10 Must Try VBS Snacks

Every year churches across the country put on Vacation Bible School’s as an outreach to their communities.  One of the hardest challenges can be turning snack time into a creative platform to further the daily lesson.  Children’s Pastors are always looking for creative snack options to give to their kids that take snack time to the next level.   We at Today’s Kids Ministry wanted to share some of our favorite VBS snack ideas that your kids will love.

10  Octopus Cupcakes 

We all know that kids love cupcakes and these octopus cupcakes are perfect for the summer time and any beach themed VBS.   They are super easy to make, sour gummy worms and gum drops are all you need, and if you are feeling inspired, you can easily add eyes and a mouth as well.

Why You Can’t Afford Not to Appreciate Your Volunteers

I don’t know a single Children’s Pastor who has a big enough budget to do everything they would like to do.  With that being said, we look to find places where we can cut costs in order to make VBS extra special this year or find an extra hundred dollars to upgrade our bounce house for the back to school bash.   One area that often times gets cut the most is volunteer appreciation (that’s if you even have VA on your budget to begin with).   BUT YOU CAN NOT AFFORD TO DO THIS!

Over all my years of ministry, I’ve been blessed to be a part of churches that really honor their volunteers and then I have had to reach into my own pocket to honor my volunteers at churches that did not.   One of the biggest differences I found between churches that where striving vs churches stuck in  a rut was the culture among their volunteers.  Churches that had a focus on raising up leaders and showing how thankful they where to their teams where growing and more importantly just seemed like a place where people wanted to be.  On the other hand, the churches where the volunteers never got thanked, or taken care of seemed very main stage focused, and if you were not on the main stage, you felt like you didn’t even matter. 

5 Ways to Spice up Your VBS

Looking for a few new ways to spice up your VBS this year?   Let’s face it, we all can get into a VBS rut from time to time so we at Today’s Kids Ministry wanted to put together 5 ideas that will help bring something new and exciting to your VBS at church.

5.  Penny Wars  

Penny Wars is one of the most fun games you can play all week at VBS.    The goal of the game is be the team with the most points at the end of the week.  So, before you start, you have to break your groups up into teams (most churches do this anyways for VBS).   Get water jugs for each team and have the team members put pennies into their jugs.  Here’s the catch, the other team can place silver coins and dollar bills into other team jugs and have those points count against them ( a nickel is -5 point, dime -10 and so on).  We send all our money raise to a chosen missionary who we talk about throughout the week.  The winning team get a prize at the end of the week.

Bring the Church Together with a Family Game Night

The biggest trend in Children’s Ministry over the last 5 years has been a focus on family ministry.   While family ministry looks different from church to church, the main idea is that as a church we want all our ministries to work together to enrich families.  Family Ministry looks for ways to bring the entire family together instead of overloading them with separate events that makes it impossible to spend time as a family.  A major struggle however, children’s, youth, and family pastors are facing are creating events and programs that are appealing for all ages.   At our church, we have found great success hosting family games nights.

We have a few goals for Family Game Night.  First, we want to create a fun time of fellowship among families.  Second, we aim to make sure that the entire family, regardless of age has a good time and feels included.   Lastly, we want to create a feeling of unity among the entire congregation by blending ministries together.

To achieve our goals, we had to put a lot of thought into the structure of the event.   First, we wanted to pick a night that families where available to be a part of.   We picked Wednesday night  because we already had youth and children’s groups that meet that night and so most of our parents already had Wednesday nights set aside for church.  Next, we decided to break the groups into 4 teams.  Each group member was given a color headband to match their team color and we required families to stay in the same group.   We also assigned groups based on the ages of the family members.  We wanted to make sure that each team had several members from each age group in them.

When it came to thinking of the games, we decided to make a game for each age group (preschool, elementary, youth, and adult).   We did not tell the groups that each game had a different target group that way they were excited all night long.  Between games, we played funny videos clips of game show bloopers to tie into the theme, and we also had a round trivia between games to keep the entire group active (instead of trivia, you could do the Let’s Make a Deal game where you list a random item like a water bottle or something green and the person who can show theirs first wins a point for their team) We kept score the whole night and had prizes for the winning team. 

