Talking About Faith cards – by Youthscape

 

These conversation-starter playing cards are a fab tool to get young people thinking and talking about their faith, the way it effects their beliefs and the way they live out their lives.  Sometimes it can be hard to get conversations about faith going – without it coming across weird or forced, especially if young people aren’t used to it.  Thats where something like these cards come into their own.  Instead of posing faith questions yourself and young people in the room responding with absolute silence (yep this has happened to me!) you can introduce these cards as a game or icebreaker to bring up faith themes in a more creative way – the card is asking the questions so you don’t have to!  Also young people have something to look at and touch – which can help with any shyness or nerves at having to look at others in the group or you.   The great thing about these is how versatile they are – you can use them in a group – and take a card, answer it and pass the stack on to the next person, or you can use them in a one to one to help conversation flow, or you could pick a card and get a bigger group to discuss their answer with the person next to them, and there are probably more ways to use them that I havent even thought of!  As they also have numbers and suits printed on them you can also use these to play ordinary card games, or perhaps even to invent new games incorporating the questions.

These are designed and sold by Youthscape, who are a christian charity with a youthwork heart based in Luton.

Here’s what Youthscape say about them…

“Faith is more than just attending church or youth group once a week, but how do you get young people to delve deeper into understanding their own faith? We’ve designed these cards to help get those conversations started! Each of the four card suits explores a different aspect of faith:

• How does faith effect your beliefs?
• How do you express your faith?
• How does faith impact your relationships with others?
• How do you maintain your relationship with God?

Some questions are quite light-hearted, others offer the chance to go a bit deeper. This resource is ideal for all kinds of relational youth work, from mentoring to group work, from school to church settings. They probably work best with you people aged 11-16. Our new Talking About Faith playing cards are part of the Youthscape Playing Cards series – Talking About Life, Talking About Emotions and Talking About Relationships.

Our hope is that these cards open the space for helpful and empowering conversations, however, we’d recommend you look through them first to check if any don’t feel suitable for your group. The cards in this pack contain questions about the Christian faith – how it shapes your identity and actions. You are welcome to skip any cards that make the young person you’re interacting with uncomfortable. It’s also okay to do as many or as few cards as you’d like, and follow the lead of your group as to where the conversation goes! Alongside the colourful designs they’re also a full 52-card, four-suit, Ace-King set, so you can integrate them with your favourite card games, or, if you’re feeling talked out, just play cards!  We hope these cards lead to some great conversations with the young people you work with and open up discussions around relationship/friendship basics, boundaries and belonging.”

 

Available for sale at the Youthscape shop £12.99…

https://www.youthscape.co.uk/store/product/playing-cards-faith