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6-3-07 -- Vacation Ministry School, Anyone?
Middle Ages
Although its Vacation Bible School for elementary-age students reaches hundreds of children each summer, a few years ago leaders at Central Christian Church (Wichita, Kansas) decided something was missing.
“Our younger kids attend VBS and our high schoolers often serve as classroom helpers, but we had no programming for the junior high students,” says C.J. Fox, middle school director at CCC. “We saw it as an opportunity to develop something new.”
To fill this gap, Central created a “Vacation Ministry School” during the same week and same times as VBS. In addition, the middle school curriculum parallels the VBS programming. “We base our material on the same themes we’re teaching the younger children, so that parents with kids in multiple age groups can lead family discussions about the experience,” says Fox.
Two teaching days explore the theme with breakout groups, fun activities, worship, and lessons for the middle schoolers. Water Day, usually Tuesday, features lots of outdoor fun, and Service Day sends the students out to rake leaves, perform yard work, help build houses, assist the public parks department, and many other projects.
The week builds toward Friday—Outreach Day—and VMS leaders encourage the kids to pray for and invite their friends to the activities. The church rents a local venue with bowling lanes, go-kart tracks, and video games to house the outreach event, which also includes testimonies from the middle schoolers themselves and a brief gospel message. More than 200 students attend the outreach, with dozens coming to faith in Christ through this event every year!
In addition to sharing God’s love with the junior high students each summer, VMS allows Central’s youth staff, volunteers, and high school students to create a welcoming environment for kids transitioning into middle school. “This is the first activity our new sixth-graders attend, and it’s our opportunity to love on them and make them feel part of the group,” Fox says. “Each spring we coach our older students to actively develop friendships and extend themselves to the sixth-graders. VMS is a great kickoff for a new year.”
www.ccc.org
Who Needs It?
In a few months you may begin planning your church’s annual Christmas outreach. Programs like Prison Fellowship’s “Angel Tree” ministry and “Operation Christmas Child” developed by Samaritan’s Purse create easy ways for entire churches to fill needs and give gifts.
However, 2|42 Community Church (Brighton, Michigan) isn’t waiting for Christmas to volunteer its time, talent, and treasure. One need at a time, the congregation’s “Recklessly Generous” initiative allows people with different skills and varying financial resources to serve the community in specific ways.
The program combines accountability and anonymity to maximize generosity while preserving the dignity of each needy individual.
First, the church invites members to consider the needs of their friends and family and to share the needs—but not the names—with 2|42’s director of outreach and administration.
After the church screens and verifies each submission and determines whether local agencies can partner to provide the solution, a team creates small tags for each need; the tags list the specific item or service required and the contact information for the church member making the request.
Then the fun begins! 2|42 members select tags before and after weekend services and make arrangements with the requesting individual to deliver the item or perform the needed service. Last year the congregation not only collected thousands of dollars for medical bills, rent, and utilities, but also donated toys and furniture, found mentors for single-parent kids, cleaned homes, shoveled driveways, repaired cars, and prepared meals for shut-ins.
www.242community.com
Church Service
“Some churches aren’t ‘open’ to military families because it’s hard to keep saying goodbye,” says Rhonda Eggleston, the wife of a serviceman deployed to Iraq and a member at First Christian Church (Junction City, Kansas). “But First Christian is very supportive.”
After Eggleston and her family moved to Junction City a year ago, she got to know several other women with husbands in the military. “My husband was one of the first to be deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, so I know how difficult it can be,” she says. “I asked our Christian education team to help me create ways to serve this group.”
Today Eggleston leads a Sunday school class for 20 military wives, including several ladies new to attending church. In addition to supporting this class, First Christian also includes these women and their children—almost 60 people in all—in a free lunch provided after services each Sunday.
“The church began the lunch for our many college students, and I asked if our military families could also participate,” says Eggleston. “The women take turns contributing food.”
However, much of Eggleston’s ministry can’t be scheduled for a Sunday time frame. “Like any ministry, this demands an ability to respond quickly and with a lot of love,” she says. In the last year she’s served as the labor coach for a young woman in the group (“It was a three-day labor,” she chuckles) and recruited men in the church to help with moves and car repairs.
“The needs always vary,” Eggleston says, “but the people at First Christian want to step up and serve these families.”
www.fccjcks.com
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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