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.
4 Steps to Mastering Your Ministry To-Do List
One thing about ministry is that you’re busy. Depending on how small your church is you can find yourself doing a lot of things that don’t fit within your “job.” Even if you work at a large church you can look up at the end of the week and wonder where the time went.
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.
The 3 Lowest Attended Sundays (and What To Do About Them)
This post is coming out Thanksgiving weekend, and for most churches that means we’re heading into one of the lowest attended Sundays in the year. These days can be frustrating and disappointing. You put as much time and effort into making the day great and then it feels like no one but your most faithful show up. Even then, some of them didn’t come either.
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?
7 Ways to Communicate Your Church Event to Your Congregation and Community (Part 2)
You’ve got big news. You’ve been working on this project for weeks and its finally time to make your big debut. You have all the supplies and resources. You’ve prayed and felt that God is with you. Now it’s time to announce to the church and your community what you’re doing and how they can get involved. But how do you do that?
7 Ways to Communicate Your Church Event to Your Congregation and Community (Part 1)
One of the most valuable tools in a minister’s toolbox is their communication skills. We’re in the people business and how we communicate with people is vital to us completing the Great Commission. But how do you do that exactly? How do you make sure that your message is getting out there? How do you make sure that you’re not just spitting into the wind?
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.
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?”
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