Are you planning for more children's ministry space? This post will outline how you can create your plan, estimate your budget, and make it happen.

I was thinking about prayer labyrinths the other day and came across finger labyrinths- a portable and very sensory version of the tradition! I had a go at making one and really found that tracing the path helped me to focus in prayer. I thought about buying some for the children to use because it might appeal to the more kinaesthetic while they are listening to God in silence but soon realised it was going to be very expensive as we might like to give all of the children a chance to try it at the same time! The next best thing I could do was make my own. I'm afraid they're not as tactile as wooden ones might be, but the sense of following the path on a journey with God is the same! We tested them out with three of the children at Powersource and one, at least, really seemed to find it useful. We'll introduce them to the children as a whole in the coming weeks. As with everything, what appeals to some will not appeal to all, but if they can help just a few children deepen their engagement with God then it's worth it! A printable version of both labyrinths is available here

I found some old coloured acetate lying around the other day and, as I'd been thinking about forgiveness and the new start of baptism, an idea came into my mind for how to use it in a prayer activity. I tested it out before trying it on the children! I cut the acetate into people shaped pieces and then we wrote or drew on them things I was sorry for or the names of people I'd hurt. Then if you dip the people in a container of water, as a symbol of confessing your wrong to God and asking Him to forgive you, the writing dissolves and you are left with a clean person! I tried this first using dry wipe whiteboard markers, but it took a real effort to scrub the writing off! The type of pens that really worked were washable felt tips. The writing came right off as soon as the surface of the person hit the water, but that type of pen doesn't show up too well in the photos unfortunately! The children love this kind of visual when they are asking for forgiveness so I am looking forward to trying it!

Each year, Outreach magazine releases a list of the largest and fastest-growing churches in the nation. Without exception, the churches always have great children's ministries.

One of the lessons we will be doing with our 3-5s this year will be about speaking to God and telling him how we feel. It's really important that children learn that God wants us to be honest when we speak to Him and that he cares about what we feel. This game was sparked off by an idea I found in a lesson about Nehemiah in one of the Scripture Union Tiddlywinks books. Games are also a great way of getting children involved! This is a game to help the children explore times that make them feel happy and sad and help them, then, to tell God about them- either thanking Him or asking for help. Just throw the dice, move around the board and, if you land on a face, tell God about that feeling! This is especially useful for families to use at home. Click here to print out the board.

Here is a useful prayer activity to introduce 3-5s to the idea of what we can say when we pray. Please feel free to print off the document and use it at home! Click here for a printable version.

This prayer activity is suitable for groups of children or even a whole congregation as long as you have enough bricks! Have an adult or child to lead the prayers for each group, however big... You will need: One Lego or Duplo brick per person Hold your brick. Pray for yourself. Thank God for the things he has given you. Ask Him to bless you and to help you to bless others. Count the bumps on your brick. For each bump on your brick, pray for a different person- freinds or family members. Ask God to bless them this week. Find someone who has a different colour brick to you. Thank God for making each person special. Thank him for the thingsthat are different but special about other people. Pray that we will learn how to celebrate and understand people who are different to us. Find someone with the same number of bumps on thier brick as you. Thank God for families and friends and all who care for us. Pray that He will help us to be freinds to those who are lonely. Swap your brick with someone. Thank God for the person you swapped with and ask God to bless them this week. Put all of the bricks together and build a structure or tower with them. Thank God for the church and the communities we live in. Pray that He will help us to include others and to help people know that they are loved and valued.

