Retelling Bible Stories: Stop Motion LEGO Videos

A few months ago, I stumbled across Laura Keeley's article, Toy Story: How We Used Lego in Summer Children's Minsitry. Retelling Bible stories with children using LEGO?! Needless to say, I was hooked. 

We asked the congregation for donations of LEGO and within a week, our LEGO donation box was over-flowing. Next, I ordered Emily Given's two fantastic Building Faith Brick by Brick LEGO curriculum books. 

By February, Reverend Doug was using his own LEGO collection in the Sunday children's message and the Sunday School children were recreating bible scenes using LEGO. By March, even the Youth Group had joined in. On the first Friday night of March, our Youth Group recreated the Lord's Supper scene in the Upper Room. The following Sunday, after the service, their work was on display in the fellowship hall. Watching the congregation circle around and eagerly discuss the LEGO Bible scene with young people after the service was an incredible experience.

Enter COVID-19

Suddenly our church building was closed, our services were moved online, and our LEGO collection was left unused. 

We shared lots of wonderful online resources with our families through our website, email, Facebook page, and even created a dedicated Sunday School Facebook group. But even with all of these resources just a click away, we still missed retelling Bible stories with our children each week.

Enter Two Very Clever Young People 

Two weeks ago, two very clever young people in our church, Ryan and Cloe, created and shared a brilliant Stop Motion LEGO video for their Grampie on his birthday. There was a song, a hand washing reminder, and even a toilet-paper-buying zombie! Did I mention that it was brilliant?

I bet you can see where this is going.

Sure enough, I brought our Sunday School LEGO collection home and we got straight to work. With the help of my four little children, wonderful husband, and the Stop Motion Studio app, we've started creating Stop Motion LEGO Bible videos. Our first video, Palm Sunday, corresponds with the Palm Sunday text from the God's Big Easter Story family devotional.

Next, we picked up some professional gear: a couple extra desk lamps, a foam board, and a good wad of sticky tack. Now we're pretty much pros. My four-year old could not be more excited about being in "a real movie!" You can hear her favourite line, "Jesus is alive!" in our latest Easter video, The Empty Tomb.

Next week we plan to use Emily Given's book, Building Faith Brick by Brick: Parables, to guide us through a LEGO retelling Jesus' parables over the next unknown number of weeks. We'll be posting our weekly videos on our church website and Facebook page. Feel free to use our videos with your family, friends, or children's ministry. 

Better yet, download a stop motion app and join us in retelling Bible stories! Don't have LEGO? No problem, you can make stop motion videos with drawings, paper cut outs, and even toys. Share your creations in the comments below!