3 Tips to Prepare for VBS

This is a guest post from Mike Smith, who works at LifeWay and is part of the Evalgelism team. He's also very involved with VBS and even teaches sessions on "DEF: Discipleship, Evalgelism, & Follow-Up" at our VBS Previews across the country.

In less than a month, we begin VBS in my own church.  And like you, we’ve already begun.  Like you, I know that VBS begins before it ever starts and isn’t over on the last day of VBS.  And yes, that last sentence is correct.  Would you allow me to encourage you in three ways.  Just 3 words:  Prayer.  Priority.  Plan.

Prayer.  We haven’t even started until we have prayed!  I am thinking about a host of ways to engage a multitude of people in your church in praying actions.  I am thinking of strategically including the children in those praying actions.  There is a biblical pattern in the following:
                -First, we intercede
                -Second, we interact
                -Third, we intervene

As we pray and interact with the VBS participants, we discover several ways in which we can intervene in their lives and the lives of their families.  But it works in the right order – first, we pray.  Then we interact (primarily during the VBS event, but also in post-VBS activities).  And finally, we intervene, which is a powerful thing.  We take action (s) based on our praying and our activity we’ve had in the lives of the VBS participants.  But the foundation is built on prayer. 

Priority.  Give priority to building relationships!  I’ve noticed, like many of you, that it is taking longer to build relational bridges into the lives of people.  It’s true:  In most places across the country, it’s taking longer to engage and impact lives.  My mind continually goes back to Deut 31:12.  You know that verse, which is a great VBS text.  “Gather the people—men, women, children, and foreigners living within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and be careful to follow all the words of this law.“  Would you give prayerful thought to who are the “men, women, children and foreigners living within your gates?”  Who are those living within the sphere of your influence and reach?  And please don’t overlook the foreigners…..

Plan.  This year in the VBS previews and institutes, I mentioned some resources that are well designed to help us in effective VBS follow up.  They include “I’m A Christian Now” and “Leading a Child To Christ.”  There is also “More To Life” (particularly, Discover More To Life, which is designed to engage an unbeliever in a discovery of who Jesus is and what He does in the lives of people).  I am also excited about Fouad Masri’s excellent work, “Bridges:  Connecting Christians With Muslims.”  Bridges is a much needed piece in the follow up arsenal, as we have over seven million Muslims living in America.  And honestly, most Christians do not know what to say to a Muslim.  Bridges helps prepare Christians in how to engage and interact with our Muslim neighbors and co-workers.  Take a look at the following webpages:

                www.lifeway.com/moretolife
                www.lifeway.com/bridges
               

I’m pumped about VBS and the lives impacted because of it.  And I invite you to join me in praying, prioritizing and planning.  Repeat after me:  VBS isn’t over on the last day of VBS!  VBS isn’t over on the last day of ……  VBS isn’t over on…..

3 Ways to Pray for Camp

Lots of people ask us “How can we pray for CentriKid?” Here are all the details!

Pray for your church. Here is a great way to start. Get a list of all the kids who will be going to camp with your church. There may be some kids that you don’t recognize, who are friends with kids who go to your church. They may not attend church anywhere. Pray for the decisions those kids will make throughout the week, as well as the things they will learn while they are at camp. It also never hurts to pray that the Lord will double the amount of sleep the Adult Sponsors that are going will get.  

Pray for your week of camp. Pray for the Camp Director, the Camp Pastor and the rest of the CentriKid Staff. Pray for the other churches that will be attending camp that week. 

Pray for camp throughout the summer. We have 8 CentriKid teams that will be at a total of 23 different locations. Pray for all of the kids that will attend, their adult sponsors, and that the message of Christ will be clear to thousands of them this summer!

We appreciate your prayers and are encouraged by those who want to join us in ministry!

Jen Hall is our camp intern and will be directing CK2 at Campbellsville this summer. Keep up with Jen via twitter and her personal blog.

3 Ways to Keep the Van Ride Fun

It's almost summer, and summer means lots of fun at CentriKid Camps. Inevitably, you have a van ride or a bus ride or a car ride to get to camp. Here are 3 ways to keep that ride fun for kids!

1. GAMES. Play games like "Green Glass Doors" or "I'm going to camp and I'm going to bring..." or "Crossed or Uncrossed..." or "Who's in the middle?" Read rules for fun games like these here.

2. RIDDLES. Tell riddles. Ask kids to bring riddles with them. Kids love riddles. They love asking you to figure them out, and they also love figuring them out themselves. Prepare your list of riddles beforehand. Here are some to help!

3. SONGS. Download the CAMP MUSIC to play in the van (on the right hand side of our blog) and get kids excited about songs they will hear at camp. You can also sing some cheesy songs that kids love, or teach them some of your favorite old songs from when you were a kid!

Meredith Teasley loves games and fun. She loves helping #kidmin leaders learn new games they can use in their churches! Find more games from Meredith here... follow her on twitter or on her blog to keep up with what she's doing when she's not planning games.

