Welcome to my weekly blog

Hi, on this page I will be sharing, reviewing, and recommending resources for children’s, family, and all-age, church-based ministry. I love to explore and discover new ideas, and creative ways of supporting this fantastic ministry. It’s such a privilege to serve the church and to help make worship meaningful and fun for children and families. I hope you’ll find my ideas and recommendations helpful. 

Prayer Picnic 

I’m going to begin with school summer holidays which are about to start. While many of us may have moved on from the pandemic, many are still suffering from its effects. If you are like me and still a little bit nervous about straying too far from home or planning a staycation again this year, here are some outdoor activities you can do with your family or together with your church.

As a family we used to love Sunday afternoon picnics after church. We didn’t venture very far, our children didn’t like long car journeys. So we either walked to a nearby park or picnic spot or we drove to a nearby wood or to the beach. One of us would read a few Bible verses or share a well-known Bible story and either re-tell the story or mime it and the rest of us had to guess which story it was. Our eldest son loved to pick out some of the more obscure stories, for example, 2 Kings 6: 1-7. And he was quite creative at adapting an explanation and an application for the story. Or we would ask what does that story mean for you?

We all love listening to stories and our family also loves games, competitions, and quizzes, so whoever told the story had to make up a quiz about it afterwards. We would then share our picnic which was usually something simple like sandwiches and fruit, quick and easy to make up, pack and transport. After eating it was time to play, either a game of hide and seek which was our favourite, or we would have to find an object in the woods and make up a story about its journey and how it got there. We’d also make a list of objects to find e.g., a twig, a daisy, a smooth stone, a coloured pebble, a feather, etc, the first person to find all the objects got a prize. Or we would play a wide game like rounders, frisbee, catch, cricket or dodgeball. Then before leaving for home each person would take it in turns to say thank you to God for one thing we could see around us and for all the fun we had. On the way home we would ask – what did you enjoy most at the picnic?

Muddy Church

This website has some great ideas and downloadable resources for outdoor church activities. Muddy Church is a place for people to gather together outside and to connect with the space and God. This site is full of resources designed for use by groups and these are all available free to download or use online (there are pre-printed copies available to buy). So do visit: https://www.muddychurch.co.uk/

I’ll be back next week with more ideas and resources, in the meantime have fun and enjoy the summer ?

Multi-Sensory Ideas For Worship (By Irene Smale)

Each of the 100 ideas in this book has alternatives that are better suited for an activity time or for inclusion in a more traditional style of service and each also has an accompanying prayer and song suggestion (all written by Ish, some especially for this book).

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