Tips & Ideas
Collections of Ideas
Church Tours
If you get the chance, check out
another church in your area, or in a town you are visiting. This doesn't
have to be a church of your same size or denomination. It actually may be
more beneficial to visit a different size and a different denomination. I
just recently visited three churches with the CPC in Dallas. Just seeing
how others hang signs, paint their walls or check in their kids can be beneficial.
I learned a lot on my tours and will plan to get my entire staff involved
and go visit some other churches.
Table Advertisements
If you're like me, you are always
trying to get information to parents. Our newest idea was to promote
during our weekly midweek meals. We have meals on each Wednesday night
before evening services. The youth minister and I are creating fliers
advertising our events and activities and putting them in acrylic sign
holders that sit on each table. We've taken the measurements of each sign
holder and have divided the page in half and therefore both get our
activities promoted. Being clear, we can also advertise on both sides of
the holder. Restaurants have been doing this for years.
Power Point - this program which is a part of the Microsoft Office suits is a very powerful tool in presentations and worship. If you have a computer, a TV or LCD Projector or just a computer monitor you can create slide shows, lessons aids, commercials, games, and so much more. You can find premade templates from such places as the Animation Factory to really dress up your slides. If you are using Power Point '97 or higher, animated GIF files will appear animated in your final presentation.
Make Your Own Bible Review Game using Microsoft PowerPoint - click here for instructions
Take Home Kits
Do you have some projects that you need help with? Why not create kits that
volunteers can pick up, take home, complete and return. We had 1000 Easter Eggs
to fill with candy. We took plastic grocery bags and put in about 50 plastic
eggs, 50 pieces of candy, tied the bag, taped an instruction card with a return
date and let volunteers pick up as many as they wanted. They brought the kits
back, in the same bags by the return date. I will be using kits for such things
as costumes creations by packaging the material and pattern or pre-cut pieces
with sewing instructions and various projects needing to be cut out or put
together.
Decorate your Classroom with your kids
I took full body pictures of my preschoolers with my digital camera and then
printed them out on my printer. They were the size of my 8 1/2 x 11 printer
paper. I cut them out, laminated them and stuck them on the wall of our
classroom. They are so fun to see our kids on the walls. Other ideas I will be
working on is adhering them to foam-board, cutting them out along with a small
stand so I can stand our kids all around the church building. Another idea is to
dress the kids in Bible time costumes, take their pictures in different active
poses. Then print them out, adhere them to pieces of wood. Now, using a scroll
saw, cut out the kids and seal the wood with a good wood sealer. Now you can act
out the stories with your wooden paper dolls of your own kids. The kids will
love to tell the stories using themselves and their friends!