Categories: Blog

Summer Connection Idea: KidMin Pizza Delivery!

Summertime is a great time to connect with families in unique and fun ways! I saw Darren Goodrich, a Family Pastor at a church in Florida, share this idea in a local children's ministry Facebook group and had to learn more! The idea is simple: set up a signup genius (or other scheduling tool) to invite families to choose a day over the summer when you, the kidmin leader (or someone from your team), will deliver a pizza to the family for dinner! It can be a surprise for the kids or something they know about. Darren shares more about the idea on his blog here, and DKM subscribers can find a step-by-step plan for implementing this idea in their own church (including an email template) here! Darren also shared more about how he got the idea and what the families in his ministry had to say about it: "I really had the idea to...
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Filed Under Blog, For Parents, Leadership

Step-by-Step Summer Family Engagement Plan

Hear an overview of how one leader used this plan for a summer pizza delivery initiative here! Download a printable/save-able version here! Step-by-Step Plan: 1. Identify Goals and Budget Goal: Enhance family engagement, reinforce community bonds, and maintain connection with the children and their families during the summer. Budget: Allocate funds for pizza, delivery materials (magnets, etc.), and other potential activities like Christmas cookies. 2. Plan and Communicate Calendar and Communication: Create a clear and detailed summer calendar highlighting all events and dates, including the special delivery days. Email and Social Media: Send out emails and post on social media well in advance. Use graphics and engaging language to get families excited. 3. Sign-Up Process Online Form: Use an online form (e.g., Google...
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Filed Under Blog, For Parents, Free Weekly Downloads, Leadership

5 Ways to Increase Engagement on Your Children’s Ministry Social Media

Recently, Deeper KidMin had a few reels go viral (follow DKM on Instagram and join the fun here) and it's been wild. I've experimented with a few different things and learned a lot about what seems to work best for fostering engagement on social media (at least for now - it's constantly changing). You may not be trying to go viral (honestly, I wasn't either) but you SHOULD be trying to reach more of your families and engage with them online. Find 5 tips for your kidmin social media in general here, and check out the tips below to see what I've learned over the last few months and what it means for your ministry to increase engagement online: Use real-life pictures and videos whenever possible. Making appealing graphics and using the graphics provided in your curriculum are great and can save time, but people really want to see authentic...
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KidMin Social Media Planner Template

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]An effective social media strategy for your children's ministry requires planning, but that doesn't mean it has to take up hours of your precious time! Use this week's free download to help you plan weeks' worth of social media posts at a time. Print 1 copy of the first page and use it to choose one idea for each day to help you create a template plan for your ministry social media posts. Print multiple copies of the second page, then use it to map out your weekly posts, several weeks at a time! Download the KidMin Social Media Planner Here! Want to go deeper with your social media strategy? Check out Chapter 7 in the book Time to Update: 7 Areas to Integrate Digital Discipleship into Your Children‘s Ministry Strategy. Time To Update explores 7 areas of your children’s ministry strategy where you can...
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Baptism Adventure: Unique Baptism Resources for Kids and Preteens

As kids are hearing the gospel and expressing their faith at camp and VBS this summer, are you thinking about their next steps? Salvation decisions are an important part of children's ministry since we get to share the gospel with kids at a time when their little hearts are most open to receiving it, but if we don't think intentionally about following up with a child after they've made a decision to give their life to Christ, we're missing a big piece of our roles as disciple-makers. One natural next step: baptism! Earlier this year, I learned about an incredible resource that Rivers Crossing Church in Ohio created to help kids and preteens explore baptism in fun and adventurous ways! A team at Rivers Crossing created 3 books that inspired special Adventure Kits: Maya and River’s Campout Adventure (a fiction book, like a modern-day...
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Filed Under Blog, For Parents, Leadership

Sermon Notes For Kids List

If you search “Sermon Notes for Kids” on the web, there are literally hundreds of options that show up. So to help you narrow down your search, here’s a list of links to my favorite free sermon notes for kids! Sermon Notes for Kids are a great activity to include in your worship bags and encourage kids to participate in the church service. I recommend including a sermon notes printable every week, but feel free to change up the look, layout, style, or format each Sunday to add variety for your kids! Then start over and cycle back through them. Before long, your kids will have favorites! Emoji Sermon Notes Printable that just released from Deeper KidMin! Sermon Notes Bundle from Deeper KidMin (Including pages for Pre-Readers!) Free Bible Coloring Pages from Sermon for Kids Worship Notes for Kids PDF from MMMCrafts Kid’s...
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Summer Devotional For KidMin Leaders Free Sample

