Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Pentecost is full of amazing imagery- fire, colour, wind, words- and it really lends itself to a treasure hunt outside. Where can you spot the things that remind you of the story? As usual this is a tried and tested idea, so take a look at some of the Pentecost related treasure we found! Click here to download and print the Hunt Sheet Flame shaped leaves Red leaves Red Yellow We even heard and saw the wind in action

For all of us celebrating Pentecost on Sunday here's a selection of tried and tested (and fun!) ideas... Pentecost pass the parcel all age talk Pentecost Flames: painting with forks Holy Spirit Crayon Melting Craft and Prayer Activity Pentecost Play Dough Mats Pentecost Flames salad Spinner Art and Prayer Activity Pentecost Spinner Pentecost Messy Church Crafts Pentecost Talk and Prayer

Here is a last minute Pentecost talk idea.  We will be using it tomorrow in our cafe church service! This works best before you read or tell the story. You will need:   A bag of sweets (enough to share with everyone) Lollipops for each layer Pictures of: a dove, a windsock, fire, the word 'welcome' in various languages.  To download a sheet with these pictures on click here. Newspaper sellotape The bag of sweets and the picture of the dove will be your central layer.  Wrap them in the newspaper.  On top of the dove layer, put the 'welcome' picture and a reward lolly! For the next layer, put the fire picture and a lolly and the top layer will be the windsock (the closest I could get to a wind picture!!) Talk about Pentecost being the birth of the church where, in one day 3000 people came to know Jesus.  We all got an amazing birthday gift that day- the Holy Spirit. At birthday parties you normally play games so we are now g...

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 really exciting way to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit! You will need: wax crayons (wrappers off works best) strong glue (eg. from a glue gun or superglue), a canvas (this really doesn't work on paper!), a protective sheet, a hairdryer. We did this outside with an extension cable for the hairdryer because there is a certain amount of splatter! Glue the crayons to the top of the canvas and let the glue set firm. Set the hairdryer to the highest level and start blowing it across the bottom ends of the crayons.  It takes a while but they eventually start to melt.  Set the dryer down a heat notch and continue to melt the crayons.  Watch as the colour is released!  We did this with children aged 5-9 and, as long as there was adult supervision they were brilliant at taking turns with the hairdryer and had loads of suggestions about where to aim it to make certain colours run in different directions. When you have finished, th...

Here is a play dough mat to help children explore the story of Pentecost. Click here to print out the mat, laminate and let the children use play dough to make tongues of fire coming from the heads of the disciples. Think about: How would you have felt if you had been a disciple on that day? What might the other people, who saw and heard the disciples have been thinking and feeling? Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit? How did the Holy Spirit help Peter? How could you ask the Holy Spirit to help you? Pray: Pray that we will come to know the Holy Spirit working in our lives and helping us. Pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to speak to other people about who Jesus is.

I found a cheap salad spinner (£4 in IKEA!) and was finally able to try out some spinner art!  It's brilliant: quick, clean (because the spinner sits in its own bowl) and each piece is unique!  The process of making the art really lends itself to Pentecost themes so here's an idea to help celebrate the occasion... You will need: A salad spinner; red, yellow and orange paint, small paper plates, a tub of hair gel (optional)   Put a plate on the bottom of the inside of the spinner and blob some paint in.  Put the lid on and spin!  It only takes a few seconds of enthusiastic spinning and this is what you get... I think that trying to get the plate balanced across the bottom of the spinner would have helped this one (above) to be a little less lop-sided!  Some sites recommend adding a blob of hair gel and it does make the paint a little more runny.  Experiment and see what works best for you. I love it!  I tried it out yesterday ...

As today is Pentecost we decided not to beat around the bush but to go straight ahead and tell the children about the gifts of the Spirit! It can be quite hard, even for adults, to get your head round all the gifts so I decided to limit our explanation to 10 of the gifts I thought were easiest to explain.  You may or may not agree with my selection or explanations but it was a great introduction to a huge topic! I made a sheet, detailing 10 Spiritual gifts: To print the sheet, click  here Then I photocopied the sheet times the number of children we expected and cut out the individual labels.  That made a lot of labels!  Next I mixed the labels up and distributed them around the room. After telling the children the Pentecost story, we asked the children to go and find all 10 different labels and come back.  When everyone had collected all they can we explained each one and gave short specific testimonies about healing, apostles, tongues and miracles....

It only seems fitting to use fire at Pentecost so how could we not?! After we had told the Pentecost story, our talk at Messy Church was about the Holy Spirit helping us to do things we might not be able to do by ourselves.  Here's a copy of the talk and prayer response with pictures.  You will need a dove pan to do this.  It might seem quite expensive but the amazement of the congregation when you use it (adults and children alike) is well worth it!  I've used mine about 10 times already in assemblies etc. Photos by David Duncan :-) Talk On the day of Pentecost 3000 people became Christians.  It was like the church’s birthday!  The Holy Spirit came to the disciples with wind and fire and helped them to do things they’d never been able to do before like speak other languages and have the courage to speak in front of crowds of people! Sometimes we feel like we can’t do things or we’d like to change but it’s really hard and we can’t do it our...

We had a brilliant morning at our Pentecost Messy church.  There was lots of fun and even some fire! Have a look at the crafts we did on the Pentecost theme.  All have a fire or wind related element... Flame headresses: ribbon, tissue paper, gold card, shiny red paper.  Kylé also has some fire streamers tucked into the ribbon for extra effect! Fire streamers made from crepe paper, lolly sticks and elastic bands.  Flame biscuits: digestives, white water icing and fondant flames.  Bubble and hoops that make noises when you move them (sounds a bit like a rattling wind!)  Birthday cards for the Church's birthday! Pentecost spinners!  Click here to print off.  Paint blowing pictures.  Windchimes: Cups, beads, bells, buttons and pipecleaners.  Holy Spirit suncatchers.  Click here for instructions.