summer Archives - KidMinspiration

Summer Lovin’: Switching Things Up

07/01/201407/01/2014 Kathie Phillips

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

Today, we’ll look at changing up your programming during the summer months.

Our ministry’s ‘summer’ began on Father’s Day, so with God’s help we have successfully survived 3 summer Sundays without our school-year volunteers (who serve Sept – mid June and get the summer off). Because we invite parents, members of our congregation and students to serve during the summer months, we wanted to restructure our ministry to still provide quality programming with the fewest amount of volunteers.

Here’s what we did. and how it’s been working so far:

EARLY CHILDHOOD

During the school year, we provide individual classes for 2-yr olds – Kindergartners at each of our two services (eight classrooms). During the summer months, we decided to offer a class for 2-yr olds (using Group’s Hands-on-Bible curriculum) and a mixed-age group for 3-yr olds – Kindergartners (using Orange’s First Look curriculum). This mixed-age room will be a large group/small group format that will include engaging arrival activities, large group time (live worship and Bible story, on DVD) and mixed-age small groups for application activities (crafts, games, etc.), playground time, snack and prayer. The response has been so overwhelmingly positive from children, parents and volunteers that we are considering continuing this format this fall.

ELEMENTARY

Since we bid our rising 6th graders a fond farewell a few weeks ago, we have again decided to combine our rising 2nd – rising 5th graders for the summer. (We’ve done this for the past few years and it’s worked very well). Our summer programming will be just seven weeks this year, as our elementary students worship with their families during the month of August. (Take a look at how we introduced this last summer here). Usually I order the summer XP materials from Orange but the materials they offered this year was a repeat of materials we used last summer so I began praying and asking God to direct me to what materials we should use for the seven weeks of our Sunday programming. I landed on teaching the kids about Moses since our VBS will focus on Moses in the wilderness with the Israelites.

On Sunday mornings, we set up a few arrival activities and lead the children in a large group game to introduce the lesson for the day. Then we move everyone to our large group space for a fun, interactive countdown, worship, prayer, and our Bible story (led by a main storyteller). When our large group time concludes, we split the group into 3 groups and allow the groups to rotate through 3 activity stations, which has included object lessons, memory verse activities, crafts, games and snack. The slightly different format has worked so well that I’ve signed up a few volunteers to serve with us this fall!

In our ministry, attendance fluctuates during the summer months, so we like to take risks and try some new things in the summer. If something’s a hit, we include it in our programming for the new ministry year.

Related article: “Should Kids Ministry Take the Summer Off?“ by Brian Dollar

What does programming in your kidmin look like during the summer months? What ‘risky’ things are you trying this summer?

{From the Archives} Summer Lovin’: Recruiting Volunteers

06/18/201406/18/2014 Kathie Phillips

The following post was originally published in June 2013 and 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 in our KidMin

03/07/201403/07/2014 Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

Depending on where you live, this winter has been extremely long, dreary and snowy. Many of us are ready for things to warm up a little bit. Good news – summer is right around the corner and for those of us in KidMin, we’ve been thinking about summer for some time now.

I recently did an interview with Children’s Ministry Magazine’s David Jennings on what summer looks like in our kidmin. You can read the article here.

I’d love to know – what fun things does your ministry have planned for this summer? Leave me a comment below!

Summer Lovin’: A Recap

08/23/201308/23/2013 Kathie Phillips 2 Comments

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

Today, I’ll share my reflections on the summer and what God has been teaching me.

Earlier this summer I shared how this was a new season of ministry for me. (You can read that post here.) This new season has meant a wide range of emotions for me. It’s been exciting and overwhelming at the same time. We have been busy in summer mode while also preparing for our fall kick-off in a few weeks, so we’ve been making many changes externally (physical spruce ups) and internally (policies, procedures, structure).

When families return for our fall kick-off, they’ll see walls freshly painted in bright, fun colors. They’ll see new signage directing them around our children’s area. We’re using new curriculum and aligning with a new vision, mission and overall ministry strategy. I am excited about all that God will do in the ministry this coming year and will post here what we’re doing, what’s working and what we’re working on.

But what makes me more excited is what God is doing in the life of the ministry leader – ME! All summer long, people have approached me, asking questions like, “How’s everything going?” “How are you holding up?” “Are you ready for vacation?” Things are busy, I’m still standing and I’m always ready for a vacation, especially near the water! 🙂 But really…with all of the changes that have taken place in our ministry, the most remarkable changes have been within me.

I’ve been in Children’s Ministry (professionally) for 11 years now and boy have I learned a lot during that time frame. A few weekends ago, I was sorting through some of my ministry resources and I was horrified by some of the things that I thought was my best work! Thankfully I am older, wiser and insistent on building a stronger foundation this time around by putting a few practices into place:

Without prayer and time in God’s Word, I am operating out of my own strength. Any ministry that is a product of my ideas, my energy and my plans is downright frightening. Many times I’ve gone to bed after praying for solutions/insight into things and literally would be awakened during the middle of the night with a God-given idea. (I talked about one particular incident here.)

Start with the basics. Clarify vision, mission, core values, ministry strategy, job descriptions – all of the things upon which a successful ministry is built on. With God’s guidance, building the basics now will benefit us greatly down the road.

Build strong teams and delegate. Loosen my own grip because it doesn’t belong to me. My primary role as a leader is to equip others to do the work. This will free me up to do the things that only I can do. This is very hard for me to do sometimes but I must for the sake of the ministry and my own sanity.

Get out of the office and invest in relationships with those I lead. One of the favorite part of my job has always been getting to know people I serve with. I believe that these relationships strengthen our ministry in a very unique way.

Set boundaries. Protect family time. Call it quits at a decent hour. Talk about things other than ministry. Make time for fun. This will make me a happier, healthier leader.

Sometimes the changes you see on the outside are no where as big as the changes on the inside! I pray that the work that God is doing in me will have biggest positive impact on those I serve.

Are you living your life in a way that allows God to transform you from the inside out?