A 6-Step Event Follow Up Plan
Looking back, I realized that part of my problem was follow up. When learning to hit a ball, one of the main things you lean is to follow through. It’s the same with any outreach event. Once your event is over, you’re not done. You have to follow up with everyone who came, especially guests.
The Essential Kidmin Events Calendar
Whether you’re just starting out in kidmin, or you’ve been in it for a while, you know there are events and a lot of them. But which ones should you be doing? Is there something you’re missing? What can you do that’s fun and impactful for your ministry?
Every church is unique and has its own set of events that works well for their community. That said, there are patterns we can follow.
5 Guidelines for Trunk or Treat Volunteers
Trunk or Treats are one of the most popular Fall outreaches. They’re quick, easy to set up, and easy to clean up. They can be a ton of fun or total drag. The deciding factor for the success of your event is the trunks. Your trunks are the main attraction. You can and should include inflatables, hayrides, food trucks and more. But that’s not what’s going to keep your neighborhood coming back year after year.
3 Fall Festival Ideas to Reach Your Community
It’s time to work on your Fall Outreach. It’s what I call part of the big three, Egg Hunt, VBS, Fall Festival. In the kidmin world it’s one of the biggest outreaches of the year.
4 Summer Outreaches that Aren’t VBS
With the end of the summer, we start to look at all the things we did and ask if they were effective. One of the biggest questions I see this time of year is “What are churches doing other than VBS?”
4 Follow-Up Ideas for VBS Success
One of the biggest questions I hear for VBS is “How do you get the kids to come back?” I had this same question myself. Actually, the first person to ask me was my pastor.
3 Tips for Creating Your VBS Budget
I often see questions from people asking their VBS budget. How many kids? How big is your church? How much do you spend? Those are all great questions because your budget will depend on those three things, the size of your church, the size of your event, and how important it is to the church’s outreach strategy.
3 Holiday Practices to Keep Jesus First
A few years ago, I hosted the biggest Easter Egg Hunt my church had seen to date. We had hundreds of kids and thousands of eggs. We saw many kids accept Christ and everyone had fun. It was all a big lead up to the next day, Easter. As I drove home thinking about the wins and losses, it hit me like a kid remembering his semester long project is due tomorrow and he’s done nothing. Easter is tomorrow.
How to Turn Service Fails to Success
The big weekend is finally here. You’ve been working for months getting all the people, supplies, and logistics together. You’ve invited tons of people, prayed for God’s favor, crossed that t and dotted that i. You’re ready for the big day. Or you think you are. Sometime during the event something goes wrong. Something always does.
3 Wednesday Night Ideas for Christmas
The Wednesday Night services in December are odd. Everyone is busy, overall attendance is low, and you have pressure to celebrate the season. No matter where you serve in your church, with a little creativity and planning, you can make these nights fun, meaningful and outward focused.
4 Principles to Get Guests to Come Back
You’ve had the big outreach event and now you have a huge stack of cards with contact information and you’re not sure what to do with it. Should you email them? Send a postcard? Call? Which way will be most effective? What’s going to give you the best return on your investment?
How to Motivate Kids in NextGen Without Leaving Anyone Behind
These two stories and several more helped me develop my philosophy on motivating kids in ministry. The way I see it, there are three ways to encourage them to bring their friends, offering, Bibles, memorize scripture, or whatever.
4 Next Level Ideas for Your Fall Festival
Now that summer is out of the way, it’s time to start looking toward the fall. And in church world that frequently means you’re doing some kind of fall festival. These events are great for bringing guests to your church campus, while also serving the community.
3 Groups who Attend Your VBS (and Which One to Focus On)
It’s VBS season and for many churches, the event is seen as an outreach. We want to get as many kids as possible through the door, show them the way to Jesus, and then hopefully get them to come back on Sunday.
But when you put on outreach events, it’s important to realize that not everyone is seeking Jesus, not everyone is new, and not everyone is a prospect for coming to your church. This isn’t a reason not to do the event, but we need to be aware.
5 Ideas to Celebrate Dad on Father's Day
Father’s Day is next week, and your church may be thinking of some ways to celebrate dad. In a lot of churches, this day is overlooked. Especially since so much time and resources were spent on Easter and Mother’s Day, this day gets the scraps. However, Father’s Day can be made just as special as these other two days with some intentionality and creativity.
A Simple VBS Fundraiser
One thing about VBS is that it takes a lot of supplies. Crafts, games, decorations, Bible stories and so much more all need stuff. It’s a lot to handle and can be one of the biggest line items in your budget.
To keep my costs down, I’ve used this one fundraiser for years with great success.
5 Questions to Create Your VBS Schedule
VBS is one of the most complex ministry outreaches in children’s ministries. It takes 3-6 months to put on a one-week event for tons of kids and a major part of the kidmin annual rhythm.
One of the more complex yet essential parts of VBS is the schedule. It answers the question, “How are you going to get multiple groups of kids to multiple rooms throughout your campus all at the same time, not lose anyone, make time for bathroom breaks, and still get all the content covered?”
5 VBS Volunteers that Make a BIG Difference
Many of the curriculums I’ve used over the years give you an idea of how many volunteers you need and where they should serve. However, if you’re doing a VBS for 100 kids or more, these lists can be found lacking. They’ll list small group leaders and station leaders, but what about registration? Décor? Marketing? Supply management?
Over the years I’ve added several positions to my VBS that have helped me reach more kids and made my workload so much simpler.
5 Easy Steps to Promote Your Summer Events this Easter
With Easter in just a few weeks, you’re probably deep into prep for the big weekend. Whether you’re doing an egg hunt, planning your worship set, or just getting your volunteers ready, there’s a lot of focus put on this weekend.
Not to pile on, but there’s one more thing to consider for Easter. What are you doing this summer?
5 Steps to Taking Great Event Pictures
Maybe this has happened to you. You had a huge event where hundreds of people came. People were saved. Lives were changed. You get ready to make an announcement in the service or post on social what God has done. But you’re stuck. You can tell them what happened, but only verbally. The pictures and video are terrible or non-existent.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
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