Celebrate Lent In Your Children’s Ministry

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission from purchased products at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

Enjoy these budget-friendly ideas to celebrate Lent in your children’s ministry. From storytelling to crafts and follow-through activities.

The season of Lent is such an important and special time in the life of a church. Regardless of doctrinal specifics, believers worldwide have a great opportunity to join together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus each year. No matter the size of your congregation, your small church can create special moments for your children to make important connections to Jesus that they can remember all year long. Keep reading for budget-friendly Lent ideas for your small church’s children’s ministry.

Understanding The Story Of Lent

The word Lent itself refers to the lengthening of days as winter changes to spring. The Christian observance of Lent spans forty days – excluding Sundays – before Easter. For Christians, the Lenten season is a time to focus on repentance, renewal, and hope. It is a great time to focus on the love of Jesus in your children’s ministry.

Tips For Telling The Story

Kids love a good story. And the story of Jesus is the best story of all! While the scripture focuses of Lent rotates through a three-year cycle, the main points of each week stay the same – fasting and prayer, the family of God, life-giving words, believing God’s Word, and following Jesus.

Holy Week –– the week between Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday –– carries many, many stories of Jesus during the week before His crucifixion. These stories include Jesus’ triumphal entry, Jesus cleansing the Temple, Judas trading his loyalty for thirty pieces of silver, Mary anointing Jesus’ feet, Passover and the Last Supper, Jesus’ death, and the resurrection.

Shorter Stories Benefit Your Children’s Ministry

A fun way to help kids understand and pay attention is to break the story into small parts.

• One of the good things about breaking the larger story into parts is it makes the big-picture story last longer. Lasting longer means you don’t have to purchase as much curriculum. And is a great way to save planning time as well because you have your lessons already pre-planned.

The stories of Holy Week break very easily into short stories. A little advanced planning and Holy Week stories alone can take up quite a few weeks, even a couple of months.

• Kids have short attention spans. A shorter story helps them get more out of it. They can remember more details.

A good rule of thumb for the lesson length is to keep the “listening” part of the lesson to about a minute for each year of age. Add interactive questions and activities, and you can keep their attention a little bit longer.

• Each lesson allows for a review of previous lessons. This review helps to cement the stories into the kids’ minds more fully.

Be sure to include lots of questions for the kids to answer. Review questions help get the information into kids’ minds through multiple streams – they hear them, say them, and think about them. Kids also love the opportunity to tell what they know. They will be eager to answer the questions and happy to have someone listen to what they have to say.

Include Movement In Children’s Ministry as another means to help your children stay engaged in your lesson.

Crafts To Celebrate Lent In Your Children’s Ministry

A perfect way for your small church’s children’s ministry to share the story of Jesus’ resurrection is through crafts. Kids learn best by doing. The more of their senses the lesson includes, the more connections kids’ brains make and the more likely they are to remember what the lesson is about. The good news is, that crafts don’t have to be expensive or fancy. There are creative ways to make these simple, inexpensive crafts for the stories of the days of Lent.

Stained Glass Crosses

All you need for this craft is some self-laminating sheets and tissue paper. A hole punch and ribbon are optional.

• Cut cross shapes out of the self-laminating sheets. Each child will need two cross shapes.
• Be sure to draw a thick border about a ¼-½ inch from the edge of the cross.
• Have kids tear small pieces of tissue paper and stick them to the sticky side of one cross. Be sure to stay inside the border.
• Take the other cross and place it sticky side down on top of the tissue paper to seal the cross.
• If desired, punch a hole in the top, tie the ribbon in a loop through the hole, and hang the cross in a window.

Torn-Paper Cross Scene

This craft requires different colors of construction paper and glue sticks.

• Pass out one sheet of construction paper for each child to use as a background. Color does not matter.
• For younger children, provide pre-cut shapes of a semi-circle, arch, circle, three crosses, etc.
• For older children, allow them to cut or tear out shapes.
• The goal is to make a scene of a hill with three crosses on top and an empty tomb with a stone underneath. Give kids guidance as to what their picture should include, but let them use their creativity to make the scene.

