Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

  “You can enter true life only through the narrow gate. The gate to hell is very wide, and there is plenty of room on the road that leads there. Many people go that way.   But the gate that opens the way to true life is narrow. And the road that leads there is hard to follow. Only a few people find it.  Matthew 7:13-4 In our journey through the sermon on the mount, we have reached this passage which is quite a tough one! To warm up we're going to play two games: 1) Limbo dancing - the child who manages to do the lowest limbo move is the prize winner. 2) Marbles - Children have the choice to roll their marble through a wide gap (easy) or a narrow gap (hard).  After all the children have had a go, give a prize to anyone who managed to get their marble through the narrow gap, to emphasise the fact that the people who met the toughest challenge were the ones who won the prizes in the end.   Our children tend to respond quite well to visual teachin...

This week we reached the stage in the sermon on the mount where Jesus speaks about worry.  There is great imagery in the passage about birds and flowers being given everything they need by God and the children were really able to identify with the simplicity of the ideas.  It led to great discussion about what God provides for us and what we worry about.  Each child took a stone and glued a heart to it.  This was to remind them that God loves them even more than he loves the birds and the plants.  A stone is also something strong to hold onto, a reflection of the strength and reassurance God can bring in worrying times.  We wanted the children to take the stone home as something they could hold on to when they were worried and that would remind them of God's love and might prompt them to pray.   I thought it would be a good idea for the children to make a pot to keep the stone in that would remind them of the verses about the birds and flowers...

Here is the take home sheet for our 7-11s group this week.  We're looking this term at the sermon on the mount and this week the topic is love!  This is a game to help children to learn the memory verse. Written down, the rules seem complicated, but when you play the game it's easy to understand! Cut out the net and make the cube up.  Print out a copy  here . Play with a partner To start you must throw face 1 (the first part of the verse). Partner A throws the cube.  If they do not land on face 1, they will have to throw again on their next turn! Partner B then has a turn. The object of the game is to 'earn' each part of the verse in the correct order and to write it down.  After face 1, the task is to throw face 2 and then face 3 and so on.  Landing on face 5 after face 2, for example, does not count as this is not the correct order! The winner is the first person to write down the verse in the correct order.

As part of our work on the sermon on the mount this term with our 5-11s, this is one of the new prayer stations children can choose from.  It picks up on the idea of 'going the extra mile' for someone. Encourage the children to think of someone they usually help or could help with something at home or at school.  Then get them to think of how they could do something extra and unasked to help that person.  Children draw or write their idea on a coloured footprint and stick it somewhere on the track, asking God to help them bless that person.  When they come back the following week they can then put a smiley face next to their footprint if they've managed to do that thing!