Illustrated Ministry

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Curriculum

On Pentecost Unleash the Astonishing Power and Presence of God’s Holy Spirit

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pentecost with kids

So…Pentecost. Where did it come from? What is it? And how can you talk about it with kids?

Not until I was in my ministry career did I know what Pentecost was. If this is you, no shame. Some churches don’t celebrate it. On the other hand, some churches celebrate it without much explanation at all.

A quick side note here: It doesn’t help anyone to assume that people thinking about the liturgical calendar and know what’s going on. Most people have no idea. And to assume otherwise often leaves people feeling excluded and bored. Furthermore, what a missed opportunity to reveal the power of your tradition and God’s presence among us!

So, explain the history behind Pentecost, because some of us don’t know and because we all can use a refresher. OK, stepping off the soapbox.

Pentecost is all about God’s presence with us through the Holy Spirit. How do you experience God’s presence? We’d love to hear in the comments below!

pentecost with kids

A Shift of Focus at Pentecost

Pentecost is an event we celebrate every year in the Church. And its roots are actually in scripture. If you haven’t already, give Acts chapter 2 a read.

In the Acts story, the disciples were celebrating Festival of Weeks AKA Shavuot AKA Pentecost, a Jewish harvest festival seven weeks after Passover. In Hebrew, Shavuot means “weeks.” In Greek, Pentecost refers to the same thing. But instead, it means “fifty,” the number of days rather than weeks after the last Sabbath of Passover.

What the disciples experienced on this particular Pentecost shifted their focus entirely. It was a pivot in their theology and their faith and ministry practices.

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A Promise Kept

Jesus promised that a comforter, teacher, and advocate would come to take his place. Enter the Holy Spirit on Pentecost! Acts 2:1-31 tells the story of the Holy Spirit coming to dwell with the disciples.

All that gathered together that day spoke in tongues, and there was something like fire around each of them. It was an amazing day for them. And it would prove to be an extraordinary day for the whole of the faith community.

In the Christian tradition, the Holy Spirit became a part of the picture of what we now call Pentecost. Jesus made a promise and kept it. Pentecost turned out to be a day of fulfillment. The disciples knew they weren’t alone in their work.

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Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit, really the Trinity, is a tricky topic. Since we’ve been conscious creatures, we’ve been searching for ways to talk about God that make sense of our experiences in the world.

The Holy Spirit is the way we speak of God’s presence among us. The Spirit speaks to us, pointing us in the direction that serves us. The Spirit heals us, offers comfort and instruction, and somehow guides Life as she has her being in and through each of our lives.

Talking with Kids About Pentecost

A great way to speak to kids about Pentecost is while coloring! Reflection takes place, and conversations happen when kids are engaged around the table. Invite kids to color together while discussing the following:

  1. Take a moment to close your eyes. Notice where you feel your breath as you breathe. You may feel a faint tingling in your hands or the soles of your feet. God is with us even now as we breathe together, in every part of our body and breath.
  2. We use the name Holy Spirit when we talk about God being here within us and all around us. How might you describe God’s presence using your words? “When God is with me, I feel/things are…”
  3. In the Pentecost story, the Holy Spirit was with the disciples. The Holy Spirit arrived and helped everyone there connect, even though they spoke different languages. How does the Holy Spirit help us use our words to connect with others? Maybe in talking through a conflict or in sharing stories or encouraging each other?
  4. How might it be difficult to understand someone even though they speak the same language as you? And how about when we don’t have much in common with someone else?
  5. The Holy Spirit helps us experience hope, freedom, compassion, understanding, and connection. In what area of your Life can the Holy Spirit help you experience these things now?

pentecost illustrated children's ministry

Pentecost Coloring Pages

We have many options for coloring pages when it comes to Pentecost. One of them, our Pentecost Coloring Page & Poster, is a hand-drawn illustration by our founder, Adam Walker Cleaveland, and can be used in any number of ways to help you celebrate Pentecost in your congregations.

The illustration consists of hand-lettering that says Pentecost in the middle. At the top of the illustration are the words “I will pour out my Spirit.” At the bottom, beneath all the flames, are the words, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Happy coloring! I hope you experience God’s presence anew within and around you this Pentecost.

