At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Beaufort, North Carolina, in the back of the church, you can find canvas bags filled with all sorts of things to keep our youngest worshipers engaged in the service. I have seen children of all ages use these bags, from three- and four-year-olds all the way up to 6th graders. While you can find many typical “grab bag” items in our children’s worship bags, one item stands out from the rest: our “I Spy Bingo Card.”
Updating Sunday Morning Worship Bags
It took some time for this particular item to make its way into our bags. When I first arrived at St. Paul’s, I was asked to think of a new bag that our children could use for their Sunday morning worship bags. At the time, they were using navy bags with the old church logo, so we decided to update them. We took some of our leftover canvas bags from Vacation Bible School and asked our young people in our youth group to help decorate them. Now we use canvas bags covered in handprints of our middle and high school students.
Then I was asked if I had any ideas for inserts that could go in the bags. I went to Illustrated Ministry’s page and found their weekly worship bulletins that go along with the lectionary readings that children hear in church.
Ensuring our children’s worship bags are ready for Sunday mornings is a ministry of our Daughters of the King Chapter. When a new Daughter took over the ministry and was looking to completely overhaul the bags, I helped her put together and order some other things I thought would be good in the bags, like dry-erase boards and markers, fidget toys, pipe cleaners — all the usual suspects. As I thought about additional ways to keep our young people engaged in the service beyond their weekly worship bulletins, I came up with “I Spy Bingo Cards.”
Creating an “I Spy Bingo Card”
I created a template in Canva and worked hard to think of different things to fill up all the spaces. Each space has a picture of a different item with its name so that a young person can identify the item and use its proper name. Some items are easy to spot or name, like “Bulletin” or “Cross,” but others, like “Tabernacle” and “Paschal Candle,” are more difficult and help children build their church vocabulary. We also laminated the cards so that they can be used week after week and we can help the planet.
It has been a joy to watch our young people be more engaged in worship and learn new church vocabulary. Not only that, but it has been amazing to watch our parish be willing to try new, innovative ways of engaging our young people in worship. What could be next?
“I Spy Bingo Card” Template
If you are interested in creating your own “I Spy Bingo Card” for worship bags, feel free to use the Canva link here to create your own. Don’t be afraid to get creative! Some of the items I used for ours are only found in stained glass windows. Find what works best for you and your worship space.
This resource can work well for other events too. I even created one for our church kitchen to promote learning about sustainability. This version of the Bingo Card was originally meant for a diocesan-wide event to learn more about care of creation. Now we use it to draw attention to what kind of products we use in our space: Are we using paper or Styrofoam plates and cups? Where is our recycling bin?
There can be many different uses for the Bingo Card. Have fun!