Blog - Illustrated Children's Ministry

Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible – A Review

Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible is one of so many children’s Bibles. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the variety and unsure which is best for your bookshelf. So, here at ICM, we’ve compiled our thoughts in this blog series where we’ll be reviewing some of today’s most popular children’s Bibles. Once you find your fave children’s Bible, check out our post on ways of reading scripture with your kids to get the most out of it!

Growing in God's Love

Quick Facts about Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible

Editors: Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Carol A. Wehrheim
360 Pages
Age Range: 4-8 years old
Storybook format (a retelling of some of the Bible)
Dimensions: 7.2 x 1 x 9 inches
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (2018)

Growing in God's Love

A Closer Look

There’s no perfect choice for all children everywhere or even for your own child. Each children’s Bible is a mix of aspects to love as well as those that invite palm to forehead moments. In this series of reviews, we’ll always include what we believe to be the pros and cons of each Bible and whether or not we’d recommend it to our friends. So, let’s dive in and take a closer look at Growing in God’s Love: A Story Bible.

Pros of Growing in God’s Love

Engaging Illustrations: Twenty-one illustrators, all listed near the back of the Bible, created illustrations in a wide range of styles. They’re vibrant and dynamic and most are large enough to make for effective storytelling to a group.

Appropriately Illustrated Characters: Figures are shown with olive skin and dark hair, honoring the Bible’s Middle Eastern context.

Table of Contents Included: Having a table of contents is a plus, especially if a child has favorites they like to return to repeatedly. The stories are grouped by theme, making for connections that may not be obvious when reading canonically ordered Bible stories.

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Digestible Story Length: The stories, which are retold compilations of several verses or chapters, are short. This aspect makes it easy to hold the attention of young readers.

Classic Stories and Beyond Included: All the classic stories you’d hope for from a children’s Bible are included here. This exposes children to the foundational texts of the faith. Additionally, texts not usually seen in children’s Bibles are here, too. Special attention is paid to include stories about women.

Non-Gendered Language: Throughout the stories, the editor refers to the Divine as God, neither male nor female. Children can then imagine God more expansively and are more likely to understand that, no matter their sex, they are made in God’s image.

Nameplate Included: A nameplate page is included for gifting the bible to a child. A parent, children’s director, teacher or family member would appreciate this.

Reflection Questions Included: At the end of most stories, Hear, See and Act questions encourage the children to explore. These neither moralize or editorialize the story but simply invite participation.

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Cons of Growing in God’s Love

Unfamiliar Story Titles: Story titles are different than those children will almost always hear and see in Bibles. This can make it difficult for them to transition between Bibles.

Medium Font Size: The font size is on the small side for children new to reading, making it difficult for them to read it on their own. This will likely require parents to read until children are confident readers.

Grouped Stories by Theme: While this quality is also listed as a pro, it may make it somewhat difficult to locate a particular story you’re searching for.

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Conclusion

Children’s Bibles are all different, each with good qualities. Growing in God’s Love has a lot going for it. Stories are a digestible length and illustrated beautifully and with attention to cultural context. Stories both classic and less frequently read to children are there, including more stories about women than usual. A nameplate makes for a personal touch. Reflection questions and non-gendered language for the Divine help challenge children to reflect on God, scripture and their own lives.

On the other hand, the unfamiliar story titles, medium font size, and the way stories are grouped by theme may detract from Growing in God’s Love. However, the pros far outweigh the cons of this children’s story Bible.

On the whole, this is a fantastic resource for anyone raising or serving children. We’d definitely recommend it to our friends.

We hope this review has been helpful and has given some food for thought. Share what children’s Bibles you have and love in the comments below!

7 Ways Art Helps Teens Make Sense of The World

Alissa Ellett 4 Comments

Wondering how art helps teens? There are countless ways we all benefit from art-making. And adolescents are no different.

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Of course, no two teens are the same and, therefore, will not experience creating art in the same way. However, they are in a particular place in development. Because of the changes happening during this stage, we can make generalizations about what is helpful. By incorporating art into ministry, you assist your students in sharing their experience and making sense of their world.

Want to win a FREE set of our large coloring posters!? Keep reading to the bottom to find out how you can win a free set!

How Art Helps Teens: Understanding Their Development

How art helps teens is better understood when we first explore how they are developing. So, let’s dive into just a few of the new ways they’re experiencing life.

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Teens move from concrete to abstract thinking. As children, we are concrete thinkers. Then, once we hit adolescence we can think in metaphor and hypotheticals. Additionally, we become more aware of our internal world. We can name and express what is unseen.

Because of this major shift in cognition, youth begin to feel unsure of themselves and uncertain about their place in the world. However, this is also that which makes it possible for teens to make sense of the shift through art. Thus, offering them a way to feel more stable in the midst of transformation.

Offer teens space to respond to open-ended prompts. For example, invite them to draw what they think of when they hear a particular Bible verse or how they would depict God to someone who had never heard of anything spiritual before.

