communion crafts revisted

Ok...communion crafts. . .

Make bread, break bread, eat it, share it...
Find out all you can about bread. Once, it was a staple.

Age appropriately, talk about the role bread played in the culture of the people in the scriptures from gathering the seed to planting to harvesting to storing to grinding to baking and eating ...talking about the market would be another topic for another story.

Visit a vineyard. Learn about grapes & find out how wine is made. Again, age appropriately explore the process that the people of the scriptures were familiar with from planting to tending to harvesting to making and drinking the wine. Invite a vinedresser or take a field trip. Where did they get the plants to start with? Wine represents the blood of Christ...

We live in a culture vastly separated from the process and hands-on interaction with the foods that nourish our bodies. People in ancient cultures (even my culture 50 years ago) were on more intimate terms, if you will, with the life of the things they ate and drank. Why did Jesus choose bread and wine? Why not fish and water? Herbs, salt? Or lamb? I don't know...

Learn about blood...

Learn about blood in the scriptures or as part of Jewish tradition...Learn about the role of wine & bread in the scriptures.

Make a clay challis and a clay plate.

Act out the story... talk about how all the characters are related - the experiences they shared over the three years they spent together. . .How much did they see each other? What did they do together? How long is three years to your audience? Is there someone you've known for 3 years? Is there someone you've known for 3 years who has had as dramatic an affect on your life as Jesus did?

The men with Jesus celebrated Passover every year of their lives. What was that like? How was this time different? What did Jesus say to them?

If a friend asks to use a room in your house what do you do to get ready?

Any of these possibilities with give you more material than you were looking for. You can either explore it on your own first and think about what you might want to focus on with the particular group you have. Or go in cold with your kids and offer open-ended questions for your kids so they can ponder and share their experience with one another and see what God shows you that you didn't see before.

In it's simplest form? God is Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Jesus is God. God the Father made man and grain and grapes. He gives us food to eat. He gave Jesus, His own Son to us. Jesus said, This is my body, this is my blood. Eat it and remember me. He said Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no part in me...wait...that wasn't the communion story. I'm paraphrasing. Go back to the text...

...but you get the idea...if you want to catch a grain harvest or grain planting or  grape pruning or grape harvest you have to plan ahead and time your field trips or speakers to catch the process in season...like now...

from Brian Maddux: Children's Ministry Live. Podcast interviews with experts in the area of Children's Ministry. I believe he has finished two interviews and has 3 more scheduled so far. He's just starting out - interviewing experts in the area of Children's Ministry.

Actually, I think the link you want is his sitemap

Check it out!

Another blog for you. Tainted Canvas. I'm a lousy business person (not into marketing. music, worship, yes...) but I found this post worth reading as an expression of "emergent" thinking...

If you don't follow David Wakerley at kidinspiration (Hillsong) check it out and add your comments. He recently posed a question that started an interesting discussion: "Should we be teaching/telling our kids the ultra-violent stories found in the Old Testament?" You'll find some good comments & diverse points of view.

I find that very much a cultural question but a pivotal question, if you will. I'd venture to say that our answers reflect the role scripture plays in our lives, in our world views, and how we wrestle with them when culture as we know it clashes with our faith. I'm not condoning violence nor am I condoning picking and choosing what we take from the scriptures and what we ignore. How we share those stories with kids reflects how we perceive children...but the wrestling is an on-going process if you're willing to wrestle with God.

Having those particular questions to wrestle with is indicative of something much much bigger that I'm trying very hard to get my head around and maybe when I do I'll try to put it into words and post more...

...go check it out...he also has a great list of resources...

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Not the best lighting but here is a picture of all 3 variations on the last post:

yellow tissue paper
white printer paper
green wrapping paper

Hopefully, they don't look like they're hanging...I mean they are...but. . . you can also tie the string around their waist & behind their arms and knot it well above the hat then it looks like someone is hoisting them up up up ...

If the wind doesn't cooperate you can take something big and flat and make your own...or blOw...or use a hair dryer... you get the idea...or do it during your windiest season . . .

Too much wind and they get pretty worked up...if it weren't for the tape and the screen they'd probably just blow away like Elijah did ...

You can also make kites and use kites during kite-flying season to talk about the wind and the Holy Spirit...