Good News for Teens

What a Church can offer teens as written by a teenager The Gospel Coalition recently posted 4 Things Teens Need From Your Church written by a teenager (an older one) it's a lovely clear call to check our priorities in how and why we run youth groups and interact with the teens in our church. …

A brief break from Acts

It's advent today So Christmas stuff is back on the table What's new for Christmas? This Sunday School lesson on Matthew. We only have one lesson this year on Christmas, so it feels like there's a lot to cover. On the plus side Biblical literacy is at its highest on the events of Christmas so …

I know I said I wasn’t posting but…

Safeguarding Tips from a parent and youthworker There is middle ground in the world of safeguarding: it lies somewhere between let-everyone-work-with-young-people-and-don't-bother-checking to the-bureaucracy-trap-where-no-one-is-allowed-in-the-church. A church needs a safeguarding policy and all church leaders and helpers need training to protect themselves and the kids - not negotiable. If you're not sure you're doing it right checkout …

High days and Holy Days

Holy Week Celebrations Worksheets and colouring and videos; oh my! For Palm Sunday Worksheet on Luke 19v28-44 Jesus Enters Jerusalem for 8-12's but could be adapted Jesus' Triumphal Entry colouring page for up to 7 years old This video for 4-11's God's Story: Palm Sunday And A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Jerusalem …

Easter plays

Teens and Drama Go together like eggs and chocolate So the thing about eggs and chocolate is you need the right combination. Chocolate shaped like eggs - great! Boiled chocolate - not-so-great. Here are a couple of Easter plays that work great when combined with teenagers. There's comedy, they're short enough to learn, you can …

Easter Gifts

There's more to Easter than eggs And here are some gifts to help show it  Kids, in my experience, ask a lot of questions. If you know a child between two and 10 you're undoubtably answering a lot of questions - and as frustrating as that can be; it's a fantastic thing! If you find …

Hang around:

There will be new stuff coming soon and there's plenty of good stuff already here I'm not posting anything new this week - my parents are coming to visit, I've recently started a mid-week preschool playgroup that requires a lot of planning, I've not been super organised and I've got some filling in the gaps …

Happy Lunar New Year

Thoughts on a Worldwide Christianity and how to open our eyes to it This weekend there will be celebrations all over the world - predominantly in Asian populations - because it is the Lunar New Year. Except here in Chicago we're celebrating next weekend; 'cos the cool kids show up late to the party?! I …

Black History Month

Rosa Parks The faith of the woman who helped change America February is Black History Month and the Disorganised Sunday School is celebrating by posting some info on excellent Black Christians; both historical and modern day. Too often the face of Christianity is 'some white guy' and we're viewed by many parts of the world …

A Certain Brightness

Depression and Hope and discussion starters According to the BBC 1-in-4 girls and 1-in-10 boys aged 14 show signs of depression. That means there's probably someone in your youth groups who is suffering. The good news is Jesus is Good News for all your young people. If you want to start the discussion off can …