Teens are doing the work of identity formation. As babies, we see ourselves as a part of everything and everyone else. As we develop as children we start to understand our separateness. Then, as adolescents, we become capable of self-reflection, which separates us from this unity that with all else we’ve always felt.

This is an important change for teens to go through that involves searching and individuation. They test out various personas and behaviors before they find the ones that feel most true to themselves. They learn who they are, what they like and don’t, how they show up in the world comfortably, what excites them and how they are unique.

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How art helps teens make sense of who they are is clear when they are given opportunities for self-expression. Any creative activity that asks them to tell a part of themselves or an extension of who they are (relationships, community, home life, faith, family) will offer a venue for this. For example, provide magazines for them to create collages about their values or how they would describe themselves. Alternatively, give them time with music on to draw or paint symbols that tell about an aspect of their life.

Teens have an increased ability to think critically and make connections. Although this ability doesn’t become fully functional until we are in our mid-twenties, teens are beginning to see the world in a more complex way. By the time we reach high school, we can understand the ways systems are at work, for example. From our family system to our solar system, we have a broader sense of the interdependent nature of all things.

As youth begin to see in more complex ways how their world works, they often begin to feel a sense of injustice and frustration. Part of their journey of maturation is noticing painful things that need to change. Although this is difficult, it also creates passion and motivation to take initiative. This can take several forms. From one’s own family to one’s own nation. Look at the teens leading the fight against gun violence as just one example!

Amidst this increased awareness, one way of offering youth a space to make sense of it concretely is through art. One way of doing this is by inviting them to draw their feelings and then discuss them. Alternatively, youth can create art around a single topic they see in their own community that needs addressing. Then, invite them to discuss ways they feel called by God to respond to the systemic pain together.

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Why Art?

There are several ways teens make sense of their world. They need different avenues for expression in order to find their way. But art is a unique gift to them.

First, art allows for absolute personal preference to reign supreme. Youth are given the freedom to create what they want to. So many young people are plagued by peer pressure as well as familial expectations. Art can be a way for them to find themselves without the weight of what they assume others want from them.

Second, art helps what is not yet or may never be processed verbally to still have expression. For teens especially, there is much they’re experiencing for which they don’t yet have language. However, they need to have some way of getting what is internal out. Art offers that to them.

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Third, art is intuitive and is neither right nor wrong. This is helpful for them in their own development of self and valuing their own preferences. Additionally, in a world that becomes increasingly polarized, encouraging people to identify with rigid perspectives, art gives youth a way of experiencing the multiplicity of truth.

Fourth, art is something that we often let go of early in our lives. We were likely told at some point that we weren’t good at it, and we then gave it up. So, when teens begin making art they recover parts of themselves they haven’t visited for a long time. Reliving our own experiences of childhood can bring about an openness to hope and creativity, the divinity that is in all and through all, that we sometimes lose sight of as we age.

We hope this has given you some renewed or newfound excitement around the use of art in your ministry. If you’re looking for an easy way to explore art with your youth, check out our coloring posters. And we’d love to hear from you. So, don’t forget to share in the comments below how your faith community is incorporating art!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO WIN A SET OF COLORING POSTERS Just click on the link below to enter the drawing for free posters! Enter here.

5 Ways of Getting More Young Families to Church on Sunday

Alissa Ellett Leave a Comment

Getting more young families to church. If you’re like most ministry leaders, you’ve found yourself sitting around a meeting table discussing the topic. And if those in the meeting are honest, these conversations are often motivated by the fear that your church may be dying. More young families in church would save it… right?

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Let’s Think Big Picture Here

Well, first, it’s short-sighted to think some quick fixes geared toward one demographic will save any church or the Church. Second, young families want, most of all, to be a part of a thriving, loving community of generous, kind, broken, real people.

And really, that’s about church health on the whole. No one wants to be targeted and captured for the benefit of an institution, particularly GenXers and Millennials.

Stop having conversations about attracting young families to benefit the church, hoping for a good return on investment from the young families. Instead, consider the ways your church can simply give of itself. Your church, after all, is the body of Christ, and, therefore, called to offer itself to the world with abandon.

Though compelling programming is important, alone it is not enough to feed souls. We are over-scheduled, over-stimulated, and overwhelmed by our activities and options. No one needs another empty product to consume. What we need now more than ever is an authentic connection, which comes through sharing the beauty and mess of life together.

Perhaps your church has done its work along the way to remain malleable to the Spirit’s leading into this kind of ministry. Maybe your church regularly resists its impulse to insulate and maintain what’s always been. Maybe instead your church makes open doors and open hearts a part of its consistent culture.

If so, hooray! Such a practice of humility is truly a victory! I cannot overstate this. It takes profound surrender to God and letting go of what the ego clings to for safety. And guess what? With such a culture in place, it’s now time for small tweaks.

First, big love. Then, small tweaks.

If your church is ready for small tweaks, let’s get to it! How might you cater to young families’ needs out of simple, genuine care for them?