The Heart of a Leader

Every person we hire at CentriKid is a leader. We not only have our leadership team, but we also have team leaders. Those team leaders will be leading a group of around 20 kids in Bible Study, Recreation, and Track Times. Leadership is something that we train on heavily and something that we value so much. 

If you lead anyone, you’re a leader. That means parenting is a form of leadership as well. Even if you are helping lead a group at your church and aren’t the only leader in the room, you are still a leader. In kids ministry, you may be a teacher or a volunteer. You have a very important job--to lead kids to the truth of the gospel. 

We often tell our leaders not to lead out of their position. Positional leadership is when you expect people to follow you just because you have the title. You can be a leader without the title. It’s about building relationships with those you hope to lead. If they trust you, they will trust your vision and will follow you regardless of the title you hold. 

Step up and lead today!

Jen Hall, our camp intern, loves learning about leadership. She's excited to use what she's learned as she directs CK2 at Campbellsville this summer. Keep up with Jen via twitter or on her personal blog.

Discipleship for Kids - Start a Prayer Journal

Here are tips for helping your kids start a prayer journal.  You can help them understand prayer and use this as a tool for discipleship with kids.  Children who are new Christians need adults in their lives to help them grow in their faith, so use this idea to take an active role!

Emily Echols is a mom and also is the wife of Jeremy from CentriKid.  She teaches 4th graders and coaches the high school softball team at her school in Mount Juliet, TN.

14 Questions to Ask About Camp

If you missed our Camp Prep Series or some of our other super helpful tips, you can read them here:

Answer these questions:

What should I know?

What will I see at camp this summer (theme, etc)? 

What is the spiritual direction?

What is in the camp store?

What are some fundraising ideas?

What is all the hype about the Team Assistant Program?

What should I tell parents?

What are parent packets?

Who is my camp director?

Where are the before and after devos?

What should I be doing 2 weeks before camp?

How can I pray for camp?

How can I make the van ride fun?

How should I follow up after camp with campers?

Did we miss anything? What questions do you have not answered here?

Mary Carlisle serves on the CentriKid team and serves as Camp Director for the CK3 team at Millsaps College. Mary enjoys helping others get ready to spend a week at camp!! Follow Mary on twitter.

Ministering to the Really Shy Kid

Sometimes, it seems almost impossible to really connect with that sweet kid who doesn’t really talk to you or to any of the other kids because they are so intensely shy. I met this kid at camp a few summers ago. Her name was Sarah.

I tried to talk to Sarah. No answer. I tried to encourage other kids around Sarah to befriend her. One word answers and a failed attempt at friendship. Then, I learned a very important lesson.

Sometimes, silence goes farther than words. Sarah needed to know that I was there for her before she was willing to open up to me. She needed to know that I cared and that she could trust me to listen. I stopped trying to force Sarah to answer all my small-talk questions and just sat down with her for a few minutes. After a few days of just hanging out and letting her know that I cared through Bible study and recreation each day, she was willing to talk to me and tell me about her life. Quietly, almost in a whisper, and that conversation didn’t last long… but slowly and surely, that relationship was being built.

I’m sure you are thinking about the shy kid in your church right now. It seems like he may be impossible to get to know, but he just need to know you care and that you are willing to wait. Be patient with him. Ask him one or two questions each time you see him, but don’t overwhelm him and don’t get discouraged if he doesn’t answer. He will warm up to you in time! Help him also feel comfortable talking with peers by encouraging others to talk with him and be around him. Just don’t give up on the shy kid! They are listening when you teach as well and the Word of the Lord never returns void.

Check out these other posts within this series and watch for more coming in the next few weeks:
Ministering to the Artsy Kid 
Ministering to the Smart Kid
Ministering to Kids with Sick Parents
Ministering to Kids with Divorced Parents
Ministering to the Non-Cooperative Kid 
Ministering to the Kid that Doesn't Want to be There
Ministering to the Kid that Chronically Misbehaves

Mary Carlisle serves on the CentriKid office team and is the director of CK3 at Millsaps College. Mary loves teaching kids at church and at an inner city ministry in Nashville and is passionate about kids discipleship. Follow Mary on twitter and check out her personal blog. 

5 Ways NOT to Prepare for Coming to Camp

1. Rent a clown car… and a clown… to drive you to camp.
Kids might cry… I might cry! Clowns are scary.

2. Tell kids you are going to get to camp by parachuting out of a fighter jet.
Some kids will be disappointed when they arrive at church and see the church van is their actual mode of transportation, and some may not show up because they are afraid you are serious.

3. Tell kids you decided not to go to camp this summer.
There will be weeping and wailing and much unhappiness.

4. Ask kids to bring their pets with them to camp so that they don’t get homesick.
Puppy training is not a track time that we currently offer, so that could be a little problematic.

5. Tell kids that they won’t be showering and will be “living on the land” for the week of camp.
Although, some of your sweet children may willingly choose to not shower until you force them to, we’d like to not encourage them to do so or to think that it’s super cool awesome to show mom and dad how your hair was at OMC by not washing that nasty stuff off! 

