One thing I am known far and wide for is my messiness. In children’s church, it is anything goes really as long as no one gets hurt (or gets their feelings hurt) and it lifts up the name of Jesus. So far, I’ve been smacked in the face with a whipped cream pie, had a bucket of slime poured over me and I’ve smashed at least a dozen bananas. Partly because I have adult ADD but also
So what’s the most humble school supply? I’d have to go with the pencil–an item that every child is familiar with. Why not take this tool and use it for an object lesson? From chewed to new, a pencil object lesson is one that kids will remember everytime they reach for one. Just for fun, I developed two object lessons you could use to share some important biblical principles with your class. They are also good lessons
**This post was written by Glenys Nellist. She’s the Coordinator of Children’s Ministry at the West Michigan Conference of The United Methodist Church. Learn how you can submit an idea to our website. Last year I met Sierra. She is 8 years old. Sierra lives in a tiny house with her three older siblings. Her mother is an alcoholic. Her father is an illegal immigrant, living under the constant threat of deportation. Sierra is in 3rd grade, but her
Bullies today sometimes take extreme measures to get what they want — whether that’s your child’s lunch money or his happiness. (A disturbing thought since many of us are sending kids back to school.) Just a few decades ago, the biggest problems schools faced involved curtailing gum chewing in class, stopping hallway kissers or hand holding on the bus. I’d say that as a nation, we’ve firmly left that standard well behind us. As long as families
**This is a guest post from Nick Diliberto from PreteenMinistry.net With back to school time, preteens are exposed to their peers more frequently. And when you put a group of pre-adolescents together for long periods of time, you can bet they will be influenced by one another’s actions. In other words, peer pressure surrounds them constantly. Here’s one definition of peer pressure – the feeling that someone your own age is pushing you toward making a certain choice,
Getting a shy child to visit your children’s ministry can take some coaxing but I don’t like forcing anyone to attend. I find that giving out welcome packs breaks the ice and provides me with the opportunity to introduce myself (and the rest of the gang.) Mostly my welcome packs go to kids that visit big church but are afraid to leave their parents but sometimes an unsure child will enter my doors and I find them
**This is a guest post from Nick Diliberto from PreteenMinistry.net With back to school time approaching, the preteen mind transitions out of autopilot mode. The mind now has to stay alert all day during school and for some time afterwards focusing on homework, which can be overwhelming. By the time they come to church on the weekend, they might mentally check out if not properly stimulated. So, how do you reach the mind of a preteen? Preteens are
Enjoy over 450 free Bible coloring pages. Use the download links to print in PDF format or purchase a Bible coloring book bundle. This page lists our free, downloadable Bible coloring pages that can be used for Christian children’s ministry, including Sunday School and homeschooling. The coloring pages depict stories and themes from the Bible, making them an excellent resource for parents and educators to introduce children to the Bible in a fun and engaging way. There
In this post I want to introduce you to Jeff Goodyear (church bio | Twitter). He is the children’s pastor at Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. I first met Jeff in a class at Southern Seminary. Since then, we has become friends and I consider him a long-distance mentor for my ministry. I am excited for Jeff to share some of his experience through this interview. Tony Kummer: How did you become the Children’s Pastor at
Use the box above to search by Bible story, scripture text, or theme you are teaching. Here is a short list of our popular resources and children’s church curriculum. Bible Reference Index (Alphabetical)
Teach children to love God’s Word with these free Bible lessons and resources from Ministry to Children. Find engaging lessons for toddlers to preteens, covering topics like Jesus’ life, the Armor of God, and the Fruit of the Spirit. Bible Lessons for Kids Free Bible Studies for Kids Download over 700+ Bible lesson plans for children’s church or other kids’ ministry programs. Days of Creation – 7 lessons Fruit of the Spirit (9 lessons) Parables of Jesus
We’ve had such great feedback for our word-for-word scripture search puzzles that we decided to make a Christmas edition. So please enjoy – click below to download in NIV or visit the Sunday School Store to pick KJV or ESV versions. “10 Free Christmas Bible Word Search Puzzles” are also available in ESV and KJV from the Sunday School Store. Don’t miss the original Word-for-Word Bible Seek and Find Puzzles, which is also free from the Sunday
