How to Create Your Best Event
Whether we want to admit it or not, a lot of ministry is events. Yes, we want people to know about Jesus and grow in their love for them, but how do we do that? Do we hold a class? Do we host a service? Do we put on a VBS or camp?
If you think about it, all of these things are events.
How to Order T-shirts: Part 3
The day is finally here. Your event is coming up and you now have several boxes full of your brand-spanking-new shirts. But how do you get them out to your people? How do you make sure they get the right sizes? What happens if they ordered the wrong size?
If you’re going to sell them, how much should you charge? Do you have to keep inventory?
It’s a lot to think about. There are no perfect systems out there, but these are some things I do to get them out to the right people at the right time, even if I’m selling them.
How to Order T-shirts: Part 2
In this post I’ll answer the question how many shirts should I buy?
In a perfect world, you’d have every participant’s shirt size weeks in advance of your event so you can order the exact right amount and eliminate waste or worse, run out of a particular size. But because of Adam and Eve’s failure we don’t live a perfect world, and now we have to guess.
Thanks a lot guys.
How to Order T-Shirts: Part 1
Let's do T-shirts!
That’s a question that somehow got skipped in seminary. Nowhere in all my studies did anyone tell me how to design, order, and then sell/give-away t-shirts and somehow in my ministry experience I find myself having to do it at least once a year.
Over the years, I’ve developed some strategies to help me be successful and get the kind of shirts everyone loves.
VBS Marketing Made Easy
I recently saw a post asking what children’s pastors do to get kids to their VBS. COVID has changed a lot of things, and this summer will be telling if these strategies will still have as much effectiveness, but I know pre-COVID, my VBS continued to grow, and I saw more and different kids every year.
If you want to reach more kids with the Gospel, you need to tell people what you're doing regardless of whether your VBS in-person, online, in the neighborhood, or something else.
A Follow-up Plan for Easter
Easter is the Super Bowl of Christendom. More people come to church on Easter than any other Sunday of the year. I know last year’s Easter was different than any in recent memory, but now with churches opening up again, and others, like mine in Florida have been open for a while, we’re looking to see the people to come back maybe for the first time in over a year. Looking at 2019’s stats, my ministry doubled in size for that one Sunday. But with all these new people how do we get them to come back? How do we connect them to our church?
5 Things I learned from doing VBS Online and In-Person
I haven’t written in a while. This pandemic has done a number on me. My family and I have been healthy, but if you’re in ministry, you know the crunch we’ve been in for the last few months. Every new month feels like the next level of Jumanji. (What happened to the murder hornets?!)
A big part of most kidmin’s summer is VBS. I’ve led 12 of these as a kid’s pastor and been a part of one for as long as I can remember. However, it goes without saying, this year is different.
5 Questions to Evaluate Your Events
Events and ministry go hand in hand. It comes from when the church was the center of town. Everyone’s social calendar was filled with church activities because the church was the community. Now things have drastically changed, but we still do events.
3 Methods of Communication that Work
You can talk about the event or program over and over again. You put up posters, make slides, and make an announcement from the stage, and you get crickets. Or even worse, the week after your event, someone asks you when it is.
7 Steps to a Great Follow Up Plan that Works
If you’re like me when I first started out in ministry, I didn’t think about follow up. All I focused on was doing a great event or service, and then move on to the next.
But just like following through when you swing a bat is key, follow up is as well. It doesn’t feel necessary but is essential to pulling off a great event.
What I Learned from my First Mega Sports Camp
I have led vacation Bible school (VBS) almost every year of my ministry and had participated in VBS for as long as I can remember. When I first heard about MEGA Sports Camp (MSC), I was resistant, because I was very happy with the curriculum I was using. I had systems and procedures in place to put on a large VBS without having to reinvent the wheel every year.
5 Things I learned from a Parent Survey
A few months ago, I was challenged by the folks at Orange to do a parent survey to find out how the children's ministry is connecting and partnering with parents. Through their product Weekly, they made it super simple by giving all the necessary templates to create my survey in Survey Monkey and launch it out to my parents.
5 Things I Learned Switching from Group VBS to Orange VBS
This summer I decided to make the switch from Group VBS to Orange VBS. I knew this was going to be a big change for everyone. I've done Group for almost 20 years. It's the only VBS I knew and the only one I've led. I even got to be a part of a focus group for Group a few years ago.
These schedule templates will help you plan your VBS with multiple stations and different times.