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Athens VBS: Day 1

07/09/201308/16/2026 Kathie Phillips 4 Comments

Photo Credit: Group Publishing

A little over a month ago I found myself in a new leadership role at my church and subsequently the director of our VBS (now known as Summer Bible Camp). In the two years that I’ve been at my current church, my role had been very, very small. Did I mention my role was very, very small? This year, I am leading a leadership team of 20 (who, in turn, are leading 150+ volunteers).

I am so blessed to be able to lead with such a fine group of capable, take-initiative leaders. It has truly made my job a lot easier! For the past several days, I’ve been asked, “Are you okay?” and “How are you holding up?” countless times. I’ve also heard, “You look great, considering the amount of responsibility on your shoulders.” Again, because of our capable leadership team, my primary role as director has been to troubleshoot and equip our leaders (what I love to do..the equipping part!).

After many months of thinking, planning, purchasing and organizing, our VBS kicked off yesterday. We were expecting 300+ children and it seemed like they all showed up at once! Thanks to our security and registration teams, we were able to get the children settled in rather quickly before the Celebration (worship) time began.

Of course, there were issues that came up that we needed to address: parking lot congestion and traffic flow, implementing and enforcing a new drop-off & pick up policy (persons picking up children must now show a valid photo ID), building safety, a broken copier, and helping our youngest campers be active participants in the worship time.

All in all, the day went well. When I was leaving the building for the day, someone asked me how I’m surviving such a busy time. My answer: God’s grace. I am operating in His strength, not my own. I am energized by my leaders and how I can best serve them. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do this week!

Verse for the day:

“The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation.”

Psalm 145:9

Here are a few pictures from Day 1:

Summer Lovin’: Recruiting Volunteers

06/21/201308/16/2026 Kathie Phillips 3 Comments

The following post is part of a series of summer-related posts.

Today, we’ll look at recruiting volunteers.

For the past few weeks we have been busy making the transition to Summer Sunday school. Our ministry gives school-year volunteers the summer off to rest and recharge. Because of this, we heavily rely on parents, middle and high school students, college students and others in our church to step in and serve.

Some of our recruiting strategies this summer have included:

Online sign ups. Last summer we used Sign Up Genius to keep track of our volunteers. This was an easy, convenient way for folks to sign up to serve. We are using it again this summer. I like that Sign Up Genius sends reminder emails to those who sign up through its program. That is a huge help.
We also used bulletin ads, upfront announcements, email and e-newsletters to the entire church body. Some say that these are not effective recruiting strategies but I feel that they can get the word out to people who would otherwise not be aware of our needs.

Despite all of our best efforts, I found it increasingly frustrating that we were not seeing the type of results that we needed to ensure enough coverage each weekend. I went to bed one evening last week with this on my mind and was awakened early the next morning with a God-given thought (at 5am!).

While we were asking people indirectly, we had not directly asked. Duh! So…I wanted to try that. I wasn’t sure the idea would work but I thought, “We don’t have anything to lose.” Here’s what we did:

We set up two tables in strategic areas in our children’s areas, so strategic that parents could not get to their destination without passing one of them. We decorated the tables with summer-themed items such as beach balls, pails and shovels, cups and crazy straws, citronella candles, balloons in fun colors and life-sized popsicles (my daughter made those). These items sat on top of fun flip-flop tablecloths. Because food definitely draws people in, we placed donut holes on the table, too. The purpose of the decor was to draw attention to the tables so that parents could stop over, check us out, and sign up.

The last thing we added were sign-ups sheets, pens and signage. I asked several ladies on my team to stand at each table to answer any questions and assist in the sign-ups. This added a personal element to our strategy.

The results…we had 50 – yes 50! – sign-ups that day! God blew my mind yet once again.

Here’s what I learned through all of this:

Pray that God will provide. Pray that He will show you creative ways to bring people into your ministry.
Use various methods of recruiting. One solo method will likely not bring the desired results.
Bring a personal element to your recruiting strategies. If you’re using an electronic method, tell stories of how volunteers might be impacted. What might they experience? If you’re using an on-site sign-up, have someone there to greet and ask questions. It’s hard to walk past a smiling, friendly face.
Bring others into the process to pray and brainstorm. Do not carry the burden of recruiting by yourself.
Take a risk. The idea that you have may not work – but then again, it just might! Go for it!

What are some of your best recruiting strategies? Let me know in the space below.

Summer Lovin’: Social Media, Video Games and Your Children

06/13/201308/16/2026 Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

The following post is the first in a series of summer-related posts.

Today’s post is written by Jason Phillips (no relation).

Safeguarding Kids on Social Media/Video Games During the Summer Months

Okay, school is out, and the kids are ready to play! Play video games, that is. Gear up the couch, set up the snacks, and plop those kids on the couch – it’s summer! While you may not be excited that the kids are going to be couch potatoes, they sure are. Don’t forget…they are itching to get online and give your personal information out to complete strangers.

So here’s the bottom line: your children are targets. They are targets to corporate marketing companies, internet predators, and cyber bullies. Everyone wants a piece of your child, because they are young, impressionable and easy to manipulate.

You may be asking yourself – “Self, how do we raise children to live safely in a world with social networking? When are they old enough to drive around in that world on their own? What tools do they need to cope with that world? How can we help them to be successful and safe in that world?” Well, the answer is this: school your kids.

We all know that we need to protect children in the physical world; we also need to realize that there can be just as much danger in the online world. The risks of networking online are becoming well-known, in part, through media attention. Risks for children and teens include:

Sharing one’s personal information with the wrong crowd. Unsupervised online contact with adults and older or manipulative kids can potentially lead to personal physical danger.
Bullying. Harassment may occur online only (cyber bullying), or it may spill over to offline bullying committed by a schoolmate who has located his victim online.
The permanency of online profiles. Once information has been shared on the Internet, it’s out there — forever! Retrieving information that others have read and captured is nearly impossible. Sharing one’s personal profile, words, pictures and videos can potentially lead to future embarrassment, harassment and even discrimination in employment and school admissions (although the latter concern is being addressed).
Misinformation. Kids can find inaccurate and misleading information about a variety of topics.

By 2005, 91% of children had regular access to the Internet and online material, and the online world has brought forth a slew of new opportunities for social interactions for children and adolescents. The line between video games and online content has blurred in the past few years due to many games’ inclusion of online content, including options to share personal data, interact with other players in online competitions, and immerse oneself in the worlds of Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG).

As of 2010, 93% of teens (12-17) go online, and of the children (0-5) who use the Internet, 80% use it at least once a week.97% of teens (12-17) play computer, web, portable, or console games.

Here are a few tips to make sure your online gaming experience is okay for your child:

Teach your child to use voice chat wisely, make him or her aware of voice masking technology.
Make sure your child uses suitable screen names (aka gamer tags) that are appropriate for his or her age.
Make sure your child knows what a cyber-bully is and why it’s bad.

As a parent, you need to be educated on your child’s games.

Go ahead and use parental controls on all your gaming devices, and make sure you know about the games your child plays.
Make sure you know how the mechanics, social interactions, and online content work.
Make yourself knowledgeable of ALL of the games that he or she plays, and most of all, watch your child play. You might just gain some insight into your child’s online habits.

Do you limit your child’s screen time during the summer? What safety measures have you put in place?

Author Bio: The article is written by experienced writer Jason Phillips. He owns an online gaming website Tom and Jerry Games 365. Apart he is a loving father who spends his free time with his kids.

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