New BGMC Trading Cards Game Combines Fun with Missions Inspiration

Children gathered around 9-year-old Jamison with excited whispers and palpable anticipation. In his hand was a pack of unopened BGMC Trading Cards . . . what cards would be inside? How about a high-value Action Card? Or maybe a cool holographic card — or even two? Or just maybe the super-rare vintage Buddy Barrel card!

For anyone who has ever collected cards — such as baseball or football cards or, more recently, participated in trading card games — the excitement of opening a new pack of cards is real. And a few years ago, Lewis Lux, co-pastor of Nexus Church in Bloomington, Illinois, with his wife, Stacey, had an idea to bring that excitement to missions for kids in their church.

Lewis shared, “Over the years, I’ve seen how much kids get into trading card games like Pokémon and others, and it got me thinking — What if we could tap into that same excitement to inspire our church kids? Wouldn’t it be amazing to use a trading card game to help them learn more about missions and get even more engaged with BGMC (Boys and Girls Missionary Challenge)?”

With that idea in mind, the Luxes reached out to David Alexieff, national BGMC director (who just saw over $11.1 million given to BGMC in 2024). They shared their vision for the game, as it so happened, just after Alexieff had rediscovered the old BGMC Missionary All-Star cards.

“I had just come across these old missionary baseball cards,” Alexieff recalls, “and thought, What could we do with these? The timing couldn’t have been better.”

As the Luxes had a more fully developed concept about how the trading card game might work, Alexieff quickly realized the potential. However, he wasn’t fully prepared for how quickly the game captured the attention and the imaginations of kids — and quite a number of adults — despite limited exposure (there’s already a BGMC Trading Cards Fans Facebook page that has over 1,100 members).

In brief, the BGMC Trading Card Game is somewhat like a mixture of the old missionary baseball-style cards (but greatly upgraded), a missions encyclopedia, and current trading card games.

Has the idea caught on? Well, the game launched in May 2024. Since then, NextGen Missions has printed more than 1.2 million BGMC Trading Cards — and struggles to keep them in stock. Not only are the cards of the highest quality collector-card material, but the game is fun, collecting/trading cards is fun, and kids are learning how their role in missions through BGMC is more important than they realized.

“We have kids who have been inspired to raise funds for BGMC by the Action Cards, which share ideas on things to do,” Lewis says, “and we’ve had other kids feel confirmed in their calling to missions by the explanations on the Location, Resource, and Partner cards.”

“I’ve spoken to a number of parents who homeschool, as well as private Christian schools that use the game to help teach geography and math (addition and multiplication are needed to calculate points),” Stacey Lux adds.

However, one of the cool things about the game is that after a winner is determined, the players shake hands, and then each player prays for the countries, missionaries, and missionary organizations they had on their side of the game board.

“Imagine how much prayer has been unleashed for our missionaries that wasn’t there prior to the game,” Alexieff observes. “And these kids are becoming so knowledgeable about our missionaries and the projects BGMC is involved in.”

Currently there are two collections of cards available. The original version of 106 (offered in variety packs of 10 cards per pack with duplicates typically used for trading) and the Champions and Disasters Expansion Packs which has 10 cards per pack and a total of 84 cards.

The original game cards include: Location Cards that tell about different parts of the world in need of help; Character Cards that bring BGMC to life — introduce both new and familiar characters, along with mascots from ministry partners of BGMC; Action Cards give ideas on things to do to support BGMC and missions; Partner Cards teach about real BGMC projects worldwide that are impacting people for Christ; Resource Cards offer things used to ease suffering, improve lives, and share the gospel; and Power Up Cards are cards that describe dimensions of the Spirit as well as increase the impact of cards that offer game impact points.

In the Champions and Disasters Expansion Pack, which adds another level of challenge to the game, cards include missionary all stars from over the years with brief biographies, additional action cards based on actual kids that have raised funds for BGMC in the past two years, and disaster cards (cards that explain things that can hurt missions efforts as well as can be used to reduce your opponent’s impact points).

Currently a second generation of 153 cards are being developed to add to the learning and game fun. This generation will include 12 cards per pack, increasing the opportunity to find more character cards.

“We also have holographic cards that the kids really love collecting and trading as well as one card we call “Wooden Buddy Barrel on a boat,” that we’ve only printed 100 of, making it very rare,” Alexieff says.

Each game pack comes with a game board, directions, and six packages of game cards, which is enough for a pair of players to play three rounds of the game. And cards such as the Action, Character, and Location cards are literally works of art — a cross between Dreamworks-style animation art and anime art.

“We call this The Game of Generosity,” Alexieff says. “And we describe the cards’ values as impact-points — not money or dollars — because kids are making an impact around the world through BGMC.”

“An additional thing we’re doing,” Stacey says, “is creating event cards — cards that are only available and distributed at special events, such as at church camps and General Council.”

And speaking of General Council, NextGen Missions will be offering all kinds of BGMC Trading Card Game opportunities at the 2025 General Council in Orlando.

According to Alexieff, there will be an official trading post set up at General Council where kids can go to trade BGMC Trading Cards; special appearances by giant BGMC characters (Buddy Barrel, Pencil Pal, Winnie the World, etc.); the first world championship BGMC Trading Card Game tournament (winner gets a 1-of-1 World Champion card); as well as limited edition holographic Partners Card being given away by Assemblies of God World Missions and U.S. Missions in addition to numerous BGMC partners in the Exhibit Hall.

“The game, the holographic cards, the event cards, and learning so much more about missions (and retaining that knowledge) — all of these things combine to bring a level of fun and excitement about missions that kids love,” Lewis says. “We have been told of kids at church camp hiding out in the bathroom at midnight playing the game!”

For more information about the BGMC Trading Cards Game, including a videos on how the original game and the Champions and Disaster variation of the game are played, click here.