Pizza with a Purpose

Pizza and oatmeal are currently tied for 1st as the all time favorite meals in our house. I’m personally not too keen on oatmeal, but I REALLY like pizza! I like to make it. I like to eat it. And I like to use it to have purposeful fun with kids. The next time you’re making/having pizza at home or church, try some of these pizza themed ideas to add purpose to any pizza party.

Pizza Object Lesson

My kids like to use corn tortillas as crusts to make personal sized pizzas. (These things are super cheap and also gluten free!) Of course you could just make a normal pizza, they even sell kits at Walmart! While my beloved boy and princess helped me top a pizza (and my party girl chewed the edges off the pepperoni), we had a fun and purposeful conversation that went something like this:

Dad: “If we took all this stuff and put it outside, do you think the wind could accidentally make it into a pizza for us?”
Princess: (Giggling.) “No.”

Dad: “If we took all this stuff and just left it here for a loooooong time, would it make itself into a pizza?”
Princess: (More giggling.) “No.”
Dad: “Then how does the pizza get put together?”
Princess: “We have to put the stuff on it.”
Beloved Boy: “Someone has to put it together, like God had to put the world together. It doesn’t just happen by accident.” (Apparently he saw where I was headed with this object lesson. Smart kid—takes after his mother obviously.)
Dad: “Right! I’m using my strength (flexes bicep.) and wisdom (points at brain.) to make this stuff into a pizza. Do you think I could use my strength and wisdom to make a blue whale, a giraffe, or a dinosaur?”
Party Girl: “PIZZA!” (Generously hands me a slobbery slice of mutilated pepperoni.)
Princess: “No. God makes those.”
Dad: “That’s right! Only God has the wisdom and power to create things like that. In fact, I couldn’t even make this pizza…”
Party Girl: “PIZZA!!!”
Dad: “We couldn’t make pizza if God hadn’t created tomatoes, chicken, and the other ingredients. Without God, we’d have nothing–not even hands for making pizza! God is powerful and wise. We should thank Him for the things He has created.”

The conversation continued as we finished up our pizza. Hopefully you get the idea that making pretty much anything together provides a natural opportunity to glorify God for His marvelous wisdom and power displayed in Creation.

Pizza Praise

A couple years ago, as we thanked God for giving us pizza for lunch my princess gave me an idea. It went something like this:

Dad: “Thank you God for this pizza and thank you for loving us. We love you. Amen.”
Princess: “And bacon?”
Dad: “Oh yes, thank you for the bacon on our pizza. Amen.”
Princess: “And sausage?”
Dad: “And thank you for the sausage too. Amen.”
Princess: “And P-apple (pineapple)?”
Dad: “And thank you for the pineapple. Amen.”
Princess: (peeks through folded fingers to verify that all the pizza toppings have been appropriately blessed.) “Uuuuuuh….Amen!!!”

This gave me the idea of challenging kids to find specific things to praise God for on their plate at mealtime or during snack in Sunday School or VBS. I’d encourage you to give this a shot with kids in your home or ministry. (Pizza is not necessary to the success of this activity. Any food will work, but it’s especially easy with pizza because it tends to have lots of fairly easily recognizable ingredients.) Talk with kids about the ingredients in their food and join them in coming up with creative praises to God, the founder of the feast. Get creative! Here are some of the things we’ve come up with:

  1. Thank you God for the farmer who grew this pineapple.

  2. Thank you God for sending rain to water the tomato plant.

  3. Thank you for keeping germs out of the can of sauce.

  4. Thank you for making cows to give milk for cheese.

  5. Thank you God for making people smart enough to figure out how to make cheese.

  6. Thanks for our oven where we can cook pizza.

  7. Thanks for creating pigs so we can have bacon!

  8. Thank you for money so we can afford pizza.

This list could go on and on, but you get the point. Even if you’re not actually eating pizza, you could still use a picture of pizza to share this idea with kids in your Sunday School class and challenge them to try it with whatever they have for lunch that day.

Is pizza a favorite food with kids in your family or church? If so, you may also be interested in our FREE lesson and party kids “Pizza for Jesus” that uses pizza shaped pictures to tell a true story of how God used pizza to have a global Gospel impact.

Pizza is an opportunity waiting to happen for parents, Sunday School teachers, and anyone else who wants to give kids a taste of the joy that can be found in Jesus Christ.
Nathan Hamilton
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