Here are some easy ideas to do at home. Some have printable sheets to help you! Next to each link is a suggested age group suitability but this is flexible! Click on the title of each idea to go to that post. Story at home bags (available for parents to borrow and take home!) 2-7s Pray at home bag for 5-11s (available for parents to borrow and take home!) Read this post for ideas you can do at home without taking the bag e.g. bubble prayers, world prayers, sorry prayers, thank you towers Pray at home bag for under 5s (available for parents to borrow and take home!) Read this post for ideas you can do at home without taking the bag e.g. bubble prayer, balloon prayers, candle prayers Prayer grab bag (with printable) 3-5s Prayer weaving 5-11s Magnetic picture thank yous for 3-5s Finger labyrinths (with printable) 7-11s Pipe cleaner prayer 5-11s Prayer bingo (with printable) 7-11s Prayer board 5-11s Play dough prayers 3-11s Prayer cube (with printable) 3-5s Prayer pyramids (with printable) 5-11s Names of God Dominoes (with printable) 5-11s Worship 3 in a row game (with printable) 5-11s Origami Prayer Chatterbox (with printable) 5-11s Reflection question origami chatterbox (with printable) 7-11s

If yesterday's post, with the video tour of a "real" Godly Play room, or Sheila's recent post about spacious children's worship areas in Texas left you frustrated or discouraged - I hope this will undo that. Many of us have to "make do" with a space that feels less than ideal. But it's ok to do the best we can! The minimum I would want is this: The space that is clearly a prepared space. It has been made special. It is both special ("set apart", even temporarily) and welcoming (for us). So if your circle will be made up of children, this should be a space which is set up with children in mind. There is a "threshold" of some sort, so that it is easy to tell the difference between IN the space and OUTSIDE the space. In the space there is a focal shelf, as well as materials for response and for cleaning up. Everything is displayed in an inviting manner (in open baskets, on low shelves if children are present) but also with care, so that it all looks orderly. Everything has a place. And that includes the people - there are mats or cushions or chairs enough for everyone. You can stop reading right here. This, I believe, is enough. doing Godly Play in my living room If possible, the circle of participants will also be surrounded by the lessons and story materials. Again, these should be displayed in an orderly yet inviting way. Take care the first time you set things out, because ideally you will ever after always put them in the same place! Sacred stories should be together, arranged chronologically from left to right, with the core stories most visible and enrichment lessons stored beneath them. Parables are in a clearly different place. And liturgical action lessons are usually located near or beneath the focal shelf. A piano bench is pressed into service as a parable shelf. It is not necessarily a problem if everything needs to be set up and taken down each time. I have found that setting up is an excellent way for me to prepare myself for the session. After several months, once children had learned the layout of the classroom, then I would accept any offers of help that came from children who had arrived early. They had already learned to treat the materials with some care, and usually knew where to put them. [If you do this, you will need to think about how they enter the space - what if your threshold is not set up yet? and will you ask them if they are ready as they arrive?] Can you spot a Parable box? Don't forget to think about what cleaning supplies will be needed. In a future post I'll write about some optional extras that are nice to have in the room. Cleaning supplies, though, are not an optional extra. In Montessori fashion, we are confident that everyone will be able to clean up after themselves. They may need to be shown how, but they are then encouraged to carry on themselves. In fact, cleaning (or a task such as sharpening all the pencils) is a perfectly acceptable Response Time activity! These chairs also served to delimit the space. You don't have to replicate Jerome W. Berryman's diagram exactly! My Godly Play training took place in a room with a slightly odd shape, in which the obvious place to put the focal shelf was not (as is usually recommended) the first place you saw upon entering the room. One of the trainers commented that she was happy not to be using an "ideal" room for training but instead showing us how to "make do". Godly Play training classroom Some related posts: Setting up the Room (before and after pictures of our space in Finland) Looking into our room Our room when we had fewer materials (several photos) A diagram of where I put what (in our Finnish room) Making do - the focal shelf A change of venue - a tale of a lack of preparation and a lot of making do

Over the past few years, in an effort to build intergenerational community, many congregations have set their worship spaces up to include a designated area for young worshipers. Dubbed “pray-grounds,” these spaces sometimes offer child friendly furniture, resources, and lessons for young people in worship. I highlighted a number of them in this article. Though […]

**This is a guest post by Glenys Nellist from Kids Ministry Matters Whether we’re “lovin’ it,” or hatin’ it, there’s one thing we can all agree Encouragement & Vision McLessons For Children’s Ministry

Good children's ministry names help kids to see church as a fun and safe place, while appealing to a parent's desire for their children to know God.

