Fellowship and fun are gifts from God. Board games are a fun and wholesome way for Christians to enjoy these gifts with other church members, kids, or their spouse.
Whether you are looking for a new game for your family, a gift, or something more challenging, you don’t have to necessarily limit yourself to board games with a Christian theme or topic. There are plenty of games out there that are challenging, fun, and don’t promote themes or ideas that are outright hostile to your worldviews.
Best Board Games for Christian Families to Enjoy
Who’s The Silly Goose?
Eventually we all turn into our parents. Some of us just do it sooner than others. Who’s the Silly Goose is a game about laughing while you decide which of you are most likely to display some classic mom and dad traits.
You will not have to spend a lot of time learning the rules of this game. Players take turns being the “judge”. They draw a prompt card and then reads it aloud. The card will contain a phrase that says something like: “Shows up 4.5 hours early to the airport because you never know” or “Has a crippling addiction to throw pillows”. Everyone then says who the group this phrase best describes.
When everyone has made their case, the judge selects who the card goes to and that person is given that card. If someone get seven cards, they lose.
This game will have you laughing out loud. You can play it with your family, However it is definitely for older teens and not young kids.
Pandemic
Most board games pit people against one another but in Pandemic players unite to stop the spread of a global outbreak and work to eradicate multiple diseases.
This game is an intense race against time. Travel the world, build research stations and control the dieses. But just when it may seem like you are starting to get control, drawing an epidemic card card quickly causes the dieses to get stronger!
There are many different actions to take and each player has different strengths and abilities. This provides plenty of strategic options that require you to think hard on the actions you take.
Pandemic highlights the significance of collaboration and selflessness in overcoming challenges, mirroring the calling of all Christians to serve others throughout the world.
Codenames
If you think you really know how others think, then you should do well with Codenames. In this word association game, players try to select the correct words on the game board based off of a one-word clue from their teammate.
The game board is a 5×5 grid of cards with a single word on each one. Each word card represents either a red “agent”, a blue “agent” or a tan card representing an innocent bystander. There is one “assassin” card, if chosen, if a team selects a word that is the assassin, they lose.
One team member is the “spymaster” and they have the key card that shows where the agents for both teams are located. They can only give one-word clues each turn and their teammates try to guess the word cards that have their team color agent on the other side. Teams must uncover their agents before the other team does to win.
The game is easy to learn and it is fun to play again and again! Be sure to give it a try.
Ticket to Ride
There are few games that I would say are perfect. Ticket to Ride is just about the perfect mix of strategy, luck, and gameplay. This basic premise of the game is to complete different train routes on the map to connect cities. Points are earned by connecting the cities on the route cards you draw. You also get bonus points based on the length of the individual routes you complete.
Ticket to Ride is just plain fun for all ages but it also reflects the importance of perseverance and patience in your faith journey.
We recommend the original Ticket to Ride for beginners and Ticket to Ride Europe for more advanced players.
You Laugh You’re Out
The whole point of a game is to have fun. You Laugh You’re Out is a hilarious game that puts the focus on laughter rather than on competing. Don’t get me wrong, you still compete against other players, but you either end up winning or end up laughing, and so every comes out smiling.
The gameplay is very straightforward. One player draws a card and they have 30 seconds to make others in the group laugh. If anyone laughs, they must surrender one of their tokens. Be the first to run out of tokens and you lose the game. There are tons of gut busting prompts on the cards that will have your group straining to keep a straight face.
Fletter
When searching for the perfect game that will bring your whole family together you need a game that will check a lot of boxes: it needs to be easy to learn, all ages need to be able to be competitive, and of course it needs to be fun.
Fletter fits these needs. The game is all about making words out of the letters on the table. Players lay one letter at a time in order. When a player sees letters on the table that spell a word, they blurt out that word. If they are the first or only person to say the word, then they get those cards and corresponding points on them.
There are multiple rounds, starting with 3 letter words, then four, etc. The game is simple but the rules are best explained with a visual aid. This video clearly shows how gameplay works:
Beat The Parents
Every kid dreams of making the rules in their house. In Beat the Parents kids can win the chance to make mom and dad do whatever they want!
The teams are kids versus mom and dad. Each team agrees on a wager before the game. For example, if the kids win mom and dad have to buy ice cream for the kids. If mom and dad win, kids have to vacuum out the car.
The cornerstone of what makes this game appealing and evenly matched is the style of the questions. Kids get to ask the parents questions about kid stuff and parents ask questions about their generation. This puts both teams on equal footing making it just as likely that the kids will be the ones cashing in their wager.
This game will unite your family for some much needed bonding time and have your kids working together or a change!
Don’t Go Boom!
Combining elements of classic games of tick-tack-toe and the card game golf, Don’t Go Boom is a tricky game with explosive consequences.
The goal is to have the lowest score. Each player has his or her own “minefield” with 9 cards in a 3×3 grid. Players take turns drawing a card then choosing to swap out a card in their minefield or discarding it. The goal is to get the lowest number of points. If you have the same number lined up in a row, either across, diagonal, or vertical, those cards are “diffused” and they count as no points.
This Game has a lot of interesting elements like the “big bad bomb” or “swap” cards that add complexity to your decisions and it makes this game less about luck and more about strategy.
Check out Don’t Go Boom and make your family game night a real bang!
Steal the Bacon
Maybe your household needs more silliness or maybe you fully embrace the silliness of your household. either way Steal The Bacon is the perfect game for silly families who just want a hilarious good time.
The game can be played by young kids who are not readers because it is completely made up a picture cards. The bacon card is placed in the center of the table or game playing surface. There are delicious looking waffle and pancake breakfast cards that players take turns flipping over onto the playing surface. When two cards that show the same breakfast are played players must race to be the first to grab the bacon card.
This is pretty fun on its own, but there is more. There are special cards that are in the deck as well. When one of these goofy characters is played all players must do the action associated with that card then race to steal the bacon.
This game is fast paced and non-stop fun for all ages!
Quality Time
Whether you are choosing a game to help teach Biblical values or just to spend quality time together as a family, these fun, challenging, and sometimes though provoking games do the job!
