The apostle Philip (not to be mistaken for the Deacon who meets the Ethiopian) is an interesting character. He only seems to have 3 events recorded in the bible, two of which are about introducing people to Jesus. These games focus on the idea of introduction and community building.
Wipe that smile off your face – The first person pulls their silliest smile and directs it at each child in the circle, trying to make someone giggle or laugh. On the leaders mark they uses one hand to literally “wipe” the smile off their face, and hand it to the next person, and on it goes. This can get silly really quickly but shows how much infectious smiles and excitement can be.
Apostle Memory Match – This match 2 cards game is really as simple as printing out 2 sets of cards and turning them over. It’s a lovely way of introducing the different apostles or recapping part way through a series. Download the image by clicking on it and saving the picture that loads – I’ve left it as a picture so you can resize to whatever most suits your needs.
I’ like you to meet – this a variation of the suitcase, or when I went to grandma’s type memory game. The first round is simple, while in a circle the leader introduces the person to their left to the group. “I’d like you to meet Peter” the person to their right then introduces the leader and the person to the leaders left “I’d like you to meet Sarah & Peter” the next person may be “I’d like you to meet Susan, Sarah & Peter” and so on. At the end of the round choose a different starting position and replace peoples names with something about themselves. If your group know each other well let the person speaking choose a compliment!
Knotted introductions – This is an icebreaker game that involved a long piece of string with a few knots in it. The group sits in a circle and closes their eyes. The leader holds a ball of string pre-prepared with a few knots and slowly passes round one end, eventually the string will go round the whole circle. When a child feels a knot they must say aloud something about themselves. The facts can be random or can be themed (favourite colour, pets name etc).
Who am I – A traditional game that works well with older groups (sometimes refereed to as the post-it note game). Place the name of a famous person on the forehead (or back) of each player. The player must work out who they are by asking yes/no questions of the other players. End by asking how they would have identified either Philip or Jesus?
