Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

On Sunday we are holding our first Cafe Church since the pandemic started and the lectionary gospel passage is the one from Luke chapter 4, where Jesus stands up in the temple and talks about what he has been sent to do. The passage opens up so many amazing themes to explore, but the reading itself can be a bit abstract in places. Because we wanted to make it as accessible as possible, I made it into a Lego stop motion animation. Click here to watch! We'll be thinking around themes of vocation and calling, identity and the power of the Holy Spirit. One of the activities we will be providing on the cafe tables is a colouring sheet for those who want to take some time reflecting or who prefer to be doing something with their hands when the service is in progress! Click here to print off.

This is a fun way to celebrate Jesus as the light of the world, especially if you are celebrating Candlemas this Sunday! Traditionally at Candlemas (or the Presentation of Christ), the passage from Luke 2 where Simeon and Anna meet Jesus is read and we hear the famous lines: “Now, Lord, you can let me, your servant, die in peace as you said. 30  I have seen with my own eyes how you will save your people. 31       Now all people can see your plan. 32  He is a light to show your way to the other nations.      And he will bring honor to your people Israel.” (Luke 2: 29-32) Jesus is recognised as the saviour who has come to bring light to dark situations and to show people the way, and this prayer craft helps children to work with this image. You will need: battery operated tea lights, A6 size paper, felt tip pens, glue Put the A6 Paper in landscape orientation and ask children to draw pictures and write the names of ...

Today I have been challenged by requests for ideas on two stories that I haven't covered yet on this blog and so I decided I needed to get my act together! One request was about the story of Martha and Mary- how have I managed to miss this one?!  Thanks, Peggy, for you request :-) This story comes in Luke 10: 38-42 and involves Jesus visiting the home of the two women.  Mary sits at Jesus' feet as a listening disciple, while Martha is more concerned with the work of cooking and cleaning.  Martha always seems to come off worse in interpretations of this story, but this is because her focus is off.  Hospitality and serving others, as Martha is doing, is not, in itself, wrong, but Martha is distracted by worries that are taking her focus in hospitality away from Jesus.  I do like Martha because I realise that I act like her quite a lot! Here are some ways to help children to explore themes in the story: Taking time to focus on Jesus: Make or use finger la...

We are running a series on parables at the moment so this week I have made a colouring sheet for the parable of the persistent neighbour in Luke 11.  To print the sheet, click here . Have fun!

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...

I'm off into school tomorrow to do a lesson about the Nativity story and I've decided to use word clouds to help the children to think about the story. Most of the children are very familiar with what happens but word clouds picking up on specific words really help to open the story up in a different way... I've made two word clouds by copying and pasting the words of Luke 2:1-20 into the creator at Tagxedo . The first one is simply a star shape that they can look at and see which words strike them most (including ones that puzzle them and we can talk about!) The second is an inverted star, with space for children to write and draw what sticks with them most about the story. Printable versions of the word clouds are available  here .

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.

We're going to continue our 'kindness' theme in our mid week group by looking at the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. This will be quite a familiar story to our children, but I am interested in what their personal reflections are.  It's been a while since we used a word cloud, but here's the one I've made for this session As usual, I pasted the words of the passage into the  Tagxedo  word cloud creator, making an inverted image so that children can write or draw their reflections in the blank area after they have heard the story.  They can use the words as prompts or to help them to focus on what has struck them about the passage. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with! For a printable document of this word cloud, click  here

This week with our 3-5s we'll be looking at the story of Jesus welcoming the children (Luke 18:15-17).  We'll be using the version from 'The Lion Storyteller Bible' (in fact we'll be using this book lots this term!) Click  here  for more details of the book! As well as telling the story, we'll be making a welcome banner, singing 'Jesus' love is very wonderful',  sharing food with our friends and putting together a jigsaw of a picture from the story.  The main message we want to get across is that Jesus loves each one of the children and thinks they are important. I found some craft sticks in the shape of people in my drawer (click here  if you want to buy some like them!) and we're going to use them for a prayer idea. Let each child decorate their stick to look like them and then write 'Jesus loves' and their name on the back. Collect all the sticks in.  When you come to pray, put the sticks in a big heart shape made out of pa...

Here is a reflective colouring page based around the Nativity story.  Although the Wise Men who follow the star don't actually appear in Luke's gospel, where the verse is from, I felt that the star was also a reflection of God's glory! Click here to print off the page and enjoy colouring!

This is a new colouring sheet to help children reflect on the story of Jesus' baptism in Luke 3. Click  here  to print off the sheet.  After they have heard the story let the children colour in, maybe in silence or with some music playing in the background and then give them the chance to share any reflections they might have on what they have heard!  Alternatively, use the colouring-in time as a space to discuss the story and what their response is.

