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Psalms Coloring Posters for Lent

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Psalms Coloring Posters
Click to view the posters in more detail

Our Psalms Coloring Posters include nine unique coloring posters. The Psalms are from the Revised Common Lectionary (Year B) readings for Lent. Each of the illustrations highlights specific themes and emotions from the Psalm. The texts from the Psalms are also incorporated into the drawing.

So whether you’re looking for an intergenerational program, a communal art activity or something different to do for Lent this year, our Psalms Coloring Posters provide a creative, engaging and participatory way of engaging with faith during Lent.

Psalms Coloring PostersIn addition to the large physical coloring posters that we ship, we also offer the following products for Lent:

    • A digital version of the posters
    • 8.5 x 11 coloring pages of the illustrations (including a simplified 8.5 x 11 version of the coloring pages for those who prefer less detail to color)
    • Psalms Devotional Guide: This can be used, along with the 8.5 x 11 coloring pages, by individuals at home, or as an accompanying piece for churches who may wish to offer an intergenerational education opportunity focused around the Psalms Coloring Posters.

One of the great things about our Psalms Coloring Posters is that they can also be used anytime you wish, and are not uniquely tied to Lent. While the Psalms come from the RCL texts for Lent (Year B), these are also Psalms that can (and should!) be studied and read and illustrated and colored throughout the year. So it isn’t a problem if you don’t finish all the posters. You can now also use them another time for youth group, a Bible study on the Psalms or….who knows?! Get creative!

We hope you’ll take a few minutes to check out some additional details about our Psalms Coloring Posters below. You can also get a preview of the nine poster illustrations below.

DOWNLOAD PDF INFOGUIDE: If you don’t have time to read through this entire post right now, or if you’d like a PDF handout that you can print out and share with others, we’ve put together a detailed Infoguide about our Psalms Coloring Posters. You can download it here.

Why the Psalms?

When I was a kid, whenever I’d ask someone where in the Bible I should start reading, inevitably someone would say, “Alright. Close your Bible. Now open it up to about the halfway point. Start reading.”

If you do that, you’ll almost always end up in the Psalms.

Reading the Psalms as a kid was a way into scripture that allowed me to figure out that emotions were a good thing, and that we shouldn’t try to hide them from God. Reading the Psalms as a kid gave me words to express the feelings I had, and helped me to see that the authors of the Psalms struggled with many of the same things I struggled with.

The Psalms are a great source of theological creativity, depth, and wonder, and we’re excited to be able to offer children and people of all ages a way into the Psalms this year for Lent.

Psalms Used for our Psalms Coloring Posters

Below I’ve listed each of the posters with the accompanying scripture, as well as which days in Lent we would suggest using each of the posters. Again, we made these posters for use anytime during the year, but I’ve listed the proposed dates for Lent 2018.

  • Psalms Coloring PostersPoster 1: Psalm 25:1-10 (1st Sunday in Lent)
  • Poster 2: Psalm 22:23-31 (2nd Sunday in Lent)
  • Poster 3: Psalm 19 (3rd Sunday in Lent)
  • Poster 4: Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 (4th Sunday in Lent)
  • Poster 5: Psalm 51:1-12 (5th Sunday in Lent)
  • Poster 6: Psalm 31:9-16 (Palm Sunday/Liturgy of the Passion)
  • Poster 7: Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 (Maundy Thursday)
  • Poster 8: Psalm 22:1-22 (Good Friday)
  • Poster 9: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 (Easter)

Quality Poster Prints on Thick Paper

If you’re new to Illustrated Ministry, chances are you found out about us through our large coloring posters. Maybe you saw them at another church or community or saw photos on Facebook. We’ve had thousands of churches all around the world using our large coloring posters since 2015.

Part of the reason our posters are loved by so many is the quality of the posters themselves. We’ve gone through a few different types of paper with our coloring posters, and we are thrilled with the paper we’re currently using. In the past, we used a thick paper that had some coating on it, which happened to make the posters a little challenging to color with markers. However, the 32-pound paper we currently use works great with colored pencils, crayons, and markers. Since we made the switch, we have received zero complaints about coloring the posters.

When you buy the physical posters from us, you will receive the illustrations on an amazingly high-quality paper.

We currently ship to the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Since we have a large community of international customers, we also provide our poster illustrations as downloadable digital files. We know that for some folks, getting the digital files can be more convenient (and for some, it’s the only option). We are happy to provide that resource.

