This is a game and an illustration all rolled into one that my kids loved and dreaded(in a good way — you’ll see:-) This can be done in teams or as one big group.
Supplies: Masking Tape or something to mark off boundary, Items for “challenges/dares” (to be described).
Choose one person from each team to be “Janey”, if one group choose just one “Janey”. Prior to the start of the game mark off a starting and finish line approximately 10-12 feet apart. Connect the starting/finish lines to create a long rectangle. Have whoever is “Janey” stand behind the starting line. The starting line to the finish line represents “jail”. The goal of the group or each team is to help “Janey” get out of “Jail” or to the finish line. If playing in teams, the first “Janey” to accomplish this is the winner.
In order for Janey to move toward the finish line a member of her team/group must decide whether or not to complete a “challege/dare”. If they complete the challenge then Janey gets to take one step (heel to toe) toward the finish line. If they refuse or cannot complete the challenge then Janey stays where “she” is in jail. Challenges can be as easy/hard/gross as you want to make them. Try to vary the degree of difficulty and grossness so that kids will really have to think about whether or not they will attempt a challenge or not. Be creative! Examples I have used are: Shave one leg(regardless of whether you are a boy or girl), chug a can of warm coke, run around the church building in a minute or less, kiss 5 people in the room on the cheek, eat/drink a raw egg, etc.
Illustration: In this game “Janey” represents us as people. The “jail” represents our life of sin. Just as Janey was unable to get “herself” out of jail, there is nothing that we can do on our own to free ourselves from our life of sin. The team-members willing or able to complete the challenges to help free Janey are like Christ who willingly gave himself as a sacrifice on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin so that we could live a life of freedom from sin. You can lead a discussion comparing the choice to complete the challenges of the game to the difficulty of the choice that Jesus made in dying for us, and also that Jesus did it by himself (illustrating God’s power). There are many different scriptures that can be used here but the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane is my favorite.
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