Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Game: Pop Up Pirate Story Link: Be ready! (Luke 12: 35-40) Talk About: What things in your life do you have to wait for? How do you feel when you are waiting? What do you do to get yourself ready for the event you are waiting for? What things in life do you do where you need to be prepared in advance? e.g. packing school bag, packing for a camping trip Waiting for Jesus to return- like the pop up pirate, we don't know when it will be, so we need to be ready! What will it be like when he comes? (Revelation 21 gives a good idea) How can we get ready? What can we do in our lives to show that we are following Jesus? (the master who returns in the story blesses his servants and gives them a meal, so there is a theme of blessing from God that we could link to us working to bless others as we wait for him to come). Prayer Take it in turns to put swords in the barrel. Every time you put a sword in, ask God to help and be with someone who is waiting for something e.g wait...

Guess Who is a popular and easy game that even younger children can play. Here are some ideas about how you might connect the game with God... Story link:  You formed the way I think and feel.      You put me together in my mother’s womb. 14  I praise you because you made me in such a wonderful way.    I know how amazing that was! Psalm 139: 13-14 Talking Points: What is special about you? How are we similar and different to the people around us? What is your favourite thing about yourself? What is your favourite thing about someone else? Use the game to think about the ways in which people are unique. How do we know who we are looking for? Several people in the game have orange hair, but not all of them have curly orange hair or orange hair and blue eyes. God has made us all differently but he knows every part of us and knows all about us. He knows not just our appearance (like in the game) but our personaliti...

This Summer we are experimenting with a 'board games cafe' once a week at the local community centre. It's probably wrongly named because none of the games need a board, but they are all popular and readily available children's games! It got me thinking about how we could use the games as a church activity as well, so this is the first instalment of some prayers and activity ideas based on games... You will need : A Hungry Hippos game (or more than one!) Play the game and get your hippo to collect as many of the balls as possible. Prayer Idea 1: Count the number of balls you have and, for each ball, say thank you to God for something or someone. Prayer Idea 2: Count the number of balls you have and, for each one, say thank you for a food you like Story Link: The parable of the rich fool (Luke  12: 13-21) The hippos are greedy and try to get as many balls as they can. What things in life are worth having? What does the story say about storing o...