This Bible study for Children takes a different look at the story of the Wise Men in Matthew 2. It focuses on the wicked King Herod to show how Jesus was Christmas Ideas, Matthew Sunday School Lesson (Matthew 2) King Herod the (NOT) Great

Having a great church check-in system and process can set the tone for everything else a family might experience on a Sunday.

Creative and practical ideas for Children's Ministry at church and at home.

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My summer tour of the Good Shepherd Atrium is coming to a close! I thought today I would try to show you some pictures of the room so tha...

In a perfect world, we would all have a Godly Play room. It would look something like this: Picture borrowed from Godly Play Deutschland e.V., of which I am a proud member! In case you can't read the German descriptions, the circles in the middle are where the children and the storyteller sit in a circle to hear the story. Directly behind the large circle, representing the Storyteller, is the Focus Table, which as the name suggests, gives the children a visual focal point in the room. Above this story circle are tables where the children can use art materials during the creative phase. The other shelves in the room hold the art materials and the many different Godly Play stories told throughout the year that the children can choose from during the creative phase. That having been said, I only know of a few GP storytellers in Germany that actually have rooms like the one described above. Most of us are religion teachers or children's workers who use borrowed rooms and transport our materials from place to place in suitcases. In my case, I am a children's pastor for a church plant (that doesn't have property of its own) and teach religious clubs at an elementary school. My Godly Play "rooms" are my kitchen, the park in summer, and a borrowed classroom. Even my on-line friend Storyteller in Finland (whose blog Wonderful in an Easter kind of way you should definitely read), who is part of an already established church, doesn't have a GP room and transports her stuff each week. So, if you are thinking of starting Godly Play or Young Children in Worship with some group of children and don't have access to a room to permanently set up as the GP room, don't let that deter you from plunging into the great adventure! Think rather of creating Godly Play "space". Maria Montessori wrote of the necessity of a "prepared environment". This would be an environment that includes aesthetic beauty, structure, appropriate freedom and child-friendly materials. A Godly Play "space", whether it is in the park or in a classroom, needs to have these elements and requires a little forethought. I have to admit that I haven't always gotten it right and my thoughts have evolved in this area.: ) A GP space should be aesthetically pleasing. A disorderly room does not allow the mind be at ease for prayer or meditative thought. If you are in borrowed space, you may have to rearrange some furniture before you begin. (In the Easter Club, the children themselves helped with this each week and it was a bonding experience for us all.) Outdoors in the park, look for an area where trees or bushes provide natural boundaries and where there is less traffic. Godly Play spaces need structure, so that the children know what to expect and are able to build community together. The materials should be positioned in an orderly way that the children can reach them without help from an adult. There should also be a routine to the children's service, so that they learn what comes next without too many surprises. The children should have an appropriate measure of freedom in making decisions about how they want to spend their time. In a permanent Godly Play room, all the stories and all the art materials are available at each worship service. However, in my case, I couldn't possibly haul all of those things around in a bicycle trailer each time. So, I offer a smaller selection of stories, art materials and practical life activities. The children are then still able to make their own decisions about what to work on. A focus table in the room/space is not 100% necessary, but is very helpful for the children. (I obviously didn't have one in the park!) The things on it, such as the Christ candle, Nativity, Cross and Risen Jesus help children to draw connections between the stories and give their eyes a place to rest if they wonder away from the story. A simple focus table in my kitchen. So, prepare your space, wherever it may be, have fun, and let yourself learn (even through mistakes!). If I've left out any aspects that other fellow storytellers feel are important, please feel free to join the conversation.

Next time you’re feeling a little down, take a moment to count your blessings and thank God for the small successes in the kidmin life.

Ever sit in another church and feel like all the gaps in the children's ministry are screaming at you? We created our own Trading Sacred Spaces experience.

