Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Although some churches are open for socially distanced worship now, we have made the decision to remain closed for the time being. If you are in a similar situation and are looking for something that families can do at home this Sunday then here are some resources to help with the lectionary reading of Jacob's ladder in Genesis 28. Video of a 12 minute family worship service including 'sorry' prayers, 'thank you' prayers, story with wondering questions and a creative prayer activity (see above). Click here for the service words if you'd like to follow along. Click here for a colouring sheet. Click here for a play dough mat. Click here for more creative ideas.

During the Coronavirus crisis, while churches have been closed, I have been part of a project to help families in our diocese worship at home. Each week we produce a video with a short service including sorry and thank you prayers, a story and a creative prayer activity that people at home can easily join in with. For this Sunday we're looking at the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice his son Isaac and how God provides what he needs. Click here to see the video. Click here to download the words to the simple liturgy if you'd like to join in the words. Click here to access a set of resources to accompany the story, written by a collection of children's ministry bloggers, hosted  by Kate at Jesus Without Language. Enjoy worshipping together!

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...

A while back, I thought it would be good to have some holding crosses for the children to use during our worship time as part of our multi-sensory items but, when I looked at the price of wooden ones, I was a bit put off! Instead, I decided to go down the fabric route (I got a massive bag of offcuts from Amazon for a really cheap price!) and have made a collection of different sized and textured crosses which are perfect for holding onto.  They don't take long to make and you can stuff them enough to make them quite firm to hold.  It's great that I got such a variety of fabric in the parcel because it means that each of the crosses has its own particular feel and texture. You will need: Various kinds of fabric- fleece, denim, silky, sequinned etc, needle and thread, stuffing (I used the stuffing from a cheap cushion from IKEA) 1. Cut out two identical cross shapes from a piece of fabric.   2. Lay the shapes on top of each other and sew around the edges. Don't ...

We've recently been investigating how we can include and engage younger children in our worship on a Sunday morning because we really want everyone to be a part of what is happening. While we have a selection of flags that the children can dance to the music with, the only space that allows this is at the back of church. Because we don't want to relegate the children, by default, to the back, we have hit upon creating a 'pray-ground' or interactive space for them at the front of church, where they can be involved in a variety of worship focussed activities while the service is going on.  If you want to find out more about 'pray-grounds,' look at t his great post by Traci Smith. Because we want to make it clear to everyone how valued the children are, one of the clergy or leaders will often sit in the pray ground while sung worship is happening or during the sermon, so that they can interact with the children and take part in what they are doing. Each ...

I recently discovered 'mermaid fabric' and I love it as a sensory experience and a potential refection and prayer tool! Mermaid fabric is essentially sequin covered fabric, but the brilliant part is that the sequins are one colour on the top and another colour on the bottom.  If you stroke the fabric upwards, it reveals the underside colour and I could basically sit there stroking all day! I thought the fabric would be good as a reflection tool in the 'worship' boxes we are creating for children during worship times in a service.  There is a lot of awe and wonder here!!  Here's what I did... You will need: Mermaid fabric, picture frames (with glass panel removed), PVA or hot glue, scissors. I took the glass panel out of my photo frames and then removed the backing board, which I measured and then covered with the same size panel of mermaid fabric.  I used PVA glue to stick it on and that seemed to work fine. I then put the backing boa...

One of the things I really loved about teaching was helping children to explore their learning styles.   According to educational research, children learn in all sorts of different ways and will prefer some styles over others.  I really believe that the same philosophy applies to worship styles.    Organisations such as Scripture Union are really getting behind this idea, as you can see in their brilliant Explore Together material, which uses 6 different zones based on learning styles.  There are so many ways of worshipping yet, in church, we tend to greatly restrict ourselves to linguistic and musical approaches.  Based on ideas about learning styles, I've put together a survey you could do with children, to help find out their preferred styles and on the second sheet of the PDF you will find suggestions for approaching each style in worship.  I like to… always sometimes never ...