Ensuring that children receive age-appropriate Bible teaching is crucial for their spiritual growth and development in evangelical churches. Sunday School and Kids Church programs play a vital role in creating spaces where children can engage with the Scriptures in a way suitable for their age and understanding. This blog post will explore why age-appropriate Bible teaching is important for children in evangelical churches and emphasize the value of Sunday School and Kids Church programs in nurturing the
I became a father at 22 when my first son was born. My 1st son David has grown into a brilliant young man, a humble genius passionate about giving back. He serves as a public school teacher while honing his skills as a writer on the weekends. He is kind, compassionate, and a credit to the human race. In many ways, he’s become my best friend and even a role model in my life. I still remember
Video “Children’s Sermon Lesson: Transformed by Christ Romans 6:1-14”: “Hello children of God. What do I have here? It’s kind of hard to tell. These are tortilla chips, well they’re sort of turning into the crumbs of tortilla chips now, but you get the idea. The delicious chips that you could dip in salsa or sour cream or make nachos or have with tacos or something like that. But where did tortilla chips come from? What were
“Hi there, today it’s crafts feature the story of Abraham and Sarah and the birth of their son Isaac. Now the first craft that we’re going to make has to do with how the Angels came to visit and announced that Isaac would be born which of course led to laughter on the part of Sarah which of course led to Isaac’s name spoiler alert but anyway we’re going to make a little craft celebrates that now
“Hello, children of God. What makes you laugh? Everyone likes to laugh, right? So when was the last time you had a good chuckle? Do you like a good joke? I hope so because it just so happens I have some great ones. Really, get ready. Okay, so here’s the first one. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of pants to the golf course? Give up? Because he thought he might get a hole in one!
In these times of ongoing changes and adaptation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, our religious practices, especially the children’s ministry, haven’t been spared. It’s quite a challenge, but I truly believe in our collective strength and shared faith to find our way forward. Let’s take this opportunity to understand the impact this has had on our children’s ministry and explore solutions that will help us navigate this new landscape. Here is my latest research into children’s
Here is the transcript for the video titled “Craft Ideas: Jesus Heals Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26”: Hello there, Crafters! Today, we’re looking at the Gospel of Matthew and how Jesus came to seek and save the lost, looking at some of the special miracles that he did for others while he was on Earth, some of which might have seemed strange or even unexpected. But we’re going to do a couple of crafts that celebrate how he came
“Hello children of God, are you ready to see something really awesome and fantastic? I am going to make something out of thin air, that’s right, I’m going to just make something appear that wasn’t there before. Ready? Are you ready? Here we go. Okay, okay, I get it, I get it, you’re not that impressed. And you’re right, I didn’t exactly make this appear out of thin air. I just pulled it into a spot where
“Hello there Crafters, this week we have some creative creation crafts for you. We’re talking about Genesis chapter one and how God made everything. So we are going to make not quite everything but a couple of things in honor of the creation story. So let’s get right to work, we have a couple of really great things today. The first one we’re going to do is just sort of a little reminder of you of what
“Hello children of God. I have something very special to share with you today. As you can tell, I’ve got all sorts of presents and I am going to give each of you a gift. So each of you gets to open a very special gift bag of your very own and you get to find out what’s inside it. Now there’s something in all of these and we’re going to use the items that are in
Here is the full transcript of the video titled “Craft Ideas: Ascension of Jesus (Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11)”: “Hello there. Today we’re talking about the Ascension, this wonderful reminder of how Jesus went up into heaven and how he’ll come back again someday. But meanwhile, we have jobs to do. Anyways, we’re going to make two crafts today that celebrate the Ascension, that going up. The first one is pretty simple. It’s kind of a fun
“Hello children of God. Have you ever traveled on an airplane? Some people get a little bit nervous about going way up in the air in this big old vehicle. I think it’s a pretty exciting experience. I mean, especially if you’re going somewhere fun, somewhere that you look forward to going, it’s pretty amazing. But there are a lot of steps that you have to go through before air travel happens, right? If you’ve ever been
