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Summer Fun!
Celebrate with a Summer Fun Fest. Plan one to kick off the summer program, celebrate the fourth of July, as an opening or closing for your VBS or as an end of summer event. This is a great opportunity to get people involved with your kids ministry who normally aren't involved. Recruit people to man booths, paint faces, make balloon animals, supervise races and games, etc.
· Danielle's Place offers some great ideas for summer fun and links to other sites that offer ideas for games and more. http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/games.html#summer
Celebrate God's Creation -
Think "outside the box" this summer and find ways to get your kids outside and enjoying God's creation as they learn ways they can honor Him by taking care of it.
· Try an outdoor scavenger hunt and have kids look for specific items that are a part of God's creation and items that are a part of man's creation. Talk about how we can work to take care of God's creation.
· Plan a service project. Have your kids help clean up the church property or a local neighborhood by picking up litter, helping to pull weeds, planting flowers.
· Check out Professor Pocket's Creation Kid's Club for suggestions:
http://www.albertweb.com/profpockets/albert2000.htm
· Go to http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/games.html for The Seven Days of Creation Outreach Ideas
Celebrate Families
- Plan some special family events. Be creative and create opportunities for your families to have fun together! Perhaps this can be a summer alternative to a Wednesday night program or a once a month activity especially for families.
· Have a family talent night. This can be indoors or outside on the church lawn. Have everyone brings blankets and folding chairs and a picnic dinner to share before the show begins.
· Try a movie night. Serve popcorn and punch. If the weather is cooperative it could be a movie night “under the stars”!
· How about a family game night? Set up badmitton, volleyball, softball, kickball, mini-golf, etc. on the church grounds. Have families bring equipment to share.
· Host a Family night at the ball game or a day at a local amusement park or water park.
· Host a family concert (go to http://www.forhiskidz.com for some great family ministries)
Celebrate Community –
Plan some outreach events designed to bring kids in who wouldn’t attend a church service. Probably the number one outreach event for most children’s ministries is the VBS program. Typically this is a program offered five days during one week in the summer, with a standard VBS curriculum and staffed with volunteers from the congregation.
BUT, it doesn’t have to be! Think outside the box and consider some alternatives. Why? Well maybe you’re having trouble staffing your VBS. Or, your volunteer staff needs a much-deserved break. Maybe you and your ministry need recharged. You’re ready for some fresh new ideas. Here are some alternatives that you might consider:
· If you’ve always done the morning VBS and are have trouble getting help, try an evening VBS instead.
· Try a once a week program over five weeks, like the five Mondays in July or the five Thursday in August.
· Plan a three-day camp for your 4th-6th graders and take them to a earby camping facility. Find info on camps, retreats and recreation resources at http://www.gospelcom.net/welcome/categories/camps.shtml Offer a day camp at the church for the younger kids. Check out Eileen’s Favorite Camp Crafts & Other Things
http://www.chadiscrafts.nu/fun/index.html
· If you are a larger church you might consider backyard Bible clubs for a week or one evening for five weeks. This has the added benefit of reaching out into the neighborhoods in your community and touching more kids than would normally come to an event at your church. End the week by bringing all the groups together for a closing event at the church.
· Bring in a children’s evangelist to conduct the program. They generally do an hour to two-hour program each day and you can incorporate a snack time and craft time into the program if you like. Go to http://www.forhiskidz.com to find some of the best children’s evangelists available.
Whatever you decide go to http://www.childrensministry.net/VBS_2001/vbs_2001.html
for a VBS forum, resources, ideas and more!
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