WATCH and WONDER

Kids tell John 11:38-44

 

WEEK 5 WORSHIP STATIONS

Our texts for this week were Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 11:38-44. Along with watching the two story videos, the worship stations focused on God “making all things new,” (Rev. 21:5). 
It was sort of a catch-all kind of night…as it was to be our last supper for the season, we wanted to incorporate something of Holy Week and Easter.

CREATIVE LISTENING While watching Ezekiel 37, kids were invited to draw in the aisle. I explained to them what I had experienced at the NEXT Church conference thanks to the incredible pastor/artist Shawna Bowman. At the close of my NEXT talk, as I told a personal story and Ecclesiastes 3, Shawna created. I wanted the kids to have something of this experience. We put paper and crayons down the center aisle, away we went!

 I think it was helpful that they had heard the story already the previous Sunday. It was also discussed in the children’s time during worship (though this somehow morphed momentarily into a discussion on zombies).

 

PRAYER WALL In our final week, we did not write down prayers…we offered prayer for prayers. Each person was invited to take down a few prayers from the wall and plant it in the soil in our flower pots. Flowers will be planted on top of the prayers. (At the Western Wall in Jerusalem, prayers are periodically removed and planted in the ground.) When planting, people were invited to  pray for others and ask God to make us all new. (I kept the stations a little more simple this week…watching two videos would occupy more time than usual.

STORY TIME Participants were invited to tell each other stories of Easter. (Yes, it’s that simple–just tell a story.)

GLOBAL PRAYERS At the right is a poster that I made with the kids at the start of Lent (in our Sunday school program)–the idea was taken from Flame: Creative Children’s Ministry. The poster was displayed above our “Global Prayers” station.

For our Global Prayers this week, participants were invited to coat the world with glitter-filled Mod Podge while thanking God for making all things new.

ROCK WORDS For our final week with our rocks, participants were asked to pick a rock word and take it home with them–placing it in a plastic Easter egg–to be hidden and found on Easter morning.

PATCHWORK “QUILT” Someone randomly dropped off a huge bag of paint chips for church school. We decided to make something new–a paper quilt. Everyone took a square and drew symbols of Easter. The quilt will be displayed on Easter morning.

LAST SUPPER We actually made this during our intergenerational education experience the previous week, but it was finished and displayed for the worship station time–and I just love it. Kids were invited to paint themselves into the Last Supper scene. I used three large canvas pieces and painted a table at the bottom and Jesus in the center. I then penciled in circles for heads (just to give some placement help to kids). I wasn’t in the room when they added themselves in (as well as a sun!)–when I saw their finished portraits, it took my breath away. This was a wonderful activity that definitely could have been done as a worship station. Because they are on canvas, we can always add another leaf to the table…I think Jesus would like that.

I am done with the children’s videos for a while, and going back to the story-learning blog format…but I am sure the kids will be back to tell more stories soon enough!