Ministry Programming Archives - Page 4 of 15

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

12/09/201408/16/2026 Kathie Phillips

Hi friends! Several weeks have passed since I’ve last posted. Like you (I’m sure), we have been busy getting ready for Christmas. Here’s a snippet of what’s been going on in my kidmin world as we’re making final preparations:

For Everyone

Our Worship Arts department selected “For Everyone” as our theme & sermon series for Advent. We are learning how Jesus came for EVERYONE. Each year our Children’s Ministry provides Advent devotionals for our families, so we wanted to try our best to factor this theme into our decision regarding our selection. Originally, the theme of “Born for the World” was tossed around, so we chose one that fit that theme (even though it was reworded to “For Everyone”). We landed on this devotional from Creative Communications. We have heard a few parents tell us this was the best Advent devotional we’ve selected so far. Yay!

Deck the Halls

On the first Sunday in Advent (Sunday, November 30th), my church held an all-church event where our entire congregation (including children) were invited to come out to decorate the church, make crafts (including an Advent wreath) and enjoy a meal together. Started last year, Deck the Halls is one of the few all-church events we offer throughout the year and it’s so much fun!

Sunday Programming

All of our kidmin Sunday programming for Christmas will obviously center around the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. For younger children (toddlers & preschoolers), the lessons will be simple, as this might be the first time many of them hear about the Christmas story. Since many of our older children (elementary students and preteens) have heard the Christmas story before, we are being intentional about helping them personalize the story in a different way, while having lots of fun of course. I’ve incorporated some ideas from ideas I’ve collected on Pinterest. You can check out my kidmin Advent & Christmas board here. There are over 230 ideas!

Worship Time

Each year, our Pre-K children – 5th graders lead the worship for our family Christmas Eve services, so on each Sunday during Advent (during their regularly scheduled kids’ worship time), they practice the songs they will sing. This year, we added our 3 year-olds to our worship time and they are just precious. Songbooks, CDs and a video showing the motions are provided to families so that children can rehearse at home.

Christmas Eve Services

Every year, our church holds four (4) Christmas Eve services, with the first two being designed for families. Children’s Ministry works closely with our Worship Arts department to plan and implement these two services, which will include:

a welcome/call to worship given by yours truly
lighting of the Advent wreath by two families
our 3 year-olds – 5th graders leading the families in worship
several older students sharing a special reading
a solo by one of our older students
a family friendly (and shortened) sermon
candlelight ceremony (we provide battery-operated candles for children)

Just a few things we’re doing to get ready for Christmas. I’d love to hear (and see!) what you’re doing. How are you getting ready for Christmas?

Kickoff Sunday

09/12/201408/16/2026 Kathie Phillips 4 Comments

This past Sunday, we launched our new ministry year. Children were moved up to their new classrooms, new leaders made their way to their classrooms and an air of excitement was in the air.

We made a few adjustments to our programming and ministry spaces this year. These changes were made based on feedback from leaders and parents as well as logistical needs.

Nursery (Birth – 23 months): We were extremely blessed to have our 4 nursery classrooms repainted over the summer. We chose softer, child-friendly colors that refreshed our space and make it feel more cozy. We’ll add some wall decor and other decorative elements in the coming weeks, but it’s amazing what a coat (or three) of paint can do to a room! We’ll also have our nursery hallway painted in the coming weeks.

Preschool (Age 2 – Kindergarten): This summer, we consolidated our preschool classrooms from 4 classes to 2. This was not only done because of summer attendance but because I also think that summer is a great time to experiment and change things up. During the school year, we had a 2’s class, a 3’s class, a Pre-K/4’s class, and a K/5’s class. In June (and continuing through August), we kept our 2’s class but provided a mixed-age class for 3’s – 5’s. This format change was well-received from both leaders AND parents, so we wanted to give it a try for this school year.

We decided upon separate classes for 2’s and 3’s and a mixed-age class for 4’s & 5’s. So far, feedback has remained positive and the new format has allowed us to bring in additional student leaders to take more responsibility as worship, games and small group leaders.

Elementary (Grades 1-3): Changes made in this area were more logistical. We wanted to be more intentional about encouraging relationship-building between students and leaders & students to each other. Instead of setting up activity stations around the room (our 1st-3rd Graders meet in a large room that has dividers we pull after our large group time), we now have students go directly to their small group after they are checked in. Our leaders will now prepare arrival & session starter activities for their group to encourage friendships within the group. Each small group area is marked with a posted sign that will help children easily find their group.

We were also extremely blessed to have more college students join this age group this year. Their passion and energy will bring a new level of excitement to our elementary area!

Making Kickoff Sunday Fun!

With all of these changes in place, we also wanted to be more intentional about welcoming families, thanking volunteers for serving and thanking children for coming.

Welcoming Families

Four dozen (that’s right, 48!) balloons were placed strategically throughout the church (upstairs and on the lower level where our classrooms are) to say “Welcome!” These balloons made our morning look like one, big party! And because children were moving to new classrooms, we asked a few moms to come in to greet families and help direct them to their new classrooms.

