For each passage, there is a collectable card alongside high-quality character images and a colouring page. All other graphics are extra’s!
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The parable of the Banquet guests is a strange one! On the one hand, you have the remarkable generosity of the banquet host, or king as he’s referred to in Matthew’s passage, but on the other hand you have the blatant failure of friendship from the invited guests. These games look at the idea of invitation, the roller coaster of emotions, and the idea of a party. Here is a selection of games to suit a wide range of ages and set-ups. Choose the game you would most like playing and your youngsters would respond to best.
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 use 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 rapidly but shows how much infectious smiles and excitement can be.
Every spot
Under 7’s
Small group
Requires setup time
Noisy game
Space needed
Lay paper plates out on a table to indicate how many people/cuddly toys you need. Hide the cuddly toys around the room. Make it harder by putting names or colours on the plates, they need to match up.
You are invited…
Under 7’s
Any size group
No Setup time
Noisy game
Space needed
First mark a section of your room as the party area and a section outside where the ‘guests’ (kids) start. This can be played two ways, either as a form of Simon says ‘you are invited if you can jump’- the kids then jump into the party. Once everyone is in the areas, swap and you give a new command. For older groups, each child presents themselves miming an action, the host can invite them in by naming that action by saying “you are invited …. (insert action e.g. doing the washing up!)”
Who am I
Ages 7+
Small group
Requires setup time
Quiet game
Can be seated
A traditional game that works well with older groups (sometimes referred 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.
Pass the parcel
All Ages
Small group
Requires setup time
Quiet game
Space needed
This classic game involves a parcel with many layers that gets passed around a circle as the music plays. When the music stops, the child removes a single layer and the process begins again. Link to the idea of all these strangers sharing the joy of a party, passing the food, enjoying the undeserved gifts they received.
The parable of the banquet guests shows the welcoming nature of God. There is something special about images that invite you in, and giving depth is one of the simplest ways of doing so. This craft is super swift and simple to make, yet gives a fabulous result of a full table of people enjoying a feast.
Just occasionally it’s good to lean back on Classic church Sunday School crafts and for this parable of the banquet guests where ‘welcoming in’ is such a feature I’ve chosen the classic door hanger. On one side the banquet host is all alone and looking rather worried, on the other side he is surrounded with guests welcoming more in. This one is very simple and offers you a range of ways to make it, print with coloured people and decorate around them, print with a coloured background and decorate the people or print with no colour at all and go to town decorating.
There are two retellings of this story, and if you’ll forgive the simplification. The telling in Luke mostly sticks to the bare bones of the story, the idea that there was a banquet where everyone uninvited was welcomed. The Matthew one, by contrast, puts in some deep symbolism. It ‘ups’ the banquet to a wedding, talks about the servants being killed when they went to collect the guests, and ends with a puzzling passage about a man being thrown out for dressing incorrectly. All these are great to explore further with older groups, but I’ve stuck to the simple form for this retelling.
This retold version of the Bible passage is supplied for inspiration, feel free to omit or embellish to give it your personal voice.
Main Passage : Luke 14 Additional Passage : Matthew 22
It was hard to explain quite what God’s kingdom would look like to Jesus’ friends, so Jesus told stories instead. One of his favourite images was a big party, a banquet with many guests.
“A man prepared a huge party” Jesus told his friends, they settled down to listen, they all loved Jesus’s stories.
“The tables were set with huge platters of food, the room was decorated, and the smell of freshly roasted meat hung in the air as the servants made sure every place had plates and goblets for wine.
Then the man shouted everything was ready, it was time to go fetch the guests he had invited. The hall went quiet as many servants left and the man waited.
Slowly the servants started to arrive back, but they were alone.
“Where are the guests, the man questioned, tears in his eyes”
“The one I went to collect has a new field he must tend” said one servant.
“The one I went to collect is newly married and will not leave” said another.
“Mine has 5 new oxen and would like to try them out” said a third.
Slowly each servant reported their excuse to the man until he shouted in anger “stop” for not a single invited guest had arrived.
The man stood up and looked at the wonderful party he had prepared.
“It seems those I invited did not deserve to come.” he said to himself. Then, raising his voice, so the servants could hear, he gave them new instructions “Go out to the town, go into the city, go to the backstreets where the poor and the lame and the blind lay and invite all you find.”
And so the servants went. They brought everyone they met, the good, the bad, the poor, the rich, the young, the old, everyone who could come did. But there was still room, so the man sent his servants to the country roads, the tiny villages, the footpaths, and the hills until the hall was bursting with people enjoying the banquet.”
Jesus’ sat back and looked at his friends. He could see them picturing the hall full of all those different people — some looked horrified that they were all mixed together, others delighted. The kingdom of heaven was going to be noisy and smelly and chaotic and joyful, and this was just a whisper of what was in store.
