Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

 Here is a useful colouring sheet if you are exploring the story of Jesus appearing to his disciples in John 20. It captures the moment when Jesus invites Thomas to put his hands in the wounds from the cross and to check how real he is.  To print out the sheet click here: Colouring gives a great window of opportunity for reflection and discussion. Have a think about these things: I wonder why Thomas is uncertain? I wonder what questions you would have had if you had been there? I wonder if you have ever seen something unbelievable?

Story Cubes are a great way of both telling and recalling parts of a story. With this cube, tell the story of Holy Week and then throw the cube to remember individual events. There are 2 versions- a colour your own page and a page that is already coloured and labelled. Use one or both! Click here to download and print. Think about all of the things that happen- Palm Sunday, Last supper, Garden of Gethsemane, Crucifixion, Burial in the tomb and resurrection and wonder about them. I wonder... ...which part of the story is your favourite? ...which part of the story makes you ask a question? ...where you are in this story?

  I love investigating what is going on generally in the creative world and I've recently been massively inspired by the work of Anna Bruder at A Line Art - particularly her recent work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Click here to see all about that! It struck me that bringing colour to black and white flowers was a really powerful symbol of the new life of Easter Day, so that's what we will be doing in our Easter day service. My plan is to give everyone who comes a flower and to invite them, at any point in the service to come and fill the flower with colour at one of our craft tables. We'll then use them at the end of the service as a symbol of the new life of the resurrection and create a flower garden. This works particularly well if you are using the passage from John's gospel where Jesus is mistaken for the gardener. Here's a quick how to: Print some flower shapes onto card (if you want to use mine, click here ). Stick the flower head to a paper st...

 This Sunday we hear the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead- an unforgettable glimpse into what will come on Easter Day. If you're looking at this story, here is a play dough mat to help children to explore a bit deeper. This mat focusses on the emotions of the various people in the story and asks children to use playdough to make facial expressions for different events. There are all sorts of characters they might choose to think about: onlookers, Mary, Martha, the disciples, Jesus, even Lazarus himself. Each character will have a different perspective and it is always fascinating to hear the reasoning behind what children create/ Another useful question to ask is always: I wonder where you are in the story?  If you'd like to print out the sheet, click here.

 This craft is really easy to make and helps to emphasize the enthusiasm of the crowd's Hosannas as they waved their palms. You will need: White A4 paper, green paper or card, glue, scissors, stapler. Cut a sheet of white A4 paper in half lengthways. On one of the halves, write the word 'Hosanna' and colour in. Start at one end of the paper and make a concertina. Fold an A5 sheet of green card or paper in half and cut out a palm leaf shape. This will give you two leaves. Glue a strip down the middle of each leaf. Stick one end of your concertina to the glued strip on one leaf and glue the other end to the stip on the other leaf. Press down firmly. This makes your Hosanna sandwich. Staple the bottom ends of the leaves together. Make sure you are not also stapling your concertina! Open your palm leaves to see the Hosanna!

 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!