Many of our resources and freebies are geared toward the kids and families in your ministry, but this freebie is for YOU, kidmin leader. Here’s one of the devotionals from a 10-week Summer Refresher devotional written specifically with children’s ministry leaders in mind. So block out 20 minutes on your calendar this week, grab your Bible, print the following pages, and spend time with Jesus this summer season. Download Summer Devotional Here! If you enjoyed this Summer devotional, download the full 10 weeks of devotionals for summer...
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10 Summer Scripture Activities for Kids & Families

Things are heating up as summer rolls around, but that doesn’t mean the spiritual life of your kids has to cool down! While summertime often means even more sporadic church attendance as families enjoy trips, vacations, and downtime, the summer can be an opportunity for spiritual growth for the kids and families you lead, especially if you can equip them with ways to dive deep into Scripture this summer! So here are 10 of our favorite summer activities and resources that help kids and families dig into Scripture over the summer: S'more Scripture - A summer resource for kids that helps them memorize Bible verses! Summer Scripture Scratch-Off - A fun and simple way to encourage a daily habit of prayer and reading scripture over the summer months while focusing on who God and Jesus are! Scripture Scoops - Scoop up the Word of God this...
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Filed Under Blog, For Parents, Leadership

5 Reasons Your Kids Aren’t Singing (And What You Can Do About It)

Since we've recently been experimenting with how to better engage kids in worship in my own church setting, I'm excited to share this week's blog post from Dave Ray from Doorpost Songs! Dave and his wife create awesome worship videos created specifically for kids, and you can find some of them in the DKM Marketplace here.  As a worship leader, I don’t know if there’s anything more uncomfortable than singing my heart out while the congregation stares at me with (at best) passive indifference or (at worst) open antipathy. Chances are good you’ve experienced one (or both) of these in your kids’ ministry. Maybe you’ve given up hope that your kids will ever engage in worship. If you find yourself secretly dreading worship time every week, you’re not alone. After twenty years of experience leading kids, I’ve seen five common reasons why...
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Mother’s Day Card Freebie

Print these foldable cards on cardstock, cut, then fold in half. Encourage kids to write or draw a special note to their mom on the inside! The card is also generic enough for them to create one for any special woman in their life! Download the Mother's Day Card here! This card design/printable is 1 of 4 available in one of our Mother’s Day Cards and Tags resources. Find even more Mother’s Day card/craft downloads...
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What Millennial Moms Want From Your KidMin this Mother’s Day

We've been talking all month long about today's parents, how they're different from parents of the past, and what that means for our strategy in effectively partnering with parents. With Mother's Day coming up, let's talk specifically about today's moms. Research has shown that Millennial moms prefer experiences over things, and they love to customize. Like the rest of their generation, they're technologically inclined, highly connected online, and are always looking for ways to make their lives easier. They value life management assistance (think house cleaners, meal services, organizational apps, etc.), and they are also more likely than moms of generations past to work outside the home and contribute to the family income. So while the carnation still makes a sweet gift, consider getting a little more intentional or creative with how you...
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8 Summer Toy Family Devotions

Below you will find 8 devotions built around commonly known summer toys and other items kids are familiar with. Read through these and decide which you want to offer your families. You can reword or change up any of the devotions included here - make them your own! Decide if you will provide just the papers to your families, or if you will provide the necessary items. If you will provide the items you will need zip-top baggies along with the items you want to include. Most of the items in these devotions can be found at your local dollar store or Walmart. When packaging the items up, place a copy of the devotion and the related item in the right-sized bag. You may wonder how many of each devotion to make…. it really depends on your church size and your families! For context, the church this author serves at serves about 100 distinct...
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Parent Resources Shelves: A Digital Interview with a Local KidMin Leader

Last week, we talked about moving beyond a vending machine mentality and into a meal kit mentality when it comes to our strategy for effectively partnering with parents (a month-long conversation you can join here). I ran across a Facebook post from Kelly Turner, a kidmin leader in Springfield, IL, about the success she's found with her parent resource shelves, and I knew we had to talk more! Kelly graciously shared ideas and pictures and even took the time to answer a few questions about her parent resource shelves. I love that they move beyond just a stagnant spot for resources to a deeper strategy for equipping parents. You might be asking: "But aren't parent resource shelves just like a vending machine? Isn't that what we're trying to move beyond?" Yes! We are trying to move beyond just resourcing parents, but an easy first step in...
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Filed Under Blog, Day-to-Day, For Parents, Leadership

Is Your Ministry a Vending Machine or a Meal Kit?

