Childrens Ministry Online

VBS/Kids Camp on steroids

Posted on20. Jul, 2010 by Kenny.

A co-worker recently sent me information about a little event that happens at a church in St. Louis every year. When I came across JUMP, I had two simultaneous reactions.

1. I was in absolute wonder and awe of the sheer size of this event.
2. I threw up in my mouth just a little bit thinking about putting on and event of this size

JUMP is a week-long VBS/Day Camp hybrid held at St. Louis Family Church. Over the years it has grown from a small outreach to an event of epic proportions. This year 3,243 participated. Here’s some of what it took to pull JUMP off:

• 987 volunteers (Thank you all!)
• 158 watermelons
• 485 gallons of Gatorade
• 5,700 bags of cotton candy
• 260 pounds and 8,350 bags of popcorn
• 6,928 pounds of ice
• 167 gallons of syrup
• 18,200 sno-cones

Amazing, huh? What spoke to me the most about this is that at Children’s Pastors, we have to constantly be creative and just because we don’t have a resource or staff or facility doesn’t mean God can’t do something utterly amazing through your ministry and church. JUMP is pretty impressive, but it’s a day camp held in the church parking lot. Chances are you have one of those, so what’s stopping you from thinking outside of the box and doing something amazing?

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My secret weapon to connecting with kids

Posted on22. Jun, 2010 by Kenny.

It’s funny how kids connect. If I’m sitting with a group of 5th grade boys, I might talk about my favorite video game. If I’m talking with 3rd grade girls, I might talk about… well, girly stuff. When we show interest in the things that they’re interested in, it builds report. I’m not just saying that you learn a few lines or do a little “research” so you can be relatable. You actually need to know what you’re talking about, kids see through the fake.

Well, when communicating to over 400 kids during a week of camp, I kept thinking about what that kinds of things I could do to connect with the whole audience. For me it was simple. Titus. Titus is a really cute and outgoing three year old and he just happened to be at camp with me (even if he wasn’t there, I still could have used him). Kids love younger kids and they loved Titus. I talked about Titus quite a bit in my messages, telling them stories of things he does that relate to what I’m teaching. It stuck. I felt like every kid at camp came to talk to me about Titus and every kid wanted to give Titus high-fives and hugs. He was a camp rock start… and it helped me connect with all these kids.

I noticed how quickly these kids were connecting to my son, so I actually made this video to illustrate a point on my last night… and the kids went nuts! So, just an idea to throw out there. Do whatever you can to connect with your kids.

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Communicating with parents while at camp

Posted on22. Jun, 2010 by Kenny.

Over the years I’ve used a variety of ways to keep parents in the loop of what was going on at camp. In the early days, I’d shoot my admin a summary email that she would forward on to all the parents. Then in 2003 or 2004, I took a big jump and started using a yahoo group, which worked pretty well. I’ve found that the more I help parents feel connected to what was going on with their kids at camp, the more excited they’d be about the ministry that happens to their kids, both at camp and back at home. A lot of parents are nervous about being away from their kids, so they just want to see pictures of their kids all happy and having fun. These days, it’s so easy to do this, easier than ever.

Our Kids Ministry already has a facebook group, facebook.com/kidsquest. All we did was update the facebook page like crazy. Last year I did a lock-in and I gave 5-8 of my leaders access to the Kids Quest twitter account. It worked well, but only for parents on twitter. If you’re using a facebook fan page, your status updates will sync to twitter, but not the other way around. So, I had a few of my staff just posting status updates with pics as often as they could. As soon as the update published, facebook sent it out as a tweet as well.

The parents loved the updates. We told them where we were on our travels, showed them pictures of what the kids were eating and let the parents know where we were on the drive home (so they could know what time to arrive). I even created “notes” every day with the content of what I would be teaching that day and giving the parents prayer points. It was a good system and the parents went nuts. They felt like they were a part of the camp.

Next year we plan to have even more interaction. On one day we held a contest asking the parents whether they thought the girls room or the boys room was cleanest. A few hours later we uploaded a video. The parents really got into this. Next year I think we’ll do even more stuff like this to keep the parents extra engaged, even creating opportunities for parents to interact some with their kids. I also want to play with the idea of a live feed. I’m not 100% sure you can actually do a live feed with the internet service there, but we could possibly upload the services a few hours later just so parents and families can see what their kids are experiencing.

Click here to jump over to our facebook page and see the kind of content we were posting.

