5 Tips For Programming Effective Youth Camps

January 30, 2012 By 1 Comment

For the past 10 years my family and I have attended Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, TN. During this time we’ve watched God do amazing things through the church and in particular, the youth ministry. Our daughter grew up in this ministry (check out the LHSM FB page), so we’ve seen first hand how God used this ministry to positively impact her life.

Brian Mills is Long Hollow’s student pastor and he is passionate about reaching young people for Christ. In a previous post, I covered Brian’s 5 keys to selecting a location for your church youth camp (read here). In today’s post I’m going to share his thoughts on how to program your youth camp for maximum spiritual impact.

  1. Build around evangelism – It all starts with the speaker. They should be good communicators and passionate about sharing the Gospel. It’s also important to remember the kids (and adults) need a fresh face, a fresh voice. Not one they’ve heard on Wednesday night for the past year.
  2. Worship – Select a worship band that’s humble and willing to do what is asked of them. Their focus should be solely on leading kids in worship.
  3. Keep the program fresh – Don’t fall into a rut each day. Interject games, videos, laughter and other ideas to get the kids relaxed and more open to the Gospel when your speaker takes the stage.
  4. Be intentional creating groups – Camp is a great opportunity for students to play together and get to know each other. This can make a huge difference when they get back to school in the fall.
  5. Keep them busy – Students don’t like to get bored. Keep the schedule moving and engaging. The more free time you give them, the more opportunity for them to get into trouble.

Remember, camp is day one in the youth ministry year. It sets the stage for all that will happen the next school year. As a result, don’t procrastinate when it comes to planning camp. The longer you wait, the more you run the risk of camp being haphazard and not as powerful as it could be.

For camp to be successful, students need to have fun, enjoy fellowship and be impacted by the Gospel. What are you going to do today to help make it happen?

Filed Under: Activities/Recreation, Christian Retreat Ideas, Cost Saving Ideas, Post-Event Follow-up, Pre-Event Planning Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Resources – January Update

January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Here is what we’ve added in January by category:

Marketing/Promotion
Six Deadly Marketing Myths Busted – Using real data and science, learn to protect yourself from these superstitious bits of bad advice and become a better inbound marketer…

Site Selection
The RFP -  From Accommodations to Food and Venues to Transportation, Learn How to Write an Effective RFP…

Contracts
Defensive Contract Negotiations – Risk management tips and strategies help your organization avoid disputes and losses…

Retreats/Meetings
Concentrate on Content – The primary reason most people attend conferences is the educational content…

Meeting Planners
The Great Shift - Meetings and events enter the world of academia…

I hope you find these helpful and remember we have many more than might interest you  in the Meeting Planner Resources section of the blog.

Filed Under: Cost Saving Ideas, Post-Event Follow-up, Pre-Event Planning Tagged With: , , , , , ,

8 Quick Tips For Creating A Successful Event

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Retreats and meetings matter.  Whether you are booking a staff retreat or your organization’s annual conference, remember these 8 quick tips to help you create a successful event:

  1. Pick a destination where your attendees WANT to go. While you would hope they want to attend because you’ve planned a great agenda, it doesn’t hurt to hold the meeting in a location where people want to go.
  2. Create a sense of anticipation. Help them see this is a retreat or conference they simply don’t want to miss.
  3. Enhance your evening gathering by creating a theme to provide a unique experience. Try to give them something they will remember when they get home.
  4. Build a little free time in the schedule. Hopefully you’ve chosen an interesting location so be sure to give them some time to enjoy the local area. It amazes me how some groups that come to Ridgecrest don’t allow time for their folks to enjoy all the areas of Asheville and Black Mountain have to offer.
  5. Use technology to your advantage. Look for ways to provide information and allow registration via technology. Many of your attendees are packing smart phones and want to use them. Let ‘em!
  6. Don’t plan every meal. Give your attendees some private time and opportunity to check out the local dining scene. It will save you money too!
  7. Give attendees easy to read information. Be sure to tell them the who, what, where, when and how.
  8. Offer a variety of activities to better meet the varied interests of your attendees. Not everyone enjoys a screaming run down the zip line!

