Pre-service Games title card a kid playing carpet ball with video games behind him — Image by Holly Russo at Church of Hope

So, you have your service planned and ready to go. Your volunteers are in place. Your check-in stations are ready. If the kids started coming right now, you’d be ready. The problem is that the kids don’t all come at once. They trickle in starting 30 minutes before service, reaching a crescendo 10 minutes before.

You can’t start service yet. It’s not time. So, you need to give your kids something to do. But what? Do you play games? Do you let them run around? Do you make them sit quietly and wait?

I don’t think there’s any one right answer to this question, but there is one guiding principle. Kids want to have fun. It’s one of the key elements of a successful kidmin.

Whatever you decide to do, it needs to be fun. Kids are guests too and guests decide in the first 15 minutes if they want to come back. A big factor in their decision is whether or not they’re having fun.

So, what can you do? Here are three suggestions.

1. Big Collaborative Games

In almost all the children’s ministry spaces I’ve used there is some kind of open-floor area. You don’t want the kids to freely run around in this area because that devolves into chaos fast. Instead, give them something to do.

I like big collaborative games like Giant Connect Four or Giant Jenga. You get a Lego table. Or provide coloring books and crayons. One church with a very large space but an inflatable obstacle course in their area.

I’ve provided affiliate links to each of those items above. However, if you don’t have the budget many crafty people can create something for much lower cost. I’ve had a carpet ball set built for me at two different churches.

The key here is to provide a place for kids to play together. Kids need and want to find friends. It makes church fun and keeps them coming back again and again. By providing big, eye-catching activities, you invite kids to play with them and each other.

I try to find games that can be played with two or more kids and encourage imagination and creativity. Elementary age kids think like artists and engineers. So, providing activities for them to express themselves will be a big hit. When I added a giant Jenga set to my kidmin it was very rarely used as intended. Rather, my younger kids used them as blocks to create elaborate obstacle courses and Rube Goldberg machines.

2. Avoid Video Games

At my second church the previous pastor had GameCubes and Wiis installed. The boys loved them and played them all the time. As a gamer myself, I loved it too. I worked hard to keep them running. I spent a lot of money getting the latest kid-friendly games.

At the next church I was blessed with an entire room that looked like an arcade. We had large arcade games, like Star Wars Trilogy and a two-player Mario Kart. I also had three PS3s. Again, the boys loved them.

But the girls were felt left out. They’d wander around looking for something to do. As I watched the boys play, I noticed something else. They weren’t talking. Yes, they were loud, and sometimes I had to break up some arguments. But they were only talking about the game. They weren’t building relationships.

Also, many of the arcade games were single player. Yeah, that giant Star Wars game in the corner looked awesome. But only one kid could play at a time.

I didn’t get rid of those systems. There was a lot of money invested in them. But I stopped supporting them. I found other games like the ones I mentioned above. Games like a carpet ball set, a basketball arcade game, and an air hockey table. I even found an old park bench and painted it with fun kid colors. The girls loved that.

Provide activities that are fun to play and invite community and friendship building. You could buy a Switch with $80 Joy-cons and $60 games. But I think it would be better to buy a Lego table and $30 of assorted Legos.

3. If no space (or budget) play videos

At my first church, there was only room for the chairs and stage. So, when the kids arrived, I had them sit while I played funny videos until service began. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it worked.

During COVID I found video-based games from Worship House Kids. These games are $10-$25 apiece and are so much fun. I even had a Bible trivia pack I played before service.

Even when I did have free play space, I still used these videos. Usually, 5 minutes before service I start a countdown. Using basic video editing software, I overlay a countdown on the video. As we wrap up free play time, the kids still have something interactive and fun to watch.

So far, I’ve talked about using these games before your service. But I use them post-service as well. It helps a lot as I transition between services.

If you don’t want to send them back to the free play space, then I suggest playing one of the games I outline in this post. Or playing more videos.

When I did small groups as part of my service, I provided my small group leaders with a pack of Uno cards. As kids waited to leave, they played together.

Your first and last impression of a service makes a big difference. The first question a parent is going to ask their kid if they had fun. By providing a space for friends to form, community to be built and kids to freely play, the answer will always be yes.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money. Just be intentional and keep things in good condition. You’ll find your kids begging to come back again and again.