If you are looking for a great clip that connects Advent and Christmas? Check out this two-minute video that describes why we celebrate Advent and wait to celebrate Christmas...

Are you fed up of hearing the traditional readings at Christmas year on year? Would you like to hear something different? Here are three easy-to-follow interactive stories that will brighten up any family festive service...

Are you trying to think of what to do for that Harvest Thanksgiving rapidly approaching? Well, here are a few ideas from Barnabas to get you started...

An inclusive All-age Easter talk involving children and young people...

• Buy some plastic Easter Eggs - the kind that open so that you can put things inside. Easily available from PoundShops.
• Read the Holy Week/Easter story with the children/young people. Ask them what they want to say about it to the congregation.
• Then ask them what objects/symbols might help them say/show their ideas.
• Source or make these with the children and put one inside each egg. (Remember which is inside each colour and the order you want them to appear.) Decide together what needs to be said about the object/symbol.
• On Easter morning, have less confident children opening the eggs and showing the object/symbol and the more confident ones saying something about it. If the church is large, you might want to substitute boxes for the eggs so that the objects can be larger!
• Finish by having all the children saying, 'He is Risen' - and the congregation responding 'Alleluia'. (You could do this two or three times getting louder each time.)

Are you struggling to find a simple but effective retelling of the Easter story for your children’s group? Check this out by BBC’s CBeebies…

Everyone is looking for a fabulous website for resources, ideas and stories and here is the ‘new kid on the block’…

The creators of Youthwork magazine have a new publication aimed at people who work with under 11s at church.

Childrenswork magazine has some top quality resources on their website, and they are giving away free copies for people who want to try the magazine out.

You can also get a free copy of Youthwork magazine from their site.

If you’re thinking about at spicing up your family Christmas services this year, and I don’t mean serving mulled wine (although how great would that be!), here are a few clips from YouTube that retell the nativity story all with a visual edge to them - enjoy…

"This is without doubt the best collection of children’s advent and Christmas resources that I have come across." - thegoodbookstall.org.uk

This worship idea is a reflection based on Psalm 46 - "Be still and know that I am God."

It was first presented at the Next Generation conference in October 2011. You can use this video file or Powerpoint presentation to try it yourself.