Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

 This year we are following the lectionary more closely than usual, so I've been getting ready around the story from John 9, of Jesus healing the man who was born blind.   This picture is split into two to show the difference of the two states. Colouring the picture provides a great opportunity to chat to children about seeing and to wonder what Jesus helps them to see. Click here   to download and print the page and head over to our instagram page if you'd like to see the picutre creation video!

 Here's the reflective colouring sheet we used on Sunday to help explore the story of Jesus healing the Official's son. One of the themes we drew out was Jesus' compassion, something that the Bible links clearly to his healing miracles. Click here to download and print the sheet.

 Tomorrow our all age service will look at the story of Jesus healing the Official's son (John 4: 43-54). We generally have a craft going on on a table at one side of church that people can opt into whenever they want to in the service.  This craft has a scientific basis and is a really creative, visual way to illustrate the healing miracles such as Jairus' daughter, the Centurion's servant and others. The tissue paper figure rises from lying down to dancing, all with the help of static electricity. To print out the instruction sheet, click here .

This is a great idea from our amazing children's worker, Sharon.  A few weeks ago we were looking, as a congregation, at the question of what heaven is like. We talked about one of my favourite passages,  Revelation 21:1-4 . Those who were being creative with the passage looked especially at verse 4:    He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain. All the old ways are gone.” Sharon had the brilliant idea of using handkerchiefs to convey the message of heaven being a place where God wipes all of our tears away.. Here's what they did. You will need:  White fabric or  white handkerchiefs ,  fabric pens Thinks about what heaven will be like and what it will be like never to be sad or in pain again. What would it be like for God to wipe our tears away? On the handkerchiefs, draw or write words about heaven and take the handkerchief home as a reminder of what we hope for.

This play dough mat will work with any of the stories where Jesus performs a healing miracle- Jairus' daughter, the 10 lepers, Bartimaeus... As usual, print out, laminate for repeated use and start creating!   The focus is on Jesus' love shown through his healing power and will hopefully provide opportunities for children to think and pray about people who are ill.  It's also a great opportunity for leaders and children to share their own testimonies of God's healing! Click here to print out the play dough mat.

With Valentines day approaching,I've seen a lot of crafts on Pinterest recently related to love and hearts.  For some reason, it made me think about those people who find this time of year difficult because they have lost someone or feel broken- hearted for some reason.  I came up with this prayer idea to help children to think of those who need to know God's love in a healing way.  It would also work well when looking at the beatitudes- especially 'Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted' (Matthew 5:4).  It could even be adapted for 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God' (Matthew 5:8)! You will need: Sticky backed plastic (contact paper), a large roll of wallpaper backing or other paper, small cut up pieces of coloured paper.  Cut out a big heart shape from a piece of backing paper.  Cover the heart with sticky backed plastic (contact paper), sticky side down. Turn the paper sticky side up.  Children can take...

We've started to give take home sheets to our children so that they can do an activity at home that will reinforce our teaching on a Sunday morning.  This Sunday our 3-5s looked at the story of Jairus' daughter and finished with prayer for healing on their own version of our  healing board .   The children thought of someone who was ill and stuck a plaster with that person's name on it (though this is not necessary!) onto the heart as a symbol that they were asking God to heal them. The classroom version was A3 but we printed off some A4 versions for the children to take home with them to do with their family. For a printable version click  here Thanks Kylé for your work on this!

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.

Sitting in church, listening to a sermon on 2 Corinthians 2, I was struck with an idea to try with the children about spreading the sweet smell of Christ. We've been talking to the children about how they can have an impact on the people they meet and this is quite a multisensory way to make the point! Our offering to God is this: We are the sweet smell of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are being lost. Light a scented candle and talk about the fact that, in a short time, the scent will fill the whole room.  We use this to make our rooms smell nice but we can use the same principle to make the world a sweeter place to be.  We can be like Jesus to the people we meet and we can spread the good things, the sweetness, about his message of love and forgiveness so it fills the places we live and go to school. Pass round a small tub of vinegar and get the children to smell it.  Think of all the sour, hurtful, hard things that happen in the...

We've found that sometimes when we suggest the younger children pray for the people in their lives, it's really hard for them to fix on what to pray for!  Like the prayer bingo idea, this is an idea to help children to think more widely about what they could pray for in an everyday prayer time.  It's probably most suitable for under 5s. Print out some pictures representing 'home', 'family', 'friends', 'food', 'school', 'healing', 'thank you', 'sorry'.  Laminate them if possible so you can get good use out of them and cut them out.  We made two sets so there was plenty of choice and you might choose the same thing to pray for again!  Then either put them in a small bag (we used a small tin instead), shake them about a bit and let the children choose something out of the bag to pray for.  They might want to close their eyes, but whatever they draw out should be a surprise!  Younger children will need explanatio...

I don't claim to have made this up- I read it somewhere, but it really works! We set up a board with words from Luke 6: 19 about Jesus healing the sick and now children know that if they would like to pray for anyone to be healed they can come, write the person's name on a plaster and stick the plaster to the board.  We've now also put a chair next to the board so that, if they want to, they can sit by the board and quietly pray for that person.