Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Last week was a busy but amazing week! I spent most of it in our local primary school in the prayer space we had created with some inspiration from Prayer Spaces in Schools . We were given a classroom for a week and turned it from this... To this... Each class spent at least one session in the room and lunchtimes, when children could make their own way there, were very busy! We had some amazing conversations about life, death, families, worries and everything in between. Here are some of the things we got up to... Unfolding Hopes and Dreams Water Prayers Play dough thank you prayers Whiteboard worry prayers Bringing light: How can I help to make the world a better place? Saying sorry sand prayers- drawing things to say sorry for in the sand and then smoothing it over as a sign of God's forgiveness Cardboard box prayers for people who have no homes Pipe cleaner people thank you prayers ...

One of the new ideas we've tried out this term is to encourage the children to take a more active part in the teaching on a Sunday morning.  This was our first attempt... After teaching the 5-11s the story of the lost sheep and getting them to reflect and respond creatively (see  here  for details), we asked them to think about how they would teach the story to a younger age group. We divided the lesson into parts: Worship game story craft prayer Children decided which part they'd like to help lead and then they got into small groups, with some adult input where necessary, and planned what they would do to lead that part of a lesson for 3-5 year olds. This is the plan they came up with: Worship- sing 'Great Big God' and 'Bigger than big' with actions (children leading) Game- squeak, squeak, Baa, Baa- a variation on a well known game where a child turns their back and has to guess who has said 'squeak, squeak, baa, baa' st...

This is another child's take on forgiveness and how we can pray for it (words are directly copied from what she wrote!) Sins are bad things that are not good.  Tear off a piece of paper and write something wrong you have done on it.  It might have been recently, it might have been a while ago.  Scrunch it up and God knows you’re sorry  and you know God has forgiven you.

This prayer station is linked to the idea of rockets!  The child who made it explained that most people thought that rockets were quite dangerous things but he wanted us to focus on God keeping us safe.  He built a 'rocket' from a cup and made this prayer station! We can ask God to keep us safe.  Write your name on a peg, pray that God will keep you safe and peg it to the cup .

The people sticks were quite popular when the children were making up their prayer stations.  Here is another way of using them... Hold one of the wooden people in your hand and pray for someone in your family.  Ask God to help or bless them.

This prayer station is by the youngest in the group.  It's very simple, but says a lot! Take a plate and draw a smiley face on it.  Pray for people in the world who don’t have enough food.

This is an easy idea to help pray for healing.  Stickers with names on might work better because we found that pens don't easily write on bandage! Pray for people who are ill and ask God to heal them.  Write their name on the bandage.

This is a really considerate station by one of the youngest members of the group... Draw something you like on a piece of paper e.g. One of your toys.  Rip the paper down the middle.  Put one half of the paper on one of the plates and the other half of paper in the other plate .  Ask God to help you share things.

This is another simple but really thoughtful invention by one of our children... There are two plates- one sad and one happy.  Put a gem on the plate that shows how you feel.  Tell God why you are sad or happy.    Say thank you if you are happy.  Ask God to help you if you are sad.

Several of the children decided to make up prayer stations looking at homes.  In this station, person 1 is on the left of the picture and person 2 is on the right. Choose a person and pray for them and their house Person 1- thank God for homes that are safe, warm and comfortable. Person 2- Pray for people who have no homes or whose homes are unsafe and  crowded. 

Here is a station for those who love Lego! Using the Duplo , build a house.  It can be any shape or size.  As you build it, think about people without homes because they have no money or jobs. Pray to God that He’ll give these people houses and a life equal to what we have.

I was really amazed by the ingenuity of this prayer station!  Out of the random selection of things presented, this child chose the ping pong balls and turned them into something I would never have thought of- almost a bowling  game! (In this station 'sin' balls have an 's' on them and what the inventor has termed 'holy' balls have a cross on them.) Put the  ‘sin ‘ balls in a pyramid and think of the things you have done wrong this week.  Ask God to forgive you and break the pyramid up with the ‘holy’ balls.  This shows that God can break up sin and that He forgives you.

Listen to God.  What do you think He would like you to  do in your life?  Do you need to change something or make a new start?  Make a promise to God.  Take a piece of wool and tie it (loosely!) round your finger to remind yourself of that promise.

Here is the first prayer station invented by one of our children: Hold the marble and think of the wrong things you have done this week.  Ask God to forgive you and take away the foil as a sign your sins have been removed.

We had such an encouraging session this morning at church with our 5-11s! Over the past year and a half we have been using regular weekly prayer stations see  our Sunday prayer routine  and  children's favourites , so the children are very used to using symbols and praying non verbally.  This week we thought that we'd let the children have a go at making up their own stations that we could use in future weeks and we were amazed by what they came up with!!  It was a bit of a gamble as we didn't have any idea of what would happen, but as usual, given the opportunity to express themselves and their ideas creatively, the children ran with it and bowled us over. After studying the Lord's prayer (Matthew 6: 9-13), we discussed the various things that Jesus was teaching us to pray for.  We then showed the children a variety of resources they could choose to use- preferably only one for each station!  We had: bubbles, straws, dice, wooden people on lol...