Illustrated Ministry

Illustrated Resources for the Church & Home

Adam Walker Cleaveland

An Illustrated Advent for Families

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We are excited to announce the launch of our newest family Advent devotional resource: An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness! It’s not just an Advent devotional for kids, but for people of all ages.

Family Devotional for Advent

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Our church families love An Illustrated Advent for Families. We print it out and have it available throughout Advent. I love the inclusive illustrations and short and accessible devotions. The materials needed aren’t complicated. Illustrated Ministry’s products are made for modern, progressive, busy families.
– Erica Jeglum, Director of Children, Youth, and Family Ministry, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

Advent Devotional for Families

It’s hard to believe, but this is our fifth year of publishing our annual Advent resource for families. An Illustrated Advent for Families provides families with a resource for engaging their children in faith formation during the Advent season. This Advent devotional for kids and families, along with An Illustrated Lent for Families, has been used by thousands of families around the world, and we can’t wait for you to check out this new edition.

FREE SAMPLE: Click here to download a free sample of An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness.

Order your copy of An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness by visiting our store today!

Family Advent Devotional for Kids

Family Advent Devotional

Advent Family DevotionalIt’s no secret that families today are busy, and rather than make a family Advent devotional that feels burdensome, we wanted to create an Advent devotional for kids and families that would be simple but meaningful. Accessible for all ages, but also thought-provoking.

An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness will help you slow down, ask questions, have fun, be intentional about how you spend your family time and get creative! There are simple but meaningful devotions for all ages, a fantastic craft that includes coloring and will be fun to create throughout Advent, and an Advent Calendar that is more than just opening up chocolates every day before Christmas.

Keep reading to learn a bit more about the activities in this year’s edition, and to hear testimonials from people who have used our previous versions of An Illustrated Advent for Families.

I like everything Illustrated Ministry puts out. We use it consistently and find their products to be beautiful, they align with our theology, and they are easy to use. An Illustrated Advent for Families is excellent for helping families spend some time attending to their faith during a hectic time of year.
– Jessie Brajcki, Children’s and Youth Pastor, Artisan Church

Advent Devotional for Kids

Advent for Families

This year’s theme is In Light & Darkness. The weekly devotions explore the theme of light and darkness in Advent scriptures. How we understand these ideas affect the way we view God, our faith, and our world. Inspired by Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, we re-frame traditional understandings of light as good and darkness as bad or evil.

Light and Darkness

Each week, there is a suggested scripture to read, a short reflection, discussion questions, an activity (with lots of coloring opportunities), and a prayer to explore the theme of light and darkness working in balance in our lives.

These weekly devotionals are written so they can be used by children of all ages (and adults as well), and we believe you’ll find questions and discussion topics in each of the devotionals that will work for your children, no matter the age.

I am looking forward to using the “In Light & Darkness” resources this year because I know the information will be theologically appropriate and sound. It is also a meaningful way for families to connect during the busy Advent and Christmas season. And I especially love there is an additional all-ages devotional this year (In Light & Darkness: An Illustrated Devotional), so we can genuinely do intergenerational ministry during Advent.
– Mary Hagley, Minister of Families, Dixboro UMC
In Light & Darkness: An Illustrated Devotional, the devotional pictured and referenced below, is not included with An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness, but we wanted you to see what you could also purchase as an accompanying product.

In Light & Darkness: An Illustrated Devotional

This year we are also offering another devotional that goes into our theme of light and darkness a bit more, and also has discussion questions that work for all ages. This Illustrated Devotional is a new type of product for us, and we think you’re really going to like it.

This unique intergenerational resource is a hybrid devotional/coloring book. In Light and Darkness: An Illustrated Devotional includes five weekly devotions for all ages, as well as illustrations to color and opportunities to doodle and engage with the content in fun and creative ways. The photos below can help give you a sense of some of the coloring opportunities in this devotional.

You can purchase this illustrated devotional here.

FREE SAMPLE: Click here to download a free sample of An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness.

Christmas Shadow Box Theater

Advent Craft for Kids

We are excited about this fabulous craft this year: our Christmas Shadow Box Theater. By following simple directions, you can build your Christmas Shadow Box Theater and use it to act out the story of Christmas using light and shadows.

This is a great supplemental activity for Sunday School, to use at an Advent festival or event, and for families with young children to help tell the Christmas story.

While our youngest participants may need some additional assistance with this year’s craft, it is something that all ages can participate in. And certainly, it is an activity that all ages will have fun playing with once it’s created.

