Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

This is a lovely activity to help children to reflect on who Jesus is and to explore how they relate to him. We did it when we were exploring what praise was with 3 classes in our local infant school (ranging in age from 4-7) and each class added to the poster as we went along. I must add that this is a church school, so children do have some knowledge of Christianity as a starting point. Making the poster does involve finger paint. so have some wet wipes or hand washing facilities available! You will need: Felt tip pens, a large sheet of paper (e.g. wallpaper backing) with 'Jesus' written on it in big letters, post it notes, finger paints Ask children to think about what they would say if they were telling someone about their amazing friend Jesus and to write or draw it on a post it note. stick all of the post it notes onto the big poster When they have all added to the poster share the things that people have written or drawn and invite children t...

Very often we praise God through words- either spoken or in song.  It's great for children to know that we can praise God in so many other ways, including the use of all our senses.  This activity explores praise through colour and through taste and is suitable for all ages. Speak to the children about who God is to them.  What is He like? How does He make you feel? What colour would you use to show God? Collect words and images to describe God and talk about praise being about telling God how great He is.  Collect ideas for things they would like to say thank you to God for.  Tell the children that they are now going to explore praising God with sight and taste. You will need:  white bread, new paintbrushes (or cotton buds), milk, food colouring, toaster Divide the milk into dishes and mix each dishful with a different food colouring to make 'paint.'  Encourage the children to paint the bread with the brushes or cotton buds, usin...

When we think about worship, we generally think of musical expression but there are lots of different ways to express how great God is and children love to experiment with taste, touch and colour too!  Here's an easy idea to help express the colourful, joyful nature of worship and the love that is at its heart... You will need: Biscuits (at least one per child), icing sugar, water, food colouring, eye-droppers (unused!!), knives for spreading, cocktail sticks, heart shaped sprinkles or hearts cut out of fondant. Read Psalm 148 together or talk about the great things about who God is.  What do you want to celebrate about Him?  What is praise?  How can we praise God?  What does worship feel like?  How would you express praise in colour? Set out your equipment and get ready!  Make up a  bowl of thick white icing with the icing sugar and some water.  Then make up some individual bowls of different coloured icing, slightly more runny in co...

This summer I'm finally getting round to decorating and sorting one of the rooms that we use on a Sunday.  It's been a work in progress over the past few months! To help with the decorating efforts, I made some bunting to hang with words that describe God on each piece.  We got the children on Sunday to think of words and then I added them to the bunting as a temporary measure.  Hopefully, after summer, when more of the children are around, we can get them to decorate it properly! Words the children chose are:  faithful, patient, Lord, great, light, strong, love, king, caring, kind, big, awesome, amazing, eternal, clever, un- sinful, good, powerful, always in control.  It's great to have the words hanging as a constant reminder of words to praise God with!  The bunting itself took minutes to make.  I cut some triangles out of foam sheets and stapled them to a long string of ric rac braid.  I then wrote the words on with a permanent mar...

Today with the 5-11s, we talked about worship and helped them to explore what it meant and how they might do it!  After reading various verses from the psalms and discussing, we got out the junk box and this is what some of them came up with!   All together now, mountains sing out!  Psalm 98:8   Rivers, clap your hands! Psalm 98:8    Psalm 100:2. Be happy as you serve the Lord! Come before the Lord with happy songs! Shaker instrument! 'I pray in my head' written on a 'bed' to show that this person worships God by praying silently in her bed Praise drum kit to make a lot of noise!

This is for the older children and those who are especially interested in words! Set out a scrabble board and tiles and across the middle put the word 'almighty' or 'amazing' or any other longish word to describe God.  Children can then use the tiles to add to this word- scrabble fashion, any other praise words to describe God- or, indeed any word that describes God to them.  You might want to put out a list of possibilities so that there is a starting point for those who prefer it.  Leave it out over several weeks to see how the praise progresses! Possible words to put out: amazing, outstanding, indescribable, awesome, loving, caring, uplifting, breathtaking, unknowable, mighty, strong, powerful, glorious

This is an active, engaging way to say thank you to God! Each child needs an inflated balloon and a permanent marker (otherwise the pen will smudge on hands!).  Write on the balloon things you want to say thank you to God for and then get ready!  Play some  music and children bat the balloons to each other.  When the music stops, they grab the nearest balloon, read what it says and, together, everyone says 'Thank you God for...' The music starts up again and the process is repeated for as long as feels right! We have used a similar idea in a primary school harvest service and in an all age service.  This time we have pre- written 'thank you' on about 30 balloons and the whole congregation has batted the balloons around as music plays.  At the end of the music, the leader says a big thank you prayer and everyone joins in the 'Amen'!  The school especially loved the idea and talked a lot about how church had actually been fun!!