We have created a list of resources for the youth, kids and Family in your life! Read more..
We have created a list of resources for the youth, kids and Family in your life!
Children
Illustrated Ministry – There are a plethora of Lenten Resources available for immediate download for families and churches, such as:
- A family devotional guide
- Church worship resources
- Ash Wednesday meditation
- Burying the Alleluia coloring page
- Easter Pageant
- Lots of other coloring pages
- Little Way Chapel Lent Bundle – For only $15, families can immediately download three devotional guides for Lent, Holy Week, and Stations of the Cross. The guides include simple daily practices, prayers, and coloring sheets. The guides are simple and beautiful, giving parents language and stories to help young children make sense of Lent.
- 40 Days of Scratch Off Prayers – Download the prayer grid then cover each box with one of these scratch off stickers. Starting on Ash Wednesday, kids scratch off one of the squares with a coin and follow the prompt to pray for that group of people.
Youth
- Lent Madness – A fun and engaging way to get to know some of the amazing people who comprise the Church’s Calendar of Saints. 32 saints are placed into a tournament-like bracket. Eliminations are made until a winner is awarded the Golden Halo. Learning about the saints and participating in the fun is a great devotion to add during Lent.
- Lenten Micropractices – A micropractice is a short introduction to a spiritual practice. During Lent, we typically focus on praying, fasting, or alms giving. These daily micropractices cycle through each of these themes and give you a sample of new ways to engage and connect with God and others. For $5, you can download a beautiful booklet with 47 micropractices to get you through Lent.
- Lent Playlist: 40 Songs for 40 Days – A list of sacred and secular songs to accompany a Lenten journey. A new song for each day from artists ranging from Bruce Springsteen to Maggie Rogers to Thomas Tallis.
Families
- SALT – Starting at $10 each, SALT offers several downloadable Lenten Devotionals with beautifully designed and fun themes such as a “Flower Power” calendar and devotions based on the poetry of Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, or Emily Dickinson. My favorites for families are the “Love Builds Up” Lenten Family Challenge, Breaking the Chains Family Devotional, and Bless This Mess Lenten Calendar.
- Bake With the Bible – A 6-week curriculum on bread that journeys through the Gospels as your family can discover the nearness of God in your hands and your bellies! Each weekly lesson includes a recipe, discussion questions, Scriptural and cultural-historical lesson, and book recommendations for further study. You can choose from a children’s version or a self-guided teen/adult version. Or get the Family Bundle! For about $25, you can get an immediate download of the curriculum.
Book Recommendations
- What We Do in Lent by Anne E. Kitch – Geared for ages 4-7, this book is filled with activities and Lenten devotionals to help children journey through Lent.
- Make Room: A Child's Guide to Lent and Easter by Laura Alary – Make Room presents Lent as a special time for creating a welcoming space for God. Simple and practical activities such as baking bread, having a neighbor over for dinner, uncluttering your room, and watching less TV become acts of justice and kindness, part of a life of following and imitating Christ, and a way to make room for God in our lives and in the world around us.
- Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gayle Boss – Spend your journey through Lent learning about 25 animals who are in danger of extinction. Being drawn into their stories helps us awaken to a greater compassion. Deepening our love for other creatures can help us deepen our love for each other, and to lean into the possibilities of wild hope.
Children in Worship During Lent
- Service Handouts – These handouts for Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday do a great job of explaining these rich, serious, and sometimes confusing services to children.
- Ash Wednesday Service – Ash Wednesday can be an especially formative service for children to attend. When children see with their eyes the adults they love and respect wearing ashes and they themselves are also marked with ashes, they know they belong and that they are one of God’s people. Because we are all marked not with golden markers but with messy black ashes, children learn that all of us mess up and are forgiven. In a world where they are constantly told they can do better and can make good choices and should be special, this is important life-shaping information. This article gives some ideas for how to engage children more in your Ash Wednesday Service.
- Stations of the Cross Nature Walk – This liturgy takes children on an interactive nature walk in their neighborhood, as they journey with Jesus toward the cross. Each station has scripture, prayer, a discussion question, and an activity.
- Interactive Holy Week – Get inspired by reading about how one church incorporated more sensory and interactive elements into Holy Week to help children enter into the story told by the Triduum.
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