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As a Christian educator who is also a mom, I found this resource to be an excellent guide for our family and our congregation’s families during Advent. I appreciated how both my 8-year-old and 5-year-old could engage with the writings, questions, and prayers. The coloring is always a hit and creates space for conversations and questions around scripture…I’ve done a lot of research on Advent devotionals for families and hands down, An Illustrated Advent for Families is the best. Sound theology with content that has depth and engages families while understanding the realities of a family’s life makes this resource a must-have for Advent.
– Jenna Campbell, Director of Children and Youth Ministry, First Presbyterian Church, Stillwater, OK

We also have this craft available for purchase as a standalone activity. You can purchase our Illustrated Christmas Shadow Box Theater, and find other crafts from past years, here.

Advent Activities for Families

Advent Calendar

While many Advent calendars today come with the promise of chocolates or toys behind each of the numbered doors, this Advent calendar is a little different. Our Advent calendar is more of an activity calendar — activities that can help you get into the Advent and Christmas spirit.

Some of these activities will be great for your kids to do by themselves—others will require the whole family. And some activities require you to get out of your house and go into your community.

Illustrated Ministry always does a good job creatively welcoming you into the Advent season. Their design elements are fun and engaging, yet approachable and straightforward in all the detail. I appreciate the way their resources give kids and families a platform to step into the mystery of Advent in compelling and meaningful ways.
– Daniel Booker, Associate Pastor of Children & Families, Bethany Covenant Church

Each of the Advent calendar activities fits in with our theme of light and darkness and will help participants (of all ages) think about light and darkness and how it can affect how we think about Advent and Christmas.

Below are 3 sample activities from the Advent Calendar:

  • When it is dark outside, lights and sparkles remind us to celebrate. Does your family use Christmas lights to light up your home or Christmas tree? What about glitter or tinsel? How many sparkly, reflective, shimmery, or flashing things can you find in your home? Set a timer for three minutes and see who can find the most LIGHT!
  • Advent is a time of waiting and slowing down to think about life. But we are usually busy in December! Schedule a time during your day to do something slow. Read a book, write in your journal, meditate, or play with playdough. But do it verrryyyy sloooowwwlllyyy.
  • Some people do not have access to electricity, so it can be tough for children to do their homework after dark. Find an organization that provides solar lamps to families with children and gift them with a donation.
In past years, we have written our own Advent materials or adapted something from an older in-house devotional. An Illustrated Advent for Families was so much easier, still very reasonably priced, and theologically aligned with our view of Advent. It is easy to use, beautifully crafted, thoughtfully written, theologically sound, and thoroughly engaging.
– Kristine Nussbaum, Minster of Education, Kidron Mennonite Church

Order your copy of An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness by visiting our store today!

Advent Devotions for Families and Kids

We hope you’ll take some time to check out An Illustrated Advent for Families: In Light & Darkness, and let us know if you have any questions. Whether you thought you were just looking for an Advent devotional for kids, or if you specifically wanted a family Advent devotional – our Illustrated Advent for Families has something for everyone.

FREE SAMPLE: If you’d like to download a sample of the resource to check out before you purchase, you can click here.
Illustrated Ministry’s products are more engaging and well put together than most others. They’re always fun to use and beautiful to look at. IM’s resources are always comprehensive and engaging. I never have to look around to add things to their products to make it feel fleshed out. If you’re looking for something that will be fun and educational for families, this is what you need.
– Hollie Friot, Church School Director, Barre Congregational Church (UCC)

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We’re now Illustrated Ministry!

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Illustrated Ministry

Illustrated Children’s Ministry launched in September 2015, and has since grown into a worldwide community. These past four years, we have been honored to create and provide progressive materials for families and children’s ministries all around the world. Over these past years, our customers have shown us how well our illustrated materials work, not only for children but for people in all different stages of life.

Our coloring posters have been used in settings for all ages; intergenerational church events, nursing homes, campus ministries, youth group, mission trips, university faculty lounges, camps and conferences, and more!

A familiar anecdote that I hear often goes something like this:

We put the coloring posters out, and in no time at all, we had a group of people sitting around coloring, ages 2 to 82.”

Our curricular resources have been used with youth groups, all-ages Sunday school, and have been woven into sermon series themes.

Coloring Posters

We’ve branched into creating stationery and accessories like greeting cards, stickers, and buttons. As we continue to grow and commit to creating more intergenerational products, we want to ensure our name best reflects how we serve you.

