We have been working hard to support your ministry during this unprecedented time. Here is a collection of resources that we have put together in the past few weeks in order to help you do faith formation, worship, and congregational ministry at a distance. As we continue to release other resources, we will keep this post updated.
The Sparkhouse Blog has been publishing posts to support leaders and families during this time
The Sparkhouse Blog has published a number of helpful posts about how to continue to be the church during this pandemic. Topics covered include deepening connections virtually in times of uncertainty, celebrating Holy Week and Easter at home, guiding families through grief during this crisis, self-care in a time of pandemic, graduation during this crisis, and affirming the way families are doing faith formation right now.
We’ve been sharing resources on Facebook
We’ve been trying to make a variety of resources—videos, activity ideas, prayers, and coloring pages—freely available via our social media, especially Facebook. We’ve shared the Holy Moly Good Friday video, readings from the Whirl and Spark Story Bibles, and an animated video of Psalm 23, as well as hosting a Facebook Live with Dr. Dawn Rundman talking about faith formation at home. We’ve posted Holy Week family activities each day of Holy Week. We’ve put up prayer cards each Tuesday and Thursday. Whirl coloring sheets were already available for free on the Sparkhouse website, but we’ve spread the word about them on social media recently. We also created and shared handwashing posters featuring characters from our curricula.
Sparkhouse has created Family Sunday School, freely available online
Each week Sunday school curriculum developer (and former summer camp Arts and Crafts director) Dr. Dawn Rundman and her family will host Family Sunday School. Each episode presents a lesson based on Lectionary readings that families can watch together. The Bible story, illustrations, and other content are based on Spark: Activate Faith Lectionary Sunday school lessons.
You are welcome to distribute, post, and reproduce the lesson materials for your church families in whatever way works for you. We’ll post a new lesson every Tuesday for the following Sunday. Lessons will be posted through Trinity Sunday, June 7, 2020.
We’ve expanded copyright permissions
Until July 31, 2020, you can use Sparkhouse materials in an expanded capacity for videos, livestreams, and other forms of remote worship, ministry, and faith formation. You can read more about Sparkhouse’s expanded permissions here.
We’ve launched the ATHOME promotion to support faith formation and worship in the home
The ATHOME promotion provides discounts and free shipping on resources that are useful for at-home faith formation and worship. We’re offering both the Whirl Story Bible: Lectionary Edition and the Spark Story Bible at $15.99 plus free shipping with the promo code ATHOME. This offer is valid through May 31, 2020.
We’ve hosted a webinar about Sparkhouse Digital
Given that many of you are making increased use of Sparkhouse Digital, we decided to offer a webinar on how to use it most effectively. Here is the webinar on Sparkhouse Digital.
