Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the  Lord  your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 This craft is a very visual way of helping children to explore the idea of the presence of God with t hem, even in the hardest of times.  You will need: sheets of paper, watered down ready mix paint,  paintbrushes, wax crayons or oil pastels. Screw the piece of paper up into a ball.  Open the paper out and look at all of the creases.   Rub a crayon or oil pastel over the creases and they will pick up the colour.   Think about times when life has seemed a bit like this creased up piece of paper; when things have gone wrong in life, or when things have been hard or painful. Let children choose a paint colour that most represents God to them and use it to paint over the top of the creases until all of the white paper has been covered. Even thou...

I used this idea in an assembly yesterday, focussing on people we trust and what it means to trust God.   This would work really well if you are exploring miracle stories or stories about trust.  Suitable verses to use with it might be:  Joshua 1:9: Remember, I commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid, because the  Lord  your God will be with you wherever you go.” Psalm 56: 3  When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. John 14: 1  Jesus said, “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me  I have to admit that this trick is not an original idea.  I found the trick in this book:  Simple Science Object Talks by Heno Head Jnr  and would definitely recommend getting cold of a copy if you can! You will need: A glass of water (about half- 2/3 filled) and an index card. This is what you do: place the index card over the top of the glass, making sure that the whole of the rim is covered by it, and press...

This is a storytelling idea that is easy, portable and flexible for many stories. You will need:  4 Card strips (judge size depending on how close the children are going to be and how big the group is.  You will probably need bigger strips for a bigger group, but expriment with what works best for you!), paper fasteners (split pins), something to make a hole with. Make a hole in the end of each piece of card and join the pieces with split pins so that it looks as shown.  You now have your storytelling equipment! This is how you might use the strips to tell the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho. The walls of Jericho were closed to God's people.  No one could get in or get out. The walls were very tall so no one could climb them either! God told Joshua that there was no need to worry.  He would give the city to Joshua and the Israelites if they trusted Him and did what He said.   God told Joshua and his army to walk around t...

Finger labyrinths have been really popular on Flame for a while, so I thought I'd post another way of making them. This is a very tactile version, very easy to make, and allows children the chance to make their own wandering line!  The labyrinths would work really well as a craft activity for any Bible story that involves a journey e.g. The Exodus, Joshua. You will need: Paper plates, pencils, foil, glue (PVA works best) Get children to draw a spiral on the paper plate- start in the middle and work outwards but take the line on a wander if you want to!  Next, cut pieces of tin foil and roll them into thin sausage shapes. Glue the foil sausages to the spiral on the plate.  If using PVA you will need to wait a while for the glue to dry! Children can now use the labyrinths as prayer tools, either as a way of using something tactile as they reflect or, more specifically to think and pray about life journeys (see below) Talk about: How does it fee...

We had a great time yesterday in Sparks!  The children are really enjoying the time to play and respond around the theme of the story and we, as leaders, are able to get to know them a lot better by having time that is less directed. Here's what we did to tell the story of the walls of Jericho... First we all decorated some sheets of paper and rolled them into cones.  These were our trumpets for later! Then we built some walls with mega blocks and acted out the story with little playmobil people.  The children enjoyed moving their little person round and round the walls and then knocking them over! After that, to reinforce the story, we all marched 7 times round the carpet area, blew our paper trumpets and pretended to be the walls falling down. We played a game of 'do what I say', with all the children having to do the spoken action such as jumping or clapping.  They then took turns to choose the action.  This helped us to talk about Joshua d...