When you read the word “church”, what comes to mind? Most of us would probably think of sitting in church and listening to the pastor share a message. After all, teaching is one of the most important aspects of any church service, youth group, or Sunday school. However, I’m sure all of us can also remember times when we’ve zoned out during the church service or the message just wasn’t engaging enough.
If you are a pastor or teacher in a church, you know what I’m talking about, especially if you teach young people. As someone who has taught youth many times, I know the feeling of looking out over an audience and seeing blank stares or disengaged faces. It’s not a great feeling!
Luckily, there are tools that we can utilize to keep people engaged and thinking about what we are saying. While I would 100% agree that Scripture is what does the work in people’s hearts and makes the lasting change, we must communicate it in a way that helps people understand it and process it intentionally.
A great way to do this is to use short skits and short plays in your teachings to illustrate your points, especially when it comes to teaching Bible stories. These Christian skits and plays don’t need to be full-length plays, but you could use them for a longer play if you would like to.
They can be used with young kids, teenagers, and even adults in your worship services. You could also use these for youth retreats, home school lessons, other special events, or at a VBS program. You could even use these within small groups in the right setting. Regardless of your use, here are 8 of my favorite skits, Bible verses to go with them, and some tips on how to use them effectively.
Skits and Plays from the Bible
The Prodigal Son
The parable of the prodigal son is a beautiful parable that Jesus tells in Luke 15:11-32. If you aren’t familiar with this scripture passage, the short version is that there is a man who has two sons. One son works dutifully for his inheritance while the other asks his father for it early and wastes it on easy pleasures.
After wasting his inheritance and hitting rock bottom, he decides that it would be better to return to his father and beg to be a servant in his household than to continue in his newfound life of poverty.
The expectation is that when the son returns, the father will scold him, give him a big “I told you so” and maybe even refuse to accept him back into the house, even as a servant. Yet what happens instead is, before the son even reaches the door of the house, the father runs out and embraces him.
He happily welcomes him home, clothes him in the finest robe, and throws a party to celebrate the return of his son. Although the other son becomes angry due to feeling like his brother doesn’t deserve all of this, the father says to him,
“Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” [Luke 15:31-32, ESV]
In this story, we can see the amazing love that God has for His children. Many of us are the son. We squander what God has given us in pursuit of worldly treasures, but He always welcomes us back with open arms because of His love.
Using this skit to teach this point is a great tool, particularly for young people, because many struggle to understand that God’s love is unconditional. This skit illustrates how it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, you can always come to God and you cannot damage His love for you.
The Good Samaritan
The Good Samaritan is also a great parable that Jesus tells that works well as a skit. The story is simple and can be found in Luke 10:25-37. The premise is that a man who was traveling was robbed badly beaten by robbers and left for dead on the side of the road.
Although both a priest and a Levite pass by him, they pass him on the opposite side of the road and do nothing to stop and help him. Instead, a Samaritan man comes along and helps the man, getting him to safety on his own animal and paying for his care at an inn.
This skit is a great teaching point for obvious reasons. We should always do our best to help those in need. However, it has an even deeper meaning if you get a little bit into the context of the story.
To the Jews who would have been hearing this story when Jesus told it, priests and Levites were supposed to be those who were closest to God and were the most righteous in their lifestyle. There would have been two people that the Jews would have outright expected to stop and help the man.
On the other hand, Jews and Samaritans were culturally opposed at the time and did not associate with one another at all. The Jews probably would have expected the Samaritan to beat the man or kick dirt in his face. Yet instead, the Samaritan turns out to be the one who helps the man, not the priest or the Levite.
Adding this context brings the deeper meaning that it doesn’t matter who you are or who someone in need is. We are all called to help one another despite our differences and God looks at the heart, not the outer appearance. We should love and be kind to everyone, not just those who are similar to us or who we would expect to return the favor.
The Conversion of Saul/Paul
Breaking the pattern of parables, the next skit that you could use is the story of Paul’s conversion when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. The telling of this event can be found in Acts 9:1-22. Saul, a man who previously was persecuting and killing Christians for their faith, had a miraculous experience of Jesus and was converted while on the way to another city.
Although his life was absolutely opposed to Christianity before this event, we read that after he had this encounter with Jesus, he went on to preach the Gospel almost immediately and then became one of the greatest evangelists and missionaries that this world has ever seen.
Using this skit is a great way to illustrate the true power of an encounter with Christ and how He can take anyone and completely turn their life around with His power and love. It also shows the unending love of God in that Saul was accepted by Jesus, even though he had been persecuting and murdering Jesus’ followers. No one is too far gone for God’s love and this is an important message for young people especially.
The Fruit of the Spirit
Although the gifts of the Spirit are often emphasized when the Holy Spirit is discussed, we should always remember that the true fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. This passage can be found in Galatians 5:22-23 and serves as the perfect basis for another skit/play in your church.