When I ask what leaders do to equip parents or to partner with them, most of them say they provide resources. Equipping parents has become synonymous with that; when we say we "equip parents," what we often really mean is "distribute resources." And while there's nothing wrong with that, if our strategy for partnering with parents stays ONLY in the resources lane, we've got an incomplete and ultimately ineffective strategy. The idea of equipping parents only through distributing resources has turned our ministries into vending machines and created a vending machine mindset when it comes to equipping parents. In a vending machine ministry mindset... The children's ministry leader operates like a vending machine by simply providing resources without much interaction.  Parents are expected to come to the church or ministry location...
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3 Lies Parents Believe About At-Home Discipleship (And the Truths You Can Help Them Discover)

I've been eyeball-deep in research about today's parents - specifically Millennial parents - lately, and a common factor among parents is a list of reasons why they can't disciple their kids at home. But in reality, those reasons are often lies, and as children's ministry leaders, we can help parents replace those lies with important truths about their role as primary disciplers of their children. To speak into this discussion, I'm excited to share this week's guest blog post from Christie Thomas, author and one of our DKM Vendors, all about the 3 lies parents believe about at-home discipleship and the truths we can help them discover: If your efforts to equip families with the best family discipleship resources aren’t well received, know this: The answer isn’t to send home more resources to gather crumbs in the minivan, but to take one...
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Family Discipleship 101 Free Sample

You want the families in your church to thrive in their faith, but it seems like your efforts don’t make much of a difference. You pass out take-home sheets, only for them to be stepped on and dirtied on the minivan floor. You plan out and send home fantastic Christmas and Easter kits, only to discover that all your hard work was used for two days and then forgotten in the busyness of the season. The only parents who seem to respond well to your family-equipping efforts are those who are already discipling their kids at home. But you want to reach those who feel like they’re too busy to pray with their kids, too ill-equipped to read the Bible at home, or too new in their faith to know what family discipleship looks like. The answer isn’t to send home more resources to gather crumbs in the minivan, but to...
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5 Things KidMin Leaders Must Do To Effectively Partner with Today’s Parents

If you’ve been serving in children’s ministry for longer than a week, you’ve realized that children’s ministry is not just about the children. It’s about the parents and grown-ups in a child’s life too. That's why we'll be focusing on partnering with parents for the next 4 weeks and diving deep into how to effectively minister to this generation of parents.  To kick off our month-long discussion, we have to identify WHO today's parents are, and surprise: they're Millennials! Millennials may spark a variety of stereotypes in your mind: entitled young adults who eat avocado toast for breakfast and still live with their parents. But in reality, we Millennials are all grown up. The Millennial generation includes anyone born between 1981-1996, which means that in 2024, Millennials now range in age from 28 to 43 years old. (We're getting...
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3 Tips for Celebrating Easter as a Family When You’re in Ministry

Ministry life means holidays look different for leaders and our families. You're at church earlier (and later) than everyone else. Special meals and gift times are shifted to accommodate service times. The days surrounding a holiday are often filled with leading special events you've spent months planning. So this week's guest blog post focuses on you, kidmin leader, and how to honor your family in the midst of a ministry holiday season. This week's guest blog post comes from David Reneau of Lead Well Ministries, and he shares honestly about his experiences and lessons learned when it comes to celebrating Easter as a family when you're in ministry...  Imagine: it’s the Friday before Easter. You’ve been busy with all the marketing, event planning, service prep, and inviting. You’re probably a little tired and the light at the end of the...
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10 Low-Prep Easter Craft Ideas

Easter is a busy season in the ministry world, and you don't have time to cut out thousands of tiny pieces of tissue paper or palm branches for an Easter craft. So here are 10 low-prep, easy Easter crafts that just require ordering, printing, and pulling together supplies you probably already have in your supply closet. Easter Craft Bundle (Includes a Palm Sunday craft, an empty tomb craft, and an Easter spinner wheel craft!) Suncatcher Tissue Paper Cross (Comes with tissue paper already pre-cut!) Easter Handprint Crafts (4 designs to choose from!) Easter Cross Scratch Art Palm Sunday Craft Printable (Freebie for DKM Subscribers) Gem Cross Suncatcher Easter Crowns (Just print, then kids color and cut!) Color Your Own Easter Slap Bracelets (Kids love these!) He is Alive Banner Craft (Freebie for DKM Subscribers!) ...
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Easter Handprint Craft Freebie