Host a Random Acts of Kindness Party at Your Church

One of the most important lessons you can teach your kids is how to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  While mission trips and service projects are common among youth groups, you might have a hard time finding organizations that will let you use your younger kids help serve the community.  That’s when it’s time to take it into your own hands and throw a Random Acts of Kindness Party at your church.

A Random Acts of Kindness Party is like no other party you have ever been to.  Instead of staying at the church, you organize parents to help carpool your kids to different areas around the community, where they get to bless people and organizations with Random Acts of Kindness.   This will take a lot of planning on your end, but the end results will have a huge impact on your students.

Before you invite the students to the party, you have to plan out what activities you want the kids to do.  A lot of projects are going to require donations and that means the students need a list of items to bring with them to the party.  Once you have that all settle out, make sure you have enough vans to take all your students (this is a great way to have kids invite their friends, so make sure you get as many parents on board before hand).   Once everything is set in place, you’re ready to send out the invites. 

Top 10 DIY Christian Easter Crafts for Kids!

Looking for an Easter Craft perfect for church but are finding nothing but Easter bunnies and Easter Eggs?  Have no fear, we have come up with our list of 10 Christian Easter crafts perfect for all ages and budgets.

10.  Cross Card

Top 5 Messy Games to Play at Church

Looking for a few game ideas that will have the kids talking about all week?  Try using a game that involves making a mess! Anyone who has ever worked with children know that messy anything is always a huge success.   I know, the clean up is never fun, but with a few trash bags and tarps, a messy game can be a very simple clean up.  Here are 5 games you can try at your church that are sure to be huge hits with your kids.

5.  Pudding Picrionary 

Pictionary is a great game to play with your kids, but this version steps it up.  Place some pudding down on a covered table and have the kids draw pictures with their fingers using the pudding.  You can use words from your Bible lesson to tie it into the theme.   

5 Mothers Day Projects for Any Church Budget

May 10th, otherwise known as Mothers Day is around the corner.   As a Children’s Pastor, you often want to honor your kid’s mothers by giving them a gift made by their children.   In the days of Pintrest, that can mean hours of searching the web to find a cute project that won’t break your budget .   The following are 5 ideas for you to use this Mothers Day back at your church.

5.  I Love You Card

Looking to give your Mothers Day card a pop?  Try this easy popup card that your kids will have a blast making and mom will be sure to keep.  By making a popup card, you turn a regular homemade card into something special.

Top 5 Signs that your Church Does Not Value Children’s Ministry

For many Children’s Pastors, the feeling of isolation and a lack of support can be overwhelming.  For these pastors, they feel as though they are the only ones who see the importance of reaching the children of their church and feel like other ministries are receiving feasts while the scramble to pick up the crumbs from under the table.  Yet, there are just as many pastors who feel like they are completely supported by their church and smile every time they step foot onto church grounds.  As a pastor who has worked on both sides of the fence, I have put together my top 5 signs that you are at a church that values Children’s Ministry and a few tips to change the culture if you are not.

Language

When the leadership of the church talks about your programs, is it referred to as childcare?  The language that is used to describe your ministry is a peek into the brains of the leadership.  On Sunday mornings, we provide a church service, just like the adult service, it’s not simply childcare.   Don’t just listen to what people say, also take a look at the language used online and on and literature your church prints up.   If you are unhappy with what you found, speak with your leadership team.  I suggest expressing the importance of reinforcing what goals you have for your ministry and how the language used helps raise the importance level of children’s ministry at the family level. 

5 Surefire Ways to Connect with Your Kids

How well do you know  your kids?  Can you name 5 random facts about each one of your regulars?    Studies have shown that your kids are only spend roughly 50 hours a year at church, making it very difficult to connect with your kids at a deeper level.  Keeping up with the lives of the kids in your ministry can become a real struggle but the impact you can have on a child’s life when you are connected to them makes it well worth the challenge. Here are 5 tips to help you go form barely remembering your kids names to getting an invite to their birthday party.

5.  Be a Part of their Small Groups  

Whenever you send kids to small groups, take the time to find a group of kids you don’t know very well and join their group.  This is a great way to know where you kids stand spiritually, you might be surprised by the answers the come up with.   Each week pick a different group and over time you will find that the kids will be very comfortable talking to you about their lives and about God.