Illustrated Ministry, LLCIt is for that reason that we are officially changing our name from Illustrated Children’s Ministry to Illustrated Ministry. We have been anxiously awaiting sharing this news with you, and we’d like to make sure you know what that is going to mean for us moving forward, and more importantly, how we believe this change will allow us to serve you in even more ways.

So, what’s staying the same?

Children Coloring Posters

We will continue to make the quality children’s ministry resources that our customers have come to expect from us: coloring pages and posters, curriculum, Advent and Lent family resources, Children’s Moments and Children’s Worship Bulletins, Nativity sticker sheets, and more!

We remain steadfast in our commitment to creating thoughtful, progressive, and easy-to-use resources that foster authentic faith engagement through refreshing designs, creative activities, making space for questions and wonder, and inclusive language and imagery.

We also will continue to be responsive to creating materials you need and wish for. Some of our favorite product ideas and inspiration have come directly from customers. We’d love you to send us an email, post an idea in our community Facebook group, tag us on social media with #IllustratedMin, and let us know what would be a godsend in resources for you.

What should we expect from Illustrated Ministry in the future?

Children Coloring Posters

Since the beginning, we’ve created resources we wished we had, especially for children’s ministry. Now, with the same kind of quality, drive, and focus, you can expect us to create intergenerational materials, youth resources, worship planning guides, worship service resources, and more to meet your ministry needs!

We have too many ideas for the future to share here – but know that we aren’t going anywhere, and we are excited to see where Illustrated Ministry is in another four years!

Some Practical Stuff

Illustrated Ministry, LLC

Four years doesn’t feel like a super long time, but when you begin going through everything and trying to switch out “Illustrated Ministry” for “Illustrated Children’s Ministry” in products, promotional materials, emails, etc., we’re finding that this switch to Illustrated Ministry isn’t something that will just happen overnight. We are a small team that is working tirelessly on switching out everything that has been labeled Illustrated Children’s Ministry for the past four years. Please bear with us if you see any ICM reference as we continue to make the change over to Illustrated Ministry.

As we make this change – here are some practical things that may be helpful to know:

  • Logo: We have a new logo! It should be very familiar, but we just wanted to mention it.
  • Website: Our website is now illustratedministry.com, and our store can be found at store.illustratedministry.com. We worked with a great team to get things transferred over, but if you happen to run into any “dead links” or 404 error pages, please let us know.
  • @IllustratedMin: We are now using the username @IllustratedMin everywhere on social media, so please note that change and make sure you’re following us!
  • Credit Card Statements: Previously, when you looked at your credit card statement, purchases from Illustrated Children’s Ministry would appear as SP * CHILDRENSMINISTRY. Moving forward, you can expect to see your purchases from us appearing as SP * ILLUSTRATEDMNSTRY.
  • Update your links: Do you have a link to Illustrated Children’s Ministry on your website? Make sure to update your links to illustratedministry.com.

We’re happy to answer any questions you might have about this transition from Illustrated Children’s Ministry to Illustrated Ministry – just let us know in the comments. And do you have hopes and dreams for what might happen in the next four years of Illustrated Ministry? Let us know in the comments as well! Thanks!

The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Curriculum

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Illustrated Ministry has published three 12-week curricula over the past few years:

The feedback we’ve received on our curricula has been very positive and tells us we’re creating something new in the children’s ministry curriculum world that people want.

“…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…”

“…One of the best things about the curriculum is how adaptable it is…Also, there are lots of practical applications and projects for the kids to do together…”

“…The theology of Illustrated Ministry is solid and the openness to wonder about the mystery of God is present…”

Our Father Curriculum

Our newest curriculum is called The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Curriculum. This is a flexible, six-session curriculum that is a verse by verse study of the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9b-13.

FREE INFOGUIDE AND SAMPLE LESSON: This post contains a lot of information about the curriculum, but if you want to download the complete Scope and Sequence, detailed information about the curriculum and coloring posters, and get a FREE SAMPLE LESSON, click here. We will send you a PDF of the information in this post (as well as the Scope and Sequence and additional details about pricing) that you can print out and take and share with your colleagues and community.

Why the Lord’s Prayer?

We have a page on our site where you can submit product ideas. Every week we get lots of fun and creative ideas from our customers. One submission we’ve received over and over again was resources for the Lord’s Prayer.

No matter your denomination or tradition, most likely the Lord’s Prayer has found its way into your personal devotional life or communal worshipping experiences. For many churches, it’s a prayer we say Sunday after Sunday after…you get the idea.

