Children's Minister Blog

Looking for Easter Resources?

At my other website at Eliab.com I have listed a page of links to original Easter puppet plays, stories chants and poems.

TeacherHelp.org has a wide range of links to Easter material ( craft, plays, worksheets) suitable for Sunday School, church or a school setting.

Max7.org has two short Easter videos which work well with children aged 7-12. See Episode 4 “Darkness” and  Episode 5 “Let’s Eat”

For something different try Bob Snooks drama/puppet script “The Easter Story is better than science fiction“

Why We Love Children

Why We Love Children

An exasperated mother, whose son was always getting into mischief, finally asked him: “How do you expect to get into Heaven?”

The boy thought it over and said: “Well, I’ll run in and out and in and out slamming the door until St Peter says: “For Heavens sake Dylan, come in or stay out.”

Characteristics of Children

I  found the following website has helpful downloads  relevant to teaching or leading a children’s group. There are also some questions for reflection and discussion with others in your children’s ministry team.

Children’s Ministry Agency- Assemblies of God USA. http://4kids.ag.org/library/characteristics/index.cfm

Action Prayer

An ‘Action Prayer’ suitable for an all-age worship service.

Invite the congregation to copy the actions of a group at the  front of the church or room as a reader says the following prayer. Pause between each section to allow time for reflection:

(Arms raised, head up.) Lord God, we praise you. You are great and wonderful. We want everyone to know about it.

(Arms waist level, palms up.) Help us to do what you want so that people will see that we love you and want to follow you.

(Arms down, palms forward, head bowed.) We know there are times when we have let you down. We have done things which you have told us not to do. We are sorry. Please forgive us and give a new start.

(Arms crossed over chest.) Make us strong enough into to give in to temptation. Keep us safe from Satan. Thank you that you are great enough to keep us safe from anything.

(Arms reaching out to the people on either side.) Help us to forgive each other when we cause hurt or do wrong. We thank you for each person here. Thank you that we are all members of your family through your Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Easter Talk- The Good News

I’d like to share a short talk I did as a part of an Easter presentation this week for a primary (elementary) school. Here is the summary.

I began the talk by holding up a newspaper and talking about some news items. In the paper we find both good news and some bad news. Which kind of news do you like to hear about most?

Hold up just one sheet of newspaper. I’d like to share with you one news story which is good news for everybody. Fold the sheet as per photo. God sent his son Jesus from heaven (hold top corner and run fingers or other hand down the side to the bottom corner) to earth to show us just how much he loves us. This is the good news of Christmas when we remember about Jesus being born.

Fold again to form the “house shape”. Jesus grew up in a family ( Mary & Joseph…) and when he became older he healed people, helped people, and taught people about how to know and love God.

Begin to tear the paper downwards in a straight line. Talk about how some people believed in that Jesus is God’s Son but there were others who wanted to kill him. Talk briefly about Jesus capture and trial. Tear the other side slowly while talking. Jesus was nailed to a cross. Jesus friends were very sad. This seemed like bad news to them and good news to those who wanted Jesus dead. With the torn off bits of paper, crumple them in your hand and hold them up as you talk about getting rid of Jesus and how his body was placed in a tomb and sealed in the tomb.

Now open the center piece of paper to reveal the paper cross. Though Jesus suffered and died on the cross he was prepared to do that so that we could be forgiven for the wrong things we do (sins). Place your palm over the cross. Jesus wants us to be friends with God and to follow him today. On “Good Friday” we remember all that Jesus did for us. The Good News is that Jesus came back to life again and he promise those who believe in him eternal life-life forever with God. That’s good news (show the newspaper in one hand and the cross in the other) that’s certainly worth sharing with everyone.

Read all about it! Jesus is alive!

(c) Don Stott, http://eliab.com , 2008

China Heart

I commend the great work that “China Heart” does amongst the poor, needy and orphans in China. The short term mission teams called “Mercy Teams” are a wonderful way to show God’s care and practical help to children who are struggling.

Please check out the China Heart website : http://www.chinaheartint.org/

Also: http://www.amccsm.org/

All-Age Worship Resources

All-Age Worship Web Resources  (updated)

familyworship.org.uk including a page of practical pointers for all-age worship.

resoundworship.org aims  to provide local churches with fresh worship songs containing strong, Biblical lyrics supported by singable, contemporary music

links to collective worship resources.