Use this Easter Handprint Craft Printable as part of a Sunday morning ministry time, as part of your special Easter event, or to share with families to do at home! Download the Easter Handprint Craft Freebie Here! This freebie is one of the four designs included in our Easter Handprint Craft Printables resource! The full resource includes 4 different designs, and some designs even have different wording. Learn more about the full resource of Easter Handprint Craft Printables...
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Interactive Bible Storytelling Technique: Treasure Hunts

You know I'm all about interactive storytelling, especially with today's digital native kids. That's why I'm excited to share this week's guest blog post from Jennifer Lake all about incorporating a treasure hunt or scavenger hunt into your Bible lesson: Bringing the Bible to life is not something new to any ministry leader, but finding innovative ways of engaging your audience is always a win. Treasure/scavenger hunts are both fun and interactive, helping younger learners deepen their knowledge of the Bible. Treasure hunts offer an immersive learning opportunity by inviting kids to hunt for something (an object, a picture, etc.) that relates to the story or helps tell the story. They are also a great way to explore deeper biblical themes and symbols. When you incorporate scavenger hunts into your teaching time, you bring the tapestry of...
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Palm Sunday Friend Parade Game

Play this active game to encourage kids to start thinking about Jesus’ celebratory entry into Jerusalem! Download a printable version of the game here! Supplies: Masking tape, cloth/pieces of fabric, palm branches (real or fake), music Prep: Use masking tape to draw a large rectangle/pathway in the middle of the room. Use masking tape to make a cross on the wall. Play: Say: Does anyone know what today is? (let kids answer) Yes! It’s Palm Sunday! Palm Sunday is the day Jesus began His journey to the cross. We’re going to learn all about what happened on Palm Sunday and why it was important. One of the things that happened was a big parade. To kick off our morning, let’s play a little Friend Parade game! Give each child a palm branch and a piece of fabric. Instruct kids to walk around the room. They have to...
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5 Family Easter Resources

Easter is always an important season in children’s ministry, especially as we help families connect with each other and with Jesus. Browse all of our Easter resources here, but check out our top 5 Family Easter resources below to help families engage and interact with the Easter story in a variety of ways! The Eggs of Easter Family Devotion - This 12-Day Family Devotion Kit leads families toward the true meaning of Easter through a Resurrection Egg kit. Learn more and download here. Preparing for Easter Family Devotion - In this family devotion, you will find ten unique hands-on experiences that walk your kids and families through the Easter story, starting with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ending with the resurrection. Learn more and download here. Easter Story Shapes Kits -...
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18 Egg Hunt Alternatives

I've seen lots of questions in various kidmin Facebook groups this year about alternative Easter event options different from the typical egg hunt. I love the creativity those conversations are sparking! Based on the conversations I've seen with ideas from leaders like you, here are a few alternative egg hunt ideas to help you and your families celebrate Easter! Neighborhood Egg Hunt or Around the Town Egg Hunt - This idea requires neighborhood involvement, but it's so fun! Encourage families to hang a printable/poster of an Easter egg on their front doors. They could even have kids cut and color the Easter egg sign out of poster or even printer paper (craft time!). Then, as families walk around the neighborhood, they can “hunt” for the eggs on the front doors of their neighbors and see how many they can find. Find 5 free egg coloring...
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Messiah Mayhem Game

Play this fun game at Easter time to encourage critical thinking skills and teamwork! To play, each player will receive a card with the words “Jesus,” “Disciple,” or “Soldier” on it. Only the Soldier's card will be revealed at the beginning. The Soldier's job is to find out who Jesus is. All players except the soldier will try to act like Jesus. The Soldier will point to a player and say, "Resurrection Rumble." The pointed-to player must then reveal whether they are a Disciple or Jesus. The Soldier will keep guessing until they uncover which player is Jesus. The game's objective is for the Soldier to figure out who among the players is Jesus, while the disciples try to protect Jesus by pretending to be him. Download the game cards here! This game is one of the stations of the Journey with Jesus Easter Adventure...
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