DOWNLOAD and SHARE: This is the perfect type of article to share with your volunteers, Sunday school teachers and colleagues! You can download a PDF copy of this blog post by clicking here.

More Young Families Starts with Understanding

Becoming familiar with the lives of young families sheds light on what they need and hope for. In my years of ministry, families often said the same things over and over. This was consistent no matter the church I was serving. And now, as a parent myself, I can relate to what they shared.

I’ve honed the list and compiled five things parents commonly say and how you all, as ministry leaders, can take them seriously. There are countless ways to connect with more young families on these. To get you started, I’ve listed just a few for each.

Young Families at Church Arrive Pretty Stressed

more young families

Young families struggle to get out the door no matter what they’re headed to. It just comes with the territory. Every parent I talk to has their stories depicting the circus that morning outings produce in their family. Sunday mornings are no different. Families arrive at church often feeling frazzled and on edge. So, how can the church be hospitable in light of this to more young families?

First, mark buildings clearly and display signage prominently. Make the fonts large and simple enough for children to read. Feeling lost when already irritable and tired is no good.

Second, assign volunteers to simply keep an eye out for young families who could use some help. Perhaps it’s a matter of helping the single parent wrangle their children. Or maybe it’s asking whether they’d like to have a cup of coffee brought to them if they didn’t make it there before sitting down for worship.

Third, make activities available for children during worship, even if they may go to Sunday school. Looking for a resource? Check out our children’s bulletins here. Or read more at our post about engaging and welcoming children in worship here.

Fourth, when possible, invite parents to volunteer in ways that do not require them to arrive early to church.

More Young Families Feel Loved When Their Kids Are Loved

During my daughter’s first year of life, I took time off of ministry. I attended church as a congregant for the first time in years and learned so much. One of the experiences that still stands out to me is a brief and simple encounter. The nursery director remembered my daughter’s name after we’d attended once and then not been back for weeks. I felt loved because my daughter was special to her.

As ministry leaders, it is our job to bring aboard staff and volunteers who are genuine in their care for children. Those who are interacting with young families need to feel called to offer them love and support. It is obvious to families when this isn’t the case.

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What are a few ways this love is communicated? First, like in my daughter’s case, remember names. Make available the tools necessary to do this. Perhaps take a Polaroid of each child to put with their registration card. Or, if you use an app, include a digital photo of the child’s information there.

Second, include children in the life of the church rather than making them an accessory to it. Invite children to read scripture, talk about their experience of God, how they’re loving others in their lives. If your church is one that uses Godly Play, invite one of the children to be the preacher for the morning by telling their favorite story from the curriculum.

Third, create a worship atmosphere that is tolerant and even celebratory of children being children. Babies cry. All need to be understanding and patient about this fact, particularly during the sermon. Alternatively, provide a space for parents to go with their fussy kids that’s inviting and stimulating. Ideally, make it possible for parents to continue listening to the service.

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Or, when a child says something or asks a question during church aloud respond, if it’s appropriate to do so, with gratitude and respect.

Also, provide a space for mothers to nurse privately that’s not the bathroom stall, preferably where they can still hear the service. Babies deserve a peaceful place to enjoy their meals, like we all do.

Young Families Consider Relationships Very Important

Life moves fast. It seems jobs move friends every few years, technology isolates us from one another and schedules demand from us warp speed. In this landscape, feeling connected can be difficult. Extended families are more rarely living in close proximity, parents work long hours, kids are slammed with hours of homework and extracurriculars.

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And yet, our need for community hasn’t changed. We still need to be needed, cared for, noticed, known. We need shared experiences with others, friends to rely on, witnesses to our lives. Recently, a friend of mine reposted something on social media he’d seen: “No one ever talks about Jesus’ miracle of having 12 close friends in his 30s.” This hits home for a lot more young families than one might assume. And raising children can be lonely.

How might you consider all of this and take action in your church?

First, make it easy for parents to attend small groups. If possible, make small groups on Sunday mornings an option. Parents often have a hard time getting out on weeknights. Provide childcare. There are parents who go it alone, for one reason or another. This keeps a connection with other parents accessible for all. Additionally, children then form friendships.

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Second, try pairing families with an older couple in the church. Perhaps they do dinner together once a month or sit together at church. Younger families need intergenerational connections. Parents could use support and perspective. And children benefit from the stories they hear and memories they make with older adults. Moreover, children with adults in their lives who are living their faith will be more likely to hold their faith close as they age.

Third, be sure a pastor and/or ministry leader is reaching out regularly to young families. This may seem simple and insignificant. But it goes a long way in creating a sense of value and belonging.

Big Love, Little Tweaks

Start with open doors and hearts. Let go of what’s always been done. Move with the Spirit and live life as a family of faith, pouring into the lives of others. More young families will come if that’s your only agenda. And then, how do you love them well? Make it easy, love their kids and give them spaces to connect deeply.