For the Teachers Who Show Up Before Dawn: Free Seminary Games for Your Class

If you teach seminary, you already know what 6:00 a.m. feels like. The alarm goes off before the sun is up, the lesson is ready because you finished it late last night, and a few minutes later a group of sleepy teenagers shuffles in. Some come with questions, some come with breakfast, and some come only because a parent drove them. You teach them anyway, with real love, day after day.

This post is our thank-you to you. It also introduces two free games we built specifically for seminary classes: Seminary Showdown and Line upon Line. Both are free and need no student accounts, and you can start either one in under a minute.

Seminary teachers are loved more than they know

Seminary asks a lot of the people who teach it. Youth attend in early-morning, daytime and evening classes, and through online and home study. The Church reports 465,995 seminary students. Behind every one of those students is a teacher who prepared, prayed and showed up.

Early-morning seminary has a long history of that kind of sacrifice. It officially began in the 1950–51 school year, and over its first 60 years more than a million teens took part, "rising before the sun". Their teachers rose even earlier.

What students remember most is often not the lesson. Speaking to religious educators, President Dallin H. Oaks recalled his own seminary teachers in Vernal, Utah, from 70 years earlier: "I can't even remember the subject of the classes they taught, but I remember that both of them loved me and cared for me as a person."

That is the real work, and nothing we build replaces it. What a good game can do is give you five easy minutes, so more of your energy goes to the part only you can do: knowing your students and loving them.

Why we built these games

We asked a simple question: what would actually help a seminary teacher on a Tuesday morning? We came back with a short list of rules:

• Free. No paid tier, no paywall halfway through.
• No logins for students. No accounts, no email addresses, no app to install.
• Fast to start. Pick the week, choose how to play, go.
• Short. About five minutes, so it fits a devotional slot or the end of class.
• Scripture first. Every round is built from the week's reading, with references shown on screen.
• No sales pitch inside the game. Your class sees scripture, not ads.

Both games are independent study tools from Weak Things. They are not affiliated with or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Seminary Showdown: a 5-minute weekly scripture game

Seminary Showdown is a quick quiz game built around each week's seminary reading. Each round has 10 questions of about 20 seconds each, one question worth double points, and a 2-minute discussion prompt at the end.

You can play it two ways:

• Students on phones. Project a QR code and a four-letter room code. Students join with a nickname and answer on their own phones while a live top five shows on the big screen.
• Projector only. No phones needed. The class calls out answers and you tap them. Turn on row vs. row to split the room into two teams that take turns.

Old Testament rounds are live now. All 52 New Testament rounds for 2027 are ready, starting with Matthew 1 and Luke 1 on December 28. They add a Boss Round, map rounds, "Who said it?", a Scripture Chase bonus and a printable season certificate.

Ways to use it:

• Open class with it as a warm-up while students are still waking up.
• Use it as a Friday review of the week's chapters.
• End with the discussion question it gives you, which works well as a two-minute testimony moment.
• Download the class score card and share it in your seminary teacher group with "Can your class beat ours?"

For a full walkthrough with screenshots, scoring details and the research behind live quiz games, read our teacher's guide to Seminary Showdown.

Line upon Line: Doctrinal Mastery, two minutes a day

Line upon Line helps students memorize the Doctrinal Mastery key phrases for all four courses: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. One of the official Doctrinal Mastery outcomes is to "memorize the key scripture phrases", and that is what this tool is for.

Students practice for about two minutes a day on their own phones. Each passage climbs eight short steps, from meeting it for the first time to saying it from memory and applying it to a real situation. Reviews come back on a widening schedule, so passages stay fresh. Progress is saved on the phone, with no login and no email.

For teachers, there is a 5-minute class mode with four steps:

1. Introduce the passage with a picture prompt, its context and its doctrine. Say the key phrase together twice.
2. Fade it together. Words disappear from the screen each time the class reads it, until everyone says it from memory.
3. Play live. Students join on phones with a QR code for seven quick questions.
4. Take it home. Show a QR code for home practice and copy a ready-made message for parents.

Every time your class says a passage from memory, or scores 70% in a live round, you place a stone in your class memorial, after the stones Israel set up at the Jordan (Joshua 4:7).

To see how each step works, and why it follows the best research on memorization, read how Line upon Line helps students memorize Doctrinal Mastery.

Also useful in class

These games weren't built only for seminary, but teachers tell us they work well in class:

• Doctrine and Covenants games. These include a race to the Doctrinal Mastery passages, plus games on where revelations were received and the order of the Restoration. Every answer links to the section.
• Verse Quest: New Testament. A daily puzzle where students find the book and chapter of one verse in six guesses. Everyone gets the same verse each day, so a class can compare results. A "book only" mode helps newer readers.
• Field Revealed. For the future missionaries in your class: friends and family guess where a missionary will be called before the call is opened.

You can find every free game on our free scripture games page.

A 5-minute plan for Monday morning

Here is one way to use both games in the same week without losing lesson time:

1. Monday (5 minutes): Open Line upon Line class mode. Introduce this week's Doctrinal Mastery passage, fade it together, and show the take-home QR code.
2. Tuesday through Thursday (30 seconds): Remind students to do their two minutes. Say the key phrase together once at the start of class.
3. Friday (5 minutes): Play Seminary Showdown for the week's reading. Finish with its discussion question.
4. Optional: Share your score card with another class, and send parents the message from Line upon Line.

If you're also planning around the 2027 youth theme, see our post on Rejoice in Christ, the 2027 youth theme.

Questions teachers ask

Are these games really free?

Yes. Both games are free to use for as many classes and weeks as you like.

Do students need accounts or an app?

No. Students join in the phone's web browser with a QR code or room code and a nickname. Line upon Line saves progress on the student's own phone, with no login or email.

What if my students don't have phones, or phones aren't allowed?

Use Seminary Showdown's projector-only mode with row-vs-row teams. In Line upon Line, the introduce and fade-together steps also work with nothing but a projector.

Which course years are covered?

Seminary Showdown has the remaining 2026 Old Testament weeks and all 52 weeks of the 2027 New Testament. Line upon Line covers the Doctrinal Mastery passages for the Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants.

Is this an official Church resource?

No. These are independent study tools made by Weak Things. They are not affiliated with or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Use them alongside the official seminary curriculum and the Doctrinal Mastery Core Document.

Thank you, seminary teachers

Thank you for the early mornings and the late-night lesson prep. Thank you for learning which student needs a joke, which one needs quiet, and which one needs you to notice they came at all. Your students may forget the quiz questions, but they won't forget that you loved them.

If you try either game, we'd love to hear what worked and what didn't. Do you have an idea for a game your class would love? Tell us about it.