VERSES: 2 Samuel 4:1-12 MEMORY VERSE: 2 Samuel 4:4 "And Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son that was lame of his feet." BOOK TO REMEMBER: Leviticus. Write "Leviticus" on small slips of paper and hand out at the end of class. PRAYER: Thank God for keeping his promises as we should keep our own promises. SPECIAL SONG: Be Patient And Kind (see April - Lesson - Joseph Meets His Brothers Who Hated Him on this blog) VISUAL AID: Large Activity (see below) LESSON POINTS: When Israel's King Ishbosheth, Saul's son, heard that his great-uncle Abner was dead, he couldn't or wouldn't do anything. Abner had been the power behind the throne, not Ishbosheth, and all of Israel was troubled. Do you remember Jonathan, King Saul's son and David's best friend? He had a young son who had a very long and hard name. We will try to learn his name today. His name was Mephibosheth. Can you say that? Me. Phib. O. Sheth. Mephibosheth. A long name for a little boy. The day that Mephibosheth's family heard that Jonathan and King Saul had died in the battle with the Philistines, Mephibosheth was five years old. At that time, he had a nurse or someone who watched over him. When everyone heard that the king and Jonathan had died, everyone panicked. Mephibosheth's nurse hurriedly picked him up and was running with him when his nurse fell. Mephibosheth fell, too, and his feet were hurt so badly that he could never walk again. Mephibosheth was lame. We will read in a few more lessons how David was very kind to his friend's son and how he took care of him. Ishbosheth's two captains of his army went into Ishbosheth's house in the middle of the day. Ishbosheth was laying on his bed at noon because it was so hot and his two captains came into his room and killed him. Thinking that David would reward them for killing his enemy, the captains headed over to see David and tell him that they were the ones who had killed Ishbosheth. Hmmmm...remember what happened to the Amalekite man who tried to take credit for killing King Saul? Do we remember what happened to him when he went to get a reward from David? The Amalekite man was killed for claiming to kill King Saul, the LORD's anointed. What do you think happened to these two men who had killed King Saul's son? That's right! They died, too. David was very angry because they had killed a righteous man in his own house upon his own bed! (At the end of the lesson, see if anyone can name the little boy who could not walk.) "Older Student" Tips: It was a way of life for new kings to come into the old king's palace and kill all of the old king's family, anyone who would be a threat to the new king. David did not do that. He honored the LORD's anointed and, as we will see, takes care of Saul's family. The Bible calls David a man after God's own heart and this was one way that David showed his love, kindness and compassion. ACTIVITY: Mephibosheth Couldn't Walk. Materials needed: 4 1/2" x 12" piece of dark brown construction paper, 3" x 7" piece of red construction paper, scraps, white crayon, glue, scissors. Hand out brown construction paper. Hand out red construction paper. Place red paper on top of brown paper, about 1" down. Fold both papers at the same time: about 4" from edge. Crease. Turn papers over. Fold both paper at the same time: about 3" from other fold. Crease. One end should be longer than the other end, so that, when sitting on the edge of the table, it "sits" up. Set brown paper aside. DO NOT glue red paper on top of brown paper at any time! From top fold on red paper, cut, angling up. Cut other side, angling up. Should look a little like a triangle. Take leftover red scraps and glue to red paper, so it looks like arms. Cut three 1" circles out of tan scrap paper. Glue one circle on small edge of red paper. Should look like a head. Taking the other two circles, cut in half. Two half-circles are hands and two half-circles are feet. Glue hands and feet to red paper. This is Mephibosheth. Color Mephibosheth's head. Cut a square out of the middle of the shortest end of the brown paper. This should look a little like a chair. At the top of brown paper, write "Mephibosheth." On one of the legs of the chair, write "2 Samuel 4:4." On the bottom of Mephibosheth's robe, write "couldn't walk." When the student is finished, Mephiposheth should "sit" on the edge of a table in his own chair! (Crease folds better if he falls.) Fold on both folds with Mephibosheth in the middle when taking home.

Looking for a few good games for your Mother’s Day service? These three winners will keep kids busy—they are perfect for kids in Sunday School.

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Download this Sunday school lesson to help children at your church learn more about the story of Elizabeth. Download the printable lesson plan below.