Young people don’t need theology translated into simpler terms; they need to be invited into the actual work of doing theology. The problem with most Christian education curricula isn’t that they fail to communicate information, but that they position youth as consumers of information rather than interpreters. Instead, we must recognize that youth can be faithful thinkers capable of grappling with complexity.

A Game That Expects Serious Thinking

Last spring, I created a game called “Theses & Thrones” for our annual June parish camp. The game places campers inside the theological conflicts of the English Reformation. They each join one of four factions—Henricians, Evangelicals, Puritans, and Traditionalists—that compete for influence across a map of the British Isles through debate and strategic positioning. Imagine a board game with peg figure preachers competing through die-roll “preach offs” where the losers get defrocked. The key is not in the die roll, however, but in how the ordaining of new preachers is gamified.

The gamification involves two parts every day. The first part takes place in the morning session and centers on a doctrinal controversy, like the question of authority, Eucharist, justification, liturgical language, or the role of saints. Each faction receives a “faction file” that is packed with information for them about their faction’s beliefs regarding the issue of the day. Then they have an hour to come up with a presentation that puts forward their faction’s beliefs. Through persuasiveness, creativity, and collaboration, they set off to win the debate, employing a combination of rhetoric, art, craft, acting, and even some stop-motion videography. Adult volunteers serve as judges, and factions are rewarded by ordaining some number of new preachers based on how well they present their faction’s beliefs about the day’s topic.

The second part of the gamification happens in the afternoon. After factions have studied and proclaimed their beliefs about the topic of the day, a historical event takes place. From the Dissolution of the Monasteries to the Edwardian Reformation, from the Marian Persecutions to the Elizabethan Settlement, historical tides sweep across the game board and change the balances of power. Players not only hear about church history, but they begin to feel it in their bones as their factions’ fortunes rise or fall with the course of history.

Learning Skills for Our Own Time

One of the keys to making this work is that there are no heroes or villains in the game. Each faction is respectable in its own right; there were reasonable people who took each position, and the game honors each position as such. Even if the Episcopal Church may lean more toward the center, our “via media” (“middle way”) approach means that we can uphold a variety of theologies while we nevertheless pray together. This game highlights that commitment by not preferencing any one faction over the other, but instead creating an experience where youth are invited to think for themselves about which theological ideas resonate within their hearts. By assigning roles, not opinions, the game encourages a deeper sense of theological empathy rooted in understanding across lines of difference.

The game also instills big-picture resilience. Students experience what it was like for Christians to live through a time that was far more turbulent even than our own. Imagine thinking that the Protestants have come to power for good, with a young monarch-scholar in King Edward, only to have him die an early death that leads to the crowning of none other than “Bloody” Mary. This big-picture engagement with real history offers an anxious generation a sense that things will work out all right, even if it seems as if the world is nearly coming to an end in the present moment.

What Churches Can Learn

Churches often assume that formation must be gentle, linear, and simplified. But when youth are asked to engage the fullness of the tradition—including its arguments, tensions, and living questions—they respond with depth and seriousness. The structure of “Theses & Thrones” makes that unmistakably clear.

Extending this approach into congregational life means rethinking not only what we teach, but how we invite young people to participate in the church’s ongoing work of theology. Here are six ways that churches can support youth as theologians through formation:

1. Reclaim Diversity of Opinion as a Congregational Practice

Most curricula emphasize what the community holds in common. But formation also happens when youth are invited to take bold positions—and to stay in relationship with peers who land somewhere different. Let young people discover that faithful Christians have disagreed about important questions and that holding a view means being willing to defend it. Interpretation belongs to the whole body, including those still finding their footing.

2. Create Formation Spaces Where the Stakes Are Real

Expect young people to rise to the occasion. When an activity actually depends on their reasoning, collaboration, or proclamation, they step up to the task, knowing that they have a real stake in the outcome. Build sessions that require thoughtful contribution: presentations, debates, shared discernment, or small-group reading. Make those contributions shape the outcome of the season.

3. Prioritize Collaboration over Consumption

Formation deepens when people must build something together. Design processes where youth persuade one another, divide responsibilities, and produce shared work, like a presentation, a project, or a communal statement. Youth don’t come to church to absorb content; they come to belong. Give them tasks that require genuine partnership.

4. Make Room for Agency, Not Just Attendance

Youth do not need permission to think theologically; they need opportunity to share their thoughts aloud. Invite them to lead discussions, analyze historical moments, or offer reflections in worship. Give them roles that matter. Formation becomes meaningful when young people are participants rather than observers.

5. Normalize Complexity and Encourage Resilience

The church does young people no favors by shielding them from the conflicts, failures, and ambiguities that shaped Christian history. When youth see that faith has always unfolded in turbulent times—and that the tradition survived—they gain perspective on their own anxious moment. Grappling with hard material makes them more grounded, not less.

6. Honor Youth as Theologians in Their Own Right

The work of interpretation, proclamation, and discernment is not advanced material. It is simply Christian practice. When youth engage the Christian tradition directly, they begin to see themselves as contributors to the life of the church. Churches must treat them not as apprentices awaiting adulthood, but as full participants whose theological imagination enriches the whole community.

By shifting toward a posture of expecting youth to think, inviting them to speak, and trusting them with complexity, congregations can become communities that learn together, listen together, and grow together.

The Living Stories Way

“Theses & Thrones” stands on the same ground that gave rise to Living Stories Sermons: the belief that people, and especially young people, learn the faith by practicing it. Where Living Stories sermons invite congregations to interpret scripture together, “Theses & Thrones” invites youth to inhabit the arguments and tensions of the tradition through play. The setting is different, but the posture is the same. Instead of receiving conclusions, participants are asked to step inside the material, speak from it, and make meaning in real time.

Our first experience with “Theses & Thrones” was quite a success. We’ve received funding to complete further work on the game before it’s ready to be shared broadly with the whole church. As with Living Stories Sermons, “Theses & Thrones” will be a free resource offered as a ministry of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church. If you would like to be notified when the revised and ready-for-use version of “Theses & Thrones” is available, please follow along with the Living Stories newsletter. In the meantime, you can read more about “Theses & Thrones” in this game guide.

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