Painted Rocks

Each child will need at least one small rock and painting supplies. This craft pairs well with the “Examine Rocks” activity below.

• Provide each child with a rock and paint supplies.
• Let each child paint their rock.
• Talk with them about how their rock is a reminder of Jesus’ tomb and that God has power over death.
• Alternately: For younger kids, use potatoes as stamps. Cut the potatoes in half and allow the children to dip them in paint and stamp their paper. Talk about how the shape resembles a rock and reminds you of the stone in front of Jesus’ tomb.

Smaller Class Activities For Lent

In addition to crafts, games, and activities, provide an extra chance for kids to take in the lesson of the day. Small church children’s ministry typically means only a few children. Often, activities you find in a curriculum require large groups to be fun and/or effective. The Lenten activities here are perfect for a small group with just one or more children. 

Examine Rocks

This activity pairs well with the story of Holy Saturday or even Resurrection Sunday. Kids would be spending time examining rocks as symbols of the stone in front of Jesus’ tomb. Match it with the “Painted Rocks” craft above.

• Take kids on a nature walk to find rocks or provide rocks of different sizes and colors for them to examine.
• As kids examine their rocks, discuss the textures and colors of each rock. Talk about the power of God to create things with such beauty and strength.
• As you tell the story of Jesus being placed in a tomb with a stone to block the door, ask the kids why the leaders would have used a rock.
• Remind kids that God is strong. God has the power to raise Jesus from the dead.

Make A Puzzle

This activity is both a craft and an activity. It goes along well with whatever story you are doing that particular week. Each child will need paper, drawing supplies, and scissors. Cardboard (such as a cereal box) and glue/glue stick are optional.

• Have children draw and color a picture of that day’s Bible story. Or, give each child a printed coloring page.
• Optional: Have kids glue the completed picture onto cardboard.
• Help kids cut their pictures into shapes (like a puzzle).
• Have fun working on the puzzles. Kids can swap pictures and try to work on one another’s puzzles.

Lesson Tower

For this activity, each child needs a small set of blocks. Blocks can be any kind, from wooden cubes to cardboard bricks to Legos.

• Choose one to three words to be the lesson’s focus (i.e., love, hope, Jesus, etc.). Be sure to use these words often as you tell the story.
• Tell children to listen closely for these words. Each time they hear one, they stack a block on top, making a tower.
• At the end of the lesson, admire the height of the towers. Remind the children that God’s love (or whatever words you are using) is big and strong like their towers. Jesus’ love grows and grows like their towers.
• If desired, let children knock their towers down. Tell them that – unlike their block towers – God’s love (or word of choice) does not fall. No one can knock it down. 

For more on Lent, check out: 6 Last-Minute Lent Ideas For Your Worship Service.

For ideas about incorporating specific prayer requests in children’s ministry, check out: 4 Ideas To Make Sunday School Meaningful With Just 3 Kids. 

Looking for a step-by-step guide to starting or restarting your children’s ministry?

Check out the Children’s Ministry Bundle For Small Churches!

Lent Leads To The Hope Of Easter

At the end of the day, the message of Lent is one of hope. Jesus’ sacrifice offers forgiveness, shows God’s great love, and gives salvation freely. Your small church’s children’s ministry is in a unique position to represent Christ to the children in your care. By carefully telling the story and molding each facet of the lesson to point to Jesus, you can lead kids to the hope that Jesus brings in such a meaningful way.

In preparing your church for little visitors this Lent and Easter season, check out these tips: Ready! Set! Go! Help Easter Visitors Feel Welcome.

Read More

10 Steps To An Easter Egg Hunt On Wheels

Youth & Children’s Ministry In Small Churches

Tips To Include Children With Special Needs In Christmas Activities