Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Art, Theology and Children


Ron Rienstra wrote a blog post about a display of children's art work he recently saw while visiting another church. Read more here.


Monday, November 17, 2008

Christmas Gifts for children

What do you give to the children at church at Christmas?
Here are a few ideas from children’s ministry directors in the Grand Rapids, MI area network:

• Last year we gave our kids a Christmas ornament that would remind them of the program. I found some reasonably priced ornaments on-line at Oriental Trading.

• I have been giving ornaments for the past 5 years. I order from CTAinc.com which has nice ornaments for $1- pewter ones for $3. I also order from orientaltrading.com. This gives the children a collection of ornaments and they can remember their growing up years in church.

• Creative Communications for the Parish has wonderful advent calendars—a picture with 25 windows to open. They are cheap and the families love them. You have a choice of several designs and sizes.

• We gave kids Christmas ornament kits to assemble at home, made from brightly colored old Christmas cards. There are directions here.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Faith Formation Committee

The Faith Formation Committee has a new web site. Check out it out: www.crcna/faithformation


Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Christmas Gifts

Here is an article I recently wrote about Bible Storybooks for our church newsletter. Feel free to copy it!


Bible storybooks or Christian magazines make great gifts for your child or grandchild! Surround children with stories about our God. Here are some ideas for young children:

o The Little Christian is a new magazine coming out in January. Each issue, which comes in the mail, includes a Bible story, a page using sign language, a faith based story and other ways to enrich your child’s faith. A subscription of 10 issues is $24.95. Subscriptions are available at: www.thelittlechristian.org

o The Read Aloud Bible Story Books Volume 1, 2, 3 and 4 by Ella Lindvall and H. Kent Puckett are great for reading to young children or for early readers. The language and large pictures easily engages children. Each book contains 5 stories. Cost: $14.99 per book

o God Love Me series by Patricia Nederveld contains 52 books. Each book includes a Bible story, a prayer and suggestions for activities to further think about the Bible story. The books can be purchased separately or in groups. Cost: $2.95 per book available at Faith Alive Christian Resource (www.faithaliveresources.org or call 1-800-333-8300)

For Elementary children:

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name by Sally Lloyd-Jones and illustrated by Jago. Each story told in this book points toward Jesus. Each story “vividly illustrated as it is portrayed, but also each tale is telling one Big Story—the Story of Jesus. Even the Old Testament stories of ‘The young hero and the horrible giant’ and ‘Daniel and the scary sleepover’ come full circle to Jesus, the greatest Hero, King, Lover and Rescuer the world has ever known.” More to Life Magazine. Cost: $16.99