As discussed on Kidology this summer, this fall I have started a ministry experiment in ‘partnering with parents’ – by forming an ‘opt-in’ ministry at church called VIP, which stands for Very Intentional Parenting – based on the concept that for genuine ‘partnering’ with parents, the children’s pastor and parents much first come an agreement on what ‘partnering’ looks likes and means, and then start doing it. Without going into all that here (you can read the link above), I wanted to post some pictures and info about our first VIP Ministry event this past Sunday – we got rained out the week before, but had a fantastic time! Much of this is a ‘reprint’ of what I posted on the ‘top secret’ VIP Blog available only to my VIP Families – it is where we post VIP ministry info and parenting tips, and other info just for these partnering families.
Our first VIP Family Event was a HUGE success! Maybe one week late due to rain, but this past Sunday was perfect weather and we had a wonderful time! We had 59 people at this event!
Everyone had a great time playing, visiting, eating, hay-riding, singing, laughing, and enjoying fellowship with other families. I was very encouraged by the turn out, especially since it was a rain date. This event was a ‘record breaker, as this was one of the most successful family event I’ve ever done!! Ironic, that while there are only 17 VIP Families (so far), we had 76.62337662377% of the families there. That is both the highest percentage and highest attendance I’ve had for a family event! One of the reasons for starting the ‘VIP Ministry’ was to help families realize the importance of their presence – when I’ve attempted events for the ‘whole church’ I’ve had less than 20 show up!
But numbers aside (it wasn’t about the numbers), we had a wonderful time, and it was so nice to enjoy some purposeful ‘hang time’ with other families.
It was fun to play together and worship to together and to enjoy some time refocusing on the things that matter most. After we sang, but ‘talk’ was on how to get S’more of God, using s’mores as an object lesson on the ingredients for a life lived close to God.
For more VIP BONFIRE PICTURES visit: BONFIRE PICS ONLINE!
Much thanks to my wonderful wife Sara for her awesome photography!
That is so awesome and so encouraging!! I can’t wait to get started on implementing family ministry at my new place. It’ll be a while until I’ve settled in, but hopefully it won’t be long.
Looks like an AWESOME time by all!
Love the title of this post