An Illustrated Compassion: Learning to Love Like God is a 12-week no-prep children's ministry curriculum.
Purchase our Illustrated Compassion Coloring Posters for the full experience of coloring & conversation about compassion.
Through An Illustrated Compassion, we invite participants of all ages to engage with biblical stories of compassion, and lead loving, grace-filled lives.
Our curriculum is geared toward children from preschool to fifth grade, however, we know many churches have used our curriculum and resources to create meaningful intergenerational programming.
Our curriculum can be used in a variety of ways for churches, schools, camps and other communities:
Looking for a no-prep summer Sunday School curriculum?
An Illustrated Compassion is a no-prep, easy-to-lead curriculum that your volunteers will love teaching!
Planning your summer VBS program from scratch?
Use one of our curriculum modules as the foundation of your VBS program. We have original music too!
Wanting more intergenerational events?
Bring people of all ages together for coloring and conversation about compassion!
New for An Illustrated Compassion: Original Music!
We collaborated with choral conductor and composer Geoff Duffy, who wrote four original songs for our curriculum. The theme song for the curriculum is called Clothe Yourselves with Compassion. Each module has a corresponding song, so Module 1’s song is What We Need, Module 2’s song is The Reign of God Looks Like and Module 3’s song is called Whatever You Do.
You will receive the full piano score, a lead sheet that could be used by someone playing guitar, and music notes written by the composer. We are also including a few sample audio files so you can hear how the song goes, and we are including piano accompaniment tracks to use if you don't have someone to play piano or guitar for you.
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Participants will explore biblical stories about compassion in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.
The lesson begins with an opening activity to help participants connect with the biblical story and get moving (physically). Then they listen to the story and participate in a few activities to help them become familiar with the story. We provide discussion questions that help usher children into a time of imagining together about the story. We aren’t focused on learning the “facts” of the stories - but rather inviting participants into the biblical story.
Some churches choose to have children discuss the questions while they’re coloring our large coloring posters or coloring sheets that come with the curriculum. Finally, we have an opportunity to talk about how participants can enact compassion in their lives - as they talk about compassion in action. The twelve stories for An Illustrated Compassion are broken up into three separate modules, which can be seen below, along with a color version of their matching module coloring poster.
MODULE 1: COMPASSION IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES
Week 1: Genesis 18:1-8: Abraham and Sarah’s Guests
Week 2: Exodus 1:15-21: Shiphrah and Puah’s Courage
Week 3: 2 Samuel 9:1-13: David Shows Kindness
Week 4: 2 Kings 6:8-23: The Feast that Brought Peace
MODULE 2: COMPASSION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Week 1: Matthew 9:35-38: Jesus’ Compassion
Week 2: Mark 10:17-27: The One Thing
Week 3: Luke 7:11-17: Compassion that Heals
Week 4: John 5:1-9: Jesus Heals on the Sabbath
MODULE 3: LIVING A COMPASSIONATE LIFE
Week 1: Deuteronomy 10:12-22: You Were Immigrants
Week 2: Micah 6:6-8: What is Good
Week 3: Matthew 25:31-46: Lord, When Was It?
Week 4: Luke 10:25–37: The One Who Showed Mercy
We’re confident you’ll love An Illustrated Compassion. But rather than hear us talk more about it - we wanted to share with you the words of some of our customers who used our last curriculum, An Illustrated Earth.
Becca Bateman
ASSOCIATE PASTOR FOR CHRISTIAN EDUCATION AND FAMILY MINISTERY AT DOYLESTOWN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (DOYLESTOWN, PA)
"Thank you so much for your curriculum, An Illustrated Earth! The simplicity of the curriculum is refreshing. It also allows us to spend less money on Sunday School supplies, since all you need is a printer, not a large trip to the craft store for pipe cleaners, googly eyes and glue. An Illustrated Earth has worked great for our younger elementary classrooms, and we just tweak some of the questions for our older classrooms so they have a practical application for them as well.
