Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Ash Wednesday can often get forgotten in church children's work, as it happens mid week rather than on a Sunday.  If you are observing the day, here is a useful resource for you. Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent and ashes are used to remind us that we are human and that this life is temporary. We also remember the wrong things we have done and take the opportunity to trun back to God. To print the sheet, click here. Make some ashes (i burned some paper in a metal biscuit tin).  Mix the ashes with some oil (not water as this can cause burns). Use a finger to paint the ashes onto the sheet, just as ash crosses are drawn on foreheads. Have a go at making ash crosses on foreheads and hands if this is something you are all comfortable with. The words 'Father forgive' are part of the prayer we pray oon Ash Wednesday, remembering the things we have done wrong. The heart is a symbol of God's forgiving love, which we also remember.

I was recently trying to come up with some different visual ways of saying sorry to God and wanted something that would be symbolic of the forgiveness He gives. That's when I came across dissolvable paper! From what I gather, this paper can be used to draw patterns which can then be sewn over and when the embroidery is complete, the paper will dissolve, leaving only the stitching in place. Suffice to say, that is not what I used it for! You will need: Dissolvable paper cut into small strips, warm water (this helps the dissolving process), a large bowl, pens Talk about the fact that when we say sorry to God for the things that we have done, we know that he will forgive us and give us a new start.  Ask children to write or draw something they would like to say sorry for on a strip of paper. They might even just want to write the word 'sorry' and keep things entirely between themselves and God. Place the paper strip in the water and watch as it s...

Ash Wednesday can be tricky with children.  If you are a church that uses liturgy, the liturgy can be long and full of words that children would not necessarily use!  It's important, though, that as part of the body of Christ, children are included in key events in the church calendar.  Here is my attempt to open up some of the symbolism and meaning of Ash Wednesday in a way that (hopefully) might be useful to some of you! I have based some of this on the Church of England's Liturgy for Ash Wednesday in Common Worship: Times and Seasons ( Click here to go to an online version of the full liturgy on the Church of England Website- Ash Wednesday is on pages 15-26 )  and have focussed on key themes of being 'sorry', being cleansed and having hope in Jesus. Make your ashes in advance!  I made mine by burning strips of paper in a metal tin.  Be careful!! Talk to the children about Ash Wednesday as the first day of Lent which is a time of thinking abou...

This is an easy, inexpensive way to pray very visually. You will need: Chalkboards of any size, cups of water, paintbrushes. Encourage the children to paint their written or drawn prayers onto the chalkboard with water. This is particularly good for sorry prayers as the water will dry up and the sorry prayer will fade away as a sign of how God forgives us when we are sorry.  For the same reason, it's a good way of helping children to release their prayers to God and visualise them being handed over.

Here's a great idea you can use at home to help children pray and it only costs £1! I've always loved the idea of teaspoon prayers- 'tsp' being the abbreviation of 'teaspoon' in recipes but also being the initial letters of 'thanks, sorry and please', three things we can encourage children to pray about.  I like things that stick in the head! I got a pack of small spoons from the pound shop and wrote t or s or p on each one with a permanent marker.  Then I put them in a jar.  Children can take a spoon at random from the jar and then pray a 'thanks', 'sorry' or 'please' prayer according to the letter on their spoon.

I found some old coloured acetate lying around the other day and, as I'd been thinking about forgiveness and the new start of baptism, an idea came into my mind for how to use it in a prayer activity.  I tested it out before trying it on the children! I cut the acetate into people shaped pieces and then we wrote or drew on them things I was sorry for or the names of people I'd hurt. Then if you dip the people in a container of water, as a symbol of confessing your wrong to God and asking Him to forgive you, the writing dissolves and you are left with a clean person! I tried this first using dry wipe whiteboard markers, but it took a real effort to scrub the writing off!  The type of pens that really worked were washable felt tips.  The writing came right off as soon as the surface of the person hit the water, but that type of pen doesn't show up too well in the photos unfortunately!   The children love this kind of visual when they are asking for f...

Feel the sand with your fingers.  Write or draw in the sand something you’d like to tell God you are sorry for. God wants to forgive you When you have spoken to God, smooth the sand over so the picture or word disappears and imagine God taking it away.