engageworship.org

music and worship foundation

imagebank – free images, backgrounds for use in worship

creativeMYK -free Christian graphics

burningwell.org public domain image source

christart.com/clipart

twelvebaskets.co.uk visual resources, photos, video, powerpoints

bluefishtv.com video illustrations at minimal cost

tangle.com (formerly godtube.com)  christian video resources

visualscripture.com

wingclips.com movie clip  illustrations

hollywoodjesus.com pop culture from  a Christian perspective

stockfootageforfree.com free video clips

heartlight.org free christian graphics and powerpoint slides

sundaygraphx.com free powerpoint backgrounds and photos

powerpoint resources

puppetresources.com hundreds of free Christian puppet scripts

eliab.com free puppet scripts, stories, chants and Easter and Christmas resources

easterplus.blogspot.com

christmasplus.blogspot

laughingbird liturgical resources paraphrase of the Bible and liturgical resources

gracethrufaith.com the bible through the eyes of its writers – narrative approach

max7.org free resources for children’s and family ministry

scriptureunion.org.uk LIGHT sunday school and all-age material

LightLive Scripture Union makes available hundreds of resources for all-age worship.

Any further suggestion to add to this list? Please email to donstott@gmail.com

7WAYS Children’s Leaders Training Guide

MAX7.org has a load of great FREE resources for use in Sunday School, training children’s workers and running children’s programs. I’ve just been reading their latest resource which is a training guide for children’s workers which has some excellent material to work through with  your leadership team. The guide is also available in several languages.

Click here to check it out: 7WAYS Training Leader’s Guide

Tony loved children

Tony loved children. Tony was known around the neighbourhood for his tennis coaching and his help with the local scout group. One day Tony was working on his driveway laying some cement when the two young boys from down the street came by with their small bikes. Just as Tony yelled out at the small boys to stay away from his driveway work his neighbour stuck his head over the fence.

“I thought you loved children!” his friend called out.

“Yeah, I do”, said Tony ‘but in the “abstract”, not “in the concrete”!’

Luke 14 Accessible Church

The Christian Blind Mission (CBM Australia) has produced some excellent resources to help make our churches more inclusive for people with disablities. Please visit their website and consider how Children’s workers can implement changes and work to improve our support of those who find church access and inclusion difficult.

Visit: http://Luke14.cbm.org.au

Children and the Gospel

Scripture Union have made available a great training resource called “Children and the Gospel” written by Ron Buckland a seasoned  Australian children’s worker, pastor, trainer and writer. This article and the references quoted are well worth a read.

Human spelling game

You will need 52 players (or adapt according to numbers), two sets of cards with the letters of the alphabet, large enough to be seen in a large room.

Every letter of the alphabet should be included in the list of words. (The word may be random or on a particular topic).

Divide players into two teams, giving each team a set of letters. Each individual player is given a card and the teams are lined up opposite one another.

The leader shouts out a word from the list and the players holding the appropriate letters step forward (or run to marked line) and arrange themselves in the order of the word from right to left.

The first team to spell it’s word properly with the letters above their heads scores one point.

Variation: Use a limited number of letters for each team and fix them (with tape) to the sole of the players shoes, they then have to sit down and arrange their feet (with the letters attached) to spell the given word.

Little girl and her neighbour

Little girl and her neighbour

One Sunday afternoon a little girl was happily walking home from Kids Church reading her bible. When she arrived at her driveway, her grumpy neighbour noticed what the little girl was doing and asked roughly, “What are you reading, girl?”

The little girl replied gently, “My bible. The part where a man called Jonah got swallowed by a big fish and God saved him.”

At this, the neighbour snickered and scoffed, “The bible is a made-up book! How could a man survive in the stomach of a fish?”

The girl answered, “Well, when I’m in heaven, I’ll ask Jonah.”

The neighbour laughed more and arrogantly asked, “What if Jonah isn’t in heaven?”

The little girl thought long and hard about this question then replied quietly, “Then you can ask him.”

Christmas Leave

I’m heading off on holidays for two weeks straight after Christmas. I’m going to be attending my neice’s wedding which is going to held on a beach (this is in Australia and it’s hot at this time of year!) at 5.30 am in the morning as the sun comes up. It should be quite an experience. I hope all this blog’s readers have a happy, blessed and safe Christmas holiday. I’ll be back blogging with more Children’s ministry ideas and resources after this short break.

Don Stott

Christmas Thanksgiving

Helen Aberg used to give generous Christmas gifts to her several grandchildren, but the children never sent thank you letters, despite the urgings of their parents. But then, one year, things changed. Grandma sent a hundred dollar Christmas cheque to each grandchild. The very next day, each child came over in person to thank her. She was telling this to a friend of hers, who said, “How wonderful! What do you think caused them to become so polite?

“Oh,”said Helen,”it was easy. This year I didn’t sign the cheques.”

Carolling Christmas

I have just posted my new short Christmas puppet ( or vent) script. It’s called “Carolling Christmas”. Ricky can’t get to sleep because he has Christmas carols going around in his head. He comes to hear about the Nativity and gets excited that God’s son has come to earth.

Carolling Christmas script.

