Nativity Story Bingo
Youth Ministry in the UK is different in many ways to in the US, and one of the ways, perhaps the most significant way, is the relationship between churches and schools. In the UK schools are supposed to offer a "broadly Christian act of worship" every day. As a result, when a local church is willing to support said acts of worship, schools are usually very open to it and doors open. Obviously, standing in front of several hundred teenagers who don't want to be there tends to sharpen your creativity and communication skills! This transfers to other areas of ministry, and I wrote this for a early in December Christmas celebration for all ages of the Scout and Guiding movements in the UK - we had 200 under 18's in the room.
The premise is simple - everyone gets a bingo card with key words/characters from the Nativity story on it, first to mark all the sqaures on their card calls out "Merry Christmas" or whatever you chose.. This edition has 15, and I produced 6 different playing sheets with a selection of pictures/words deleted. The key is that every card had the same central square, and everyone needed that square to win, the words being the last two words of the story "Jesus Christ". As you read the story players cross off the words/pics on their cards and excitement builds as you get closer to the end. When everyone crosses off their last square at the same time everyone calls out the same Christmas greeting together.
The story, a master bingo card and a set of 6 playing bingo cards are available via my Google Drive in this folder.