How do you experience the Holy Spirit? Don’t forget to share with us in the comments below!

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.

Giving Children’s Sermons: Crush It with These 6 Astoundingly Simple Tips

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I have a confession. I never loved giving children’s sermons. If you’re like me, you’ve seen (and probably even given) too many boring, fluffy or confusing ones. When I was still working in church ministry I advocated for doing away with them. But, I knew there had to be a better way to give children’s sermons. And there is! If you’re already using our super easy, low-prep Illustrated Children’s Moments you know the power of simply inviting children into the narrative of scripture. And maybe now you’re looking for a way to step up your game, feel more confident and have more fun while giving children’s sermons. So, we’ve put together a list of six tips that will help you do just that!

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Would you like a free Illustrated Children’s Moment from us CLICK HERE to download a FREE PDF that includes one of our Illustrated Children’s Moments. If you’d like to use it and try it out in worship, the children’s moment illustration is based on the RCL Hebrew Scripture passage for January 21, 2018.

Easy Prep for Amazing Children’s Sermons

One of my professors in seminary used to advise us against using steering wheel curricula. You know, the kind you can just open for the first time and read on your steering wheel while driving to church? So, let’s be clear. Low-prep doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter if you prepare. We’re all busy. But putting time and intention into your children’s sermons will make you feel more confident and deliver more to the children. So, how might you do this?

  • Read the lesson three days ahead. This is the only way to let your mind work on the lesson. First, it allows you time to become connected to the topic. Second, you give space for the Spirit to bring experiences into focus that may relate to the lesson. Third, if you’ll be printing your materials to use in your children’s sermon, do it now. Alternatively, if you’ll be using a device, be sure materials are downloaded and can be brought up without any glitch.

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  • Read the scripture before Sunday morning. It isn’t required that you read the scripture if you use our Illustrated Children’s Moments materials. However, your delivery of the lesson will only be improved if you have read and understood the scripture you’re teaching about. First, a few days before, read the scripture. Next, learn what was happening at the time when the community of faith would have been hearing this text.
  • Meditate and make associations of your own. So, you’ve read the scripture and understand some of its context. Now, ask yourself what stands out to you and what questions you have. This allows you to connect authentically to the text as well as to the process of discovery into which you’re inviting the children.
  • Invite other adults to get involved. A great way to engage the children’s attention is to rotate adults who give children’s sermons in worship. Additionally, this fosters intergenerational relationships within a faith community. And it offers you time for other demands and/or a break so you can remain excited about doing this part of your job.

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Considering the Children During Children’s Sermons

Giving children’s sermons can feel like an obligation to fulfill every Sunday morning. But, they don’t have to. They can provide a great opportunity to connect with children and teach them about God. In order to do that, we need to know them and their needs. And we must see them as an integral part of our faith community.

  • Target an age group. The fact is you aren’t going to be able to reach every child at their developmental level every week. This is partially because there simply isn’t much time. So, as you prepare, decide what age you’ll aim to connect to that Sunday. Incorporate specific examples and use language that will be relevant to that age group. In effect, you’ll meet each age group more effectively during your children’s sermons this way than trying to reach them all.
  • Avoid putting the children on display. Placing children on display up in front of the church is one more way we make them an accessory to the community. However, they are the community of faith just as we all are. How might we rethink this? For the children’s sermons, try inviting the kids to sit in the first couple of pews facing forward rather than on the floor or stage facing the congregation. Additionally, invite adult participation. Ask the congregation questions, for example. Get creative. Lastly, not only does this show respect to the children, it’s often helpful in quelling some of the performance impulse children may have being up in front of the congregation.

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You’re in a unique role that allows you the distinct opportunity to dig your fingers into the soil of children’s lives and plant seeds of God’s love. These seeds grow almost imperceptively, adding over the course of a lifetime beauty, meaning, rootedness and depth to the lives of the young ones whom you serve. Blessings of joy and vision as you do this invaluable work.

We hope these tips help you prepare for amazing children’s sermons. And if you’ve got tips of your own, don’t forget to share them with the ICM community in the comments section!