Shine: Living in God's Light

12/21/2025

🌸 Fourth Sunday of Advent 🌸

This week in our Advent journey, we turn toward love—quiet, courageous, and faithful. In Matthew 1:18–25, we meet Joseph at a crossroads, invited to trust God’s work unfolding in ways he did not expect. Rather than turning away, Joseph chooses love: staying, listening, and making room for God-with-us.

As we light the fourth candle, we’re reminded that love often shows up not in grand gestures, but in faithful obedience, compassion, and the courage to say yes when the path ahead is unclear.

✨ Where is love asking you to trust God more deeply?
✨ How might choosing love open space for God’s presence in your life?

Join us this Sunday as we prepare our hearts for Christmas, reflecting on the love that comes near—steady, sacrificial, and full of promise.

12/20/2025

🎉 It’s finally here! 🎉

After months of collaboration and careful design, Reach—a new interactive youth curriculum for high schoolers—launches January 2.

Flexible six-week units.
Relational faith formation.
Built for real-life questions.

For more information, check out our website: https://shinecurriculum.com/reach/

12/19/2025

Looking for ways to bring this Sunday’s Bible story, Jesus is Born, into your home? Here are some simple ideas for the week ahead.

📖 Read pages 170–173 in The Peace Table: A Storybook Bible or Luke 2:1–20. The angels sang about peace on earth. Draw or paint pictures of what that might look like.

🙏 Pray prayers of praise to God for the LOVE that Jesus brings to the world. Every day have family members take a photo of someone or something they love. At the end of the week, look back at the photos and sing “Away in a Manger.”

🎁 Create a treasure box using a small tissue box or something similar. Mary treasured the words of the shepherds. What are you treasuring this Christmas season? Have family members write or draw pictures of what they treasure and put them in the box. Pack it up with your decorations and be prepared to look back at your treasures next year.

12/19/2025

✨ Friendly reminder to plan ahead for spring curriculum orders—ordering opens January 2. 📅

This spring, Shine invites children and youth to explore what it means to belong, build friendships, and live as servants through stories of Jesus’ journey to the cross and the joy of his resurrection in the Gospel of John. Learners will also dive into the Lord’s Prayer and stories from the early church, discovering key marks of Christian community—learning together, caring for one another, and choosing leaders.

Along the way, children are encouraged to reflect on how they see these values lived out in their own communities today. Spring Shine curriculum will be available to order beginning January 2.

12/18/2025

12/17/2025

VBS invites children to explore what it means to build meaningful connections—with one another, their communities, and Jesus.

Here’s a look at the daily themes:

Day 1: Connect with Friends (Mark 10:13–16)
Let’s make room for everyone.

Day 2: Connect with Family (Ruth 1–4)
Let’s love our family.

Day 3: Connecting Generations (1 Samuel 3)
Let’s listen to God and each other.

Day 4: Connect with Community (Acts 16:11–15, 40)
Let’s make new friends.

Day 5: Connect with Jesus (John 13:33–15:19)
Let’s stay connected to Jesus.

🎉 Save on VBS
• 20% off the regular price, December 1–31, 2025
• 10% off the regular price, January 1–March 1, 2026

👉 https://shinecurriculum.com/product/vbs-2026-boxed-starter-kit/

12/17/2025

Looking for a curriculum that truly engages kids, supports teachers, and aligns with your church’s values?

Hear from Susanna Griefen, Director of Children’s Ministry at Bothell United Methodist Church, on why Shine Curriculum has become their go-to for Sunday school and VBS:

✅ Age-appropriate, deep, and progressive
✅ Hands-on activities that bring Scripture to life
✅ Biblically grounded, inclusive, and justice-focused

From cooperative tent-building to meaningful crafts and discussions, Shine helps children explore God’s Word in ways they understand—and remember.

Discover why Shine is the curriculum teachers love and kids thrive with.

📚 Learn more and get started here: https://shinecurriculum.com/

12/14/2025

🌸 Third Sunday of Advent 🌸

This week in our Advent miniseries, we pause with a moment of holy tension. John the Baptist names the doubt many of us carry: Is this really how God comes? Jesus answers by pointing to lives being changed and hope taking tangible shape among those on the margins.

As we light the third candle, we’re invited to practice attentive joy—not the kind that ignores questions, but the kind that learns to recognize God at work in real, embodied ways, right in front of us.

✨ What signs of God’s presence might you be overlooking?
✨ Where are you being invited to trust what you can already see?

Join us this Sunday as we continue the Advent journey, learning to recognize the joy that comes when God’s promises begin to take flesh among us.

12/14/2025

🧠✨ Prepare for VBS 2026 with ✨🧠

Faith formation is a lifelong journey—one that grows through relationships with God, with one another, and within families and faith communities. Intentional experiences like Vacation Bible School play an important role in helping children discover God’s love and deepen their understanding of faith.

, an interactive VBS from Shine Curriculum, is intentionally designed around key elements of faith formation. Each day, children build relationships in small groups that foster belonging and trust. They gather for shared worship—singing, praying, and engaging a dramatic telling of the Bible story. Spiritual practices such as music, prayer, and scripture memorization are woven throughout the experience.

Plan ahead and save:
• 20% off the regular price, December 1–31, 2025
• 10% off the regular price, January 1–March 1, 2026

👉 https://shinecurriculum.com/product/vbs-2026-boxed-starter-kit/

12/13/2025

🎁 December only! Get 20% off the VBS Kit—the perfect time to start planning for VBS 2026! ✨

Looking for a VBS curriculum that gets kids thinking, moving, creating—and connecting? is an interactive VBS that invites children to wake up their neurons, get those synapses flowing, and tune into the wavelength of God's love.

Through worship and drama, Bible stories, art and science explorations, brain-building challenges, and active games, kids connect with Jesus, family, and friends of all ages.

👉 Learn more here: https://bit.ly/4oQYqPm

12/12/2025

Looking for ways to bring this Sunday’s Bible story, Mary Shares Her Joy, into your home? Here are some simple ideas for the week ahead.

📖 Read pages 164–165 in The Peace Table: A Storybook Bible or Luke 1:26–56. Mary shared her joy with her cousin, Elizabeth. If you had exciting news, who would be the first person you would want to share it with?

🙏 Pray prayers of praise to God for the JOY that Jesus brings to the world. Every day have family members take a photo of something that brings them joy. At the end of the week, look at all the photos and sing “Joy to the World.”

🛒 Gather items to take to a food bank. Remember Mary’s words, “God has filled the hungry with good things.”