Ways to Use Our Psalms Coloring Posters

The creativity of our customers is amazing! We love seeing all of the creative ways that people use our posters in their ministries and communities. Below are just a few examples of some fun ways that our posters have been used by folks:

Advent Coloring Posters

Churches find our posters to be a slam dunk when it comes to intergenerational ministry. If you’re looking for ways to use these posters intergenerationally, here are a few ideas:

  • Host an all-ages education hour during Lent. Use our Psalms Devotional Guide as your curriculum for the class.
  • Host a weekly Lenten Soup & Salad Supper and incorporate coloring the posters into your time together.
  • Have your children’s ministry or youth ministry take a poster to a nursing home and color with the residents.
  • Leave the coloring posters out on tables during Fellowship/Coffee Hour after church for people to sit, color, and talk with one another.
  • Send posters (or cut-up portions of posters – see Crossroads Church of Kansas City’s photo above) home with families to work on at home. Then watch your poster come back together at church as people bring their finished pieces to church with them.

More Ways to Use Our Coloring Posters

There are so many beautiful ways to gather intergenerationally and color these posters. Here are some other ways that we know churches have used our posters:

  • Children’s Ministry: Find ways to incorporate the posters into your Sunday morning programs for children (whether that’s during Sunday School or during another time)
  • During Worship: Dedicate a portion of your worship space to allow young people (and those who are young at heart) to color during worship. We’ve heard this is a great way to enable children to engage with worship in a fun and creative way, and Lent is a great time to encourage people to try something new in worship.
  • Youth Ministry: Children aren’t the only ones who like to color. We’ve had hundreds of youth programs around the world use our coloring posters. Give your youth a ‘study break’ or just a chance to take a break from their regular crazy schedules and hang out and color.
  • College/campus ministries: We’ve also had many campus ministries use our coloring posters. And we’ve seen photos of our posters in some faculty lounges at colleges where professors have worked on a poster together!
  • Private/Parochial Schools: Some private Christian schools have purchased our posters and found ways to engage multiple classrooms in creating a collaborative art project. Use Lent this year as a chance to go through the Psalms as a school, and create art at the same time!

Let us know: How do YOU plan on using your Psalms Coloring Posters this year?

Psalms Coloring Posters

Psalms Coloring Posters

All of the details about available options, costs, and shipping can be found on our store here.

How Can I Find Out More Information About the Posters?

We hope you’re as excited about our Psalms Coloring Posters as we are. And we’d love to make sure you know precisely when we release them. Here are some ways that you can stay updated on the launch of our posters:

  • The best way to make sure you don’t miss any announcements from us is to download this free Infoguide. You’ll get the free PDF as a gift, and we’ll make sure you don’t miss out on anything.
  • Following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is another way to make sure you see our poster announcement. And besides, we have a lot of fun on social media, and we’d love for you to join us!
  • Finally – if you haven’t joined our Facebook GROUP yet (and yes, this IS different than our Facebook Page – which you should probably LIKE as well), I’d highly recommend it. Our Illustrated Ministry Community Facebook Group is a fantastic online community. People share ideas and examples of how they’re using our materials. We get a lot of great feedback and product ideas. Plus, there are exclusive discounts/promos given to our Facebook Group from time to time. You can request to join the group here.

Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters

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We are excited about our Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters, and we hope this post has helpful information for you as you begin your Lenten planning.

Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters

DOWNLOADABLE PDF: Don’t have time to read this blog post right now, but want to print it out? Would you like a PDF handout that you can take to your next staff or committee meeting to tell them about these Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters? Click here to download an Infoguide about the Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters.

If you aren’t familiar with the Stations of the Cross, or would like to learn more, you can find out some details about the history of them at Wikipedia here. One of the earliest versions of the Stations of the Cross may have begun around 1217 by St. Francis, who started the Custody of the Holy Land, a group that guarded and promoted the devotion to certain holy places. But it was around 1200-1500 when it was noticed that travelers to the Holy Lands followed a certain sacred route to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.

The Stations of the Cross allow us to follow Christ through his last few days, stopping to ponder and reflect along the way.

There is a rich visual history of the Stations of the Cross, and the stations have been painted, sketched, illustrated and drawn in some beautiful and creative ways. However, if you do a google images search for Stations of the Cross coloring sheets, you’ll see artwork that all looks very similar. There is not a child-friendly portrayal of the stations that we have been able to find. Additionally, because many of the versions we found online use the traditional form of the stations of the cross, many of the coloring sheets look very similar. In the traditional form, you have Jesus falling three times, Jesus meeting his mother, the women of Jerusalem, and Veronica wiping Jesus’ face, and these all end up producing almost visually-identical images.

We thought we could create something more creative and meaningful to both children and adults, and so we are excited about our launch of the Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters for Lent 2017.

In addition to the coloring posters, we have also created 8.5×11 coloring sheets of the illustration and a devotional guide – links are below:

  • Coloring Posters: Purchase a set of our physical coloring posters. We also have B&W and color digital versions available.
  • 8.5×11 Coloring Pages: Our 8.5×11 coloring pages also include a more simplified version of the illustrations for the youngest colorers.
  • Devotional Guide: Our devotional guide provides reflections and discussion questions for both children AND adults, as they work through the Stations of the Cross.

