Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

This is a fun and active prayer activity, using the dove as a symbol of peace. You will need: A straw, the dove shape and paper rectangle cut out of the resource sheet ( click here to print), sellotape, pens Wrap the paper rectangle around the straw (not too tight) and then fold the top of the paper over to make a 'pocket' for the end of the straw.  Make sure that there is a little gap between the fold of the pocket and the end of the straw or your paper will stick to the straw and will not fly when the time comes! Write or draw prayers for people or places who need God's peace on the front of the dove shape.  Turn the dove over and sellotape the paper pocket to it, as shown in the picture below.   Turn the dove the right way round, aim it and then blow through the straw.  Watch your peace dove fly as a symbol of giving the prayers to God!

There comes a time when you just have to get messy in the pursuit of story telling.  I am usually an avoider of paint, but even I couldn't resist the messiness scale of this activity! This is a fantastic way of exploring the story of Jesus walking on water, but please be aware IT IS MESSY! You will need: Paint, wallpaper lining paper or a long strip of paper, feet, washing up bowls filled with warm water, towels (old ones that you don't mind getting a bit stained!) Read or tell the story of Jesus walking on water and then talk about Peter stepping out in faith.  Who he walked towards Jesus he stayed afloat, but when he payed attention to the wind and the waves, he began to sink.   Lay out the paper to make a long stretch of 'water' and make sure that it is fastened down! It is best to do this either outside, or somewhere easy to clean. Squirt some blobs of paint onto the paper.  Make sure they are small blobs because big blobs will cause a slipperiness ...

So yesterday was Trinity Sunday and we bit the bullet and had a go at teaching about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (with as little heresy as possible!) We decided that the best way of proceeding was just to talk about the many different ways we relate to God and the many different ways that God relates to us, and to do this we gathered a collection of symbols.  The idea was that the children could pick a symbol and describe what they thought it meant in relation to what they know about God and the three persons of the Trinity.  There were no wrong answers!  It helped that Pentecost had been the week before, so Holy Spirit symbols were still fresh in their minds.   Our basket of symbols contained: a cup play bread rainbow ribbons 'fire' streamers 'water' streamers a bottle of water, a battery operated tea light felt flames wooden people  a globe ball a windmill a cross a dove hearts (including a heart with arms- thank you IKEA!) ...

I was very excited, this week, to be given a review copy of the new resource from Illustrated Children's Ministry - An Illustrated Earth for Families  and I have to say that we wasted no time in trying it out! An Illustrated Earth For Families is a downloadable resource that includes 12 separate sessions for the whole family to use together.  Each session includes a Bible story, questions, storytelling cards, a prayer and two colouring sheets- a simple one for younger children and a more complex version for older children and adults. The sessions are split into 3 sections (Water stories, Plant and Food Stories and Animal stories) and each section finishes with four practical ideas for the family to do together. Some families from church had a go at one of the sessions and it's fair to say that they had a great time! Here's a review from Emma and her two boys.. C (aged 5) was very excited when he saw the colouring and when I said 5000 he knew the story from School....

Here is a last minute Pentecost talk idea.  We will be using it tomorrow in our cafe church service! This works best before you read or tell the story. You will need:   A bag of sweets (enough to share with everyone) Lollipops for each layer Pictures of: a dove, a windsock, fire, the word 'welcome' in various languages.  To download a sheet with these pictures on click here. Newspaper sellotape The bag of sweets and the picture of the dove will be your central layer.  Wrap them in the newspaper.  On top of the dove layer, put the 'welcome' picture and a reward lolly! For the next layer, put the fire picture and a lolly and the top layer will be the windsock (the closest I could get to a wind picture!!) Talk about Pentecost being the birth of the church where, in one day 3000 people came to know Jesus.  We all got an amazing birthday gift that day- the Holy Spirit. At birthday parties you normally play games so we are now g...

Here are some ideas for exploring this passage... This session was used with a group of children ranging in age from 2-10 so there are lots of hands on things to do!  Memory verse hunt: Cut out the words of the memory verse below and hide words around the room.  Everyone will know that you are my followers if you love each other. John 13: 35  Children find words and have to make the verse when all words have been collected. Make up actions to try and remember the verse. Make bookmarks using the memory verse.  Make hearts using thumbprints Talk about:   What is love?  Talk about love for friends and family.  How do we show that we love each other?  Jesus showed love for Peter. Even though Peter denied him, Jesus forgave him and gave him a job to do and Peter went on to do great work for God (we had been looking at some storie...

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...