What about you? What are some tips that have worked for you? Please feel free to share them with our readers. Thanks!

Filed Under: Budget and Pricing, Cost Saving Ideas, Meeting Set-Up, Post-Event Follow-up, Pre-Event Planning Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Are You Doing About Flu Season?

January 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

OK, I know. This is supposed to be a blog focused on Christian meeting planners so you may be wondering why is he writing about the flu?

Good question, but it’s actually quite simple. As someone responsible for bringing groups of people together, you can also help prevent the spread of flu (and other illness) among your attendees. After all, it’s pretty hard for someone to get much out of your great conference if they’re sick and stuck in their room.

With a little help from the CDC, here are 3 things you can do to help keep the flu from wrecking your event!

  • Talk about flu prevention - Educate your planning team and others about all they can be doing to help prevent the spread of the virus. Things such as covering your mouth when you cough, not touching your eyes, nose or mouth, washing your hands with soap and water, etc.
  • Protect yourself and your planning team - Encourage everyone, including yourself, to get a flu shot. As they say, an ounce of prevention…
  • Provide hand sanitizers - Talk to the facility hosting your event and insist they provide hand-sanitizer stations for your meeting or retreat. At Ridgecrest we provide these at various locations throughout campus.

Curious…how many times have you come home from a conference sick? Unfortunately it happens more than we’d like to admit. All the more reason to do all we can to prevent it.

Filed Under: Budget and Pricing, Meeting Set-Up Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

What’s In Store For 2012?

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

I know, hard to believe, but 2011 has come and gone and ready or not, 2012 is here!

As you prepare for what God has in store for your ministry in 2012, I thought the following 2 articles might be of some help as you plan your retreat, meetings or conferences.

Meeting Trends for 2012 – Here are a couple of the projected trends that really jumped out at me:

  • Meetings are moving towards being more interactive, with less dependence on talking heads. This gives attendees more opportunity to share their knowledge and experiences with an expert/facilitator.
  • Moving away from standardized activities. Instead, more groups are looking to take advantage of unique, lcoation specific options. Even better if the activity incorporates in a learning component.
  • A renewed interest in simple, fresh food with a creative local twist.

5 things meeting planners will have to do this year – These 3 things are all related:

  • Bandwidth – It may not be enough just to make sure your event venue provides WiFi. If there’s not enough bandwidth, your attendees are not going to be happy with slow, slow speed. Even if it’s free!
  • Mobile – With as many as 85% of smartphones able to access the Internet, does it make sense for your conference to be accessible via the Internet? Be it an app, or a mobile-friendly conference website, chances are your attendees want to be able to get it on their phone.
  • Tech-free zones – I know, I know. After the first 2 this one may not make a lot of sense. However, people can get connection overload and providing time to disconnect allows people to connect the old fashioned way…face to face.

What about your thoughts? Where do you see retreats and conferences going in 2012? Are you planning to make any changes in how your church or ministry connects with people?

Filed Under: Budget and Pricing, Cost Saving Ideas, Meeting Set-Up, Post-Event Follow-up, Pre-Event Planning Tagged With: , , , , ,

106 Budget Saving Tips in 60 Minutes!

January 4, 2012 By Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, January 18, our friends at Collinson Publishing/Rejuvenate are hosting a live one hour webinar for meeting planners. The webinar is FREE and promises to provide listeners with at least 106 budget saving tips. Even if you only take way a couple of ideas that work for your church or ministry, it could still be time well spent. We encourage you to check it out before it’s too late.

The webinar is scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM EST. For more information, click here. To register, click here.

 

Filed Under: Budget and Pricing, Meeting Set-Up Tagged With: , ,