As Christians we like to think that everything boils down to one answer – only Jesus can change the world. While that is unquestionably true, the reality is a little more nuanced. For instance, the apostle Paul tells us “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
If we want Jesus to change the world, we first have to be willing to let him change us. That could mean reconsidering the way we do all kinds of things, including the way that we play with our kids. For instance, we used to play a dodgeball variant called “slaughter.” I don’t want to be a prude about this, but I think we should at least question the way we name games, the types of activities we promote in those games (I’m looking at you, First Person Shooter), the outcomes of our games (winners vs losers).
To paraphrase Paul, all games are permissible to Christians, but not all games will build up the body.
With that in mind, here is a list of 15 games to change the world, just to get an idea of how we might start re-thinking what it means to have fun.
