Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

We are now totally on the countdown to Advent. If you haven't read December's edition of Premier Youth and Children's Work magazine, then I suggest you get your hands on one!! Here is one of the crafts I wrote for my page in the magazine as a little taster of what you can expect... This craft explores the idea of a journey towards the birth of Jesus, echoing the journey that Mary and Joseph take to Bethlehem and our own waiting for Jesus to come again. You will need : air drying clay, small candles (Christingle candles are ideal!) Before doing this with children, it might help to do a test run to see roughly how much clay each person will need. Roll the clay into a long, thick sausage shape and slightly flatten out the top.  Make a spiral with the clay.  Take your candle and, starting at the centre of the spiral, make 25 indentations deep enough to let the candle stand up securely.  Leave the spiral to dry.  ...

Last week we continued our Messy Church theme of Parables and investigated the parable of the mustard seed. It's a tiny parable but has so much in it! 31  He told them another parable:  “The kingdom of heaven is like  a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.   32  Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”  (Matthew 13: 31-32) Here are the crafts we used to think about the story... Mustard Tree cakes (cupcakes with a hole scooped out of them. Plant a Smartie 'seed' in the hole, cover with butter icing and show a paper tree growing where the seed has been planted!) Decorating branches Building Lego homes Growing Seeds Making bird gliders (Kits from Baker Ross at a really reasonable price) Making a prayer tree with prayers on leaves and birds ...

We hold a monthly Ecumenical Messy Church in the local parish hall- the Church of England, the Methodist Church and the Church of Christ working together, pooling our resources and building relationships! Messy Church has proved to be really popular with our local non-church families and this month we explored the story of the Good Samaritan. Here's what we got up to... 'Plaster' biscuits (biscuits, fondant and strawberry jam!) Wool friendship bracelets Playing with a toy doctor's kit and lots of bandages! Pin the Good samaritan on the donkey Thinking about people we have helped and those who have helped us Colouring and acting out the story with stick puppets We then told the story with oranges and bananas  (check out the link here )... ...and then ended by thanking God for the people who help us and sticking plasters to ourselves to remind us to be people who help others :-)

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 ...

Ok,  I'm going to admit that this was largely just for fun during our Joseph Themed Messy Church! We wanted an unusual activity that would appeal to all ages and would tie in loosely with the theme.  This worked perfectly... You can use the colour explosions to think about the various things that at first seem to go wrong in Joseph's life but then God uses for something amazing (the wonderful, crazy artwork that is produced).  There's also so much in this activity about the power of God that can't be contained. Or alternatively just use it to help create a coat of many colours! DO THIS OUTSIDE BECAUSE THE PAINT WILL FLY!!!  This was part of our wall at the end and I won't even talk about the floor.  It was amazing fun though! You will need: A large sheet of white paper or a sheet to paint on, paint, clear vinegar, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), small ziplock bags (I used 2.75x4" bags as bigger sandwich sized bags produced WAY too much liquid). ...

In this month's Messy Church we looked at the story of the sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25 and thought about what it meant to serve others and to serve God.  This involved lots of practical activities! Cafe Role Play area  Polishing the church brass  Litter picking in the church yard  Praying for refugees  Gathering leaves  building furniture (this one was strictly for the adults!)  Making biscuit boxes... ...and baking biscuits to put in them!  We also had a take-home sheet so that we could continue to think about serving and helping others during the rest of the month.   Click here to download the sheet!

Here is the reflective colouring sheet we used in our 'worship' based Messy Church this month.  It really fitted in with the celebration and both adults and children made use of it during the afternoon. Click here to find and print the PDF.  Have fun colouring!

This month in Messy church, we explored lots of different ways of worshipping God... We made instruments from recycling materials and rainsticks from cardboard tubes with nails inserted (see picture below) and then filled with dried rice or chickpeas. We also played with some boomwhackers!   Click here to find out more about what they are if you've never come across them! Through dancing... We made some dancing ribbons from ribbon and sticks or curtain rings. Reflective worship and a worship tent Or through reflective colouring  We even explored worship by smell by burning some incense! We finished off with some dancing and singing of worship songs and by joining in a responsive reading of Psalm 150!