Children’s Games

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            Remember all those games you used to play as a child? We didn’t have many games bought from a store, so we had to make up our own. An interesting thing about those old games—it seems like some kids have never outgrown them. In fact, they appear to be very popular among some church members. See if you recognize any of these childhood games in the church:

1. Wolf Over the River. This game was always played to a catchy chant, “Wolf over the river, wolf over the river. If you don’t come over, I’m going to eat your liver!” In this game, a person picks out a target, usually the preacher or the elders and decides if they don’t “come over” (do what he or she wants) he will “eat their liver.” This game is so much fun because the “wolf” has the total advantage over his victim. Usually, the victim gets “eaten up” regardless of what he does or does not do.
2. This is the game brethren play when it appears that they are going to have to do more than warm a pew or maybe when they don’t like the way the preacher combs his hair. Sometimes other earth-shaking issues precipitate this game. When that occurs, the players “hopscotch” to another congregation where they are not expected to do anything and where the preaching is soft and pleasing.
3. Kick the Can. The object of this game is to kick every time a good work is set up to keep the whole church upset. It only takes a few playing the game with reasonable skill to accomplish this purpose.
4. Hide and Seek. This dandy game is made for some church members. A church member is taken to the hospital and “hides” where the preacher and the rest of the congregation must search for him. It is against the rules to tell the preacher. If he loses, the hider then gets to tell everybody he or she was in the hospital, and nobody visited him or her.
5. The rules are simple. Whoever is “it” decides concerning the preacher, you tag me at home, and maybe I’ll come to church. I guess that’s not too unfair, except that the preacher never knows who is “it” and the odds are that he cannot win. Even if he happens to win, he must start all over again the next week.

[Note: I wrote this article for, and it was published in the October 27, 1977, edition of the Granbury Gospel, weekly bulletin of the Granbury Church of Christ, Granbury, Texas, of which I was editor.

Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.