Below you can find some specific information about how we’ve decided to approach these coloring posters.

Stations of the Cross: Scriptural Form

The Illustrated Ministry community comes from over 45 different denominations, some of whom may not be familiar with the Stations of the Cross. We also felt more drawn to the scriptural form of the Stations of the Cross, which Pope John Paul II introduced as the Scriptural Way of the Cross on Good Friday 1991. The stations are listed below, along with their accompanying scripture reference:

  • Station 1: Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-41)
  • Station 2: Jesus, Betrayed by Judas, is Arrested (Mark 14:43-46)
  • Station 3: Jesus is Condemned by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71)
  • Station 4: Jesus is Denied by Peter (Matthew 26:69-75)
  • Station 5: Jesus is Judged by Pilate (Mark 15:1-5, 15)
  • Station 6: Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns (John 19:1-3)
  • Station 7: Jesus Bears the Cross (John 19:6, 15-17)
  • Station 8: Jesus is Helped by Simon the Cyrenian to Carry the Cross (Mark 15:21)
  • Station 9: Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-31)
  • Station 10: Jesus is Crucified (Luke 23:33-34)
  • Station 11: Jesus Promises His Kingdom to the Good Thief (Luke 23:39-43)
  • Station 12: Jesus Speaks to His Mother and the Disciples (John 19:25-27)
  • Station 13: Jesus Dies on the Cross (Luke 23:44-46)
  • Station 14: Jesus is Placed in the Tomb (Matthew 27:57-60)

We are also going to include a fifteenth station: the Resurrection of Jesus (Mark 16:1-6).

While the traditional form of the stations depict some stories that are taken from tradition, rather than from scripture, the scriptural form of the stations presents a version of this devotion that more closely aligned with the biblical accounts.

Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters

Our Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters are available as posters, and also as 8.5×11 coloring pages (and will be able to be purchased separately). For each of the fourteen stations, we have taken one word that highlights what is happening in the station, and used that word to focus our illustration and questions. In addition to our posters, our Stations of the Cross Devotional Guide will provide you with a quality resource that you can use to put together a creative and meaningful intergenerational program for Lent.

Since we knew that having 14 posters to color during Lent would be too much, we decided to put two stations on each poster, and they look like an open Bible to remind folks that these events and stations come out of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ last few days.

Details about posters: We will have seven 3′ x 2′ posters which will display the fourteen Stations of the Cross based off the scriptural form of the stations, and then we will have an eighth 3′ x 2′ poster for the 15th station, Resurrection, that can be incorporated into Holy Week or Easter Sunday.

Below you can see the poster designs included in this poster series (click on the image to see a larger version of the poster design):

Ideas for Using our Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters

We love seeing how churches, schools, and other communities decide to use our coloring posters. Below are just a few ideas for how you might be able to incorporate our Stations of the Cross coloring posters into your programs or communities:

  • Children’s Ministry: Find ways to incorporate the posters into your Sunday morning programs for children (whether that’s during Sunday School or during another time)
  • During Worship: Dedicate a section in your worship space to allow young people (and those who are young at heart) to color during worship. We’ve heard this is a great way to allow children to engage with worship in a fun and creative way
  • Youth Ministry: Children aren’t the only ones who like to color. We’ve had hundreds of youth programs around the world use our coloring posters.
  • Intergenerational ministry opportunities: By far, one of the most popular uses for our coloring posters is to create intergenerational worship and fellowship opportunities during Advent and Lent. Many churches do a Wednesday night Lenten supper program, or have weekly opportunities for gathering, and our coloring posters work great in those settings. Whether you just have the posters out on tables for people who are waiting to eat, or you create an entire program around the Stations of the Cross for an intergenerational group, you’ll be amazed at the conversations that can be had while multiple generations get together and color.
  • College/campus ministries: We’ve also had many campus ministries use our coloring posters and this would be a fun opportunity for a campus ministry to do during Lent.
  • Private/Parochial Schools: Some private Christian schools have purchased our posters and found ways to engage multiple classrooms in creating a collaborative art project. Many schools could use these Stations of the Cross coloring posters to create a really unique educational opportunity by creating art together.

We’ve found that some of the most creative ideas for how to use our products actually come from the churches and communities who use our materials. So, what are YOUR ideas?

How can I find out more information about our Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters?

Here are some places you can connect with us and get more info:

  • The best place to find out more about these products, as well as all the other resources and freebies we offer, is to get on our email list. You get a free sample pack of our products when you sign up here.
  • If you want a PDF Infoguide about our Stations of the Cross Coloring Posters to show you parish leadership or colleagues and friends, you can get that by clicking here.
  • We often offer promotions and discounts to our Facebook Group, and it’s a great place to learn more about how people are using our resources. We also get a lot of great ideas from our friends there. If you’d like to join our Facebook Group, you can do so here.