Category Archives: Children’s Events

Summer Event Planning

Posted on May 14, 2012 | 1 Comment

If you’re not all ready planning your summer programs, you should be. Summer is a great time for evangelism programs. Children are out of school, and parents love to bring children to events that will curb the summer boredom.

 

Vacation Bible School, Kid’s Crusades, Carnivals, Sports Events, and Camps are some wonderful ways to minister to children. But there are lots of other ways to minister to children over the summer.

 

Here’s some tips for planning your summer program:

 

Pray, Pray, Pray! In case I didn’t get my point across, you need to pray before planning any events. The most effective ministries are not the ones you ask God to bless, but the ones God directs you to have. Be in His will, and He will bless your efforts.

 

Don’t overload the calendar. Many times, children’s pastors want so much to use the time available to plan as much for the children as possible. If you do this, parents will soon tire of the endless calendar of events and stop bringing the children. Remember, sometimes less is more.

 

Think outside the box. Just because you’ve always had Vacation Bible School, doesn’t mean you always have to have Vacation Bible School. You might want to have VBS, but do it in an entirely different way. Or you might want a different event altogether. Don’t always do the same thing. Plan out of the box. Look at what is no longer effective, and change it.

 

Remember not to be a one man show. Develop a team and release some of the responsibility to them. You can only do so much. A team can do so much more.

Here’s some links some blog posts to help you with your Summer Event Planning:

Summer Checklist for Children’s Ministry

Information on Kid’s Crusades and Children’s Revivals

Reasons to have a Kid’s Crusade Instead of a VBS

Block Parties

Park Ministry

Inexpensive Curriculum You Can Use for VBS

VBS Models

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Children's Events, Leadership, Planning, Summer Events

Tagged , , ,

Church Camp

Posted on May 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

Katie came to church camp for the first time. Her friend who sometimes took her to church invited her. Katie still wasn’t going to go, her friend offered to pay her way. Katie loved camp. During one of the worship services, she responded to the altar call and gave her life to Christ.

Joshua came to church camp every year. He loved church camp and always looked forward to the sports events. Last year, he won an award for the sports elective he chose. This year was different though. This year, Joshua was pulled in by the evangelist who preached at the services. One night, during service, God moved on Joshua’s heart. He was saved at the age of four, but that night, Joshua committed his life to serve God. God called him to be a full-time minister at the age of ten.

Nick didn’t like school. He struggled to do the work. Kids picked on him and teased him. He didn’t like coming home either. His mom and dad screamed at each other. They barely noticed he was there. Nick looked forward all year to church camp. There, he felt loved. His cabin leader always had a kind word for him. The evangelist preached about God’s love. He had fun swimming and doing other events. When he didn’t do as well as the other kids, nobody made fun of him. The camp youth director even said hi to him and knew his name. Camp was the place where Nick learned God loved him. To Nick, church camp was better than Christmas.

These stories come true every year at church camp. Church camp is one of the most effective tools to minister to children and youth. I want to challenge you to make the effort to send the children in your ministry to camp this year. If it’s too late for this year, make the decision now to do whatever it takes to make sure they can go next year. You’ll be glad you did.

If you worked in church camp, this year, please comment and share your testimonies of the wonderful things that happened at church camp.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Summer Events

Tagged

Summer Checklist For Children’s Ministry

Posted on May 9, 2012 | 5 Comments

Summer is always a hectic time for Children’s Ministry. Here’s a checklist to do in May to help the summer go smoother.

Camp Applications: If you have church camp for your children, make sure the information and applications have been sent to parents.

Summer Teachers/Program: Summer is a time that wrecks havoc for Sunday School programs because of vacations and weekend trips. If you do something special for summer, make sure it’s in place and teachers are aware. If not, have a list of substitutes to teach when regular teachers are out of town. Remind regular teachers to give you a list of weeks they’ll be gone ASAP.

Vacation Bible School: Do you have your workers in place for VBS? Have you ordered all the materials you’ll need? Plan a meeting for workers to pass out materials and answer their questions.

Kid’s Crusades: Have you booked a date for your kid’s crusade with the children’s evangelist? Make sure you have talked to the evangelist about all the details of the crusade.

Plan Summer Children’s Church: During the summer, you’ll be busier than normal and will be tempted to skimp on Children’s Church planning. You can avoid this by planning the whole summer program ahead of time.