Thanking Volunteers

It has been a desire of mine to have a cozy space of their own to gather and grab refreshments on Sunday mornings. My Associate Director has done a fabulous job of making sure we have treats each week but this past Sunday we opened up The Hammock. Since 3 of our ministry areas have a backyard/nature related name, The Hammock is a good fit to describe our volunteer space. My supervisor and our summer intern did a nice job making my vision come to life. During the week, we’ll have our kidmin staff meetings in this space. Check it out for yourself:

The Hammock - our new volunteer lounge — The Hammock – our new volunteer lounge

Water & handouts for volunteers to pick up

Thanking Volunteers

Our summer intern, Erin, had a great idea – let’s give our volunteers a small gift on Kickoff Sunday. I loved it! In yesterday’s post, I talked about our theme for the year, and Erin put together a lovely gift that tied in to it.

I'll never look at M & M's the same! — I’ll never look at M & M’s the same!

Thanking Children for Coming

We also thought that it would be a nice touch to give children a small gift for coming on Kickoff Sunday. Erin put together small gift bags that were distributed to children ages 2 – Grade 5. We will keep leftovers and give them out to children who are visiting us for the first time. Such a cute idea!

Children's gift bag — Children’s gift bag

Children's gift bag tag — Children’s gift bag card

Keep the conversation going! Leave a comment below, telling me how you celebrated Kickoff Sunday in your kidmin.

Wilderness Escape VBS: Day 5 (To God Be the Glory)

07/25/201408/16/2026 Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

Well friends, our VBS ended last Friday. The end of VBS is always bittersweet but we had a good week. There were so many ways that I saw God working but I’ll share just a few:

Our volunteers were rock stars! They were so ready to jump in and serve in various capacities, whether leading games, helping to keep our building safe, leading meaningful discussions, being crafty, serving snacks or making sure that our sound was up and running. In fact, many of them took time off from work to be with us for the week. It was great to see our volunteers come together to make the week great!

Hearing stories of meaningful conversations happening at VBS, in the car or at home were so inspiring. Children were asking good questions and really grappling with what they saw and heard.

Seeing children worship was great! They were not only singing, they were worshiping. I know that God was pleased.

Here are a few pictures from Day 5:

Our thank-you gift to our fabulous family leaders (A Pinterest-inspired idea)

Our family leaders made VBS s'more fun! — Our family leaders made VBS s’more fun!

All week, our children were asked to bring in food for a local food pantry we support. Humphrey the Camel liked what we collected. :) — All week, our children were asked to bring in food for a local food pantry we support. Humphrey the Camel liked what we collected. 🙂

Day 5 also included taking down much of our decor so that we could prepare for our Friday night celebration service and picnic. This was the first year that we held our closing worship service on Friday night – we usually hold it on the Sunday following in lieu of our ‘normal’ worship services – but because of our church’s core values is connecting, we wanted a way to connect families to each other as well as to their child’s leaders.

The service lasted approximately 40 minutes and highlighted many of the songs the children learned in addition to a special visit from ‘Moses’. Our picnic (complete with inflatables, games, prizes and food) was a great ending to the day. Seeing families connect was a beautiful thing.

All in all, when I think back to the week, the two words that come to mind are grace and beauty. I described grace earlier in the week (you can read that here) but here’s how it was beautiful.

Seeing inter-generational ministry happening is one way that our VBS is unique. Seeing teens serve with older members of our congregation is one of the strengths of our program. Because of this, our VBS is something that seems to rally our entire church like no other event.

Seeing our staff come together and support our VBS makes me grateful to serve alongside my colleagues. Every department in our church made a contribution to our VBS. It truly is an all-church, all-staff endeavor.

Seeing the giftedness within our congregation makes me thankful that God makes us all different. Some have a knack to make things pretty; some are extremely organized; some are fun-loving; some are deeply passionate about seeing children learn about God in a Bible-based environment and want us to keep the main thing the main thing. VBS is truly a collaboration of gifts and talents.

Seeing the Holy Spirit move in the hearts of our children reminds me that despite all of our efforts, it is the Holy Spirit who prompts children to be receptive to the message of the Gospel. We want children who don’t know Jesus to accept His free gift of salvation and we want children who know Him to know and love Him more.

I am truly thankful to my fabulous team who worked so hard and tirelessly to make it a fabulous week. Once we all recover, we’ll celebrate! 🙂 To God be the Glory!

“I will bless the Lord who guides me.”

Psalm 16:7

Wilderness Escape VBS: Day 4 (Cheering on the Team)

07/17/201408/16/2026 Kathie Phillips

In my experience with VBS, Day 4 (Thursday) is usually the hardest day, but with God’s help and supernatural strength, we made it! (Read about Day 1 here, Day 2 here, and Day 3 here.)

By Thursday, I usually feel like I’ve been hit by a ton of bricks. I know that many of our volunteers feel the same way. so we usually try to be very intentional in keeping momentum going with volunteers who might be growing weary. Here’s what we did today to fuel and re-energize the team:

We asked volunteers to arrive 30 minutes earlier so that they could enjoy a light breakfast (bagels, coffee and juice) with us. We then made a few important announcements before leading the troop in a pep rally. I recruited one of our more energetic leaders to lead us in an energizing chant, complete with noisemakers! It was awesome!

We also began assembling gifts for volunteers. Our craft team leader assembled these gifts for her team: