Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

After telling the creation story, we thought it would be great for everyone to thank God for something in creation they really loved.   Someone had donated a large plastic map of the world which was just perfect!  We held the map up and thanked God for the world He created.  Then we played some music and asked people to come up and choose a picture of food, plants or animals and place it somewhere on the map to thank God for that thing.  Then we rounded off with a big thank you and Amen!  Even the toddlers could join in this activity easily :-)

Today we had our Harvest Messy Church and looked at the story of creation from Genesis 1.   Here are the crafts we did... Some of these crafts and other harvest ideas can be found on my  Harvest Messy Church Pinterest Board Day 1: Light and dark tent.  A pop up two man tent, covered in drapes to make it dark inside.  Children were then given glow sticks to take inside.  The toddlers loved this! Day 2: Separating the waters and the sky.  Water play. Day 3: Separating the land and the sea.  For this day we had two crafts using food and the seeds food is grown from... Play dough seed patterns Spaghetti painting Day 4: Sun, moon and stars- suncatchers for windows Day 5: Fish and birds- paper plate birds Day 6: Animal hunt- pictures of animals hidden round church for children to find Biscuit people Day 7: focussing on God.  What would you like to thank Him for? And an area for babies to play in... ...

As the children tend to trickle into our school lunchtime club depending on when they finish their dinner, we try to have some prayer station activities available to settle them until everyone has arrived. We have no permanent prayer space, so whatever we bring has to be easily portable!  The prayer box has gone through various incarnations! This term we've settled on 6 activities that fit into a large hessian bag and need minimum tidying! Magnetic words to make phrases about God (kept in a metal biscuit tin!) Reflection question ball  Play dough- shaping it into something they want to thank God for Laminated A3 maps.  Children ask God to bless a place and stick a little sticker over the place name.  Pipecleaners- children shape them into a symbol of who or what they want to pray for. We also have a wallpaper roll we have as a graffiti board where they can write or draw prayers to God. Depending on the day and the mix of childre...

By Catherine Ward We’re really lucky that we’ve got enough space to have rooms set aside for children’s work. We’ve been working on turning the crèche room into a really enabling environment for our under threes. It has taken quite some time, the whole church has just been reordered, and the old church offices (originally the rectory), now being transformed into our children’s centre, has been used as storage space. It’s been a job some weeks just getting the space safe for the children before a Sunday morning with all sorts of furniture stacked up in the corner. Finally though, the extra things have been cleared out and it’s feeling like we’re really getting somewhere. We’ve thought really carefully about what we want in the space and why and the first thing that was really important to us was comfy, adult-sized chairs. We’ve been left with the old clergy chairs out of the chancel. They’re not the most comfy things in the world, but they are big and with enough cushions you ca...

One of the best bargains I've recently bought is my pop up two man tent- reduced to £15!  When I'd spent an hour figuring out how to collapse it again I was sorted! The children absolutely love the tent so, when we had a story when we could legitimately use it we did! We told the story of God calling Abraham out from the place he lived and sending him on a journey.  Of course, Abraham had to live in a tent!  After we'd walked, run, hopped and jumped round the room, we popped out the tent and got inside. Next we got the stars out on the floor of the tent and talked about God promising Abraham that he would have children as many as the stars in the sky... Then we told of the three men visiting Abraham, sharing food and telling him that next year he would have a son even though he was very old... We all practised laughing which was fun! Then we got the baby doll out and celebrated because Sarah and Abraham had had a child even though they were ve...

A lot of children suffer from some degree of negative self image and one of the things we'd really like them to do is learn to see themselves as God sees them- loved and precious. This is an activity we did both in our school lunchtime club and (with a bit more elaboration) at our church mid week club for 8-11s.  Once we'd established the rule that only 'good'  words could be used about ourselves and others this turned into quite a joyful and encouraging session, though one or two children struggled to begin with! First we told the story of Gideon hiding in the winepress (click  here  for details of how to tell the story with a folding picture).  Out of the story we drew the idea that, even though we feel small, weak and useless sometimes, that's not how God sees us!  He sees how great we can be with His help! Next we drew round our head and shoulders on A3 paper.  We sat silently for a short while and asked God to give us encouraging word...

Exciting news!  This blog has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Best Newcomer Blog category at the Christian New Media awards 2012.  Thank you so much to everyone who has supported the blog so far!  For more information about the awards and the shortlist, click here .

Thanks to Sam for this great idea! Here is the second prayer activity for our Fruits of the Spirit theme this term: Joy! Children take a pipe cleaner and twist it round their finger to make a spring.  Springs are bouncy and fun, reminding us of the feeling of joy!  As they make the spring, children can pray that God will grow the fruit of joy in their lives.  They can then take it home as a reminder to keep asking God for joy in their lives, families and relationship with Him.

This week in our mid week group we're going to look at the story of Gideon in the wine press, trying to bring out the point that even if you feel small and that you can't do much, God sees you for who you really are and what you can really do with His help.  Here's how we will tell the story... I'm using an A4 sheet with simple drawings on it.  Before folding, the sheet looks like this:  Side 1 Side 2 The first picture is of a small sized Gideon (you will see how the folding works as the story progresses! Gideon was an Israelite.  The Israelites lived in a land that was invaded by people from another land who came and stole their food and everything they had.  The Israelites cried out to God for help. (Fold the paper over to hide Gideon inside the wine press) One day, Gideon was in the wine press, threshing corn so that his family could have something to eat.  He was doing it in the wine press so he could be hidden and the inva...

Yesterday we were in school to do a SEALS assembly about new beginnings.  We decided to use the story of Moses and the burning bush to speak about God giving us new starts... We began with a game.  Two children came out the the front and each had a minute to build a tower with plastic cups like so: As expected, each tower fell down several times during the minute and the children had to start again.  This was great fun and led on to our story which was also about starting again. With more volunteers we acted out the story of Moses and the burning bush, focussing on the fact that Moses had messed up in Egypt and run away but God still had a job for him to do.  He could start again with his people!  We used ribbons on a stick to show the fire, waved about by the child pretending to be the bush.  Very effective, but next time we'll use a shorter stick.  Moses was in danger of losing an eye at one point! After the story we used an illusion to ma...

We're looking at worship with our children and encouraging them to think about what it is, why we do it and how we do it.  One thing that's proving difficult is getting them to understand the difference between prayer and worship.   Here is a little game I've made to try and get the children to practice thinking about who God is and why He's amazing! Play the game in pairs.  Each person uses different colour counters.  Choose a square and when you have completed the little task, you can put your counter there.  The first person to get 3 counters in a row is the winner! For a printable version click  here.