Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

On Sunday we are holding our all age carol service and one of the activities will be Christmas story bingo. Anyone who wants to participate can take a sheet as they come in and can then cross off every word on their sheet that they hear in the readings, talk and carols. There are 10 different word sheets and, for young children who can't yet read, there are 6 different picture sheets. If people are paying attention there will, of course, be multiple winners who have crossed off all of the words at the same time, but that's part of the fun! Click here to print off the Christmas story word bingo. Click here to cross off the Christmas story picture bingo. When I printed the sheets off, I printed 4 to an A4 page, but go with whichever size works best for you!

 We are gearing up again for Christmas and, next Sunday, we will be holding our annual Christingle service. This year I've created a short video to explain the various parts of the Christingle and what they mean. Feel free to make use of the video in your own contexts! If you'd like to try some Christingle related prayer stations, click here to go to my  Ko-Fi page.   There are 6 prayer stations- one for each part of the Christingle and they are suitable for small groups or even for stations in an all age service. As always, the resources are free but any support is welcome! Here is a preview of the first station.

  Our harvest service last Sunday was all about thanking God for our gifts- food, people, talents- anything we wanted to celebrate.  One of the activities that both adults and children contributed to was our harvest leaf garland.  We folded leaves in autumn colours and added tags with things we were thankful for: You will need: ribbon, wool or string, paper in red, organge and yellow, scissors, pens Click here for a downloadable sheet of instructions!

 As part of our summer all age series we are looking at big questions about God. The first question we asked was- Why did God create the world? In the craft zone we made tree weavings and people of all ages joined in!  The time spent weaving gave a great opportunity to chat about the creation story from Genesis 1 that we had just heard. You will need: Paper plates, scissors, wool (we used brown and green). 1. Cut 7 or 6 slits in the top of a paper plate and 1 slit at the bottom. Thread wool through the slits so that it looks like the picture below. 2. Use the end of your wool to gather the strands together from the bottom... 3. ...tie the wool off to finish making the trunk and branches. 4. Now use another colour of wool to weave between the branches as 'leaves'

In the Bible, clouds are often a sign of God's Presence. When the people of God find themselves on their Exodus journey, they are led by a pillar of cloud during the day and Moses goes up the mountain and disappears into the clouds where God is.  This activity is an active way of exploring this story and thinking about how we each experience God's presence with us. Download and print the cloud spotting sheet here. Go outside to spot cloud types, maybe after hearing one of the stories about clouds in Exodus, and have a think about the discussion questions on your walk: What shapes and pictures can you see in the clouds Where do you feel that God is with you? What can you see that reminds you of God? On our walk the clouds were fairly dramatic and rainy and we cut a viewing window out of the centre of the sheet. Fortunately, we didn't get too wet! This activity could be adapted for the Ascension story or for any story that contains clouds!

Over the past year or so, we have been holding a monthly Muddy Church session for all ages. Muddy Church is an amazing idea and you can find out more (with all sorts of brilliant resources) here. We have adapted the format to suit our congregation and the session is usually a wander through the park with a focus for wondering and exploring, linked to a Bible verse or story. We then finish, after 45 mins- 1 hour, at the cafe for a drink or an ice-cream! We have all ages participating and our usual crowd varies in age from 3-70s. It's great if you want to do something intergenerational! Our most recent session used a verse from Psalm 91 and looked at the theme of God's protection, or what we could find that was 'safe and sound.' Here is a printable version of the sheet we used on our wander: And here are some of the things we found! A Conker hidden in the cleft of a tree Something 'strong' supporting a tree and keeping the branch upright A snail's hiding pl...

As part of our new church vision, we've been talking a lot about how we share God's love with each other and with the community. As part of our exploration, we looked at Romans 12: 9-21 during a cafe church service and this was one of our intergenerational activities.  We talked about how badges often show that we belong to a group or a team and we wanted to make and wear a badge that reflected our team or church family. After thinking about the different ways of showing love that the Romans passage talks about, we made 'love with arms' badges to show that we were people who wanted to share love by living it out. Click here to print out the instruction sheet.

