When I was a kid, you could always find me with a sketchbook and pencils and my yellow case of 36 Pentel Pens (did anyone else have that same case?). I loved drawing and would spend hours drawing people, illustrating stories I wrote and working through my Draw Squad book from 1988.
I started drawing again around the same time that I was struggling in a full-time ministry call that just wasn’t a good fit for me. Just over a year ago, I quit my job, spent the summer reflecting on where God was calling me next, and in September of 2015, I launched Illustrated Children’s Ministry.
As a parent myself, I knew that it was difficult to find materials that I would want to use with my son to talk about faith. I have a four-year-old son. Just the idea of saying to him, “Alright buddy, we are going to sit down and talk about our faith for a few minutes right now, okay?” reminds me of when my mom used to try and schedule Character Development Time with my sister and me after school when we were young.
No. Thank. You.
But what I can do is ask Caleb if he wants to do some coloring with me. As we sit on the floor and color a Bible illustration together, I can ask him some questions about that Bible story. We can discuss the word that might be in the middle of some of our coloring sheets or posters.
I started creating resources that would help us have real conversations about faith and life. Now, families around the country and the world are doing the same.
Families have shared photos with us of their kids sitting around a table coloring and talking about faith with their parents – both during Advent and Lent, and with our summer curriculum that was designed for parents to be able to talk about faith with their kids throughout the summer in a casual, fun way.
Because again, having a 4.5 year old myself, I know that while it is hard to find the resources, it is even harder to find the time to have these types of conversations with our kids. That is why our devotions for families are meant to be able to be done over dinner, on a car ride, at home while getting ready for bed, or any other time that you find yourself with a few minutes.
If you’re interested in getting some free coloring sheets and samples of our materials, please check out our website here. We just released fall worship activity sheets for kids (useful for families and churches). To learn more, sign up for our newsletter.
While Illustrated Children’s Ministry started out primarily to resource pastors and church educators, we’ve made a difference in the family ministry world as well. It’s been exciting to resource families and caregivers with quality materials that are theologically rich, not cheesy and fun to do together as a family.
Editor’s note: This is not a sponsored post, and we have no affiliate relationship with Illustrated Children’s Ministry. We just thought it was a resource our readers might like to discover.
What shared activities help you talk about faith with kids in daily life?
Great ideas, thank you all!