Below is the clean room video contest we posted while at camp.

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Personal review for camp

Posted on21. Jun, 2010 by Kenny.

Kids Camp 2010 for our kids was pretty phenomenal. There are some things I’d like to see different for next year, but the experience was powerful. We took 58 kids this year and I can’t imagine we’ll take any less than 100 next year, not with the feedback parents and kids will hear from this year’s camp.

Personally, this was one of the best camp experiences I’ve ever had. It was a really unique opportunity for our church as for me. I guess I’ll start off at the beginning. I’m a HUGE believer in the power of camp. I went to summer camp as a 3rd-5th grader and have very specific and tangible memories of God’s work in my life at summer camp. Although I asked Christ into my life as a 4 year old, it was at camp as a 10 year old that I wept at the alter for the first time feeling sorrow for my sin and how it affected my relationship with God. In many ways, I see that experience as a 10 year old as the linchpin that put me on the path for who I am now. It was even at that summer camp where I got my first glimpse of my calling… something I still treasure today.

So, for the past 10 or so years, I’ve been organizing camps for the kid’s ministries I run. Only twice have I attended a camp I didn’t organize. So, in running these camps, I was responsible for organizing everything as well as delivering the messages every evening. It’s a lot of work… but I still love it.

When getting ready for camp this year, we originally booked a facility near Dallas and we would have complete control of the experience. However, by January, I was getting nervous that we would get enough kids to cover our financial responsibility. In this late hour, we found a camp (one that my children’s pastor had been involved with for years) that programed the same way we would. With this camp, there would be no financial risk as we only would have to pay for what we bring. Last of all, they hadn’t yet hired a Camp Pastor, and they offered the opportunity to me. It was a huge blessing that God just put in our lap.

So, this summer at camp, I spent as much time with our Gateway kids as possible. I also made sure to join the activities of other kids from other churches so I could get to know them as well. However, my only responsibility was to speak to the kids. It was wonderful. I spent time every morning and every evening looking over my messages and actually rehearsing, something I rarely do. By the time I actually delivered my talks, they were pretty much memorized… I could speak from my heart and not be tied to a podium. It was a wonderful experience to have just one focus.

I discovered something. I rarely get to speak to kids anymore. Maybe one or two times a year I’ll speak to the elementary kids and 3-5 times a year I’ll teach the baptism class. However, in this week of speaking 9 times in 5 days, I recognized that when I’m speaking to kids, I’m doing what I do best. I love what I do now. I’m passionate about it too. I know that I can’t speak to kids every week and still do the job I do now… and that’s fine. However, I know that I have to find ways to speak in this way becasue it truly is a gifting and a passion.

So, it was a powerful and fulfilling week for me as a Camp Pastor. I look forward to doing it some more next year.

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Kids Camp 2010 in review

Posted on21. Jun, 2010 by Kenny.

It was a great week. No, it was a phenomenal week. Things got busy, so I didn’t have the time to post every day. This week I’ll probably get in 4-5 posts with information about camp, what we did and how it all went down. In addition, I’m going to review the curriculum we used, Take it In and Live it Out if you’re considering it for camp or some other event.

So, this was my first real camp experience with these kids. When I got to Gateway two years ago, about 15 kids were signed up to go to a summer camp. There hadn’t been a lot of promotion and since we were financially committed to this camp, I ate about $5,000 in expenses and ended up scholarshiping 20-25 kids. It was a fun camp, but a little weird. It felt like we were at camp with the Von Trapp family. Everyone liked to sing a lot, and everyone knew all the songs… except our kids. It was like a musical… we’d be walking down a trail and then people would just start singing. Again, it was fun… just a little weird. We didn’t do camp last year, so this year we took 58 kids (two got sick) to Camp Zephyr in Sandia, TX.

For all of the kids, it was probably the most fun thing they’ll do all summer. For most of the kids, it was life changing. Seriously. Already we’re getting feedback from parents about how moved their kids have been. Parents have been overwhelmed by what their kids are talking about. Many of the kids made first time commitments to Jesus. What a catalytic event in the life of a child. I’ll leave you with what some of our parents are saying on our facebook page.

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Camp message illustration help

Posted on08. Jun, 2010 by Kenny.

I have to throw out a BIG thank you to those of you who read this blog. The last two to three weeks have been crazy busy for me and I’ve contributed very little. Instead, I’ve been asking of you for ideas and help and your feedback has been wonderful. I’m about 60% through writing/prepping nine talks I’m giving next week at camp. I need help with an illustration.