There's a lot you can do with coloured cards!  Children really understand symbolism and even our 5 year olds had no problem with this prayer activity... You will need a gold card and some double sided cards (green on one side and red on the other). We discussed traffic lights and the fact that red means stop and green means go.  We talked about how sometimes we do wrong things we wish we hadn't and that can make us feel bad and stop us going forward with God as we could do (symbolised by a red 'stop' card).  God (represented by a gold card) will forgive us if we come to him and say sorry. Each child thought of something they'd done during the week that they were sorry for and then symbolically brought it to God by putting their red card next to the gold card and saying sorry.  Then, as a symbol that God forgave them, they turned the red card over to the green 'go' side. 

Over the summer we are doing scaled down children's work with one group for 3-11s!  It's not an easy task to keep everyone involved but we are having a go! This week, reflecting what the adults were doing in the main church, we looked at the calling of Levi.  Here's what we did... Game:  Ball change! In a bag put 5 red balls, 5 blue balls and 5 yellow balls.  Split children in to two teams- red team and blue team.  Children take it in turns to reach into the bag and pull out a ball.  Red team are looking for red balls, blue team are looking for blue balls.  If children pull out a ball of their colour, they keep it.  If they pull out a ball of the wrong colour, they have to put it back in the bag.  The first team to pull out all 5 balls of their colour is the winner! Story telling with coloured cards: Click  here  to go to the post showing how we told the story in a very visual way! Next we talked about the fact that...

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.

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.

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.

You will need:  Nails, a piece of wood or a simple cross made of wood, felt tip pens, a hammer Let the children carefully feel the nails and touch the wood so that they get a sensory experience of what you are talking about.  If you wish, hammer some of the nails into the wood so that they can add the sound experience.  Talk them through the prayer station below. Crucifixion Feel the hard wood and the cold, sharp nails. How would you have felt if you had seen Jesus being nailed to the cross? Christians believe that Jesus died so that we could be forgiven for the things we have done wrong. Have you done something that you are sorry for? Tell God silently in your head. If you would like to, write your name on the cross to show that you have said sorry. This station remind me of the 'Sorry Cross' we sometimes use as a Sunday morning prayer station.  This is a large cross covered in paper that the children write on to tell God the things the...

As part of holiday club we told the story of the transfiguration and then talked about Jesus wanting to help us change our lives to be more like him. The children really loved the effect of this object lesson! You will need : old, dirty coins (preferably one each per child), a plastic container with a lid, 1 heaped tablespoon of salt and half a cup of vinegar (mixed and put into the lidded container), a container holding water, a container to hold the used salt/ vinegar mix. What we did We gave everyone a dirty 1p coin and talked about our lives sometimes being a bit like the coin, dirtied up by the wrong things we do that we wish we hadn't.  We said that, if we asked Jesus to help us, he could help us to become more like him and take away the dirt.  He could change our lives. We then asked the children to put all of their coins into the vinegar and salt mixture, closed the lid and shook the box.  Even as the children put the coins into the mix they started to ...

As part of our work on the creed, we spoke about Jesus dying to set us free from the wrong things we had done and also to release us from the things that worry and oppress us.  Children thought about something they wished they hadn't done or something they were worried about and, in their heads or out loud, asked God to help them with it or to forgive them.  They they blew some bubbles and watched them float as a symbol of the freedom that Jesus was giving them.  We asked them not to deliberately pop the bubbles and they were very good about it!!

We've tried different ways of saying sorry to God.  Both ways work especially well for kinesthetic children and even the 5 year olds join in because they are happy to draw! 1) write or draw something you are sorry for on a piece of paper.  If you don't want to write it down, just hold the paper and imagine it.  Say sorry to God and ask Him to forgive you.  Screw the paper up and put it in the bin to show that God has forgiven you and thrown the sin away. 2) Use a whiteboard and a whiteboard marker (we laminated white paper instead of buying whiteboards!). Write or draw on the whiteboard what you are sorry for.  Ask God to forgive you.  Wipe the board with a wet wipe to show that God has forgiven you and wiped the sin away.