Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

I know it's a bit early to be thinking of Pentecost, but I like to be ahead of the game and there are so many stories where flames are useful! This is a really great idea for all ages.  We ended up working on the kitchen floor and even the adults decided to join in. Some of the children got incredibly creative... It's quite a reflective activity and lends itself to silence if that's an option for you.  Have fun! You will need: yellow, red and orange paint, foil (for easy clean-up afterwards!), plastic forks, card or paper (we used black for a great effect).    Use a fork to blob some paint onto the paper and then swirl and pull or brush with the fork!  Encourage colour mixing as the flames flicker together... Talk about: The power of fire reflecting the power of the Holy Spirit. What is fire like?  What can it do?   How might the disciples have felt seeing tongues of fire above their heads? How would you have felt? Wh...

This is a fun way make flame pictures that gets quite messy!  This would work especially well with under 5s, but I really enjoyed it too! You will need: Tissue paper (yellow, orange, red) cut into flame shapes; water in a spray bottle; paper Arrange the tissue flames on a piece of paper but don't stick them down!  Spray the flames with water from the spray bottle until they are soaked.  Now pull the tissue paper off (this is where it gets messy!) and see how the colour has bled from the tissue onto the paper.  Wait for the art work to dry  Cut around the flames and admire the colour mixing! Things to talk about: In the story of Moses and the burning bush, God takes something ordinary and turns it into something extraordinary.  How did the tissue paper bleeding surprise you?  Did it turn out as you expected? Sometimes God does amazing, unexpected things in our lives and makes us think about things in new ways.  Has God ever don...

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...

Today we were back at school for the first lunchtime club of the year.  We were looking at the idea of God having plans for us so we used the story of Moses and the burning bush... We told the story and acted out Moses' reactions, taking off our shoes and discussing the idea of a 'holy place'.  Then we moved on to talking about God giving Moses a job to do and that God had a job for all of us in his plan.  What did we like doing?  What did we feel drawn towards in the future? To help them think about their response, the children worked in groups to make a 'burning bush' collage, sticking 'flames' onto a background paper. When they had made the collage, we then asked the children to write the job they were thinking of onto one of the flames.  There were lots of ideas including dancer, doctor, Olympic swimmer, shop keeper and website creator. Next, everyone put a hand on the collage they had helped to make and we thanked God for the plans He ...