Category: Children’s Ministry

Cardboard Craft: Noah’s Ark

My daughter was making a zoo with blocks and her little plastic animals. I figured, “Why don’t we just make a Noah’s Ark since we have all these animals?” I’m not the most crafty person in the world, but I know how to cut cardboard boxes. So I started cutting up an Amazon shipping box. Her imagination did the rest! She proudly drew the windows. She loves it!

The great thing about crafts with kids is that it doesn’t have to be a masterpiece! It’s clearly a rectangular box and is not the stylish boat shape you see in great art. But five year olds don’t care! They just want to play with friends and family and use their God-given imaginations. We adults could learn a thing or two from that.

Cost: Nothing.

Payoff: Fun, stimulated imaginations, opportunity to share a faith story and its meaning with my daughter.

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The Role of the Children’s Pastor

I’m reading a great book on ministry with children right now called Children Matter by Scottie May, Beth Posterski, Catherine Stonehouse, and Linda Cannell (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 2005).

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Here is a quote that made me stop in my tracks:

“Our responsibility is to create an environment in which the child can learn about and enter into God’s story, respond to the Holy Spirit, and experience the presence and leading of God” (Children Matter, p. 34).

Read that again. This is super important for Children’s Pastors/Ministers/Leaders. Notice that is does not say that we are the ones with all the knowledge to pass down to the children. We are not the ones with all the answers and the ability to make a child’s faith grow.

Our job is to make space for God to do what He does.

Our job is to point towards God.

Our job is to walk together in faith with these kids, set the stage for God’s works of grace, and get out of the way.

Jesus himself commands us not to “hinder” the children, but instead to simply let them come to Him (Matt 19:14).

I know this sounds abstract, so I will give one practical example to explain what I mean by this. One thing that I have found to be a perfect way to “make space” for kids to encounter God organically is something called Worship Response Stations. These are tactile, exploratory stations that give kids opportunities to connect with God in creative ways after a music and teaching time in worship.

I have an entire other post about Worship Response Stations that you can read here.

What are some ways that you as a leader make space for kids to encounter God?
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The Line Up Game

Here’s another great group game that requires ZERO set-up or materials. It’s called The Line Up Game.

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There are many variations to the game. This can work with any group with three or more people. You can split the group into smaller groups to compete against one another.

The goal/point of the game is for the kids to form a straight line in the order of whatever command you give them. You can time them or have smaller groups race against one another.

Here are some categories of order you can challenge them to (all of them can be reversed, of course):

  1. Shortest to tallest.
  2. Darkest hair to lightest hair.
  3. Oldest to youngest.
  4. Earliest birthday to latest birthday in the year (January through December).
  5. Alphabetical order of first name.
  6. Alphabetical order of last name.
  7. Day of the month of their birthday (1st through 31st).
  8. Darkest eyes to lightest eyes.
  9. Smallest shoe to largest shoe.
  10. Total number of siblings (most to least).

BONUS: Try any of those “line up” challenges in “silent mode” (where the kids cannot make any noise – they must use hand motions, sign language, and whatever other methods they can to get in order).

Do you have any good “line up” game ideas?

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