Next Sunday some of us will be celebrating Candlemas or the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.  This is where Simeon and Anna meet the saviour they have been waiting for and Simeon states that he has seen God's salvation-  A light to reveal your will to the Gentiles      and bring glory to your people Israel.  Luke 2: 32 This presents the opportunity of lots of light to be used!  Here is a craft that might come in useful, helping children to explore what it means to reflect the light that Jesus brings. You will need: old Cds, permanent marker pens, a torch or lamp, a dark room Switch off the lights in a dark room and then switch on some torches and lamps. Speak to the children about what a difference it makes when you bring light into a dark place. Scary things don't seem so scary any more. Jesus was the one who came to bring light to the dark places of the world- to help people to feel less afraid and to give them hope.  This...

We're always trying different ways to tell stories in visual ways, so here is what we tried today in our scaled down summer group! You will need: small square shaped cards- 1 gold, 5 double sided cards, green one side and red on the other 4 green cards with red stripes Jesus (Gold card) ...met a tax collector called Levi.  In Jesus day people thought that Tax Collectors were not good people and, like everyone, Levi had done things that he was sorry for doing.  Jesus said to Levi "Follow me!" Levi got up, left his things and followed Jesus.  Jesus, forgave his sins and helped him to change his life and come closer to God (turn card over to become green). That night, Jesus had dinner at Levi's house with other tax collectors (red cards). Some Pharisees (stripy cards to show that, though they are following the law, they are not changed in the way that Levi and Jesus' followers are) saw what Jesus was doing and said "Why are ...

We had a session this weekend looking at the story of Jesus calling his disciples (Luke 5:1-11) and had a lot of fun.  Here's what we got up to! Acting out the story and then using craft items to make something that reflected the story (what the individual child liked or remembered most)  A fishing boat with more fish on the 'other side' of the boat  The fishing boat The face of Jesus Playing fishers of men 3-in-a-row with laminated fish and people shapes Praying for people who don't know about Jesus yet and asking that God will help us to be fishers of people like the disciples

This is fair trade fortnight and on Friday we are gong into some schools to teach the children about fair trade, linking it to to Jesus' message of freedom and good news for the poor and oppressed (see Luke 4, where Jesus quotes Isaiah 61) and what Christians believe about behaving justly.  As a fun way in to thinking about fair trade and ideas of fairness in general, here's an easy game to play! You will need: A game sheet per child, dice (one per pair or 3 is good) Click here to print off a sheet with 2 game sheets on it, as below. Children work in pairs or 3s to throw the die, but have their own individual sheet to colour in. Children in a pair/ 3 take it in turns to throw the die.  Colour in a section of the Fair Trade symbol according to the number thrown.  Eg.  If you throw a 2, colour in a section with a 2 inside it.  If you throw a number , but have already coloured in all that number's sections, you will have to wait until your next throw! ...

Game: Pop Up Pirate Story Link: Be ready! (Luke 12: 35-40) Talk About: What things in your life do you have to wait for? How do you feel when you are waiting? What do you do to get yourself ready for the event you are waiting for? What things in life do you do where you need to be prepared in advance? e.g. packing school bag, packing for a camping trip Waiting for Jesus to return- like the pop up pirate, we don't know when it will be, so we need to be ready! What will it be like when he comes? (Revelation 21 gives a good idea) How can we get ready? What can we do in our lives to show that we are following Jesus? (the master who returns in the story blesses his servants and gives them a meal, so there is a theme of blessing from God that we could link to us working to bless others as we wait for him to come). Prayer Take it in turns to put swords in the barrel. Every time you put a sword in, ask God to help and be with someone who is waiting for something e.g wait...

This Summer we are experimenting with a 'board games cafe' once a week at the local community centre. It's probably wrongly named because none of the games need a board, but they are all popular and readily available children's games! It got me thinking about how we could use the games as a church activity as well, so this is the first instalment of some prayers and activity ideas based on games... You will need : A Hungry Hippos game (or more than one!) Play the game and get your hippo to collect as many of the balls as possible. Prayer Idea 1: Count the number of balls you have and, for each ball, say thank you to God for something or someone. Prayer Idea 2: Count the number of balls you have and, for each one, say thank you for a food you like Story Link: The parable of the rich fool (Luke  12: 13-21) The hippos are greedy and try to get as many balls as they can. What things in life are worth having? What does the story say about storing o...

This Sunday we are celebrating Candlemas or the presentation of Jesus in the temple. The story of Simeon and Anna is one of my absolute favourites and I love how this simple craft gives the impression of a person holding the light that Jesus represents, just as Simeon takes Jesus in his arms in the story.  You will need: A copy of the templates , glue, scissors, paper (if patterned make sure the pattern is on both sides). Use the templates to cut out a person shape. Glue along edge B and create a circle with edge A. You can colour the shape in as desired or even write the words of the Nunc Dimitis on it: “Now, Lord, you can let me, your servant, die in peace as you said. 30  I have seen with my own eyes how you will save your people. 31       Now all people can see your plan. 32  He is a light to show your way to the other nations.      And he will bring honor to your people Israel.” (Luke 2: 29-32). You can also use the wings ...