Illustrated Ministry

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Coloring Posters

Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters Available to Order

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Below you can learn more about our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters, but you can also find out more information, see more photos and purchase the posters by clicking here.

We are excited for you to see our new Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters. For this series of posters, each of the posters illustrates a story from the Bible, coming from both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. Below is a list of the stories that these posters cover:

Module 1: Water Stories

Module 2: Food & Plant Stories

  • Week 1: Exodus 16: Manna & Quail
  • Week 2: Mark 6:31-44: Feeding of the 5,000
  • Week 3: Leviticus 25:1-7: Rest for the Land
  • Week 4: Mark 4:1-9: Parable of the Sower

Module 3: Animal Stories

  • Week 1: Genesis 1:20-25: Creation of Animals
  • Week 2: Numbers 22:22-35: Balaam and the Lord’s Messenger
  • Week 3: Jonah 1-4: Jonah and the Big Fish
  • Week 4: Luke 15:1-7: Parable of the Lost Sheep
Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters
Some children coloring the Module 1: Week 2 poster of the Parting of the Red Sea.

While these posters will continue to have our signature style and design that people have come to love and appreciate from our Advent & Lenten Coloring Posters, you will also be able to find more specific elements of the story within each of the designs. We are excited about illustrating Bible stories in these creative coloring poster designs.

You can see the twelve poster illustrations below:

With so many elements of the story found in each large 3′ x 2′ coloring poster, children will be able to sit around a table, color the poster, talk about the story and discuss what they wonder about it. And these are certainly not only for children. These coloring posters work great for intergenerational events and programs that churches might schedule as they seek to find more ways to bring generations together.

Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters
Some children and an adult sit around a table and color the Module 1: Week 3 coloring poster of Jesus’ baptism.

Poster Details

Here are important details about the Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters.

  • There are 12 posters in the complete set, although you can purchase Modules 1, 2 or 3 separately if you wish (as long as supplies last).
  • The posters are 3′ x 2′ (36″ x 24″) and are printed out on 32lb bright white paper. If you have used our posters in the past, watch this video (which includes a cameo appearance by our founder’s 4-yr old son) to learn more about this new paper we’re using.
  • You can order just the physical posters, the digital files or both the digital files and physical posters.
  • We use UPS to ship the posters, and they are shipped in a strong cardboard poster tube. Note: UPS does NOT ship to PO Boxes – they need a physical address).

Ideas for Using Our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters

There are many ways to use our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters – and you all probably have even more creative ideas than these – but here are a few that come to mind:

  • Sunday School: Use the posters along with our Illustrated Earth curriculum. Along with the curriculum, these large coloring posters as a no prep to low prep Sunday School option, and your kids will love getting to color the large posters!
  • As an activity for children during worship: This works especially well during the summer, if you don’t have Sunday School, having these posters on a table or on the floor for children during the service, would be a fun way to keep them engaged in the service.
  • As an activity during VBS: Maybe you’ve already planned your summer VBS program – but you’re looking for another activity to fill some of the time and add some variety to your curriculum? The posters would be a great option for that.
  • Intergenerational Family Nights: Get families and other church members together for a fun evening. Start with coloring the posters around tables and talking about the stories, enjoy a meal together, and then end the evening by roasting marshmallows outside for some S’mores!

An Update on Poster Paper for An Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters

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Coloring Poster Quality

We are getting ready to launch the pre-orders for our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters, but first we wanted to give you a short update on the paper that we’re using to print these posters.

We’ve been very pleased with our previous printer, and the quality of the posters we’ve sent out. They have worked well, and we know some folks have actually framed their finished posters. With our previous printer, however, we were limited in our paper options. So we are very thrilled to be able to share that with our new printer, a local Chicago family-owned business, we now have more options to choose from for our posters.

For our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters, we’re going to be printing them out on 32 pound paper. Our previous posters were printed on 20 pound paper. I don’t know if you can tell in the photo above, but the paper is thicker, and is also a whiter paper. This also means that the illustration pops off the white page more.

