I’ve spent the last two weekends serving through several Harvest Ministry events and have had lots of fun! Here are seven ideas from those events:
1) Host a One Day Kids Event For Your Own Church – Harvest does Kids Conferences and we are currently in the season (kidsconference.org)! But, we also got invited to a church who developed their own one day event. We led worship about three times during the day, they had a sack lunch for everyone and the rest of the times, adults and other leaders from the church worked with the students in four different teaching stations. It was a spirit filled day! (Last weekend at Lampstand Presbyterian Church, Decatur, IL)
2) Have a Church Wide Saturday Night Worship Concert – Invite a worship team in or just have your own church worship band lead it. Invite the students, the families and everyone in your church to participate. You can do some music, have someone share a simple message and have a great evening. On this particular night for Harvest, it was me on the guitar and Drew on the cajon. My daughter Ruby also joined us for a couple of songs as well. (Last weekend at First UMC in Vandalia, IL).
3) Special Guest Worship Team At Your Church – Inviting a Sunday morning worship team guest is a great way to 1) give your regular worship team a break, 2) open up new perspectives on worship leading and 3) give a glimpse of the greater church! We’re a part of something bigger than just our congregation here. On this particular Sunday morning last weeknd, we enjoyed leading music for two morning services at Highland Hope in Highland, IL. (Thanks Tyler, Joe, Paula, Drew and Ruby! We’d love to come to your church!)
4) Pizza Dinner Evaluation – Last weekend, we officially finished up Fire-Up Sr. High Conference 2014! The weekend was at the end of February and it was awesome and powerful. But, without evaluation, we’re not really done. So, the host team met at the pizza place for dinner and to debrief (and subsequently to begin planning for next year). It was a fun time. Typically, we just get together for a meeting, but adding in supper brought a team cohesiveness and lots of celebration. (Fire-Up Host Team, 2014)
5) Get Everything You Can Online – Don’t discount putting even little things on the website and keeping it up to date. If you don’t have strengths in this area, connect with someone who does. I was reminded of this again over the weekend when a church said they Googled “church ministry kids events,” and the Harvest Light Kids Conference popped up, so they came!
6) Lunch After Church – One of the leaders for a ministry at Troy UMC decided to have lunch after church to thank everyone who had helped her. With the help of her friends, she made Italian beef, salad and apple pie! There were about 25-30 people in attendance and there was lots of conversation and fun. It was a simple way to thank her team and we all appreciated it.
7) Youth Ministry Café – Last night, Harvest had a chance to lead some music and worship for the students and families at New Bethel in Glen Carbon, IL. The evening began at 6:00 with food and music went from 6:30 – 8:15 pm. There were three of us on the team – me on the guitar, Emily sang and Bobby played percussion. A great setting, a packed house, great food and there was an awesome spirit among the kids. Thanks to Judy and the other the ministry leaders for inviting us to participate with you.
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7 Creative Sabbath Ideas For Ministry Leaders
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