Kerrville church offers gospel-centered escape room

KERRVILLE—To help bring the Bible to life in a fun and innovative way for elementary kids to understand, the children’s ministry at Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville recently put together a gospel-centered escape room.

Families read selected Scripture passages together and solved clues as they embarked on an interactive experience that ultimately led them to find Jesus.

Although this was the first time children’s minister Kellee Parish and her team have put together an event like this, they always are on the lookout for creative ways to reach families with the gospel.

Each year, Trinity Baptist Church hosts Operation Blessing, which provides more than 300 pairs of shoes for children. In December, their church also hosts a drive-thru night in Bethlehem.

“We really wanted to come with something new and a great way to reach families with the gospel,” Parish said. “We were researching ideas, and my assistant came up with the idea for an escape room.

“Our goal specifically was to reach elementary schoolers with the gospel, and our vision was laid out by staying true to the Word as the clues for each room came together.

“I had noticed that our elementary school kids knew the Easter story, but there were holes when they were retelling it to others. This presented a great way for them to clearly see how it all comes together.”

About 80 participated in the escape room

Parish said about 80 people went through the escape room, including a few visitors.

“They went through it as a family and some brought friends,” Parish said. “We purposely did it on a Tuesday night, so we wouldn’t be competing with sports. And we offered pizza following the event, so families could enjoy a meal together.

“It was very family-oriented. There were a lot of fun elements, and the kids especially enjoyed wrapping their parents in toilet paper when they got to the tomb scene. We also offered photo op’s at the end with the characters dressed in their costumes.”

Based on the response to this year’s event, Parish said her team already is working on developing an escape room for next year and says she would encourage other churches to consider doing similar outreaches.

“We had 12 to 15 volunteers on the team, and they helped with things like putting the clues together and dressing up in costumes for the different scenes in each room,” Parish said.

“The hardest part was coming up with the clues. Everyone really enjoyed this event, and it was a team effort. All these Sunday school teachers jumped in and wanted to be a part of this event and that was great to see.”

Designed to present the complete gospel story

Parish and her team already are thinking of how they can make the escape room different and better for next year.

“Both kids and their parents had a great time. It was a beautiful picture seeing families reading the Scriptures together and seeing them put all the clues together and discovering how the gospel is laid out,” she said.

“As families walked through each room, they discovered the gospel story in its entirety. That was our main goal to present the complete picture of the gospel story to them and why we do what we do.

“For other churches considering an event like this, I would encourage them to just do it. Sometimes it’s hard to think out of the box, but as long as you are staying true to telling the story of Jesus, stay true to that and be creative.”

She called the escape room “a great opportunity to reach families with the gospel.” Compared to the church’s drive-thru Bethlehlem, which draws about 250 families, and Operation Blessing, which provides more than 300 pairs of shoes for children, she said it was “one of the easiest events we have put together.”

“Those are big events for our community,” she said. “We’re a little community, less of a city, but we do the best things together as a team and desire to see the gospel shared in creative ways to reach our community.”