We often feel successful when we’ve taught children and young people to memorize the prayer. However, we all know there is a big difference between being able to repeat back a few verses by memory and taking the time to learn the meaning behind the prayer itself.

Because of our community’s repeated requests for Lord’s Prayer resources, and our desire to offer a way to immerse oneself in the Lord’s Prayer, we are excited about this new product, The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Curriculum.

ICM’s Intentions behind the Curriculum

Each component of the six-session curriculum is an invitation to experience this well-known prayer through art, reflection, and discussion. Through the use of inclusive language and meaningful theology, children have opportunities to explore our belongingness and connectedness to each other, the world, and God. Not only that but how that belongingness and connectedness means we must also collaborate with God to bring God’s kingdom into the world.

Inclusive Language
The very first word of the Lord’s Prayer is “Our” not “My.” It immediately reminds us that this is a communal prayer. We all belong to God, to each other, and to the earth God made. God is bigger and more beautiful than we can imagine, and every single one of us is made in God’s incredible image. With this as a foundational belief, we always choose to use inclusive language.

“Our Loving God” versus “Our Father”
Jesus’ choice to begin the prayer with “Father” was impactful. It was meant to remind listeners how loving God is and how God always reaches out to care for them as all loving parents would. It was also a political statement that challenged loyalties – either with a loving God or a government that pushed people down. That is why we chose to begin the prayer with “Our Loving God.”

In a way, it knocks us off balance, challenges us from getting stuck in thinking about God in a limited way (specifically, God as male), and cares for people who have been deeply hurt by their fathers. It also reminds us to consider the countless names and attributes we know God by and gives us a chance to discuss them.

Different Versions of The Lord’s Prayer
As you know, there are several traditional versions of the Lord’s Prayer. In fact, we have a couple of versions in our Bibles. One is in Matthew’s Gospel and another in Luke’s Gospel.

Today, different faith communities have their way of saying the Lord’s Prayer, often with slight differences in the words. Some churches say “sins” or “debts,” while other churches say “trespasses.”

Some Christians include the Doxology, “For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen” at the end of the prayer, and some don’t.

Because we focused primarily on Matthew’s version, we chose to use the word “debts.” While this is the version we decided on, as always, we encourage you to customize the material to fit your context. Feel invited to use your church’s preference for the prayer whenever you pray it. That is the beauty of coming together with our different words and traditions; we recognize that despite these differences, we all are searching for the same things: forgiveness and restoration.

How to use the curriculum?

Over the years, many churches have found creative ways to utilize the versatile and little to no-prep design of our curricula. Some churches have used it for intergenerational summer Sunday School programs, foundational materials for Vacation Bible Schools, sermon series based on the curriculum texts, lessons to fit their schedules, and more.

With a little time and use of our appendix, The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Curriculum can easily transform into materials for a retreat setting, foundational materials for a five-day Vacation Bible School, or expand into a 12-session program.

When we first began to explore the Lord’s Prayer, we were overwhelmed by the possibilities! There were so many different ideas, topics, and activities we came up with to engage with the Lord’s Prayer. Our team was inspired by all the ways we found to interact with, and live out the call of the Lord’s Prayer. Our hope for you is that this isn’t just a 6-session curriculum, but that it transforms into something that helps your faith community fully embody the message of the Lord’s Prayer.

Structure of the curriculum

Our goal is to offer you a no-prep curriculum that can be led by anyone in your congregation. With hopes of minimizing your workload, we have designed The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Curriculum in a way that requires little background material/reading before presenting the lesson.

The structure of the curriculum includes these components: a gathering activity, scripture reflection, an activity, a time for imagining and coloring, a closing prayer, and a take-home sheet. Additionally, we include an appendix filled with other ideas and activities and a glossary to cover any words we use in the curriculum that we feel need further definition and context.

To download the complete 6-session Scope and Sequence, more detailed specifics about the structure of the curriculum and pricing, and a FREE sample lesson, click here.

The Lord’s Prayer Curriculum Coloring Posters

To enhance your experience and learning of the Lord’s Prayer, The Lord’s Prayer Curriculum Coloring Posters are fully integrated into the flow of this curriculum. To get the most out of The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Curriculum, we highly encourage you to purchase The Lord’s Prayer Curriculum Coloring Posters.

Hand-Lettered Give Us This Day our Daily Bread
These are the three hand-lettered posters that come with the Hand-Lettered Lord’s Prayer Coloring Posters and Coloring Pages. Different versions with “Our Father,” “sins,” and “trespasses,” not pictured.

