Click image to download pack

Creating a positive relationship with your local school is so very important, not only in helping children to understand what the Church is about, but also in forging positive connections within the local community. If done well, the relationship between School and Church can be an extremely fruitful and mutually blessing connection. However, it is the “doing it well” that can sometimes be the challenge.

So, to help, we – along with our colleagues in the Children’s Ministry Network – have developed a pack with ideas and guidelines to help you get started.

This guide suggests ways to build and strengthen the relationship between your church and local school(s) by hosting educational visits or services, and offers other suggestions of how to build meaningful connection between the Church and school. Our church buildings and people are a God-given resource and there are many opportunities to use these assets to meet the needs of visiting school groups. No two churches are alike, even within the same denomination. The aim of this guide is to be adaptable to whatever your situation and setting – take from it what fits.

Contents

• Getting started – Building a relationship with your local school
• Connecting with the school curriculum
• Drawing out the significance and meaning of things children will see
• Explaining worship practices in your church
• Other opportunities to use your building to engage with schools
• Conclusion and credits

Click images at the bottom of the page to download the relevant pack.

Many people talk about Lent as a chore, a grey time of sacrifice and doing without, but it doesn’t need to be that way. Lent can be a time of simplicity, a time of drawing close to God, a journey of reflection.

To help us on this journey we have some footsteps you can use each week through Lent. Starting after pancake day (Shrove Tuesday) on Ash Wednesday, there will be a step available for each day – apart from Sundays.

Each day you can choose one of the following, a step of: Grace, Prayer, Giving, Love, Sacrifice or Change.

We encourage you to take as many steps as you are able to. Some of you will be able to take a step every day, and others you will just do one each week – we all walk at different paces.

You will see there is a big footprint and a small footprint. That is because we are walking together, adults and children – whoever you are doing this with – whether you are parents, carers, grandparents, aunties, uncles or close family friends. No matter what our age we are all equal on this journey of faith and can teach, encourage and inspire each other.

Together, talk about each step and what you might do. For example with the step of Grace, you would think about something you might need to say sorry for or someone you need to forgive.

Each person then chooses to either write down or draw a picture of what they will do.

You can either plan the week’s steps in one go on Sunday so you prepare the things you will do that week, or you can do them day by day as you are able, whichever is best for you.

You are invited to take Steps through Lent together. There are two parts to the resource:

1. Steps…The printer-friendly resource that you can use at home, in church or even at school.
2. Intergenerational talk & Messy Church ideas. This talk can be used as it is or you can adapt it to suit your needs. You can use the talk to introduce the “Steps through Lent” to your congregation. Encourage them to bring in their steps so you can lay them in a pathway to the alter or cross in your church or school. At the end of the talk we have some simple ideas for ways to use the talk in Messy Church.

Download the relevant pack by clicking on the pictures here:

Steps:                       Talk:

Download the talk from Sermins4kids by clicking on the picture:

CIYD have created this amazing resource to help you engage families in the Climate Justice conversation. It’s packed with games, crafts, groups discussions and videos as well as loads of fascinating information. Free to download – simply click on the picture above.

Download your pack here: Nativity Photo Booth Full Pack

If you’ve been to any wedding or event in the past few years you’ve surely seen or been in a photo booth picture! They can be great fun and using our Nativity Photo booth set can be a fun way to engage your families at Christmas services, parties and even just to have at the back of Church for visitors to enjoy!

The set can also be used in Sunday Clubs as a way for the children to engage in the Christmas story. Each child can choose a prop and as you listen to the story ask them to wonder about what their character was thinking/feeling.

Another way to use it is in a family service, giving out the props to the congregation, or having them ready on random seats/pews. As you read the nativity story ask the angels /Mary / Animals / Shepherds etc to stand and make a noise with their props whenever their character is mentioned.

The outline can be used in whatever format suits you, it can also be adapted to use as a school assembly. Click here to get the service: Harvest

This all age service works in tandem with the Family Faith Locker but equally can be run independently. The focus of the service is on our talents and what we can use for God’s glory during the year, the core message applies to everyone even if they are not in school so it doesn’t matter if you don’t have many Children in your congregation the message will still be relevant to everyone there. You can also alter the message to use as an assembly if you wish.

There is a scripted talk which you can use as much or as little of as you wish – please feel free to edit it to fit you. You will also find printable name cards for teachers, school pupils and students for an active prayer time. As well as a postcard you can print back-to-back and laminate for each child to take away.

The service outline includes all the graphics below and the backpack blessing tags which can be re-sized, printed and laminated, or if you’re feeling creative you can print them onto shrinky dink paper which can be bought at Baker Ross or Art supply shops then attached to the student’s backpacks.

Click HERE to download the pack 

This reflective family service can be used in a multitude of times – Advent, Easter, Back to Church – any time when you need to focus on Hope.

Jesus said He is the Light of the World. We as His followers are called to be light and hope to others in dark times. When people are waiting in darkness – maybe they are waiting for test results from hospital or are worried because they have lost their job or are fleeing war or are lonely – Jesus calls us.

Just as He is the Light of the world, bringing hope and joy and welcome, we also bring that Light to others at this time.

Talk: God of the Impossible Hope

Supplies – index cards, dark marker, tape
The following tasks are considered (near) impossible for humans to complete.

Try out these ‘simple’ tests to see if anyone can succeed.

– Twitch your nose (without moving the rest of your face)
– Lick your elbow
– Rotate your right leg in a clockwise motion, while drawing a ‘6’ in the air with you right hand
– Wiggle your ears
– Place your palm on a flat surface with your middle finger curled underneath, then raise (only) your ring finger.

*This section is taken from Flame Creative Ministries: www.flamecreativekids.blogspot.com *

Nothing is impossible to God paper cutting illustration

Offer some members of the congregation a sheet of A5 sized paper and some scissors. (or invite people at home to try it themselves.)

Ask them to cut a hole in the paper that they will be able to fit their whole body through.

Some people will immediately decide that this is not possible, while some may have an attempt!

Now take a piece of the A5 paper and follow these instructions…

1. Fold the paper in half lengthways
2 Cut alternating ‘up’ and ‘down’ slits in the paper as shown
3.Cut through the fold of the paper, leaving the fold of the end slit pieces in tact
4. Open the paper out into a big circle that you can pass your whole body through!
You may need to try this a few times before you actually do it for real so that you know roughly how many slits you
need to make for your body to get through.

Talk about the fact that sometimes we are faced with problems that we don’t know how to solve – things that seem impossible to us. Ask if anyone has ever felt like that in their lives. Perhaps give an example of a time when you’ve faced hopelessness and how trusting in God has helped you.

In today’s readings when God’s promises are fulfilled, the impossible happens.  The lion lies down with the lamb.  Peace comes in places where only heartache and brokenness and dis-chord seem possible.  But we can have a firm hope in a God who makes things possible.  It may not look the exact same as what we hoped for because God’s ways are not our ways but God brings peace, even in the middle of crisis!

Mary feels hope bubble up inside her as she proclaims that the hungry will be filled with good things because of Jesus.  As his hands and his feet we can bring that hope and that promise to many people who are hungry – hungry for food, for friendship, and for belonging, this Christmas.

(This reflection is adapted from our 2015 Advent newsletter)

Click JIGSAW@HOME-All-Age-Family-First-sunday-after-Trinity-Sunday to view.