159 to continue making episodes!)  There are also board game cafes opening up around the country, where you pay for a table for 30 mins, an hour or 2 hours and they provide games for you to play alongside your coffee.  Not to mention the UK Games Expo at the NEC in Birmingham, which is now the third largest table top convention in the world and uses 3 of the conference halls there!

People of all ages can enjoy gaming!

I firmly believe they can be used to connect with people in a way nothing else can, helping to break down barriers and create true relationships – which is the first step towards successful mission and evangelism!  There are ~40 other ministers, youth workers and vision champions around the country (gathered together on Facebook by Rev. Andy Gray, pioneer minister in Clitheroe) who agree with me and we work together to figure out the best ways to use them for ministry, be it for teaching or for connecting with the wider community through board game cafes and events held in churches.

Games come in all shapes and size, and cover all sorts of genres!

At the last paid children’s worker meeting for the diocese we were asked to bring ideas of how to engage young people in Bible stories and I shared my use of board games with the team, and they have asked me to create a top 5 list for this mailing, so here we go!

Disclaimer:  Games- as with anything - can be heavily influenced by personal preference so you can also check out this link to an article on ministry and boardgaming from Rev Andy Gray's children's worship and evangelism website for an alternative selection, and there are many other lists out there as well!

5:Colt Express

This game has by far the best board I’ve ever seen as it is a fully 3D cardboard train!  The premise isn’t entirely Christian at first glance as you are playing a group of bandits trying to rob a train and to come away with the most loot at the end of it!   Where the biblical link comes in is it’s mechanics – it is a programming game, you plan your moves 5 in advance and they all play out in order around the table.  Sounds simple, but every other player can affect you, making you move positions, changing the cards available to you and just generally messing up your carefully planned sequence of actions.  You can use this to talk about how difficult it is to plan out everything in life, we can’t manage it – something will always mess up our plans! – but God CAN and DOES manage it.

4:Carcassonne

This is similar to dominoes in that you are placing squares down that have to match other ones, roads to roads, cities to cities, river to river.  All the while placing little wooden meeple down to claim points when that part of the map is completed.  The key link to ministry in this is the presence of monasteries.  You can place a meeple on a monastery but it will only become free and score you points if it is in the centre of 8 other tiles.  Just like our churches it isn’t worth much unless it is connected to the local community!

3: Ticket to Ride

This is the game that people are most likely to have come across out of this list as it is massively  popular world wide at the moment.  The aim of the game is to connect cities across Europe using your plastic trains.  You get coloured cards and use those to claim train tracks.  You can use it to talk about spreading the gospel around the world and how difficult it can be, you have to find the right way to go about it!  Sometimes it can be blocked by other people, intentionally or unintentionally and you must find a new way to reach your destination.

2. Forbidden Island

In this game you are a group of adventurers, each with their own unique skills trying to raid the forbidden island and claim all 4 of the mysterious relics.  But the island isn’t going to let you do as you please and is slowly starting to submerge underwater!  This game is all about working together towards a common goal, building friendships and supporting one another - just as we should as Christians.

1: King of Tokyo

I have never found this game to be unsuccessful, the young people LOVE to play it.  It uses the basic mechanic of Yahtzee – rolling dice to determine what happens – to power giant monsters who are all vying for control of Tokyo City!  You take turns rolling the 6 oversized dice to decide what actions you can take on your turn and have to make decisions on when you want to stay in Tokyo to attack all the other players and when you want to leave to heal.  It can be linked to the concept of pruning and reaping, God chooses the right time to cut branches and the right time to let them flourish.   It’s also good to show how you don’t need to be active, front and centre all the time, sometimes it’s better to stay still and consider the opportunities.

Bonus: Dobble

This is a very simple game but brilliant for bringing a group of kids together.  It is snap, but with 8 symbols to check.  There are 55 cards in the deck, each with 8 symbols of various sizes.  There will always be one symbol matching for every card.  The aim is to spot it and claim the card for your own, or it could be used as a competition to see who can find their matches with the whole group first, or it could be used for any of the 5 game modes that come with it.  This can be used to discuss how even though we are each unique and different there are things that connect us to one another, much like God connects us all together through His love and grace.

This is very much just scratching the top of what board games can do for ministry.  It is honestly the only way I can think that people of all ages can come together for an afternoon focussing on one activity and all genuinely enjoy themselves.  They will open up about their hopes, fears and worries and really get to know one another, giving a chance for conversation about God to flow naturally.  For more ideas on the use of board games in ministry feel free to contact either myself (Stephen Taylor) at ahbstephen@gmail.com or Rev. Andy Gray at revandygray@gmail.com.