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Tag: Promotion Sunday

How We Prepare for Promotion Sunday

Kathie Phillips Leave a comment

Last week, I shared what I’m working on this month. (If you missed it, you can read that post here.) Our team is in the final stretch of preparation for our upcoming Promotion Sunday, which is taking place on Sunday, September 13th. At that time, our kids will move up to their new rooms/grades. There’s a lot that happens behind-the-scenes to get us ready for a seamless transition. Here’s what we take care of:

Parent Communication

Since we don’t promote until the first Sunday after Labor Day, we inform families of our Promotion Sunday date via our website and our monthly family newsletter about six weeks out. As the date gets closer, we’ll increase communication through our social media platforms, our website, email newsletter, and direct email.

Curriculum & Supplies

I am wrapping up September curriculum edits (I’m a little behind!) so that copies can be made, activity pages cut out, and supplies gathered and ordered (if needed). We also tackle tidying, taking inventory of, and restocking our resource closets (we have several) and classroom carts. (This includes tasks such as tossing dried out markers and glue sticks, broken crayons, sharpening pencils, updating bulletin boards, and cleaning whiteboards.)

Admin Tasks

Our Operations Coordinator is the glue to our ministry and takes care of much of the behind-the-scenes prep work. She handles things such as making sure background checks are up-to-date, processing new volunteer applications, updating our website and newsletter, printing new room signage, promoting the kids in our church database, printing off classroom rosters, updating check-in iPads, restocking check-in label printers, printing volunteer nametags, and updating & printing our volunteer handbook. And after a busy summer season, our guest family bags will be restocked in our Guest Services area.

Physical Spaces

This year, we’ve chosen a hot-air balloon Promotion Sunday theme, so on the actual day, our space will have coordinating decorations, including a photo wall area. Stay tuned for pictures!

Our classrooms and hallways take a beating during the year, so our facilities team waxes floors, replaces light bulbs, makes needed repairs, and touches up paint. This year, we’ll also need a banner and window coverings hung up as well as have our audio-visual equipment inspected. One thing I’m very excited to do is shop for new furniture. Last year, we purchased new gliders for our nursery (our nursery team requested them and was THRILLED to get new ones). This year, we’ll be purchasing new seating for our preteen ministry space. Since their room is a shared multi-purpose space, it’ll be key to purchase seating that is not only functional but durable.

Volunteer Care & Support

Like in previous years, we are welcoming a few new faces to our team, so we’ll provide an orientation for them. Our returning team members will receive a few refreshers, too, because we’re making some curriculum and format adjustments this year. Our volunteer hospitality room will be restocked with their favorite snacks, coffee pods, and bottled beverages for our beverage center.

FREE DOWNLOAD – “Supply/Resource Closet Must-Haves”

I always find preparation for Promotion Sunday is easier with checklists that can be updated and printed each year. One of the checklists I use includes a supply/resource closet inventory sheet. If you’d find that helpful, you can download mine here. It’s definitely not an exhaustive list, but it’ll help you make sure essentials are covered.

Be sure you’re following my Facebook Group. There I share #mondayinspiration and Friday Favorites weekly. This Friday, I’ll share an Amazon link to some of my favorite supply/resource closet items!

Praying for a great year for all of my ministry friends! Let me know in the comments how your ministry prepares for Promotion Sunday.

What I’m Working On This Month (August 2026)

Kathie Phillips Leave a comment

Happy August! August is usually a busy month for me, and this time around is no different. Here’s what I’m currently working on:

Promotion Sunday

In early September, we promote our kids to the next class based on age or grade, so we’re busy preparing for that. Stay tuned for an upcoming post with a more detailed look at how we prepare.

Building a Key Leadership Team

One of the key missing pieces of our children’s ministry is a team of leaders who can step into the next level of leadership. I’ve decided to call these folks “Team Champions”. I’ll share more details in a future post, but my goal is to have each of our ministry areas represented with the intent of strengthening our ministry overall and better serving our volunteers and families. Very excited about this and who I’m inviting to serve in this way!

