An Inside Look at Our Children's Ministry 2027 Calendar

If you haven't done so, it's time to plan out your 2027 calendar. 

Your ministry calendar shows what is important to you. 

Your ministry calendar reveals your strategy.

Your ministry calendar makes your priorities clear. 

Your ministry calendar shows what you spend your time focusing on. 

Here's an inside look at the children's ministry calendar at the church where I serve as director.

January 

• 6 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids 
• 12 - Children's Ministry Staff Retreat
• 23 - Volunteer Training Event
• 31 - Bring a Friend to Church Sunday

February

• 3 - Parenting Seminar
• First Wednesday Worship for Kids  
• 7 - Starting Point Salvation Class
• 21 - Baptism Milestone Class
• 28 - Parent & Child Dedication Class 

March 

• 3 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids 
• 7 - Parent & Child Dedication Milestone
• 16 - VBS Preview Day
• 28 - Easter (stand alone Easter Lesson)

April 

• 4 - VBS Soft Launch
• 4 - Starting Point Salvation Class
• 7 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids  
• 18 - Bible Celebration Milestone
• 25 - Baptism Milestone Class

May 

• 4 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids 
• 16 - 5th Grade Graduation Milestone
• 30 - Bring a Friend to Church Sunday 

June

• 2 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids  
• 6 to 9th VBS (9th is Family Night)
• 13 - Starting Point Salvation Class
• 27 - Baptism Milestone Class

July 

• 7 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids  
• 11 - Parent & Child Dedication Class 
• 13-14 - Summer Children's Ministry Staff Retreat
• 18 - Parent & Child Dedication Milestone 

August

• 1 - Volunteer Team Training Event
• 4 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids  
• 8 - Promotion weekend 
• 15 - Starting Point Salvation Class
• 22 - Baptism Milestone Class
• 29 - Bring a Friend to Church Sunday

September

• 1 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids  

October 

• 3 - Starting Point Salvation Class
• 6 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids  
• 10 - Baptism Milestone Class
• 28-31 - Fall Outreach Events at Campuses

November 

• 3 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids  
• 3 - Parenting Seminar
• 7 - Starting Point Salvation Class 
• 7 - Parent  & Child Dedication Milestone Class 
• 14 - Parent & Child Dedication Milestone 
• 21 - Baptism Milestone Class

December 

• 1 - First Wednesday Worship for Kids 
• 4 - Children's Ministry Staff Christmas Party
• 19 - Christmas Lesson
• 24 - Candlelight Service 

 

 

 

 

 

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10 Thanksgiving Activities You Can Share with Families

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. This means families will be spending extended amounts of time together. 

This is a great time to put resources in their hands that they can use in their time together at Thanksgiving. 

I send out a monthly email newsletter to all the families who have kids in our church. This month, I included several of these activities in the newsletter. 

Here are 10 Thanksgiving activities that are great to share with families. This will equip them to have spiritual conversations with their children centered on being grateful to God. 

Gratitude Jar

Give everyone a few slips of paper and have them write down what they are thankful for. Place the slips of paper in a jar or other container. Take turns drawing out a slip of paper and reading what everyone is thankful for. Remind everyone to give thanks to the Lord for Who He is and for His goodness.

Gratitude Table Cloth

Get a white table cloth and put it over the table you will be eating at. Give everyone a cloth marker. Have everyone draw the outline of one of their hands. Then have them write some things they are thankful for inside the hand drawing. Let everyone go around and share what they wrote. 

Keep the table cloth and bring it out each year and add to it. This is especially memorable as you see the kids' hands grow in size each year. 

Story Circle 

Invite each generation to share a favorite Thanksgiving memory. 

Pumpkin Bowling

Turn an ordinary pumpkin into a fun family game. Set up six to ten empty water bottles or cans as pins, then roll a small pumpkin to knock them down.

Family Photo Booth

Set up a small photo area with simple props like pilgrim hats, fake mustaches, or cardboard turkeys. Hang a plain sheet or fall-themed blanket as a backdrop. Use your phone or camera.  Everyone can take turns posing and making funny faces. It’s an easy way to capture memories while everyone is waiting for dinner.

Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt

Create a short scavenger list of fall items like pine cones, acorns, orange leaves or a feather. Split into teams and explore your yard, porch or nearby park. The first team to find everything wins.

Handprint Turkeys

Trace each child’s hand on colored paper to create the shape of a turkey. Use the fingers as feathers and the thumb as the head. Let kids decorate with crayons, markers or bits of paper for eyes and beaks.

Thankful Place Mats

Give each child a blank sheet of paper and let them design their own place mat. Encourage them to draw or write what they’re thankful for, using crayons, stickers or markers.

Gratitude Bracelets  

Give kids beads in different colors and have each one represent something they’re thankful for. Thread the beads onto the elastic string, saying what each color means as you add it. Once finished, tie the ends into a loop. This activity teaches gratitude in a hands-on way.

Volunteer Activity 

Spend part of the day helping at a local food pantry, soup kitchen or community event. Volunteering as a family gives everyone a sense of purpose and gratitude. Kids can hand out meals or pack boxes while adults help serve or clean up.

It’s a powerful way to teach empathy and show what giving truly means. Afterward, talk about the experience and how it felt to help others. Volunteering creates warm memories.

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Teaching Kids About Money

Managing money is not an easy task...especially if you don't learn about it until you are an adult. 

Teaching kids about money early on will help them financially as they get older.