These tips are silly, but we do want you to be preparing the hearts and minds of kids who will come with you to camp! Pray for what God will do and keep the story of Daniel on the radar of the kids at your church. We can't wait to see you soon!!!

3 Things to Tell Parents of First Time Campers

Some of you will send your child to camp this summer for the first time, and this may even be the first time your child has been away from home overnight with people other than family.  I think I can relate to your situation...

I’m a new parent ... well, not entirely new ... we’ve had a puppy dog for about 4 years ... but I’m relatively new to the job of being a “real dad” to a “real child.”  I mean, our puppy was our “child” for all that time ... but I digress...

As a new parent, there are lots of “firsts” and some of them are really fun...

• first time to come home
• first bath
• first laugh
• first Christmas

But some of the “firsts” that we’ve had to do are hard...

• first night to be out of town away from the baby
• first Dr Visit where she had to get shots
• first time to tell her “no” and correct her behavior

Another “first” for us as parents was leaving our child in the nursery at church with people we didn’t know.  The baby did fine, but we had a few moments where we doubted what we had done.  We walked slowly down the hall, I glanced over my shoulder a couple of times, and we sat on the end of the aisle in church “just in case.”  It was a big decision to trust our child to someone we didn’t know ... but we trusted the church leaders and the workers they had selected to care for the babies in the nursery. 

If you have a camper who is going away from home for the first time this summer, you’ll have some apprehension, but relax:

• CentriKid Staff are all screened, interviewed, background-checked, and trained.  We invest a lot of time and energy into selecting great summer staff.
• Camp staff love kids!  They aren’t mean, they are fun!  Both CentriKid staff and church leaders will be investing in your kids spiritually during the week of camp.
• Church Leaders are there to look after the kids.  The folks from your church will make sure your child is eating, showering (at least once during the week!), and monitored in the dorms.  Kids are so tired by the end of the day ... we never have to worry about them getting to sleep at night...some nights it is just later than others!

When you say good-bye and put them on the church bus, you’ll have a lot of the feelings I described from dropping our baby off in the nursery, but you can know that your child will be in good hands at camp.  We count it a privilege to do ministry with kids and we take your trust very seriously.

Jeremy Echols leads our camp team and became a dad in 2011.  Jeremy and his wife Emily have enjoyed every stage of being parents to Madison.  You can see more antics and keep up with them by following #BabyMadison on JE's twitter.

Discipleship for kids: How many hours are in a week?

There are 168 hours in every week. 
Most kids spend two hours or less at church... and for most kids, that is the only chance they have at spiritual formation and discipleship. To put that into perspective, 2 hours a week every week is only 104 hours in a year, which would only get you from the start of Monday to 8am on Thursday. 4 total days. All year.

I created this visual after talking about how important it is that parents are the main discipler of their kids. I know that a lot of parents who have been in the church know that, but I've had multiple parents come to me when I was teaching their kid in Sunday School asking for help. They would, with great distress, tell me that they want to and know they need to, but they just don't know how to disciple their kids.

The role of children's minister requires much more than planning events, teaching Bible study, and developing spiritual growth plans for the kids in your church... it requires that we train parents to disciple their kids.

Here are 3 keys to help parents disciple their kids:

1.  Any moment can be a spiritual moment. 
Whether a family is playing a card game, eating dinner together, talking about a conflict between siblings, or grieving over that favorite toy that seems to be lost forever there can be a connection to Scripture and the character of God. You can talk about how God wants us to respond when we face fear or sadness or joy...every moment is God's, so every moment can be connected to Him.

2. You are able.
Every parent I've ever talked with feels that they are inadequate to really guide their kids in a way that would be considered actual discipleship, but guess what? YOU ARE ABLE! You are completely capable of telling your kids how good God is and how He is working in your life. You can tell them how certain passages in the Bible are impacting you. You can tell them how you see God working in them. You are able! There are lots of family devotional guides you can purchase and walk through as a family, you just have to be willing and committed to doing it.

3. You don't have to have all the answers.
Your kids are going to ask questions that you can't answer. It is ok to say, "I don't know." It's also ok to call your pastor or someone at your church and ask the question! God doesn't ask us to know everything or to have it all figured out. He only asks that we be faithful to share and show our kids His love. Pray for wisdom and direction. Let God lead your kids through you.

Seek to invest in your kids as much as you possibly can as often as you possibly can. It's never too early to start and it's never a bad idea to talk about God with your kids. Start reading parables as bedtime stories. Start posting Scripture on post-its in your car. Start asking them what God is teaching them each day or where they saw God today... maybe it was in how beautiful the day was or how nice their teacher was to them. Don't be afraid to ask and don't let those 168 hours pass without investing.

Mary Carlisle serves on the CentriKid teamand is the Camp Director for the CK3 team at Millsaps College. She is passionate about discipleship and spiritual formation in kids. She wants to write a book one day to help parents or mentors disciple kids, but for now is very happy to write blogs about it for CentriKid! Follow Mary on twitter.