Craft – Bird Houses from Milk Cartons
Here is a link to an easy to make bird house craft. Inspire the kids to watch nature and love the creatures God has made.
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Author: Patti Loranger
Patti Loranger is a Canadian author, cartoonist and songwriter. She is currently writing children's church curriculum covering the main stories and teachings of the bible. She is also cartooning the bible and those stories can be viewed and purchased at www.cartoonbibleseries.com
Happiness
Happiness
“Happiness comes not from having much to live on but having much to live for.”
(E. C. McKenzie from 1800 Quotable Quotes)
I thank God constantly that he has given me so much WORK to do. I thank him constantly for all the projects that he puts into my heart. I encourage you as children’s ministers to take that attitude because sometimes doing children’s ministry week after week can seem like a burden but it is truly a joy. The preparation is of course is what is so hard.
The other side of being too busy for the Lord is, not having a vision, not having a purpose, not having a sense of urgency that you must be about your Father’s business.
I have a reason to wake up everyday. Yay!
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Game Candy Stealing
Game – CANDY STEALING
Preparation: Mark a large square unto the floor with either chalk or masking tape. In each corner place 4 candy items. (Example in one corner you would put 4 chocolate bars, in the 2nd corner, 4 bags of chips, in the 3rd and 4th corners some other type of candy treats.) Make sure that the candy treats you choose, do not roll. Place one child in each corner. When you say go, each child must simultaneously go and steal a candy treat from someone else’s corner and then bring it back to their pile. The hitch is that they can only go to one corner at a time and they must promptly bring the item to their corner. They can run diagonally also. Run each round for 20 seconds. The action is fast and intense. Remind the kids to be careful not to crash into each other. Have them recite the memory verse before and between rounds. The one with the most candy wins. We usually award the winner with one candy prize.
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Craft | Mother’s Day | Flower Pots
Craft for Mother’s Day
Here is a link to a craft idea for Mother’s Day. Kids love popsicle sticks and they do make pretty flower pots when painted.
https://typicallysimple.com/craft-stick-flower-pots/
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Laziness
Laziness
“If the responsibility for all poverty is placed on the wealthy, why not blame all sickness on the healthy.”
(E. C. McKenzie from 1800 Quotable Quotes)
Obviously not all poverty is caused by laziness, but some is. It is my observation with kids that their natural default is NOT to work and be productive. Most want to relax, play games and watch television for hours if allowed to.
As children’s ministers we can kind of delve into some topics that are considered meddling, but Jesus and the book of proverbs confronts such topics such as laziness and various causes of troubles in the world.
As children’s ministers we should not hold back on those parts of the Word that talk about moderation, laziness and social ills. Encourage the kids to be moderate, to not over-eat the wrong foods and not over watch television and computer games. Encourage them constantly to be contributing members of society and salt and light in their world.
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Game Book Relays
Game – BOOK RELAYS
Divide players into two teams, with the same number of players in each team. The first player from each team puts a book on his or her head and makes his way around an obstacle course and back to team member #2.
Every time a book is dropped, 10 seconds are added to that teams score. Touching the book with your hands gains 5 seconds to the teams score. Have an umpire/time keeper assigned for each team. Team at the end who completes the course in the shortest time is the winning team. Have the kids recite the memory verse several times before and between rounds.
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EQUIPPING CHILDREN LEADERS
EQUIPPING CHILDREN LEADERS
GOOD LEADERS MAKE GOOD LEADERS (A Blog by Rev. Grace Verrier)
A few years ago I assisted in ministry within a church whose adults had lost their vision for teaching children. I did try to recruit workers and offered to fully equip and train them. However, no adults were willing. (My style of teaching is an open format requiring a minimum of three teachers with some extra for “crowd control” as the number of children increases.) My husband who was traveling at the time offered his assistance sporadically and I honed my curriculum so that the lessons I taught could be taught by myself and my husband when he was available.
