Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

This is a really practical way to get children involved in a prayer walk around the local area and to help them think about praying for the people around them.  This activity is part of the printable Lent Ideas for Families book  and you can print off the stand-alone instructions and picture sheet here if you want to pass it on to other families. You will need: paper cut into heart shapes, pens or pencils.  Scavenger hunt sheet, phones or digital cameras. Walk around the streets of your neighbourhood as a family.  Give each child a scavenger hunt sheet.  When you get to a street sign, write down the name of the street on a paper heart.  Look out for things on the scavenger hunt sheet and take photos of interesting things on phones or digital cameras: When you get home, choose a paper heart and pray for God to bless the people on that street.  What else could you pray about, based on the scavenger hunt? Eg. people staying safe o...

A couple of weeks ago I was at the Hand in Hand Conference in Eastbourne and really enjoyed helping to lead the 'Hands On' stream with Victoria from GodVenture .  We really wanted to give leaders lots of ideas to help children explore and experiment with their responses to Bible stories and in prayer.  What better way to do that then to get the leaders exploring and experimenting for themselves?! This was one of my favourite activities set up by Victoria and is such an easy but effective way of helping children to respond to Bible stories with freedom. You will need: Old picture frames, 'bits and pieces' e.g. lolly sticks, match sticks, leaves, glass pebbles, stones, pine cones, ribbons, an old sheet (optional) Lay out the empty picture frames on the sheet and arrange your different objects and pieces into open containers. Tell a Bible story and then ask the children to use the objects to make their own picture response either inside or outside a fr...

A few months back we had a look at Illustrated Children's Ministry, a new ministry using illustrations as creative way of exploring the Bible with children at church and at home. ICM has continued to grow its resources and the newest product on offer is 'An Illustrated Lent.'   If you're looking for a high quality product that will engage children in creative and reflective ways over this season, then this might be a solution!  Even better- this is a downloadable resource so you won't have to wait for it to arrive in the post... There are two possibilities depending on your situation and I've taken a look at both below.  The exciting thing is that Adam at ICM has offered Flame readers an exclusive 20% discount code for this week only- valid until Sunday 14th Feb.  Read to the end of this post to find the code! The Church edition contains ideas and colour illustrations to engage children with each of the 7 weeks of Lent, using the stories of Jesus i...

It's that time of year again... Easter eggs are already in the shops and that's a reminder that Lent is just around the corner!   Here is a printable book of ideas for the whole family, with an activity for every week in Lent and also one for Easter Day. Weekly themes covered include: 'blessings,' 'love your neighbour,' 'hospitality,' 'giving,' 'praying,' 'fasting,' 'Holy Week,' and 'celebrating.' Activities include a prayer walk scavenger hunt, a reflective colouring sheet and scone pretzels recipe. When we give these out at church, each family will also have a little bag containing a piece of sandpaper, some strands of wool and a play dough mat.  Nearer to Holy week, each family (or anyone who wants one!) will also get a 'Holy Week in a box .'  See inside the booklet for further details! Click here to print off and start the journey!