Check Your Supplies: May is a good time to check and organize the supplies you’ll need for the summer.

 While nothing can keep the summer from overwhelming even the most organized Children’s Pastor, the more you pre-plan for the weeks ahead, the better prepared you’ll be.

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Children's Events, Kids Crusades, Leadership, Planning, Summer Events, VBS

Tagged , , , ,

Planning An Easter Party

Posted on March 14, 2012 | 1 Comment

Easter parties are great events to have for children in your ministry. Here some things to consider.

When will you have the party? Easter Sunday after church is not a practical time. But you could have the party during church on Easter. Or you could have the party after church on Palm Sunday. The Saturday before Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are good times to have it as well.

What type of party will you have?

Easter Egg Hunts:  These are very popular, but they have drawbacks. You need to have church property large enough to hide the eggs to make if fun. If you don’t, look for a park or a parent’s yard where you can hide eggs. Don’t use real eggs. Buy the plastic eggs from the dollar store and stuff them with candy or toys you can buy in bulk. Or you can put tickets in the eggs the children can use to purchase prizes. That way, each child gets prizes. You’ll also want grand prizes you can give away to children who collect the most eggs. Easter baskets work good for this. In some areas of the country, snow and rain are problems at this time of year. If that’s the case, make sure to schedule a rain date.

Easter Carnival: A carnival can work well even indoors. Call your local carnival rental place and see if they’ll donate the games for the carnival. Some places will if the games aren’t being used. Also if you have a carpenter in your church, consider having him make some games you can use. You can give out tickets, candy, or prizes for each game won.

Fun Sunday: If you have the party during or after church on a Sunday, consider having pizza, pop, and treats for the children. You could also show an Easter movie in the sanctuary on the “big screen” like in a movie theater. You could have gospel illusions, games, crafts, and other activities.

How Will You Present The Message:  An Easter party is a prime opportunity to present the message of salvation to children. Think of a gospel illusion, story, or object lesson you can use for a short 5 minute message.

Get Donations:  Contact pizza places, bowling alleys, skating rinks, and fast food restaurants to see if they’d be willing to donate free gift certificates to their establishments that you can give as door prizes. Most businesses are willing to do this.

Plan Ahead:  Get the workers you need. Decide how you’ll spread the word. Find people to set up and do follow-up. The better you plan ahead, the better this party will go.

Pray:  This is a great opportunity to reach unchurched children. Pray for God to move during this party.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Children's Events, Easter, Holidays, Outreach

Tagged , , ,

Project Management For Children’s Pastors: Resources and Team Building

Posted on June 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

Two of the most important parts of project management for children’s pastors are determining your available resources and building your team.

Resources:

Money:

The first resource you’ll want to look at is how much money has been budgeted for your project. Usually the amount of money is beyond your control. Pastors and councils usually set up the budget. But it helps to work closely with your pastor and communicate how much you need to accomplish your project and which items can be taken off the wish list if need be. If you do that, your pastor will be more likely to work with you in establishing a great program.

Once you know how much the church will provide, look at your budget creatively. Are there items that can be donated by people or businesses? Do you want to fundraise to get extra money? Will you take an offering to defray expenses. Sometimes there are easy ways to cut expenses. For instance, to use the VBS example, you could buy craft materials at a discount craft store to make crafts rather than use the expensive kits most VBS’s provide. Or you could eliminate the student books and substitute activities.

Calendar:

Your church calendar is a resource you can’t afford to overlook. Don’t just find an empty date on the calendar. Check what’s going on with other ministries in the church. If you use teens for your event and the teens are going on a youth retreat, you might not want to schedule you event for the same week-end. If you do, you’ll find yourself scrambling for workers.

Workers:

Determine how many workers you’ll need and write short job descriptions for each role your workers will play. Also have a wish list of extra jobs in case you have more workers than you thought you would. You might also want to schedule different people for clean up and follow up after the event. Sometimes after an event, your workers will be tired and want to go home rather than tear down. If you have another crew ready to come in, it will make things that much easier.

Team Building:

Team building is an important part of project management. Assemble people who can help you plan and execute your event. Divide your event into compartments such as food, games, music, promotion, etc., then have one person who is in charge of each of these areas.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Children's Events, Leadership, Planning, Project Management Series