Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Here is a new reflective colouring sheet which focusses on Psalm 27:1- one of most favourite Bible verses: The Lord is my light and the one who saves me. So why should I fear anyone? Here are some ideas: Use the time you spend colouring to... Talk about:  What/ who is the strongest thing/ person you know? Why is light important and useful? How can God/ people be like light for others? What does it mean for someone to save us? How do you think God saves us? What makes you afraid? What helps you when you are afraid? Have you ever asked God to help you? Pray As you colour, pray for people who are afraid and ask God to help them and save them.  Children might want to ask God to help them with specific fears. To print off the colouring sheet  click here .

The other week we managed to come by a second hand IKEA children's rug for a very reasonable price and it seemed perfect for using for some hands on intercessions! This idea works well with all ages and can be a stand alone prayer station, revisited over period of time, or used as a focus in a group or an all age service. You will need: hearts, figures/ people (I used foam shapes but playmobil or lego figures would work well too), toy cars, wooden blocks (or duplo), a town play mat (we used this one ) Place a car on one of the roads- pray for traffic, safety, drivers, pedestrians Place a block on the map and pray for a building, workplace or home that you know. Place a figure on the map and pray for a person in this community Place a heart on the map and pray for situations in the community that need God’s help Have fun!

Over the next 4 weeks or so, the whole church (adults and children) is looking at and learning about various aspects of Holy Communion: what it is, why we do it, signs, symbols, stories and liturgy.  At the end of the series, we will have a special celebration where I will preside at communion for the first time and one of our children will take her first communion.  It is actually quite exciting to all be learning together! We have set up a 'treasure chest' for children to role play with during the service, using an old box we found in an antique shop.  This is what we put inside... Handkerchiefs in the 4 liturgical colours (plus extra white ones for children to use as purificatory to wipe the cup with), wooden crosses and doves. A felt book of church symbols (see a future post on this!) Some metal cups and plates found for a bargain price in a charity shop, some wooden bread, hearts, battery operated candles and a globe ball. We pu...

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....