Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

This Sunday we had a Wise and Foolish Builders themed Messy church and things did, indeed, get a bit messy! Here are some of the things we got up to... Playing with moon sand (messy but even the grown ups liked this one!) Painting houses (or anything!) on rocks Building Duplo Houses and deciding whether to put them on sand or on rock... Making Prayer houses: boxes from house templates with a prayer placed inside them.  Download a lovely free template here . Building an entire cardboard city! We then told the story of the wise and foolish builders with the help of a watering can and some sound effects and talked about having God and His words as our rock when times were tricky. Can't wait until next month!

Here is the next new story bag... Contents: Story book rock wooden blocks- explore 'buiding' lego 'houses' instruments to make rain noises sand jug for pouring water toy saw, hammer and spade (builder's tools!) child's hard hat metal tray to hold the rock/ sand and their houses when the water is poured on them plastic 'builder'  Parents might like to use a water proof mat under the tray when telling the story in case of splashes!!

This is a response we used at our 'Seaside' Messy Church last summer. After telling the story of the wise and foolish builders, we brought out a house made of a cardboard box.  We asked everyone who they trusted to keep them standing firm and strong when things got difficult (just like the wise builder's house stayed firm in the storm because it was on a rock).   They might have friends or family members they could trust but Christians also believe they have Jesus to keep them steady in hard times.  After giving people the chance to think about it, we played some music and asked people to come forward and stick a 'brick' sticker on the house to stand for the person who kept them steady.  When those who wanted to had come forward we thanked God for those people and asked Him to remind us that Jesus was always there for us to lean on too.  On the way out, everyone took a mini stick of rock with the words 'Jesus is our rock' stuck to the wrapper as a reminder...