 It's been really busy recently reopening the church and doing many risk assessments. Not everyone is able or confident to return just yet, though, so we are continuing with our weekly online family services. This week we are taking a look at the story of Jesus and the 10 lepers and exploring the theme of thankfulness. If you fancy joining in, here are some links to the resources we are using: The video of the service including sorry and thank you prayers, story, wondering questions and creative prayer activity. The service liturgy if you'd like to join in can be printed off by clicking here . Click here to print off the play dough mat: Click here for more ideas on saying thank you.

We're getting ready for Christmas and one of the things I'm most excited about is our upcoming crib service.  It's a new venture for our church, but it sounds as if the community are really getting behind it!  We have invited families to turn up dressed in nativity character costumes and everyone can join in the tableau that is formed during the narration. For people who don't have a costume, tea towels, tinsel and crowns will be at the ready. This is a script written with children under 5 in mind.  It can be narrated by a single voice but if you have older, more confident children, they might like to say the lines of Mary, Joseph, the Angel and the Innkeeper. The songs are all to the tunes of well known nursery rhymes, so everyone should be able to join in.  Click here to print off the script. Have fun!

This week our Sunday service has unexpectedly turned into an all-age event and we've had to come up with some interactive prayers that will fit the lectionary based talk. Thank heavens for the excellent resources at Blackburn diocese!  I really recommend their weekly@ materials, especially if you are a smaller church, like we are, where you have a wide range of ages in the same children's group. Plus it is free! I have written some all-age prayers that can be used with a whole congregation, basing the idea on the Paper Aeroplane Challenge Game in their lesson plan for this Sunday (September 2nd). These prayers are based on the theme of 'letting go' of what keeps us from God and keeping our hearts focussed on Him. They fit roughly with Mark 7: 1-8, 14, 15, 21-23 (this week's gospel reading), but could easily stand alone. You will need: a piece of paper and a pen/ pencil for each person (A6 size paper should be fine) Ask each per...

I'm getting ready for an all-age service in a few weeks time, when we are going to be thinking about Jesus as the bread of life. These are the creative intercessions that we will be doing with some bread. Even though we're going to be doing these prayers as a whole congregation, they would work just as well with a smaller group of children. You will need:  Enough bread rolls to pass around your congregation or group so that everyone will be able to tear off a chunk. Have a gluten free option as well, passed round on a separate plate, for those unable to eat bread. 1. Pass around the bread and ask everyone to tear off a chunk and to hold it in their hand. Pray for those people who live in places that are torn apart by war and for families that are torn apart and separated. Pray for those people who are ill and ask for healing. Pray for those with broken relationships. 2.When everyone has a piece of bread, ask them to hold it in their hands as you pray the next...

Last week's Messy Church was based around the story of baby Moses being left in a basket in the river by his mother. What we focussed on was the theme of safety: thanking God for those who keep us safe and asking God to keep others safe.  Here is the prayer activity we ended with. It was so easy but felt so significant! You will need: cupcake cases, mini pom poms (it really helps if you put one pom pom in each cake case before you start), a long box filled with water (or several boxes if you have lots of people). Talk about people who keep us safe, just like Moses' mum tried to keep him safe from the Egyptians and then safe on the water. Are there any times when God has kept you safe? Who do you know who needs help to stay safe at the moment? (We had lots of suggestions e.g. homeless people, people who were going to have an operation, people who were going on a journey). Invite everyone to take cake case with a pom pom in it and think about someone who keeps them ...

If you are looking for an active, kinaesthetic, way of praying in a small group or even with the whole congregation, then this might be for you! You will need: A collection of buttons of different shapes, sizes and colours- at least one button for each person praying. Give everyone a button. Feel the hardness of the button and think about people who are going through hard times.  Ask God to help them. Buttons are used to fasten clothes together.  Ask God to bring together people who have fallen out and moved apart from each other.  Pray that He will bring peace. Look at your button and see how many holes it has.  Think of that number of things you would like to say thank you to God for and say Thank you prayers. Look at the colour of the button and say thank you to God for something that is that colour  Find someone who has the same colour button as you.  You might want to make a small group of people with the...