I had originally intended this to be one blog post, but as I started to write everything down I soon realised that this is a much bigger topic and that I would not be able to say everything in just one post. So I have decided to split this topic up over two posts. Here is Part 1.
Picture this scene… You walk into your child’s bedroom after dropping them off on their first day back at school after the long December holidays. You can almost hear the dramatic music play in your head as you look around at the chaos that lies before you. There are clothes on the floor, the bed is not made, there are toys and teddies piled high. You have no idea where to start. All you want to do is walk straight back out again and close the door behind you. The task at hand is too great… Planning a Holiday Club for the first time can feel just as daunting, or even, let’s be honest, if you have been doing it for years. There is a lot of work involved and you may not know where to begin. But before you get too overwhelmed and start to walk away, let’s take it one step at a time. In this post I would like to give you a few key steps that you can follow to help this feel less like a daunting task and more like a manageable one.
Why run a Holiday Club?
Before we get started on how to plan a Holiday Club let’s have a look at some of the reasons why we should run one. The first and most important reason is as an outreach to the community. It draws people into the church who might not otherwise have come. The children are drawn in because it’s a fun way to spend their holidays and to keep them busy, which in turn brings in their parents.
It also creates a great opportunity for those within the church to serve. There will be those within your church who may not feel that they are able to commit to serving week in and week out. This will give them a chance to serve for a set period of time. It may even lead to some choosing to continue to serve on a more regular basis.
Another good reason is for unity. It is amazing how a Holiday Club or any large church event has a unifying effect on the congregation when everyone is rallied together behind a common goal.
Lastly is that it allows the children within your church the space to grow in their love and knowledge of the Lord. Holiday Club is a week-long intensive Bible learning session where the children can be encouraged by their Christian friends and learn from God’s Word.
Now let’s turn our attention to planning your Holiday Club.
- Plan your calendar
You may ask when is a good time to start planning for a Holiday Club. Well, the answer is right from the offset. When the church staff team and other key people within the church get together at the beginning of the year to plan the year’s calendar events you need to be there. You need to come prepared with all the children’s events that you are wanting to implement, including Holiday Club. It is a good idea if you have a few date options in mind as well, so that things can run more smoothly. Be sure that you know when all the different school holidays are, public and private, so that you can find the best possible dates when the majority of the children will be on school holiday. I have noticed that most churches, in South Africa, choose to have their Holiday Club over the June/July school holidays. But you will need to work out what will work best for your context.
- Select teaching material and theme
The next thing you need to do is figure out what you are wanting to teach. You could choose to create your own material from scratch or you could purchase something that has already been created. Whatever you decide to teach, you need to keep in mind that a lot of the children who will be attending will be coming from non-Christian households and they may not know much of the Bible. So be sure that the material is something that has a clear gospel message and that is not overly complicated.
Once you have the material that you want to teach you will need to figure out a theme that links with that material. If you have purchased your material there will generally already be a theme that is linked with it. Why even bother having a theme? There are two main reasons why it is important to have a theme. First is because it is a great way to draw the children in and second is because it is a good tool to help make the lessons memorable.
Something else that you will need to take into consideration is how you will run the teaching sessions during the Holiday Club. Will you teach in one big group or in smaller groups? What I have found works well is to do a combination of both. You first teach all the children together in one large group and then break up into smaller groups for more individual focused discussion time.
- Design and make your banners, posters and flyers
Before you are ready to start advertising you will need to create banners, posters and flyers. You can either do this yourself, if you are so gifted, or ask someone in your congregation. You may even find a graphic designer who does this for a living and might be willing to design it for you for free. It will need to have all the necessary details on it – Date, time, theme, the age group of the children who are invited to attend, the venue (with the address), contact details (if they would like to find out more information) and the cost involved. (If your church is struggling financially you may want to charge a small fee to cover some of your expenses. But try to keep the cost really low so as not to unintentionally turn people away. If you as a church have decided not to charge a fee, you need to state that so that there is no confusion for those who may be interested.)
The next step is to have them made. This can be an expensive undertaking if you choose to have everything printed professionally. Find out if anyone in your congregation works for a printing company and may be able to get you some sort of discount. Alternatively, you could hold some sort of fundraising event to help raise the money towards it. Another option is to get someone who is artistically gifted to paint your banner and your posters for you and just print the flyers yourself.
- Advertise
Now you are ready to start advertising. When you choose to start advertising will be entirely dependent on your context. However, you must choose your timing carefully so as to give people enough warning before the time so they can plan ahead.
Just like with any advertising the more you can spread “the word” the better. So you are wanting to get your advert out everywhere. Here are a few ideas of ways you can get your advert out there:
- Put your banner/s up outside your church building. This way everyone who is driving or walking past your property will see it. Make sure that your banner is large enough to be seen easily from a good distance away.
- Stick posters up at church everywhere. So there will be no excuse that people didn’t know that it was happening.
- Email the flyer to everyone at your church (Being careful not to infringe on anyone’s personal information privacy rights). Don’t fall into the trap of only emailing the parents of the children within your church. There will be those in your church who have grandchildren or nieces and nephews who don’t attend your church. And those who may want to tell their friends who have children who don’t attend the church.
- Do a skit in church on one Sunday, or more, to advertise to your church congregation.
- Stick your posters up at shopping centres on Bulletin Boards.
- Give flyers to the children within your church. You may want to give them 1 or 2 extra so they can give it to their friends at school.
- Go for a walk around the church neighbourhood with the children from your Friday night Club and drop the flyers in post boxes. But please make sure that you get permission from their parents beforehand.
- Find out if there is a community email that goes out and ask if your flyer may be added to that email.
- Find out from your local newspaper if they will print your flyer in the newspaper, either for free or at a discounted rate.
- Go to your local schools and give them a pack of flyers to put in their children’s bags or find out if you can email it to them and they can email it to the parents. Alternatively, you can stand at the gate of the school and hand out the flyers to children or parents at the end of the school day. (Try and make sure that you have permission from the school before doing this.)
- Holiday Club “needs” list
As I mentioned earlier Holiday Clubs can be an expensive event. A great way to cut down on the expenses is to let the congregation know what your exact needs are. Sometimes people are less willing to give money towards an event, but are far more willing to meet specific needs. So write down all the items that you may need for the Holiday Club on a list and allow people the opportunity to donate those items. You may even want to add some specific items that you may need to decorate the venue. These items may include things like; glue, colouring-in pencils, sellotape, Masking Tape, biscuits, juice, prestick, paint, paint brushes, paper, cardboard, etc.
In this blog we outlined some reasons why it is important to run a Holiday Club. Then we looked at the first 5 steps in your planning. First, you need to select the best date to ensure the maximum number of children can attend. Then you need to choose teaching material that has a clear gospel message and is not overly complicated and an appropriate theme. Next you need to design and make all your banners, posters and flyers. You are then ready to start advertising. Now you can start to draw up a list of possible needs that you will have. Look out for Part 2 where I will be dealing with the next steps in preparing for your Holiday Club.
Thanks for reading my post. I hope you found it helpful. Please send me any feedback, comments or questions that you may have. I would also like to hear if there are any topics that you would like me to deal with in the future. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Bye for now.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21)
