Bible Study and World Peace games hosted by non-profit groups, churches, and schools.
Team Building Activities for Houston Churches
Transform your youth ministry with meaningful team-building experiences that go beyond escape rooms. Host engaging biblical simulations right at your own facilities.
What if you became king at 8 years old, restored both your nation and your neighbors to their faith in God, and threw a religious festival even greater than any ever thrown by King David or King Solomon? What would you do when an Egyptian pharaoh marched through your capital in the name of God, and told you to stand down and let him pass through? Would you stand up to the Pharaoh if God had already told you that you would live out your days in peace? How do you think it worked out for this young king when he decided to face the Egyptian king in battle, and how did it change history for the next few hundred years? (The Story of King Josiah in 2 Chronicles 34)
If you were a king with absolute power, and married a woman famous for her faith, what would you do if a crazy cult leader came out of the wilderness to tell you it would not rain until you and the nation repented? What if it didn't rain from that day on for 3 years, and your citizens were turning to cannibalism? Would you take his religion seriously? (The Story of King Ahab & Queen Jezibel in 1 Kings 17)
What would you do if you were the crazy man, and everyone you knew was suffering from the drought you prayed for? What if God told you that you would be the only one able to eat, but that your meat and bread would be brought to you by carrion birds who scavenge off of dead corpses? (The story of Prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 17)
What if you had to marry into a different religion to save your nation? (Esther 2:1-18, Joshua 2, Exodus 2:15-22)
These are the kind of questions the players of my simulation games have to face. They will roleplay as key religious and political figures from the Bible to negotiate with and try to influence each other. Afterwards they must try and figure out how the heroes of the Bible handled these impossible situations. Even those well versed in the Bible may be surprised by the results!
A lot of youth and young adult ministry leaders are often looking for fun team-building exercises to do with their members or staff. But it's hard to find activities that are both fun, inexpensive, easy, and meaningful.
Escape rooms are fun, but they only accommodate small groups and can't be done in your own facilities.
Christian campuses are notorious for their love of murder mystery games like Mafia or Assassin, because they are so fun and social, but these games all have evil themes centering on murderous roleplaying.
I am a local youth pastor, high school teacher, and game designer. My game design students and I created ALLIANCE The Ultimate World Leader Political Science Megagame, as well as some other Bible themed roleplaying games. These are team-building exercises for small, medium, or large groups (up to one-hundred participants) that you can host in any large room with tables.
I also have a contemporary geopolitical science simulation in which players have to contend with the ethical issues posed by near-future technologies like A.G.I., bio-engineering, and sustainable energy. How can we apply Jesus' teaching to the tensions and conflict between nations? What would you do if you were president, secretary of defense, or a national scientist facing the world's most polarizing moral dilemmas?
Games of this scale like Werewolf or Assassin facilitate social interactions and bring out those who hesitate to actively participate. But unlike those murder mystery plot party games, my games have deeply meaningful themes. It encourages members to realize their potential as leaders, and to empathize with the ethical issues national leaders often have to face.
Social Media is instigating deep cynicism, but among the younger generation is a deep yearning for the moral fortitude that only Christ's teachings can provide. Simulations like this can help them to see that Christ's behavior can subvert even the highest levels of secular power. Even Nietzsche, an atheist, acknowledged that the greatest empire the world has ever known was brought down by Christianity, which he called a slave religion. Let's help young people to realize that their faith contains the same positive counter-cultural power.
I have hosted ALLIANCE political science simulations like this in Friendswood, at the Baptist Student Union of University of Houston (with a biblical Last Days theme), at the Energy Institute High School, and originally in my hometown of Huffman, TX.
I or other teachers have run the game in Los Angeles, Wisconsin, at Dartmouth college in New Hampshire, and at Gen Con in Indianapolis (America's biggest board game convention which took place last week), and church retreats in California.
I ran the game at multiple universities in multiple countries in three languages including Singapore, Taiwan (in Chinese), Malaysia, and at Catholic schools and churches in South Korea (I lived there almost 2 years).
What I'm offering is a chance for you to host a team-building exercise that is
My Bible games can fit small groups or large groups. The ALLIANCE megagame works best at scale, and takes at least 3 hours, but I do have a small tutorial version that takes only twenty to thirty minutes to play, and requires only 3 players.
Schedule a 30 minute meeting with Shaun to try one of the games for yourself!
Let's Play!