These hand-drawn posters are fully integrated throughout each session of the curriculum. The first three posters create a beautiful hand-lettered illustration of the Lord’s Prayer. The second three posters are interactive, designed to be communal, and draw children into the lesson through creative prompts. Children are invited to add their expression and ideas to create the final look of the posters as they move through the lessons.

There are many nuances to this prayer, one being how the writing technique of poetic parallelism is used throughout. Each word and phrase in the prayer was used intentionally. As a way to highlight that, we chose to design the interactive posters to reflect some of the parallelism of the prayer by combining some of the sessions on the same poster. There will be a couple of sessions where you return to a poster to complete it. The use of the posters will look like this:

  • Session 1: The hand-lettered Lord’s Prayer posters (2 or 3 in total depending on whether your church’s tradition includes the Doxology of the Lord’s Prayer)
  • Session 2: Interactive Poster 1 (“Our Loving God, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.”)
  • Session 3: Interactive Poster 2 (“Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”)
  • Session 4: Interactive Poster 1 (“Give us this day our daily bread”)
  • Session 5: Interactive Poster 2 (“And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”)
  • Session 6: Interactive Poster 3 (“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”)

When you purchase the curriculum, you’ll have a better sense of the types of activities that will lead to engagement and participation with the interactive coloring posters. But you can see the three posters below, as well as some photos of the posters in action!

If using the posters isn’t an option for you, be sure to use the coloring pages included with the curriculum. They are slightly modified versions of the interactive posters, and children will have a similar, more individualized experience with them. But to get the most out of the curriculum, we highly recommend using The Lord’s Prayer Curriculum Coloring Posters.

NOTE: If you buy the Physical Posters, you will receive just ONE version of the Lord’s Prayer (our version that begins with “Our Loving God”). We talk about the differences in wording throughout the curriculum and it will give you many chances to talk about the differences if your community uses “sins” instead of “debts” or you’d prefer to use “Our Father” instead of “Our Loving God.” If, however, you need a specific version, you can add the Digital Files (which includes all of the different versions available listed below as part of the digital files for our Hand-Lettered Lord’s Prayer Coloring Posters) to your purchase of the physical coloring posters for half the price of the digital files.

Hand-Lettered Lord’s Prayer Coloring Posters

Because the Lord’s Prayer is common with so many communities, we knew that there may be some who would love the coloring posters for the prayer and didn’t need the curriculum. In that case, you can purchase our Hand-Lettered Lord’s Prayer Coloring Posters.

These posters include only the three hand-lettered posters that illustrate the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is separated into three separate posters so you can decide to use or not use the Doxology poster, depending on your church’s tradition.

These posters are meant to be printed out as 2’x 3′ posters and are ONLY available as B&W digital files. Because they are digital files, it allows us to provide a variety of different options for you. To make these posters as inclusive of all communities who may want to use them, we will offer the following versions:

  1. We will include two versions of the first poster. One version of the first poster will begin the prayer with “Our Loving God” and another version will begin the prayer with “Our Father.”
  2. We will include three versions of the second poster. The first version will use “debts” and “debtors,” the second version will use “sins” and “those who sin against us,” and the third version will use “trespasses” and “those who trespass against us.”
  3. We will include one version of the third poster. This is the Doxology to the prayer (“For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.”), and you can decide whether to include this poster or not, based on your church’s tradition.

We will also be offering Hand-Lettered Lord’s Prayer Coloring Pages as well, so if you are looking for small versions of this for coloring, you can choose this option.

These posters will be perfect for coloring and framing to decorate an area of your church! This is the first time we’ve offered hand-lettered illustrated posters like these, and we’re excited to see all of the creative ways our community finds to use them.

Related Lord’s Prayer Products

Our Father, Who Are in Heaven Stickers

The Lord’s Prayer Sticker Sheets: In addition to our curriculum and coloring posters, we also have some amazing Lord’s Prayer Sticker Sheets. Use these along with the curriculum, or grab a set to help your students learn the Lord’s Prayer.

We ordered these from the same place we ordered our amazingly high-quality Illustrated Nativity Sticker Sheets, and you’ll find many uses for them.

The Lord’s Prayer: An Illustrated Prayer Booklet: And if you’re looking for a specific way to use the stickers, we are launching a Lord’s Prayer Booklet for kids. This digital download provides participants with a prayer book to use with their stickers. Each page has a spot for the sticker, a prompt to get them thinking about the specific verse, and a chance to respond to a prompt related to the verse through drawing or writing.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions by contacting us here.