To Have Children's Church, or Not To

Hamlet's famous line, "To be, or not to be:" rings through the ages. As a children's director in a small church, one of my biggest questions is, "To have children's church, or not to: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler to make workers suffer the slings and arrows of a work force already stretched thin, or to take up arms against the congregation and subjugate them to noisy children in the service." OK, I confess, that is a totally wrong view of ministry to children for either side of the argument, but it was fun to write.

Pentecost DIY Pins

This was a fun, simple craft for the kids to make for Pentecost Sunday and yet it had a big impact. After a lesson about Pentecost, we made these lapel pins from craft foam.

I made some cardstock templates. The older kids helped trace. Adult helpers cut. Younger kids peeled the sticky back off of the fun foam and placed the yellow flame on the red ones. Some pins had 2 flames, and some 3.

Keeping God at the Center

Keeping God Central from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.
Years ago we had homemade tables in our church. Someone had screwed threaded steel pipes into flanges which were screwed onto 4 x 8 pieces of plywood. The church fellowship hall was in the basement of our parsonage and my husband and I were sometimes tasked with unscrewing the pipe legs so the tables could be stored. One day we attempted to remove a pipe and it would not budge. I decided we needed some more muscle and found our neighbor, who also could not budge it. But he had this wonderful invention called a pipe wrench. In seconds the pipe was out. He told me sometimes you just need the right tool. This is a lesson about tools for keeping God central in one's life.

Repurposing In KidMin - Doors & Windows

I admit it, I am a perfectionist. And I don't always take no for an answer. Sometimes that turns out to be a good thing. Like when we redid our children's area, and I could not stand how the old doors looked in the new area.

Tips for Kidmin in the Small Church (link)

Recently I was searching the web for some ideas and help for music in our children's ministry. In the process, I came across this great article about a church that had no children. Zilch...nada...none. And this went on for almost a year, and then low and behold, God began to unfold a small miracle. Now if you are from a church with over 100 in attendance, it is unlikely you would ever find yourself in this position. But if you are from a really small church, you might.

I am linking to this article because
#1 It was very encouraging.
#2 It also had some great advice on how to get ready for a children's ministry.
#3 No one thought it was going to rain when Noah built the ark either, but it did. And if the children come, you want to have your ark ready, err, I mean your children's ministry.

So read this and be encouraged: 9 Pieces of Advice for Starting a New Children's Ministry.

Saul Sees the Light

This post includes a drama for acting out the events of Acts 9 and an activity for helping children to understand how God's word acts like a "light" to help us see the path we should walk on. The two can be used separately, I just happened to use the lesson for Operation Arctic which paired Psalm 119:105 with the story.

Disclaimer: KidFrugal primarily helps the small church. The activities in this post will work best with less than 20 children. You can pull it off with as few as 3 or 4 children if you use adults.

We're In!

I am not sure that many adults grasp how momentous the events of Acts 10 are, let alone children. This chapter marks the entrance of the Gentiles (which would probably be most of you reading this) into the kingdom of God.

Stoned!

To tell the story of Stephen in Acts 7, I used 3-D visuals. I printed out Bible people that I downloaded through this site. Then I glued them onto empty toilet paper rolls so they could stand up.

Rejection at Nazareth!

Jesus rejected in Nazareth, his home town from Luke 4:14-30 is a very easy story to re-enact. It requires little props, the only prep work was to make a scroll. I used old packing paper I had saved from Amazon boxes and taped it together to make a long scroll.

Pancakes and Missions

Kid's Mission's Breakfast from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.

They say that kids learn best when they are having fun. The first half of this event included "catching" your breakfast. Our cook flipped the pancakes and the kids caught them on their plates. The kids had a blast, but they also learned about the importance of Bible translation and smuggling and heard from a missionary. Parents were invited too, creating a family event at the same time.

Instructions for the Pin the Bible on the World game can be found in this post from November.

Explaining the Second Birth to Kids

A friend gave me an old teacher's book that had a great illustration for explaining the second birth to children. I made the illustration out of doubled sided poster board. I experimented until I found 2 different plate sizes to trace the concentric circles. I used a yardstick to draw the lines to divide the 2 circles into thirds.