Easy Christmas Crafts

Easy Christmas Crafts at Kids Craft Weekly

1. Clothes Peg Trees
2. Simple Sticker Gift Tags
3 Glitzy Lid Decorations

The Son – A Story to Share at Christmas

I’ve posted a short story titled “The Son” at my Christmas blog . This story could be told as an introduction to  a talk or sermon on Christ being the “reason for the season”.

Christmas Video

The Nativity Scene

After hearing the Christmas story, and singing “Silent Night” a Sunday School Class in Sao Paulo was asked to draw what they thought th Nativity Scene might have looked like. One boy did a good likeness of Joseph, Mary and the infant, but off  to the side was a plump roly-poly figure.

The teacher, afraid that he had somehow worked Santa Claus into the scene asked who that was. She wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or even more worried when the boy responded, “No that’s Round John Virgin.”

Christmas-1st Corinthians 13 Style

• If I decorate my house perfectly with bows,strands of twinkling lights and shiny baubles, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.

• If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas biscuits, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtimes, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.

• If I decorate the Christmas tree with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

• Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

• Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband or wife.

• Love is kind, though harried and tired.

• Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has co-ordinated Christmas china and table cloths.

• Love doesn’t yell at the children to get out of the way.

• Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

• Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
  

• Love never fails. Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust.

But giving the gift of God’s love will endure.

THE BIBLE IN 50 WORDS

THE BIBLE IN 50 WORDS

God made
Adam bit
Noah arked
Abraham split
Jacob fooled
Joseph ruled
Bush talked
Moses balked
Pharaoh plagued
People walked
Sea divided
Tablets guided
Promise landed
Saul freaked
David peeked
Prophets warned
Jesus born
God walked
Love talked
Anger crucified
Hope died
Love rose
Spirit flamed
Word spread
God remained.

(source internet)

The Nativity Story – Animated Christmas Nativity Story

Four Gifts of Christmas

Four Gifts of Christmas – An intergenerational worship service for Advent or Christmas

CHRISTMAS and GIFTS seem to go together in everyone’s mind. Here is a planning resource for a service that celebrates four gifts of Christmas joy, hope, love and peace with people of all generations.  Four Gifts of Christmas (508.13 kB)

This great all-age worship Christmas resource has been developed by the Uniting Church in South Australia.

Like Christ

Last Sunday I led an all-age worship service on the theme”Like Christ”.  Philippians 2:1-11

Some of the resources I used were-

A puppet play I had written titled – “Working Together in Unity”

A monologue I wrote which introduced the DVD segment. The monologue titled“Shine Like Stars” is written as if an older man is looking back to when he was a boy in Philippi when Paul’s letter was read to a house church.

We used the excellent DVD from Discipleship Explored (Part 3) for the main teaching. This is an excellent series produced in the UK on Philippians.

We learnt a new song from ResoundWorship.com called “High in the Heavens” by  Judy Gresham ( Lead sheet, backing track and Mp3 available for download)

Don Stott

Family Grace

Family Grace

(sung to the Doxology tune)

Thank you for this food so “yum”.

Soon be eaten in my ‘tum,tum,tum.’ (with appropriate taps to tummy)

My giving God, you’re good to me,

Please bless our meal and family.

(c) Don Stott, 2009

Christmas is Coming!

A few years ago I wrote a small 12 page PDF booklet called Christmas is Coming! It includes a number of original Christmas puppet scripts, stories and chants. It’s available for download for $10 USD via PayPal.  I also have a number of other Christmas scripts and stories available free at Eliab.com

Songwriters Showcase

Songwriters Showcase- Grassroots Christian Songwriters, has a number of songs for children or all-age worship available as MP3 downloads. It’s a bit of mixed bag with some really good songs and some which I think still need a bit more work. Have a listen to a few and see what you think. There may be something there that’s useful to your ministry.

Songwriters Showcase

BALLOON TRICK

Do you know how tho make balloons fasten to a wall or ceiling? It’s easily done without paste or without leaving a mark. It is fun to do and is quite intriguing. It’s also a great decoration for a party of children’s program.

Inflate the balloons to full capacity. Hold the balloon firmly in both hands and rub one side of the balloon briskly on a wool rug. Touch the rubbed spot quickly to the wall or ceiling and take your hands away. The balloon will stick for several days. The friction acts as paste. As ballons become deflated they drop to the floor.

How could this trick be used for an object talk?

“There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” Prov:18:24

ANDREW » Finds Peter, his brother, and brings him to Jesus ( John 1:40-42)

Ask Uncle Noah

I just discovered a helpful website today where Sunday School teachers can ask questions about where to find particular resources for children’s ministry. The page “Ask Uncle Noah” is certainly worth checking out and perhaps bookmarking for future reference.

childrensbiblestudy.com