How to Hold Church Activities and Classes When You Can't Meet Together
This post may contain affiliate links which means I may be paid for products you purchase through my links. See my full disclosure for more.
Church meetings are being limited and canceled right and left currently. It’s good to be vigilant but it can be a bummer to miss out on instruction, community, and fun activities. The fabulous thing about Come, Follow Me is you don't really have to miss a beat just because your ward's church services have been canceled whether due to threats of COVID-19 or crazy weather. What can you do though to stay connected with your class, youth group, and other family members so you can still strengthen one another and have some fun? In this century- so much!!
Save it for later, pin it now!
Ways to Teach and Share Online
Continue to teach your class even though you can meet together. Send a short note or hold an hour-long session with these ideas:
Use the Gospel Living App! It's a great way to communicate with your class and continue to share your ideas. There are now groups for adults (think Relief Society) so you can discuss your lesson with them through the app too! Plus there are great articles and thoughts on the Discover page to give you a spiritual boost any time you need one. Circles not working for you? Try a program like Telegram. It’s basically texting but you can download it on a computer as well so even if you don’t have a phone, you can join in the fun!
Use programs to have an online class! There are a ton of services you can use. I use Uberconference for meetings with my virtual assistants. You can do it where everyone sees each other or you can share your screen so you can share a PowerPoint presentation, church images, etc. or do another fun activity together. I hear Zoom is another great one. Plus you can always do a Google Hangout and other similar programs.
Record a Marco Polo or video you can email. It’s a great way to share a quick spiritual thought or object lesson and people can view when they are ready. Everyone can add their own thoughts as well. It can make for a great discussion (and you can skip the comments you don’t want to listen to). You can also upload your videos to YouTube and email the link to your class. Even a short 2-minute thought is great!
Use Kahoot! It's a fun quiz game that everyone can join no matter where they are using their phone (you'll all need the app). To get everyone to join in (at the same time), share the pin. It's a fun way to review with a friendly competition element. And there are others who make a weekly Kahoot that goes with the Come, Follow Me lessons already. Psych is another app I've heard about that allows everyone to submit other answers to "psych" out your friends adding an additional challenge. Quizlet and Nearpod are other ones you may have heard about and works similarly to Kahoot.
Host a Facebook Watch Party. You all join in at the same time and chat about the movie you are watching such as the Book of Mormon ones! You can also watch some of the Come, Follow Me podcast available on YouTube together such as Don’t Miss This.
Connect with ministering text messages. Check on those you minister to and those in your class with one of my ministering textables (images to text). There are some to just say Hello while others invite Come, Follow Me participation.
Play your class a song over the phone or go "caroling" by singing church songs to one another over the phone (you can use the Sing Along Hymns app to help). It's a great pick me up and doesn't take long to do (perfect for the younger classes). Not up for singing? Share a video or song using the Gospel Media app instead.
Looking for self-study? Head to the Doctrinal Mastery app and quiz yourself, use the flashcards, and get help memorizing verses.
Allow some teachers to go Live on your ward’s Facebook group. People can participate by writing in the comments as the teacher shares. It can be a shorter lesson but would be a great way to still share. Each Presidency could do a short message as well.
Have little ones? Try the Scripture Stories app instead. It brings together beautiful artwork and abridged accounts from the scriptures with a dramatized narration to create an experience your whole family can enjoy.
Host an online scavenger hunt! Have your class find things in the scriptures or in other Church apps, screenshot it, then post it using your Circle in the Gospel Living app to show they found it. You can do things that relate to the Come, Follow Me lesson that week.
Activities You Can Do Even When Apart
Host an indexing challenge. Create an event page so you can update, challenge, and encourage one another. It's a great time to learn if you haven't done it before! Plus, you can do a conference call to teach everyone first.
Use a conferencing app to play games like Latter-day Saint Pictionary, Shout Out!, the Category Game and more. All you need to be able to do is hear each other and with something like Pictionary, see the drawing. Tons of fun to do online!
Do a quick Photo Challenge! Use Circles in the Gospel Living app to send the challenge (take a photo with three people, take a photo with something musical, take a photo of yourself balancing a book on your head, etc.). The first person to submit the photo gets the point.
Have a Disney movie night. There are a few popular ones that hit home right now such as Tangled, Frozen, and Muppet Treasure Island (with the cabin fever song). You can all watch in your own homes while having a group chat so you can still "be together."
Use your phone and call someone! Ha, ha. Seems so silly, right? Just talking to someone, not texting, not even face timing, straight up talking can be great. Assign everyone a person to call every 10 minutes so everyone gets a little one on one friendship time. Give them discussion questions to help out if they don't know what to say.
Learn a new instrument or new church song. You can grab the lap harp and get Primary song music to go with it- great for kids and adults to play! Another favorite instrument is Merry Bells (Use promo code CKNSCRATCH for 10% off). You play along with the DVD so it’s easy to learn but still gives you a challenge with the difficult levels of difficulty. Do these musical activities as a family or have an online Talent Show afterward using one of the conferencing programs, the requirement being it has to be something you just learned to do.
You can play Jackbox games online with your group. No app needed, just the website and game. Tabletop Simulator lets you play board games together online too.
Be pen pals! Assign everyone one person in your ward to email at least once a week. A list of prompts of what to write can help give everyone something to say and a way to learn from another. Don’t just do it with your class, include others in your ward too! Or mix it up by doing it anonymously and you have to guess who your pen pal is. The trick here is everyone would have to email you their letters then you would redistribute them.
Activities For Your Family to Do at Home
If it’s just for your family, use one of my Family Date Night kits like my new mini golf one. You don't have to leave your house to have some fun. It breaks up the monotony and helps you talk about great gospel principles in a whole new way.
Stuck inside and need something else to do? Check out my list of games, puzzles, and more to keep you from going stir crazy!
Remember, there are also song recommendations at the back of you Come, Follow Me manual. Take this time to learn them at home!
- And, of course,there are my free Come, Follow Me lesson helps avaialable on the blog (Book of Mormon tab in the menu) to help you keep going at home.