For those of you who are interested, we’ve put together a little video to try and show you the difference between the two papers. And yes, it does feature a few appearances by one of our tried and trued product testers here at Illustrated Ministry, Caleb Walker Cleaveland (who is four years old). Be looking for the announcement of pre-orders starting for these posters soon!

An Illustrated Earth for Summer Sunday School & VBS

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As we discussed last week, many churches haven’t figured out the solution to the problem of summer Sunday School. Well, actually, there are many problems tied up in this one program:

  • Who will teach? Many churches want to give their teachers a well-deserved break from teaching, since many will do it throughout the school year. Many churches have their Christian Education hour during worship (which we are not fans of – but we know it’s a reality for so many churches), and so teachers enjoy having the chance to actually be in worship during the summer. And some churches believe they have a very small pool of potential teachers; if the regular teachers don’t teach in the summer, who will?
  • Who will come? Will anyone come? Everyone knows we’re not in the Field of Dreams-era of church and program life anymore. In the past, you could build a program, and the people would come. That’s simply not our reality anymore. Will young families come to worship in the summer? Some will. Some won’t. And it’s quite possible that even fewer will come if there are no options for their kids. Regardless of the theological implications, many parents covet those 45 minutes when their kids are in Sunday School and they get to feel like adults again, sitting in worship, singing, praying, and hearing a sermon.
  • What will we teach? So what do we teach in the summer if we’re going to go ahead and try it? Do we invest in expensive church curriculum, some that are over $300 just for the summer months, when we don’t have a guarantee of how many children will show up? How do I order pamphlets/lesson sheets for the children when we have no idea what our numbers are going to be?

It’s not an easy decision.

But…

Illustrated Ministry is trying to make that decision a little bit easier for you this summer with our new product, An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation.

An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation

Summer Sunday SchoolWe wanted to create a resource that could work for you in a variety of settings, with any number of children participating. We wanted it to be flexible, adaptable and fun. But more importantly – we wanted it to involve little to no prep time. With An Illustrated Earth, if you have children that show up for Sunday School, you will have a quality resource you can use to have a fun and engaging Sunday School class with them, and you won’t have had to put any time into the preparation of it. Likewise, if no one shows up next Sunday, you don’t feel frustrated or bitter, because you didn’t have to spend any prep time on the class, and so you can just save that lesson for next time.

An Illustrated Earth can be used throughout the entire summer as a summer Sunday School program. However, because of the way it is structured, it could also be used if you’re creating your own Vacation Bible School and are looking for content and activities. It could also be used as an intergenerational activity throughout the summer as well. There are many possibilities.

Below are a few details about An Illustrated Earth, but for all of the information, including a list of the stories that will be used, be sure to check out the product page for An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation.

Summer Sunday School Solution: An Illustrated Earth

An Illustrated Earth includes three modules of four lessons each. The theme is celebrating God’s Creation, and so you will find stories about creation, food, plants, water, and animals. Each lesson includes the following:

  • Opening Gathering Activity
  • Bible Story
  • Questions for reflection
  • Coloring (either small sheets or large posters)
  • Short prayer

Coloring Options: There will be a coloring component for each week (12 different designs), and you will have the option of just having kids color a small version, or order large coloring posters. The digital downloads of An Illustrated Earth‘s modules will come with 8.5×11 versions of the coloring designs. But you will also have the opportunity to purchase large 36″x24″ coloring posters as well. If you know you will have multiple classrooms, you may want to purchase more than one set of the posters, or make sure you also purchase the digital files so you can print more of them.

To learn all of the details about An Illustrated Earth, please be sure to check out the product page, which will include a listing of the Bible stories the curriculum focuses on, as well as to learn about the different ordering options for the resource. We are really excited to share this product with you, and we are confident this will be a very strong curriculum option for both churches that regularly have a summer Sunday School program, and for those who have been thinking about it, but haven’t yet figured out how to pull it off in their context.

Please Share!

We would love your help getting the word out about An Illustrated Earth. Please just take a few seconds and share about this on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks!

An Illustrated Earth is your summer Sunday School solution. This 3-module, 12-week curriculum celebrating God’s creation…

Posted by Illustrated Ministry on Tuesday, April 12, 2016