See, these concepts of love, joy, peace, etc. are great, but they can seem very abstract, especially to younger audiences. We may understand what those concepts are supposed to represent, but to understand how they would be lived out is a whole different idea. That’s what makes this perfect for a skit idea.
Get a volunteer to represent each part of the fruit of the Spirit and create scenarios in which each of those concepts could be tested or proven in an everyday situation. For example, for teaching patience, you could have someone be annoyed by a younger sibling. You could certainly make this one a humorous skit.
After all, this is probably something that your youth are quite familiar with! Perhaps you could show what it would look like if the person did not have patience and then what it would look like with patience. Also, consider having someone play the Holy Spirit that reminds the person to be patient. Remind them that we have unlimited access to the Holy Spirit and that He loves us and helps us through it all.
This not only helps visualize how each of these plays out in the real world but also serves as a reminder for your youth whenever they come across the situations that you presented in their own lives. They’ll be easily reminded to be loving, to be patient, to be joyful, etc. This will certainly help them in their spiritual growth in the long run.
The Crucifixion/Resurrection
I know, putting on a play or church skit of the crucifixion and resurrection or even the Christmas story may seem a bit too obvious or cliche, but the crucifixion and resurrection specifically are certainly some of the best events that you can use for a play or skit.
You could especially use this as one of your Easter skits. In my time working with youth, one thing that I have noticed is that when they’ve heard the story of what Jesus did so many times, it becomes less substantial to them and holds less weight. It seems very story-like and less like it really did happen.
Acting it out is a great way to combat the tendency to treat the resurrection like just another fairytale. The key here is to make it as realistic as possible within the rules of your church. Have an older church member play Jesus Christ and spend time with them to explain your ultimate goal with this play.
Don’t dramatize the events or make them exaggerated. Make them as accurate to the Bible as possible. When your youth see the pain and suffering that Jesus went through play out in front of them, I believe it will help them see it as more real and truly understand what our Savior went through to save them from their sins.
Topical Skits and Plays
While it is always great to act out Bible skits that come directly from its pages, it is also very beneficial to act out some stories or settings that come from more conceptual Bible lessons. By doing this, you can take a principle from the Bible that is relevant to your young people and act it out in a play or skit that gives them an idea of how that principle will play out in their Christian life.
These don’t have to be high quality or extravagant, they simply have to get the point across effectively. Here are 3 good ideas for church plays and skits that you can use for this purpose.
Identity in Christ
One of the biggest issues (if not the biggest) that our young people face today is identity. With so many people in their lives telling them who they should be, they seem to be stuck in an endless loop of recreating themselves to see what sticks.
Especially with social media in the picture, they are more connected than ever to billions of people who have various expectations, standards of beauty, success, popularity, and ideas of what a young person’s identity should be based on.
However, above all of these things and even above listening to themselves, our young people should turn to God to receive their identity. Who they are should be based on their identity in Christ, not their identity in the world or society’s standards.
To portray this, create a play or a skit where a young person is faced with different people’s expectations of who they should be. Show the turmoil that often goes on within a young person’s mind as to who they should please and who they should be. Maybe even touch on some of the more painful topics like suicide ideation or sexuality.
But in the end, show how Christ can come alongside that person, show them that they are loved, and help them to find their identity in Him alone. Help your young people to see that Jesus loves them and that He can make them children of God. There are real reasons that they should turn to Him and find their identity in Him.
Social Media
As previously mentioned, the influence of social media is one of the biggest things that our young people are facing today. By doing a skit on the dangers of social media, you can help your young people see that they don’t have to keep up with the trends or live up to the standards often portrayed online.
One of the best ways to do this is to show how social media isn’t realistic. Put on a skit that shows a popular social media influencer and show how their “perfect” life that is put out online isn’t truly perfect in the real world. Help your young people to see that even the influencers that they look up to have real problems and that social media isn’t realistic.
Instead, God can help them understand their true self-worth and realistically become the people they were made to be.
Mental Health
Another of the biggest things that young people are facing today is the prevalence of mental health issues that are presenting themselves in young people. More young people than ever are facing issues of anxiety, depression, and suicide ideation.
Putting this skit together is going to need a lot of prayer and thinking from your side, especially as you consider the specific setting and audience that you have in your church. Involve some of the older and more mature youth in the brainstorming and production process and have them help you figure out how to tackle this topic properly with their peers and friends.
Be sure to treat this issue carefully but firmly, communicating that Jesus is there to walk with them in their valleys and that His burden is light if they choose to let Him take it (Matthew 11:28-30). Above all, treat this topic with love and be prepared to have tough conversations with young people who are affected and convicted by it.