Summer Volunteer Schedules

During the months of July and August, we invite parents and other members of our congregation to serve with us while our school year leaders take some much-needed time off. This year’s call-to-action has yielded a great response (honestly the best I’ve seen in years), with most of our serving opportunities being covered. However, we have a few opportunities left, so I’m working to secure coverage for our remaining needs.

Next Gen Team Meeting Schedule

Our Next Gen staff team will resume our monthly meetings in a few weeks, so I’ll be working on outlining our meeting content for the next few months.

Blog Refresh & Content For the Next Three Months

Speaking of content…After several years away from this platform, I am eager to jump back in and have mapped out my blog content for the next three months. Now comes creating that content so that I stay ahead of the game. I am also playing with a few layouts to give the blog a fresh look. Stay tuned!

A Few Loose Ends

As summer winds down, I have a few loose ends to tie up – things such as providing our VBS debrief/evaluation notes and budget analysis to the planning team, submitting work orders for a few needed projects for our kids’ area, finishing September curriculum edits, preparing back-to-school family resources, and tidying our resource closets (we have several). I’ll be sharing a resource closet must-have list as a free download very soon, so stay tuned for that as well.

Lots of things keeping me busy! Now it’s your turn. What are you working on this month? Any specific content you’d like to see me cover?

Preparing for Move Up Sunday

Kathie Phillips

move-up-sunday 2015

My team and I have been busy preparing for our Move Up (Promotion) Sunday this weekend.  There’s always a lot to do to make sure that everything – and everyone – is ready to go!  Can you relate?

Here is a snapshot of how we’ve prepared:

Volunteers

Everything from recruiting to our kick-off event to making sure paperwork is up-to-date, everything related to staffing our classrooms and equipping those leaders ramps up in the month of August.  We want to make sure that those who are partnering with us in classrooms and small groups are well-equipped and supported to do the work that God has called them to (through large group venues like our kick-off event or one-on-one over coffee or a meal).  This step is crucial to our overall ministry’s success.

Curriculum & Supplies

During the summer months, we declutter our storage closets and inventory supplies so that they can be restocked.  This summer, we’ve ordered worship equipment, items for small groups (colorful rugs, games, walkie talkies for each classroom and members of our security team, and books for leaders), craft supplies, electronic check-in printer labels, storage bins and other essentials.

We also plan our lesson schedules for the year, edit curriculum, print lessons and activity pages and other curriculum-related tasks.

Physical Spaces

A year of ministry can take a beating on our physical spaces, so each summer we spruce up classrooms and hallways by updating signage, purchasing equipment and painting.  This year, we’re so excited that our Nursery hallway and welcome areas will be painted in fun, inviting colors in time for Move Up Sunday!  We also take a look at room/space configurations to make sure that traffic flows well and that space is maximized as much as possible.

Parent Communication

Move Up Sunday is a big Sunday for us (there are lots of moving parts and lots of people to move), so we want to make sure that parents know what to expect.  This means communicating through every avenue possible, such as our website, our church’s Facebook page, our ministry’s Facebook page, email, electronic newsletter, and environmental signage.  On Move Up Sunday, we’ll have additional volunteers on hand who will greet and direct families to the right rooms.  These volunteers will be wearing an Ask Me! name tag (and a smile) and have a clipboard with the room numbers and assignments to make this transition go as smoothly as possible.

Prayer

As a staff team as well as individually, we commit Move Up Sunday to prayer.  Things we cover in prayer include, but are not limited to:

  • Protection for volunteers (against sickness for them or their children, transportation, etc.)
  • New families
  • Children entering a new classroom environment
  • Anxiety (for parents, children, new volunteers)
  • Excitement for the beginning of a new ministry year
  • Stamina, rest, and contagious energy for our staff team

There are just a few last-minute details to tend to and then we’ll be ready!  It’s going to be a great year!

Keep the conversation going!  Leave a comment below to share how you prepare for Move Up Sunday.  You can also upload pictures of your ministry spaces on our Facebook page.

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