Illustrated Ministry

Progressive Faith Resources for the Church & Home

You are here: Home / Archives for An Illustrated Earth

An Illustrated Earth

Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters Available to Order

7 Comments

posters1_1024x1024

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!

Summer Sunday School: What’s a church to do?

6 Comments

Summer Sunday SchoolHaving served churches in Idaho, California, Oregon and Illinois, I can predict the conversations that many of you are having about summer Sunday School during staff meetings now that we’re in the post-Easter era of the church calendar year. That conversation might go something like this:

Senior Pastor (SP): So, what do we have planned for summer Sunday School?

Children’s Pastor (CP): Yah…we’re still trying to decide if we are going to offer something.

SP: Okay – but we want to continue to offer something for our children during worship, because if we don’t, young families will just stop coming to worship during the summer.

CP: Right – but even when we offer something – people don’t come. Or we might get 1-2 kids one week, 3 the next week, and none the week after that. Besides, our teachers need a break after teaching throughout the school year.

SP: Okay – well, we can just get the youth to do it. The youth can just teach, right?

Youth Pastor:  . . .
(the youth pastor says nothing, but simply loves the fact that the youth just got volunteered for something else in the church that no one else wants to do)

SP: Okay – scratch that. Well, what are we going to do?

CP: Honestly? I don’t know. We have the same conversation every year. The year that we decided to give teachers a break, which they deserved, and didn’t offer anything for children, some parents complained that there wasn’t anything for their kids to do, and so they didn’t want to come to church. But then the next year, when we did offer a summer Sunday School program for children, our teachers got burned out and weren’t very excited about starting up again in the fall for Kickoff Sunday. Besides, they would often put in a decent amount of prep time, gathering supplies, learning a lesson, making copies, etc., and then only little Jimmy would be there. And we all love little Jimmy…and little Jimmy loves this church – but that’s a hard place for a kid to be – the only kid there with the teachers? Who wants to be that kid?

SP: Okay – great. So, what I hear you saying is that we ARE going to have summer Sunday School?

Summer Sunday School

I’ve sat through this conversation so many times. And it’s not an easy one. I don’t think churches want to make program decisions that will cause kids and families to not want to come to worship in the summer. But it’s really hard to convince people to do summer Sunday School when you don’t know if people will be there or not, and it is often hard to find reliable Sunday School teachers for the summer.

So a church can decide to do nothing, and just accept the fact that they may see families less during the summer, or they can decide to put together a summer program, and then be frustrated when families don’t come and deal with frustrated teachers who have prepped lessons for no one.

I know there are some churches out there who have found creative solutions to this problem, and if you are one of those, I’d love for you to share some of your findings in the comments below. Or maybe you’re a church that is right in the middle of trying to figure out this decision for your community. Let us know what factors you’re considering as you think about this issue.

Little to no prep, flexible, adaptable and fun

Now, if only there was someone who was working on a curriculum that would be flexible, adaptable, fun and hopefully something that would require little to no prep for teachers. Something that a teacher could simply walk in and lead without having to spend time throughout the week prepping for a lesson. Something that would be a fun experience for 5 kids if they showed up one Sunday, and something that wouldn’t cause the teacher any frustration if no one came the next Sunday, because they didn’t have to work on getting the lesson ready.

If only there was someone who was going to announce a curriculum just like this next week (if you want to get updates, you might want to click here).

If only there was someone who was going to let everyone know that this curriculum would be called An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation.

If only the curriculum was going to come with giant coloring posters.

Genesis__Separation_of_the_Water

If only…