Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Here is the next new story bag... Contents: Story book rock wooden blocks- explore 'buiding' lego 'houses' instruments to make rain noises sand jug for pouring water toy saw, hammer and spade (builder's tools!) child's hard hat metal tray to hold the rock/ sand and their houses when the water is poured on them plastic 'builder'  Parents might like to use a water proof mat under the tray when telling the story in case of splashes!!

We've been having a go this week at responding to a story with the new box of colours and items!  See  here  for contents. We were looking at 'The Lost Sheep' story with our 5-11s.  We read the story from the Bible and discussed what it might mean. Then the children were given the freedom to choose a colour and items from the box to illustrate their response: how the story made them feel, what it meant to them, questions they had, things they liked or didn't like etc.  They were able to explain what they had done or not to share, depending on how they felt.  It was amazing how quiet they kept to listen to others explaining their pictures when normally it's hard to keep them focussed while others are talking!  Here are some of their pictures... The shepherd looking for the lost sheep The sheep pen and the shepherd's love for the sheep Mirrors representing the 99 sheep and a lone mirror for the lost sheep and a heart for the shepherd...

Here is one of our new story bags!  This one helps parents to tell the story of Noah at home. Contents: 2 Noah Story Board Books A bowl for water which can then be turned upside down to make a mountain A plastic tree to represent 'dry land' pairs of foam animals bubbles (for water fun!) A Noah stick puppet sad and happy faces to discuss sad and happy time in the story a jug for pouring water when it 'rains' a 'boat' This would be a good story to do in the bath as most of the items are waterproof!

This week Sparks were learning the story of the 'man through the roof' and it seemed a good idea to act it out with little people rather than just telling the story!  I have to admit that I had some fun putting this together! Get a box and cut a flap in the roof.  This is your house! Then dig out all the toy figures you can find!  Here the two friends arrive with the man on the mat and see a crowded house... The men carry the man on the mat up the stairs to the roof. They cut a hole in the roof..., ...and lower the man down into the crowded house Jesus heals the man and the friends celebrate!

Every week we go into school to do a lunchtime club with 7-11 year olds.  Because everyone's learning style is different it's hard to keep everyone focussed at the same time,  but this activity had everybody participating for the whole time and they loved it!  More than that, it really helped us to go deeper with the children and to help them express their ideas about spiritual matters.   The children had expressed a real interest in talking about Heaven.  We'd discussed it the previous week but I wanted the children to show me their ideas and to see what being creative would uncover! We started by asking the children to imagine a place where they felt entirely safe and entirely happy.  We then invited them to choose a foam sheet of a colour that represented that place to them.  Next we told them that the Bible says that heaven is a place where there is no more death or crying or fear or sadness (except maybe tears of joy as one pointed out!)....

Last week we had Anita from Finland staying with us and she was able to tell me a little bit about her work using Religion Pedagogishe Praxis, a German method of spiritual exploration with children, involving the group making a symbol of the story with colour and small objects. I really liked what she told me and wanted to try out some of the ideas! RRP is not well known in the UK so I can't claim to know any of the theory but I just wanted to explore what would happen if I used  some colours and objects with children to help them explore an idea.  I'm hoping to learn the proper process at a future date!!   Anyway... I put together a basic kit box I could use quite cheaply from The Range and from stuff I had already lying around. A multipack of felt rectangles and a multipack of coloured foam sheets (children need a choice so there needs to be a few of each colour). Candles, tea lights and a set of tiles from the pound shop Buttons, shells,...

This Sunday Sparks learned about Zacchaeus, thinking about the theme of Jesus being our friend. After telling the story, this is what we did... A group collage, sticking leaves on a picture of the tree where Zacchaeus hid, giving the opportunity to recap on the story with the children. Remembering that Jesus went to eat with Zacchaeus by playing with the toy food and tea set. Playing with toy money to remember what Zacchaeus did before and after meeting Jesus. Remembering that Jesus wanted to be Zacchaeus' friend by drawing our friends and saying thank you to God for them. Singing 'Jesus love is very wonderful'!