Promotion Sunday is one of my favorite days of the whole year! It always has such a great energy as kids are excited to move up into a new class or small group. We host ours right before school starts, so there’s the added excitement of the back-to-school season too!
I like to make the morning extra special and something out of the ordinary to celebrate all of the new beginnings. Whether you’re adding a fun theme to your already-planned curriculum or making the whole morning all about Promotion Sunday, here are a few fun Promotion Sunday themes!
- Promotion Sundaes – I’ve always wanted to host a giant ice cream party on Promotion Sunday and make special ice cream sundaes with the kids! Peel some bananas, scoop some ice cream, and drizzle some chocolate syrup for a tasty celebration. Then hand out “Here’s the Scoop” print-outs with your event dates for the year or an overview of your ministry!
- Level Up Sunday (video game theme) – This one is so fun for the kids who live and breathe video games! Decorate with pixel art, use “player select” language for small groups, and hand out a little card that says “You’ve leveled up!” as kids move into their new class. For the lesson, talk about how leveling up takes practice, perseverance, and the right community around you, and that’s exactly what the new year in kids’ ministry is all about. Or this lesson talks about the 2 power-ups God has already given us from 2 Peter 3:18!
- Pop Up Sunday – This one works with any curriculum and lets you host Pop Up Sunday with popcorn-themed snacks, games, and decorations! Download some ready-to-print popcorn resources to host your own Pop Up Sunday here. This is usually the one we do each year, and last year, we even had a little “pop up popcorn bar” where kids grabbed a bag of pre-popped popcorn then added a spoonful or two of toppings of their choice (M&Ms, Skittles, gummy bears, etc.) straight into the bag.
- Sky’s the Limit (Balloons) – It’s hard to go wrong with balloons. They make any occasion just a little more exciting! Decorate your space with balloons and use phrasing like “sky’s the limit” or “We’re moving up!” Use your regular curriculum or use balloons throughout the entire lesson, like in our Movin’ On Up promotion Sunday lesson!
- Adventure is Out There – Talk about the new adventure of the year ahead and how God doesn’t send us into it alone! Use explorer and map imagery, hang up a big “The Adventure Begins” banner, and remind kids (and your volunteers!) that the best stories always start with someone willing to take the next step. Pair it with a lesson on how God guided the Israelites, sent out the disciples, or called Abraham; just pick your favorite “go” moment in Scripture and run with it.
- Future’s So Bright – One year, we gave all of our kids sunglasses with our kids ministry logo on them as back-to-school gifts with a card that said “Your future’s so bright, you gotta wear shades!” They were a huge hit! Kids loved wearing their sunglasses all year long, and for the lesson, we talked about shining God’s light at school.
- Glow Up Sunday (Glow Theme) – Black lights, neon colors, glow sticks at the door, etc. This one is just plain fun and it photographs great for your social media. Use “glow up” language to talk about how God grows us from the inside out, and tie it to a lesson about letting your light shine.
- Going to Be a Colorful Year – Give each grade/class a specific color, encourage kids to wear their new color, then have a morning all about how it’s going to be a colorful year! Pass out coloring pages, play color games, and even share a take-home color prayer journal or Color Back-To-School Blessings for families to be praying about their school year ahead.
- Launch – Another year, we used rockets and space as our theme for Promotion Sunday, talking about how we were launching into the new school year! We were also starting over in our curriculum that year, so our Bible lesson focused on creation and how God launched His big story (the Bible) by creating the world and everything in it. We even borrowed some water balloon launchers from the youth ministry and shot nerf balls across the field/parking lot. It was a blast! I adapted that lesson to stand alone (instead of introducing our new curriculum), and it’s available here.
- BONUS: Cow-themed! Make it an udderly moovelous morning with a simple theme you add on to whatever lesson you already have planned! This cow-themed printable kit would have everything you need to make the day unique.
What’s your favorite Promotion Sunday theme? Do you do anything special for Promotion Sunday to celebrate this important milestone in kids’ lives?
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