Lead Well

In my last post, I talked about the loss of connection to my friend.  I started thinking about this connection and its spiritual application and this is what I came up with.  It is said that when people go to hell they experience the absence of God.  Because of their sin God can not bear to be near them.  They have lost connection.  At the final judgement, the unrighteous will be thrown into the fiery pit known as the second death.  Maybe this is a total loss of connection with God. My point is, if it hurts so much to lose someone you love how much more must it hurt to lose connection with an all powerful, all knowing, all present God.  How much does it hurt Him?

Yesterday while on Facebook, I discovered horrible news.  One of my friends from church and high school was murdered in his own home.  I am struggling to determine my feelings about this event.  Heath was not a close friend, but a friend nonetheless.  I rooted for him, when I heard that he was a DJ on a local radio station, and was even more pleased when I heard he moved to the local Christian station. One of my fondest memories of Heath is we were in the youth room after a young adults meeting, and he was writing a song.  I gave him some advice on the concept of the song and he appreciated the help.  I don't know if he used the advice, and to be honest, I'm pretty sure I never heard the song.  I just remember the connection. Connection.  Maybe that's what hurts so much.  Even though I have not seen or spoke to him in 5 years, the possibility of connection was always there.  Now the connection is lost until I go to heaven.  Comforting and yet frustrating at the same tim

Thinking outside the box.  Just because of who I am, I frequently don't think outside the box, and when new things are mentioned I have to make them fit into my box.  If you are like me thinking creatively does not come naturally.  It is a daily practice.  One thing I have learned through this process is to bring people into your organization and life that can think outside the box for you.  Someone with fresh eyes and fresh ideas.  They may be able to suggest things that you never considered.  This VBS go around try to do something outside of the norm.  Something that will wow your participants and your volunteers.  It is sure to go a long way towards bringing them back.

I know it has been a long time since my last post, but I was planning and executing the topic of this post.  A new addition to my VBS planning is a seemingly unrelated preliminary event.  This year I held an Easter Egg Hunt on the front lawn of my church the day before Easter.  I used this event to not only invite people to our church, but also to advertise for VBS.  In addition, every child who came to the event had to fill out a registration form with current address, phone number, and email address.  This provides me with a list to outside of my regular attenders to communicate with about upcoming events, specifically VBS!  I have not seen the effects of this event on my VBS, but I will keep blog about them as I start to see the results. My suggestion is to use any and every event leading up to your VBS to advertise.  This is a captive audience and if they like what they see at the event, they are in they are much more likely to check out the VBS.  Happy planning!

Why do you want to do a VBS?  Is it because it is what the children's ministry has always done?  or you really like having the VBS? or it makes you feel important? or maybe it is just one more thing the pastor has asked you to do?  There are many reasons to put on a VBS, but the most important reason must be to minister and plant the seeds in the hearts of children in your church and community. Studies show that if a child does not have a Biblical worldview by the age of 8 then the odds of them living a life for Christ gets dismally smaller every year after that.  It is a burden placed upon us as each kid walks through our doors.  It is not our job specifically to disciple or even see the children saved, but God has seen fit to give us the opportunity to plant the seed, water it, or even harvest it.  It is all in His hands.  If your focus is off, I implore you to spend some time in prayer and ask yourself this one question and answer truthfully.  Why am I doing this?  If it is

Many ask when do I need to start publicizing my VBS.  High Seas Expedition says to start publicizing 8 weeks prior to your VBS, but I start much earlier.  How early?  My VBS is in July and I introduced it my kids last Sunday.  Nothing major, just a little teaser in the form of the theme song.  I do this for two reasons.  (1) To get the kids excited about the biggest event I do all year, and (2) to start teaching the songs so that when VBS comes the kids can really worship instead of learning 10 new songs in a week. In addition to this teaser, I list a graphic in our newsletter for the months coming and begin talking to station leaders.  This gets the ball rolling and starts to create buzz.  The key is to get not only the kids excited about VBS, but also the parents, teenagers, and other volunteers.  The final step to beginning to publicize is to talk it up.  Word of mouth is your best advertiser.  Mention it in conversations, meetings, interviews, greetings.  Anywhere people are ta

A couple of weeks ago I spoke about building a team to be successful in your VBS.  I am going to expound on that concept a little today.  It is an awful but very true reality that you cannot do everything and you are not good everything either.  There are just too many jobs out there and too many skills required to accomplish everything that must be done.  This may seem quite obvious, especially if you are doing Group's VBS, which calls for a different leader at each station.  However we still try to do everything that we can and give as little responsibilities to others.  After all VBS is your job.  If I could I would probably try to do it all, but I know that I am not good at everything, so I try to find people who are.  For instance, I have little to no musical ability, which works fine week to week because I have time to improve, but for VBS there is no way.  Therefore, I intentionally recruit people who have strengths in this area and can do a much better job than I ever d