As part of the Arts and Crafts workshop at the Engage Worship Day 2014, we made a memorial of God's miracles. In the Message paraphrase, Psalm 111:4 reads: 'His miracles are his memorial'. I love the idea that the miraculous things God does in our lives (mundade and great) serve as a memorial to give glory to him and to remind us - and others - of how great he is.

Below the picture of the final product, and included as a PDF attachment, are the instructions that the workshop participants followed. We then drew attention to the memorial in the final celebration: we read Psalm 111 out loud together (using the Message version) and looked at the box artwork.

Next everyone was given a copy of the 'fold-a-box' PDF (it's two pages - make it double sided!). The idea was for each person to draw their worship to God in the designated space on the box, fold the box together and then add it to the memorial. As it was, this was quite a challenge and turned into a bit of a personality test for the congregation: some folded the box quickly without looking at me, some followed my instructions carefully and managed to acheive a box, whilst some gave up pretty quickly and folded a paper aeroplane instead... I would therefore recommend the folding activity to take place in small groups with plenty of time!

(Image by Natalie Payne - thanks).
 
Arts and Crafts Workshop - the Engage Day 2014
 
Psalm 111:4 (The Message)
 
"His miracles are his memorial"
 
In Old Testament times, God's people used to build memorials wherever God had done something amazing. They'd gather stones and rocks and pile them high, and every time they'd pass the memorial, they'd have the opportunity to talk about and remember the amazing things that God had done.
 
This Bible verse from the book of Psalms state that God's miracles are like a memorial - every time we come upon a miracle we have the opportunity to remember how amazing God is.
 
Perhaps God has done a miracle in your life? It could be tiny and mundane, like 'my cat was lost, we prayed and then my cat came home' or large and life-changing, like 'I didn't know God and then I felt him speak to me and now I believe.'
 
Or you might know some miracles from the Bible?
 
We're going to build a miracle memorial together.
 
Think of a miracle.
 
Grab a box.
 
Think about how you can tell about that miracle using the box. Perhaps use text, or maybe only images? You can use painting, 3D modelling or make a collage.
 
You can draw exactly what happen, or make it a bit more abstract, eg. what did that miracle feel like? How can I show those feelings in colour and texture?
 
At the end, we're going to pile our boxes up until we've built our own memorial, and we're going to put it in our worship space and let it inform and inspire our worship.