Parable of the Sower Game

This term at our senior youth group, we’re looking at the parables in the Gospel of Luke. We kicked off with the Parable of the Sower from Luke 8:4-15. To get the youth members in the right frame of mind (as well as to burn off a bit of energy) we played a game based on the parable. It’s a variation on “Rob The Nest”. It might be a game that you might want to play with your youth as well.

Location: Either in a large hall or outdoors

Numbers: You’ll need at least 2 leaders, one to be the Sower and one to be the Bird. I had 3 teams of 3 people each, but you can increase the number of teams/participants according to the size of your group

Objective: To be the first team to have 3 flowers and no rocks or thorns.

Equipment:

• 3 Seeds per group. I used tennis balls.
• Enough Rocks for at least 3 per group. I used mini billiard balls.
• 3 Flowers per group, printed or drawn on a piece of paper.
• Enough Thorns for at least 3 per group, printed or drawn on a piece of paper.
• Something to clearly define each teams planting area. I used plastic serving trays.

How to play:

• Split into at least 3 equal groups and space the groups out as far away from each other as possible.
• Each team needs to begin by collecting 3 Seeds from the leader designated as the Sower. A team member will line up in front of the Sower. Behind the Sower’s back will be a Seed in one hand and a Rock in the other. The team member will pick a hand, not knowing which object is in which hand.
• If the team member selects a Seed they take it back to their team. Seeds can not be stolen by other teams.
• If the team member selects a Rock they can put that rock in another teams planting area. Any Rock that is in play can be moved from team to team.
• Teams must leave at least one team member attending their planting area at all times. The leader(s) designated the Bird is able to steal any unattended Seeds. The idea being that a team member needs to scare away the Bird and protect their planting area.
• Once a team has 3  Seeds, they can take their 3 Seeds to the Sower and exchange them for 3 pieces of paper. These pieces of paper will be randomly shuffled and have either a picture of a Flower or of Thorns.
• Flowers go back to the team’s planting area. Flowers can not be stolen by other teams, but can be taken by the Bird.
• Thorns act like Rocks and can be given to other teams.
• Teams begin again the process of gathering Seeds and exchanging them for Flowers/Thorns until a team has 3 Flowers and no rocks or thorns. The first team to achieve this is the winner (even if they only achieve this for less than a second)

We had a lot of fun playing this game. Keen to hear if you use this game and how it worked for you.