Real problems. Scripture answers.
A Doctrinal Mastery game for seminary. Students write real problems a teenager could face, then answer each one the way they would answer a friend: the text they would send, built on a passage they know. The class reads it on the wall; nothing is sent.
Here is one of the game’s case ideas, with the kind of answer a team writes, and the five passages that team held. Read them, then do what the rest of the room does: guess which passage the team built on.
Case 1
You don’t have to try it to belong. Joseph walked out of the room, and you can too. Sit with us at lunch?
Which passage did they build it on?
The Quick look your class can watch in the lobby runs under three minutes. In the game, a six-minute walk-through of every step is one tap away, with Back, Pause and Next.
About thirty-five minutes of a fifty-minute class. The pictures below are from test games on the live site, from the moment a case is filed to the moment it comes back to the student who wrote it.
Before class
An iPad or laptop shows the wall on the classroom TV, with the code and the music. Your own phone becomes the teacher remote, so you can run every step from where you stand (one tap on the iPad starts the music).
A first game? Open it Guided: every phone opens each step with a short note that says what happens now. For a class that knows the game, choose They know it.
6:00 · Join
Students scan the code. No app, no account. Each phone gets a codename from a place in the Old Testament, and that is all the room ever sees.
The one rule. We never guess who wrote a case.
6:02 · File
Someone their age: what happened, how they feel, and what they are tempted to do. An age, never a name. The wall counts each case into the basket; nobody sees the words yet.
Stuck? “Need an idea?” offers something to think about first; after a little while, 100 vetted case ideas open. Too few cases? Cold cases fill the gaps.
6:07 · Screen
On your phone, never on the TV. Approve, hide, or flag a case for yourself; read each one, or approve all at once. Nothing a student files reaches the wall until you approve it. Cases that use certain danger, abuse or profane words are set aside for you alone and never dealt. A keyword check can miss things, so read what you approve.
6:08 · Deal
You choose how many teams, up to eight. The game suggests two or three small teams for a class of eight or fewer, and pairs for a larger class; a small class can also play everyone on their own. Each team gets a case none of its own members wrote, and five of the 24 Old Testament Doctrinal Mastery passages, dealt so the teams hold different ones while the deck lasts. Usually at least one plainly fits; the trade and the search are there when none does.
6:08 · Solve
A team can name a scribe: one phone writes and seals, while the others search the scriptures and send it ideas. Or skip the scribe, and anyone writes. Read the case. Pick a passage: open the whole verse and its doctrine, trade one once, or search by situation, typos and all, with words from the case one tap away. Write the text you would actually send and, if they like, one line on why it fits and a scripture of their own from any book. Then name the principle it uses and seal it. A clue opens at half time.
Nothing is sent to anyone. The team’s answer goes up on the wall for the class.
6:16 · Review
Each case goes up, and a quill writes the team’s text in while the room reads. Everyone else taps the passage they think it was built on, and the wall counts the guesses, so you know when everyone has chosen. Then the reveal, and the team’s why, read to the room.
The reveal
A guess that lands somewhere else is a different read. If you can say why your passage fits too, raise your hand on your phone. Your teacher calls on you, and can accept it: it fits too, and you score.
The strongest answers can get the teacher’s Case Closed seal.
Say it together
The whole class says the passage together, then once more without looking. Then the next case.
6:29 · Vote
After the last case, when two or more teams sent an answer, every phone sees those answers and votes for the one that would help most if it were their own case, never their own team’s. The wall shows the answers and how many have voted, never who voted for what. The answer with the most votes is the room’s choice; a tie shares it.
6:31 · Close
Teams stand on the podium; the room’s choice wears gold, and the sharpest guesser is named. A student whose case was answered gets it back on their phone, written in by a quill: their case, answered, with the scripture it stands on, to save as a picture. Then the music softens, each student picks one passage to carry into the week (only their own phone knows which), and the wall goes still for your witness.
Then it is gone. The words of every case, answer and team idea a student wrote are erased from the game when you close the room, or within a day and a half at most if you forget. A case set aside for you stays until you clear it. A picture a student saved stays on their own phone.
| Your team scores | |
| +1 | each classmate who guesses your scripture |
| +3 | the room’s choice |
| +3 | the Case Closed seal |
| You score | |
| +1 | each right guess or accepted fit (+1 if you defended it) |
Top team wins. Sharpest guesser named.
The answer is shown to the class, never sent to anyone.
Doctrinal Mastery asks students to know each passage, understand the doctrine it teaches, and apply it to real questions and situations. Case Files is practice for the last of the three: a real person, a real problem, and the words you would choose.
to a person, a problem, and the words you would choose. Case Files lives here.Nothing to install, and no student accounts.
No. They scan the code on the wall, and their phone gets a codename. Nothing to install.
Students never do. Teachers need a login, and teacher access is not open yet. Fill in the card and you will hear back.
Plan on about thirty-five minutes: five to file, a minute to screen, eight to solve, then the reviews, a minute to vote and a quiet close. On a short morning, “Skip this case” and “Straight to the podium” are there; going straight to the podium skips the vote.
Two to thirty phones. You choose the number of teams: the game suggests two or three small teams for a class of eight or fewer, and a small class can play everyone on their own.
No. The text a team writes is shown on the wall for the class to read and guess. Nothing is texted to anyone.
A case that uses certain danger or abuse words is set aside for the teacher alone and never dealt. It stays after the room closes so you can follow up the same day. The check looks for words, so it can miss a case put another way: read what you approve.
Open the room Guided. Every phone opens each step with a short note that says what happens now, and the “How it works” film is one tap away in the lobby.
The 24 Old Testament Doctrinal Mastery passages. Choose the ones you have taught, or all 24.
Case Files was made for one early-morning seminary class. If you would like to play it with yours, fill in the card.
Go be the answer.
Turn your phone sideways to watch.