Parents are the primary influence on a child's future financial well-being. 

The good news is 87% of parents with a child ages 8 to 18 have talked to them about money and finances. 

Among parents who reported that they had not yet had conversations with their children, 38% indicated that they thought their child was too young; 35% reported that they planned to talk about money or finances with their child in the future.

Parents use a variety of methods to teach their children about managing money.

Observation is one of the biggest ways kids learn about money. They observe their parents working, paying bills, and making purchases.  

68% of parents try to be a good example when it comes to managing money.  

62% of parents say they teach their children during everyday activities such as trips to the store or bank. 

Family meetings can be a way to teach children about financial choices.  Talk with children about budgets, loans, and making wise financial choices. 

84% of parents say they respond to their children's questions about money. 

60% share their own past financial experiences. 

53% openly discuss the household budget.

One of the biggest ways children learn about money is by doing. Have them participate in trips to the store and share with them how budgeting relates to shopping.  Let them open a savings account.  Use occasions when children earn money (lemonade stand, allowance, babysitting, etc.) to teach about spending, saving, and giving. 

66% emphasize the importance of saving for purchases rather than going into debt.

60% encourage their children to set aside money for savings or donations. 

58% provide hands-on experiences with money. 

56% also offer opportunities to practice managing money. 

The most important thing parents and the church can teach children about money is about following God's plan for money.  Incorporating His wisdom and principles into our finances. If we can help children understand and follow God's plan for money, then we will set them up for a lifetime of obeying God and seeing His blessings in their life. 

When was the last time you taught children about God's plan for money? This often gets overlooked or skipped or is not talked about because it is not seen as a priority. But it is vital to help kids learn about how to handle money. We should be talking about this at home and at church. 

That's why I created two teaching series about money for kids. These series teach kids that God owns everything. Our money comes from Him. We should honor him with our finances. There are great resources that parents can use at home and teaching series at church. 

The first series is Money Talks.  In this series, money literally talks. Here's a short video clip from a lesson.

In this teaching series, kids learn...

Week 1 - Money Talks About Owning

Week 2 - Money Talks About Tithing

Week 3 - Money Talks About Sharing

Week 4 - Money Talks About Planning 

This series is also great to use if your church is doing an adult series on stewardship such as Financial Peace University. Some of the largest churches in the country have used this series with great results. 

Another teaching series about money is Kid Bank President. Here's a short clip from the series.

 

In this four week series, the Kid Bank President teaches kids how to manage their money with God's wisdom and plans. This is a great series to use when your church is doing a giving series. Lessons include...

Week 1 - Tithing Account

Week 2 - Savings Account 

Week 3 - Spending account  

Week 4 - Investing Account 

Both of these series are available at this link. Check out these great resources that you can use for a Sunday teaching series, a mid-week discipleship class, and plans for family discipleship at home.

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5 Changes You Need to Make in Your Chidren's Ministry to Stay Relevant

It's important to monitor and keep in touch with the shifts that are happening in the ever-changing world of today's kids.

If you are not intentional with this, you may find your ministry struggling with being effective. 

That being said...here are five current changes and shifts you need to look at when it comes to your children's ministry. 

The shift to a digital world continues to accelerate.

Traditional toys continue to lose ground when it comes to play.  Declining engagement with traditional toys is happening as children age, with many moving toward screen‑based and interactive digital experiences. 

They are combining digital play with physical toys. This is being done by integrating toys with apps, virtual reality, and interactive content.  Kids are being raised with video games, Ipads, and phones in their hands. Hand a 3-year-old a smartphone and watch them navigate through it. 

You can stay relevant by combining the physical and digital world. Today's kids connect with digital play. Digital review games are a big hit. Lessons that integrate digital elements capture kids' attention. Visual images will grab their attention. Most of my lessons for kids will utilize 80 to 100 visual slides. 

Leverage YouTube and other social platforms.

Children are using YouTube and other social media platforms for creative, social, and entertainment play. Is your ministry on YouTube? Are you using social media to connect with families?   

Experiences are expected.

Parents and kids are valuing experiences over purely physical play items. Products that are engaging today's kids are moving from product-led to experience-led.  

I personally believe Disney's success over the years is because they provide experiences that create lifetime memories for families. 

What are you doing to create experiences for families?  I have found that one way to do this is through spiritual milestones. Celebrating spiritual milestones with families creates spiritual experiences that can change the entire trajectory of families' direction. 

Let them build it.

Crafting, building, and maker style products that encourage open-ended play are accelerating. Hands on learning tools are in high demand. Combining play with learning is a win with today's kids.  One of the most successful "toy stores" ever created is Build-A-Bear.  

How are you letting children "build out" Bible stories?  I remember I was once filling in as a teacher for a 3-year-old class. The lesson that day was about the church.  I decided we would work together to "build" a church building out of Lego's. Surprisingly the 3-year-olds jumped right in and build an amazing church building. We then talked about how the church is not a building but people. I had the kids point to themselves and say "I am the church." They got it. 

How can you use "let them build it" this week in your lessons?  

Participatory storytelling. 

Products that let kids help create content or experiences engages kids at a deeper level.  Don't just be a talking head. Get kids involved in telling the lesson. Think of creative ways you can get kids acting out the Bible story. Active participation is a key factor for engaging today's kids. 

Bottom line: The “play is slipping” trend reflects a shift from traditional toys to experiential, sensory, and digital‑hybrid play. Children's ministries that facilitate and navigate this shift will reap the benefits. 

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