"I truly hope your style and philosophy helps to calm the other curriculum makers, who seem to be all about entertaining children and pushing products. The theology of Illustrated Ministry is solid, the openness to wonder about the mystery of God is there, and what better way to work out your wrestling with who God is in your life than through coloring and conversation with children. Thank you again so much for the way you’ve helped us reach our children in new ways."
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"In the past, I really struggled to find a curriculum for our younger children to use during our mid-week, intergenerational ministry. To be honest, I didn’t think that what I was looking for even existed. In my mind, I envisioned something a little more progressive with a true message of God’s love. I really wanted to avoid cheesy illustrations or flashy trinkets. After searching online, asking colleagues for suggestions, and trying to modify other materials to meet our needs, I was so thankful to finally find An Illustrated Earth by Illustrated Ministry. The curriculum is absolutely beautiful. The lessons are extremely user-friendly with very little prep required, yet they are beautifully profound with fantastic illustrations. We turn the coloring pages into little books that the children complete and take home each week. They are a wonderful way for the children to share what they learned with their families.
"I am so excited to begin using An Illustrated Compassion with our intergenerational ministry in the coming months. To really get people of all ages involved, I will definitely be getting the posters that accompany the curriculum. My plan is to have the posters laid-out on tables during the worship part of our evening. We have already used the Advent and Lent posters in worship on Sunday mornings, so An Illustrated Compassion posters will be a wonderful addition to our mid-week ministry. An evening of community, coloring, singing, worshiping…beautiful!"
Mindy Throop Plick
DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN'S MINISTRY AT PLACENTIA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (PLACENTIA, CA)
MELISSA SCOTT
ASSOCIATE PASTOR AT COLONIAL AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH (ROANOKE, VA)
"Last summer, we used Illustrated Ministry's An Illustrated Earth curriculum as the foundation for our summer discipleship classes. One of the best things about the curriculum is how adaptable it is. On Sunday mornings, we offered an intergenerational Sunday School class. We began each class by coloring the Illustrated Earth posters. Then, we would gather together for an opening game or activity and a creative telling of the Bible passage for the day, followed by breaking into small groups (each one was made up of children, youth, and adults) for discussion. When the groups finished their discussion, they would move back to the coloring posters. The posters were displayed in our sanctuary foyer throughout the summer.
"On Wednesday evenings, we joined with a neighboring church, Colonial Presbyterian Church, for an outdoor (in the picnic pavilion) adult Bible study based on the same passages. They loved the coloring, too! We also taught some of the lessons during children's chapel time at our local Rescue Mission.
"We are excited to use An Illustrated Compassion in similar ways this summer. We are excited to hear they've added additional activities and we can't wait to hear the original music that is included! Thanks for providing such great resources! They are a blessing to our church!"
We are excited to offer our Illustrated Compassion Coloring Posters to go with this curriculum. We are offering a set of FOUR posters — one large 4′ x 3′ poster that addresses the overall theme of compassion, and three 2′ x 3′ posters.
There is one 2’ x 3’ poster per module. You can see the color images above and see words and symbols from the stories in the poster’s illustrations. Below is the color version of the 4’ x 3’ Compassion poster and the black and white versions of the three 2’ x 3’ posters.
DETAILS ABOUT POSTERS
You can buy the physical posters, the digital files, or a bundle of both. Prices are listed below:
Physical Posters ONLY: $49.99
Digital Files ONLY: $54.99*
Digital Add-on: Save 50% when you order both
Our posters are printed on heavyweight paper, which works great with any medium (crayons, colored pencils, markers, pastels, etc).
This poster set includes four posters. Our large Compassion poster is 4’ x 3’ and the three posters that go with the different modules are all 2’ x 3’. They will come shipped to you in a 36” poster tube.
*Digital Files: We have a large international community, especially from Canada, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Ireland and Australia, and we have found that our international customers have had success ordering the digital files from us and having them printed locally. Depending on where you live, you may not have the exact 36” x 48” or 36” x 24” sizes, but you can resize the files to work for you and your context.
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Churches from more than 44 denominations around the world have used our products with their congregations. We are thrilled to be able to provide creative and ecumenical products that can be enjoyed by so many.