Children’s ministry

Postcards for Kids! A great way to encourage families to come back-to-church this fall!

22 August, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Kids Back to Church Postcard — Kids love to get mail addressed to them personally. Why not create postcards inviting them to Sunday School this fall?

Kids love to get mail especially in the days of almost all electronic communications and social media. A letter or postcard addressed to them is something very special because they almost NEVER get anything like this.

To celebrate fall and back to school and church time, I have a GREAT set of postcards for you to share with the kids in your church! They are in both full color to print on full-color printers and separated spot color for you to print with a RISO Digital Duplicator or similar technology.

From inspiration to practical implementation

What follows is a set of postcards for Fall, but you can use this idea any time of the year when you want to give a little boost to attendance at your children's ministry or to advertise a special event.

At the end of this article you can download a ZIP file that has PDFs like the one to the left that are ready to print for of all the cards, plus you also get the original, editable MS Publisher file so you can modify them any way you like for your church.

Just put the child's name on the front and on the back add in all the details of your children's program at church, print and you are set to go.

Following are images of all the cards

How to make Bible school more than a happy memory—strategy and materials to connect with Parents

25 July, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

VBS return to church flyers — Kids always have a wonderful time at VBS, but you must be intentional in inviting families back if you want that great week to have a lasting impact.

Some of the happiest times of my life as a child were in summer Daily Vacation Bible School and that wonderful experience continues in many churches today. Kids have a wonderful week, but thoughtful communications can extend that week into a continuing relationship with the church.

There are several ways you can do this, but the over-riding idea is that you need to intentionally communicate connect with parents, let them know what else is going on for their children at the church, and invite them to take part in it.

Why this is so important

If you asked a person in the neighborhood of your church, who does not go to your church, "What does our church do on Sundays for children?" you would most likely be met with a blank stare. Most people who do not go to church have no idea what people do in church other than the media picture of people standing around singing with their hands in the air.

The parents of the neighborhood children you worked so hard to reach so their kids would come to VBS are no different. To many of them the church is providing a nice summer community service and they get a few hours of free (or almost free, as many VBS programs charge these days) child care for a week. That the church has anything else of value for their kids is probably something that never crossed their minds.

For the church staff putting on VBS that's difficult to imagine, but it's true and though you want people to so love VBS they will bring their kids back on Sunday to your children's program and begin a relationship with the church, this won't happen unless you are intentional about it. Here's how to do it:Continue Reading

Resurrection Cookies, a Free recipe that will teach children and parents about Easter

23 March, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Res Cookie Bunny Verstion — Resurrection Cookies are a wonderful way to remind both children and parents of the real meaning of Easter--the Resurrection of Jesus. Plus it's a fun and yummy project!

For a great strategy to teach children about Easter, involve parents, and provide an outreach tool, NOTHING beats Resurrection Cookies.

When you make the cookies, you visually illustrate Jesus suffering, burial, death and resurrection. Because you are doing it with cookies, it is much less intimidating for people who don't go to church to be involved with it. Sharing cookies is also a much less frightening way to share their faith than other methods might be for the people in your church. To invite neighbors and children over to make yummy cookies is much less intimidating than handing out gospel tracts for many people.

The first example here is a free download for everyone, CLICK HERE or on the image at the start of the article to download it. The other designs in both PDF and MS Publisher format are in the ZIP file below the following illustrations of them.

To see larger images of the pages, click on the first image and a larger slide show will come up.

Additional designs for Resurrection Cookies:

To download the Resurrection Cookie File, click the following link: Church Bunny Resurrection Cookie Files

Later in this article is the text for the handouts, including the introduction, recipe, and Bible verses if you choose to create your own verses of the handouts or if you want to put the material on your website or in a church newsletter. You have my permission to use it freely. The text is the same for all of them—choose a style that suits you best or use the text below to create your own version.Continue Reading

Free Church Bunny Easter Invitation to encourage children to be inviters

23 March, 2019 By Yvon Prehn Leave a Comment

Easter Church Bunny Invitation for kids to invite friends for Easter — An invitation like this can encourage kids to invite their friends for Easter.

Not only is Easter a wonderful time to host events for children, but it's a great time to train children to invite their friends to church. Seasonal celebrations are not only a time where you can grow your church in numbers, but you can also intentionally use it as a time to grow your people in discipleship when you provide tools for them to invite their friends.

In addition to the invitations, you can encourage them to pray for unchurched friends, offer to pick them up for Easter events, and invite them back in the following weeks. Not only adults, but children can be part of this and you can work on instilling life-long habits in them of inviting, praying for, and involving friends in church.

To help you do that, here is a FREE Church Bunny Easter invitation. If you click on it, you not only get the ready-to-print PDF as we've done with FREE church communications in the past, but you get a ZIP file that has the PDF and the editable MS Publisher file. CLICK HERE or on the image to go to it.

More choices available for the children at your church

In addition to the FREE Church Bunny Invitation above, there are additional free options below. To see a larger version of the invitation, click on any of them and you'll see an enlarged slide show.