Summer Fun Day 11 - Outdoor, Books of the Bible Game

I spotted a books of the Bible game on a children's ministry site, some time ago, that I've been wanting to try out with my Sunday school class.  It's a nice, active, outside game, and after all the brownies we downed with our brownie bake-off, I figured it might be a good time to give it a test run with the children.

For our version we used sidewalk chalk and a string to help us draw a circle, inside of a circle divided into eight sections, and labeled with the divisions of the books of the Bible.

Our sidewalk chalk doesn't show up in the pictures, so below is a diagram of what we drew.  I generally like to separate the Old Testament prophets into "major" and "minor", and the New Testament letters into "Pauline" and "general" epistles, but I thought that might be too much for my younger ones to begin with. And besides which, it's easier to divide a circle into eight sections, than ten.

Once we had the  circle drawn and labeled, the children stood in the center, and jumped to the correct division as I called out random books of the Bible.

The game seemed to appeal most to my 13 year old...

...though we quickly discovered it is best played with shoes on.

To avoid discouragement, it's probably wise to spend some time going over the order of the Books of the Bible (here's a link to my favorite song for that), and how they are divided, before playing the game.

Children might ask, especially if your playing with teenagers, why it's important to know the divisions of the Bible books, anyway.  The answer I prefer is that it helps in identifying not only where to find the book quickly in your Bible, but also tells you what you might find when you get there.  If a book is in the Gospels, your probably going to be reading about the life of Christ.  If it's in the letters, you'll most likely find instruction for putting the Christian life into practice.  If it's a book of prophecy, then you can expect a warning of judgement, and encouragement for right living, and repentance, and so on.

Speaking of the books of prophecy, check out this clip from What's in the Bible Vol. 9, while your at it.  Puppets in Devo hats - leave it to Phil Vischer to think of that.

It's great to be a homeschooler.