Good Friday for Kids

How do you celebrate Good Friday in a Kid Friendly way?

As a Children's Ministry director of elementary students, I often ponder this question around Easter. Obviously, Good Friday is a significant moment in the life of Jesus. It is the day that all the sins of the world fell upon Him. It is also an incredibly gruesome and horrific day. Filmmakers created the R rated movie, "Passion of the Christ" that some adults can't bring themselves to watch. How can I relate the importance of what happened that day without scaring a child to nightmares? I decided that this year I would take on this challenge and see if I could find a solution.

A few times in my life I have participated in the Catholic tradition of Stations of the Cross. Wikipedia describes Stations of the Cross as, "a series of artistic representations, very often sculptural, depicting Christ Carrying the Cross to his crucifixion in the final hours (or Passion) of Jesus before he died, and the devotions using that series to commemorate the Passion, often moving physically around a set of stations." I have found this experience emotionally powerful to me but not appropriate for children. I googled "stations of the cross for kids" and came up with a few cheesy books and one website. But I wanted to create an event, something the kids could participate in. 

My coworker and I decided to take the concept behind Stations of the Cross and run with the idea. We wanted to transform these stations into interactive, kid friendly stations. We took the traditional 14 stations and consolidated them to 7. Each stations was spread out across our small two street down town area. The children traveled as a group from station to station. At each station they were greeted by a new volunteer who told them the next part of the story. They read scripture together then participated in some activity. At station 2 the heard about how Peter denied Jesus 3 times before the rooster crowed then they got to hold baby chickens and hear interesting facts about roosters. At station 4 they themselves tried to carry a heavy cross. At station 5 they tasted vinegar. But station 6 by far was everyone's favorite.

Next to the church there is a dark tunnel that goes under a busy road. The tunnel is a walking path to connect the main downtown with the library and city hall. Students entered the tunnel pretending it was the very tomb in which Jesus's body had been laid. They took a moment of silence to remember his death, but soon the silence was interrupted. Melanie (the wife of my co worker and the mother to kids in the program) came running in. She was excited and out of breath. Even some of our volunteers tried to shh her not knowing her intrusion was planned. She told the kids she could hardly believe what she had just seen, that Jesus' body was gone and that they had to come see for themselves. The kids saw a place where linen clothes were folded but no body was there. We celebrated Jesus resurrection with pizza!

I debated about whether to leave kids in the state of sadness and wait for Easter morning to celebrate the resurrection or whether it was best to celebrate the same day. As we all know kids love instant gratification and I think bringing them to the place of resurrection was important for them to understand the significance of Good Friday.

Favorite Funny Quote: Melanie told the kids, "I am so excited I almost peed my pants." They loved it.

Favorite Serious Quote: Emma (age 8) said, "I never knew Jesus actually felt all that pain."