Peter Witkowski Summer Camps

Connect Camp: 2016 Review

Connect-Camp-BlogAnother exciting month of Connect Camp has come to a close. With the help of over thirty committed adults and youth, First Baptist Eastman was able to put together an amazing day camp that featured everything from Baseball to praise band. During the months of June and July, we connected with forty-five different kids. Each day of camp, we averaged almost 35 kids. We peaked on the first day of camp when 41 arrived. Our lowest attendance occurred on the last day of camp -Thursday, July 14. We hosted 30 kids and 53 kids and adults for our family day luncheon.

Each day, the kids kicked off camp with a worship rally at 8 AM. Next, they participated in two track-times (activity times) of their choice before coming inside to cool off with a snack. Then, they rounded off the morning with a small group Bible study, another track time, and a brief closing worship rally that concluded at noon. FBCE kids’ ministry loved hosting the kids. And I am confident that many of the kids liked camp. It takes a lot to convince a grade schoolers and middle schoolers to wake up early on summer morning. Plus, I received a lot of positive feedback from parents, kids, and volunteers.Connect Camp by church

I truly believe Connect Camp this year fulfilled its mission of connecting kids to Christ and of connecting unchurched families to our church. The gospel was preached every day during both the worship rally and the small group time. Seed was sown. And by having parents and kids attend camp all month long, we got to know at least two new families.

Connect Camp Attendance ChartOur numbers did trend down a little from last year’s Connect Camp. Last year we averaged 40 students. This year dipped down to about 35 per day. I am not sure why attendance dropped slightly. Perhaps our number were hurt by the Dodge County School schedule, perhaps Camp went down because it started two weeks after VBS, or perhaps we simply encountered a sophomore slump. Regardless, Connect Camp still reaches the largest number of kids of any camp run or attend by FBCE. Lord willing our numbers will rebound next year!

And as always, we loved using the Zip curriculm published by Lifeway. It was easy to use, fun, etertaining and gospel filled! Without Zip Connect Camp would still be just a concept. But with the curriculm, FBCE has seen its dream of reaching the kids of Eastman become a reality!

Not it’s your turn! What was your kid’s favorite part of camp?

Peter Witkowski Discipleship

5 Quick Questions With Jeffrey Reed

Today, I am excited to add a new feature to my blog called “5 Questions.” My heart is to help equip and encourage you by introducing you to the guys and gals that influence and encourage me. To help you get to know them better, I will  be asking them 5 questions about ministry and the Christian life.

Meet Jeffrey Reed

My first guest is Jeffery Reed. I met Jeffrey back in 2o13 at a Life Kids’ Beta Five-Questions-Jeffery-ReedConference. Jeffery has served as a Pastor for over 30 years and has spent about half of that time working with kids. Currently, he works at Lifeway as a “Lifeway Kids’ Ministry partner. In his role, he travels year round. He meets one-one-one with an average of 15 Kid’s Ministry leaders each week. He also regularly interacts with Kids’ Ministry leaders when he speaks at conferences and kids’ events. He and his wife have four kids and currently live in Nashville, TN. To follow Jeffrey on Twitter click here.

5 Questions

1.     Has kids’ ministry changed over last ten years?

“From what I can tell in working with churches all over the country, the pendulum has had two big swings. One probably started in the early 2000’s. Creativity entered Kids’ Ministry in a big way. Now, the norm is to use large-group worship. Most churches have creative or production teams, especially in larger churches. In the 90’s, media was rarely used as a regular resource for churches. Now well-done media is expected. 

The other swing has been back to good Theology. It’s just starting to pick up in churches. Now that churches have learned to use media, they are realizing that it should be a supplement to the content that they use…and that the content should be sound, doctrinally speaking. It’s great when Kids’ Ministry is creative. It’s better when Kids’ Ministry uses good theology.”

2.      What steps can a church take to reach young families?

“Not enough. 

But as a start, every leader of every classroom and group should be prepped and trained to talk to parents when they pick their kids up. The entire church staff should be focused on teaching parents to lead their kids. It’s also important that our goal is not simply to get them to like our church. If we get them to love God, they will like church. There are churches full of families who are dedicated to attending, but don’t know Jesus. We need churches who have families that are walking by faith…and leaders and staffs in those churches who model that.”

3.      What are some ways churches accidentally scare away families? 

“This might sound antithetical, but probably by not offering anything different than a local community center. Young families, especially millennials, (I know this, because my pastor is one) are looking for substance. YMCA’s offer mom’s morning out. The school system’s are teaching kids how to develop character. 4-H has a summer camp. Why do I need church? family

Ultimately, the gospel is what transforms and draws families in. The church should probably do these things in some form, but we often stop short and hold off on the serious stuff in the hope that those families come back. Maybe we wait until Christmas Eve or Easter to share the message of salvation. Many churches are stuck in the seeker mode of the 90’s. Everyone is seeking, even believers. Give everyone what they are looking for, Jesus. Weak or occasional theology scares people.”

