‘Mission is’ game from CMS

Following a recent meeting with CMS, Cate Williams has ten copies of CMS’ ‘Mission is’ game, free for the first ten churches to request a copy.  Mission Is…On the Cards’, forms part of Church Mission Society’s major new ‘Mission Is’ campaign, and aims to stimulate people’s thinking about mission and broaden their perspective of the reality of mission in the 21^st century.  For us in Gloucester Diocese, it is a tool with potential to get people talking about mission and inspired by the possibilities.

‘Mission Is…On the Cards’ has been designed for small groups of all ages. Each playing pack includes a selection of ‘Mission Is’, ‘Word’ and ‘Action’ playing cards and players are challenged to construct a defining statement about mission using the prompts provided on each card. Players build their personal statements using locations such as ‘foodbank’, ‘local estate’, ‘school’, or ‘home’; different groups of people such as ‘homeless people’, ‘my mates’ ‘work colleagues’ or ‘prisoners’ and varying actions such as ‘visiting’, ‘helping’ or ‘baking’, as well as more traditional interpretations of mission such as ‘preaching’, ‘going’ and ‘church’. Finally, the group of players are asked to vote on the most exciting ‘Mission Is’ statement from the different hands displayed throughout the game. Focus groups who trialled the game said it is, “fun and creative”, “thought-provoking”, “a conversation starter for sure” and “actually rather competitive!”

Church Mission Society’s executive leader, Philip Mounstephen, explained the motivation behind creating the game: “Our central belief is that all of God’s people are called to join in God’s mission yet we suspect many people’s narrow definition of what ‘mission’ really means, is a major contributor to their hesitation about getting involved. This game is a fun way to challenge those misconceptions and broaden people’s understanding of how they can be a part of God’s mission.”

Mission Is campaign manager, Thomas Fowler said; “Views of mission can range from a universal ‘renewal of all things’ to a colloquial or as simple as baking a cake for my neighbour. There’s no definitive answer but by listening to what people have to say we hope people will be inspired to see God’s mission as their mission, and get involved.”

Contact Cate on: cwilliams@glosdioc.org.uk