The children’s church began to grow and I was quickly running out of lessons that could be adapted to one or two teachers. It was then (out of desperation) that I discovered that older children were quite capable of teaching those younger than themselves. I had a meeting during class time and asked who would be willing to help me. If you work with children, then you will know that every hand in the class went up. The next few Sundays were spent “equipping the (younger) saints for the work of the ministry”. I did puppetry workshops for those who wanted to use them to teach. I gave acting lessons to those who wanted to do the teaching skits. I gave lessons on teaching the memory verse in fun and active ways. Children were taught to reinforce the solemnity requirement for the altar calls. Some children wanted to actually stand before the group and teach the lesson I provided them the lesson the week before so they could learn it. Some children offered to do the “crowd control” in an adult style respecting the other children and thereby earning respect from their peers.
When I finished that church assignment I received one of the greatest confirmations of my ministry. A twelve year old girl (who was the pastor’s daughter) said, “I now understand how and why we teach the younger saints. I will become a Children’s Pastor.”
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Craft | Egg Carton Flowers
Craft – Egg Carton Flowers
Bring on the flowers! Spring is here. Children will enjoy this easy craft.
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The Importance of Children Having Responsibility
The Importance of Children Having Responsibility
“If you want to keep your feet on the ground, carry some responsibility on your shoulders.”
(E. C. McKenzie from 1800 Quotable Quotes.)
Lamentations 3:27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. (New International Version)
I recently read an article written by the president of Stanford University. He obviously wrote the article because he was finding people coming to university unprepared for the responsibilities that await them. Here are the 8 responsibilities that he says every child should have. I have only written the paragraph titles. I encourage you to go to the article and read each paragraph.
1. An 18-year-old must be able to talk to strangers.
2. An 18-year-old must be able to find his way around.
3. An 18-year-old must be able to manage his assignments, workload, and deadlines.
4. An 18-year-old must be able to contribute to the running of a household.
5. An 18-year-old must be able to handle interpersonal problems.
6. An 18-year-old must be able to cope with ups and downs.
7. An 18-year-old must be able to earn and manage money.
8. An 18-year-old must be able to take risks.
As a children’s minister I highly encourage you to use the children in responsible positions. Use them as puppeteers. Use them as greeters, in craft time and in clean-up time. We need to do this so that the next generation will be ready to carry the torch for the Lord.
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Game Blow Cup Relay
Game – BLOW CUP RELAY
In the game blow cup relay make 2 teams of 5 or 6 players each. Put a hole in the bottom of a paper cup and thread it on a piece of string 15 feet long. Give one prepared string to each team. The string is held taut so the cup can slide, and the paper cup is placed at one end of the string. The teams line up single file at the end where the paper cup is. At the signal each player must blow the cup to the other end of the string (with hands behind back), and then push it back to the start for the next player on his team. The first team whose members all finish, win.
Remember to recite the memory verse several times before the game begins and between games.
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Ladybug Painted Rocks
Craft – Ladybug Painted Rocks
Here is a ladybug painted rock craft children will enjoy.
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The Power of Habits
The Power of Habits
“We first make our habits and then our habits make us.”
(E. C. McKenzie from 1800 Quotable Quotes)
My son once asked me about somebody being born bad. I told him people are not born bad it is the habits that we make that make us become who we are.
That is why we are to make good spiritual habits. As Children’s ministers we are one of the first in line to help kids make good spiritual habits. We can remind them to pray each day and to read their bible. Remind them to be like Jesus was when he was growing up.
I always love when you read scripture and it gives a window into the everyday lifestyle of the people, especially Jesus. We see he had the habit to pray early in the morning and we often see him praying late at night too. We see him choosing a place to pray and then going there on a regular basis. He must have had the habit of giving, because when he instructed Judas to go and do what he had to do quickly, the other disciples thought he was going to give to the poor.
He must also have had the habit of meditating on scripture as well, for he was able to quickly respond in every situation with, “It is written …”
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