My Church was running a children’s holiday program.  We were building a new main auditorium at the time so departments were meeting in a collection of demountables scattered across Church grounds.  We had children everywhere!  Our Pastor wanted to gather everyone together at different times throughout the day but how could we remind our volunteers and motivate the children to drop what they were doing and get to the temporary auditorium without losing precious time?  We needed some kind of signal.

The old game of Battleship popped into my mind.  I first played Battleship back when you had to draw your own grid on paper.  (You can imagine my enthusiasm when the electronic version with sound effects came on the market!) The formation of the grid had linked in my mind to the seating in the auditorium.  We simply had to label every seat with numbers and letters of the alphabet.  We’d play a short musical cue, the children would hear it and come to the auditorium where our Pastor would pick co-ordinance out of a bag.  (For example L10 for row L and chair number 10 in the row).  If the Pastor called your co-ordinates you’d win a prize but you had to be sitting on the chair.  Well, we’d never seen children move so fast in all our lives! 

This simple idea worked on so many levels.  We got the children where we needed them to be quick.  Hearing the sound cue was exhilarating.  Waiting to see which seat would be called out was exciting, and receiving a prize for sitting on a chair was fun!  This story exemplifies yet another reason why I love Kid’s Ministry.  A game from my childhood was reinvented to create a game for another generation.  We all had a blast!

It was so successful and I remember it so fondly that I thought I’d make a ‘Battleship’ soundtrack for you to use in your Kid’s Ministry.  You’ll find the ‘Cue the Battleship’ soundtrack on the Cooee Kid’s Ministry YouTube channel.

Visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF5Oy53xGog

I hope you’ll have hours of fun using this resource with the children in your own Kid’s Church.