4.      What Lifeway Kids products are you most excited about?

“That’s easy. Two things are coming that will have a huge impact. 

The first is our new conference. For the first time, LifeWay will have a family ministry conference called ETCH. etchconference.com The video on the front page says it all. Some of the best communicators and voices in family ministry will be there. It will be a blast. It will be fun. It will equip leaders to reach the next generation.

The second is the re-launch of Bible Studies for Life curriculum. It’s scope and sequence follows one of the most vetted discipleship paths in the history of Kids’ Ministry. Over 15,000 churches currently use this curriculum.”

5.       What books are you currently reading?

“The political climate has moved me to read several books regarding U.S. history. ‘”Forged in Faith“‘, by Rod Gragg, takes a deeper look into the believers who were involved in the early revolution. 

I’m not saying I support the philosophy in the book, but it is intriguing. ‘”Why They Stay“‘ by Parr and Crites looks at something that could very well shake up how we do church for families. It’s hard to argue with facts…and they give some compelling ones about why kids may leave the church when they get older…and it’s not because we didn’t have a light show during worship.”

Peter Witkowski Vacation Bible School

The State of VBS 2016

State of VBS 2016The back drop is down. The plastic fish are deflated. And, the extra t-shirts have been boxed for return. VBS 2016 is officially over. And though it’s finished, the benefits of VBS have just begun to roll in. As we look to build on our VBS efforts, I want to take a few minutes and reflect on what happened at VBS this year. Let’s take a look:

Praises

Over all, I think this was the best Vacation Bible School that I have overseen during my time at First Baptist Church Eastman. Every class and activity ran seamlessly. Outside of having to send a few kids home for fighting (a normal occurrence) and having to overcome a few barely noticeable organizational glitches, almost everythingn went according to plan. We had a great team of over 110 teachers. They teachers decorated their rooms well, taught well, and invested in their kids. And the kids responded! Instead of losing kids after Wednesday night (a typical occurrence), our nightly totals remained consistent all week long. We actually set a new record high for attendance on Friday!  VBS Daily Attendance 2016And as the kids and their family came, they heard the gospel clearly proclaimed. A couple of kids expressed interest in following Christ as their savior! Others responded by giving $660.45 to our IMB Missionaries. As a result, yours truly got a pie in the face. Click here to see the video! God greatly blessed FBCE’s 2016 VBS! I am very thankful for all who helped and for all the kids who attended.

VBS BY The Numbers

Now some of you may have noticed that our VBS numbers were down. We averaged 166 per night this year. Last year, we averaged 201 kids per night, In 2014 we averaged 257 kids per night. Over the past two years, our VBS attendance has dropped by over 1/3. Initially, I found these numbers discouraging. My heart is to reach Eastman and Dodge County with the gospel. It appeared that our VBS was missing the mark. But upon further examination, I discovered three hopeful trends hiding within the larger numbers. Let’s take a look:
First, the largest demographic drop off came with kids that attend other churches. In 2014, 134 kids from other churches attended our VBS. This year only 17 kids from other churches came to FBCE’s VBS. That is a drop off of more than 88%.VBS yearly trends
Secondly, over the past 3 years, FBCE kids’ ministry has experienced a net loss of 38 students. Thirty-Eight more students have graduated out of our kids’ ministry than have been born into it. In short, our birth rate is not sustaining our kids’ ministry. Thankfully, our church is doing a good of reaching2016 VBS Birth Rate new families as the number of FBCE kids attending VBS has actually gone up the last two years. But with each passing year, it will become harder to sustain our church attendance numbers unless we start having more babies and start doing an even better job of reaching young families.

And now for the really good news. We are reaching a larger and larger number of unchurched kids and bus kids. In 2016, we reached 83 kids with no church home. In 2014, we only reached 52. In 2015, we reached 61 kids with the bus ministry. This year we reached 71! The right numbers are going up!VBS Kids By Church Home

Finaly Thoughts

In short, our overall numbers dropped because we are not reaching kids who already have church home. I’m ok with that result. Our heart at FBCE is not to steal sheep. Our heart is to reach the lost. I am happy to report that our VBS is doing just that. Now, we can and must continue to find ways to more effectively reach the dying and the lost with the gospel. If you have ideas or thoughts on we can better connect with families, please share them below in the comment section. And then join me in thanking our God for giving us a great VBS!