Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

If you want to offer an absorbing and challenging way for children to explore the story of Zacchaeus, then look no further.  This is a great way of helping them to think about the determination of Zacchaeus to see Jesus, because it will take some determination to complete the task!! You will need: Dried spaghetti, mini marshmallows and a plastic Easter Egg Challenge the children to build a 'tree' with the spaghetti and marshmallows, that will support and hold a plastic Easter egg (real eggs are way too heavy for what they are likely to build!) Talk about: How easy was it to build the tree? What difficulties did you encounter? What difficulties do you think Zacchaeus encountered in the story? What lengths would you go to to see one of your heroes? What lengths do others go to in order to be Christians?- think about the persecuted church When do you sometimes have to be determined? Do you ever have to use your determination in order to live as a Chris...

This Sunday Sparks learned about Zacchaeus, thinking about the theme of Jesus being our friend. After telling the story, this is what we did... A group collage, sticking leaves on a picture of the tree where Zacchaeus hid, giving the opportunity to recap on the story with the children. Remembering that Jesus went to eat with Zacchaeus by playing with the toy food and tea set. Playing with toy money to remember what Zacchaeus did before and after meeting Jesus. Remembering that Jesus wanted to be Zacchaeus' friend by drawing our friends and saying thank you to God for them. Singing 'Jesus love is very wonderful'!

We did an assembly today on the theme of 'relationships'.  We Used the story of Zacchaeus to try to get across the idea that we often make judgements about people without knowing who they really are and the potential they have. First we used a 'feely bag' to get the children to try and guess some items without seeing them. They managed to get close on most items, but they couldn't see everything about them e.g. colour.  We need to look properly to get all the facts and can't judge too quickly! Next we told the story of Zacchaeus by acting it out with some of the children and getting the others to join in with some sound effects and with some cheering at the end.  The point we drew was that the people had made up their minds about Zacchaeus but Jesus could see who he really was and who he had the potential to be.  Zacchaeus surprised people! After the story we told a story from real life about a time when we really got to know someone and had to change ...