Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

This is a resource I have created while putting together my book on introducing Holy Communion to under 5s. More will follow in due course on that subject! Anyway, this is a very simple idea prompted by a remark on this blog's Facebook page.  Thanks Nicole Hall for telling me about having placemats with prayer prompts on them so that children could join in with prayers over mealtimes! The idea with this placemat is that you print it off and laminate it so that a child can use it on the table and it can easily be wiped clean. The first time you use it, talk about the different pictures and what they symbolise. When you come to pray before you eat, ask your child to choose one or two of the pictures and to thank God for that thing. For example, if they choose the 'drink' picture, they might thank God for their favourite drink or for what they are going to drink at the table.  Gradually they will build up the repertoire of what they want to say thank you for! ...

Tomorrow I'm going to be talking about the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  When I've taught this before, I've focussed on how we come to God in prayer, but this time I'm looking at the idea of grace.  Here's an easy but very visual way to tell and teach the story! You will need: A beautifully wrapped box, a smaller, torn and battered box, a gold bag filled with enough sweets to overflow out of the smaller box. The beautifully wrapped box is like the Pharisee.  He has a lot of things to tell God and others about how good he is.  All his good works are on show for everyone to see.  He wants everyone to notice him for his goodness. The small, battered and torn box is like the tax collector.  People really don't like him.  They think, like this box, that he is like rubbish.  The tears symbolise the things he has done that probably aren't that good. Put the small box at a distance from the wrapped box (make sure that the wrapped box has c...