Here’s the setup. I’m talking about selfishness with the bottom line being: Live my life unselfishly. The scripture is from Luke 12, the parable of the farmer who built bigger barns. In my second talk that day, I’m honing in on what Jesus said before he told the Parable, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” I’m choosing to illustrate the point that we are spiritual beings living in a physical world and more often than not, we get caught up in gratifying ourselves with the physical things in this world. However, if we truly recognize that we’re being duped, that this life is short and the richness of our eternity will be measured by how generous we are in this temporal life. I want to point the kids toward seeing what real life is. Real life is eternal, not abundance of possessions.

So, how do I illustrate this. What I’m looking for is a movie clip where a character realizes that what he/she has always known isn’t reality. The absolute best illustration that comes to mind is the Matrix where humanity thinks it is experiencing reality, but it’s not true at all. However, I don’t love the idea of showing clips from the Matrix to 3rd-5th graders, even though most of them have probably seen it already.

Do you know of any other movies that illustrate this shift, where a character sees what reality is for the first time?

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Camp Save-The-Date Postcard: Final Product

Posted on23. Nov, 2009 by Kenny.

Last week I posted my Summer Camp “save-the-date postcard for peer review. I got some incredible feedback. Thanks to everyone who wrote suggestions on the blog, my facebook and through DM on twitter. This community is amazing. I took every suggestion very serious and revised the card based on several of them. Here’s the final product.

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You may notice that I didn’t change the front of the card at all. Some suggested me making “kids quest” bigger. Actually I really wrestled with this; however, I realized that the point of the card is to draw parents to the fact that it’s time to register for camp. If they only see one thing on the card, I want it to be summer camp! So, I left it as it was.

The back of the card saw two more revisions. People suggested fixing the slanted red text. Several emphasized that I needed to explain where camp was. A few others suggested that I detail how much money parents would save by registering now. In my first revision, I put it all on the card. It didn’t look all that great. It was crowded. Information overload. The card is a teaser, not a brochure. They can get all the information that they need at the website. This card just piques their interest, drawing them in and making them want more. I feel very happy with how this turned out.

So, thanks everyone for your help. I’ll order this card this afternoon, so if you see a glaring typo before 5:00 PM CST… LET ME KNOW!

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Camp Save-The-Date Postcard

Posted on20. Nov, 2009 by Kenny.

Hey, can anyone give me some quick feedback? On November 27th, Black Friday, we’re launching summer camp registration with a great pre-registration discount. We’re running the special until the end of the year and we have this postcard that we’re using to advertise the early bird price and have parents save the date. I’m placing the print order on Monday, so if you have any suggestions on the design, please let me know ASAP!

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Obama goes to camp!

Posted on19. Feb, 2009 by Kenny.

Our student pastor just posted this video on his facebook account. So Awesome!

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More camp randomness

Posted on10. Jun, 2008 by Kenny.

Okay a few more silly things from camp today:

• I’ve made a new friend. The Colton kid I talked about earlier… his name is actually Collin. He’s my new buddy. Tonight we had an extra long “fun hour” talent show. Colton was sitting right beside me and noticed I had a pimple on my arm… yeah, I’m sure you wanted to know this. As any kid would, Colton looks at me and asks, “what’s that?” I tell him it’s a pimple. He looks at me with a funny face and then pulls my sleeve up a little more to inspect for more pimples. He begins counting freckles, blemishes or whatever else he can find on that arm and then to the next. He talked a good bit about my arm muscles and asked how I got them (really, I haven’t lifted any weights since high school). He then starts picking through my hair. He asks why I use gel. He then finds a mole (not like the ugly protruding type, but the skin spot type) under my hair (which isn’t easy right now as my hair hasn’t been cut in 7 weeks). He then spends the next 15 minutes (honestly) picking through my hair looking for more moles or birthmarks. On one or two occasions, he asks if I have lice (scary). Other counselors walk by giving me funny looks. I shrug and say, “he’s counting my moles.” Yeah, I think Collin and I are going too be good friends for a very long time.
• Oh, my bed. This is what you get when you get to camp late. I got the last bed. Yes, the kid who sleeps above me (my buddy Collin) is only 4 feet tall. I; however, must squeeze into a tiny compartment to sleep every night. I look like Shrek trying to fit in this thing.

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