If you have kids or know anyone who does, you understand how challenging PD days can be for childcare.

As a church, this challenge is a great opportunity to meet the needs of families in your community. We’re a small church and have seen amazing growth within our events, and some of that growth has transferred to our weekend gatherings. In 2021 we started hosting ONE DAY FUN DAY events on PD Days.

What is a ONE DAY FUN DAY?

It’s a one-day event for those random days kids are off school with nothing to do.

So, where do you start? Get hold of your local school district’s calendar. Pick the best days that fit into the rhythm of your church life. Do not feel the need to offer an event for every day off, instead start small and grow from there. Even three events per year is a great way to get people into your building and give kids a chance to hear the gospel.

To serve families well, make the event affordable and have it during regular school day hours.

Be sure to choose a theme for each day; Circus, Candy Land, Nerf… you get the idea.

Once you have your dates and themes chosen, you can start advertising. It’s easy to join neighbourhood pages on Facebook, Kijiji, and Marketplace. You can call local schools and see if they have a newsletter that you can advertise in. Over Christmas this year, I donated a few free passes to include in the local Christmas hampers so those receiving hampers could come for free.

Volunteer Team

Next up, you’re going to need help. If you can find a few teenagers who are also off school that day, they may be willing to come and help you out.

After this, you’ll need to plan the activities for the day.

There are two ways that you can structure your day.

Option one: every event you do for the day (crafts, games, science, etc.) you do as one big group. This requires fewer volunteers and works extremely well with smaller groups (50 or fewer).

Option two: divide all the kids into groups or teams by either age or equal numbers, and then have each group rotate everything you plan to do that day. However, this requires more volunteers to pull off.

Gospel

These events are an awesome opportunity to present the gospel. There are many free online resources, and you will be able to plan all of them around your theme for the day.

Make sure to have FUN things planned. The last thing you want is for kids to go home and say they were bored, especially since it was a One Day Fun Day. I always like to send home something fun the kids worked on, like something that they can keep and remind them about the event at your church (not a colouring sheet, parents usually throw those out).

On Your One Day Fun Day

This is your time to shine bright and serve your community. Be organized; have a list of registered kids, and have a security check-in and check-out system. I like wristbands for these events because they’re harder for kids to rip off, and you can write any allergies or info needed right on them.

Have friendly greeters at your door who connect with the kids and welcome parents, let them know where their child can go, who will be watching their child for the day, and a few things their child may be doing that day. For greeting, I always like to have someone doing it who will be visible the following Sunday so that if a new family comes to church, there is a recognizable face.

Make sure you have some kid-friendly decorations around the building. Use the theme to your advantage on this. When starting your program, begin with a high-energy game to get kids excited to be there. I always start with a Bible lesson, worship, and hands-on things; science experiments, crafts, snacks, games, outdoor playtime, and whatever else you might have planned.

Strong Finish

How you finish is one of the most important things! Finish the day strong as parents will be standing around and watching and waiting for their child. What you do at this time will speak as much to the parents as it does to their kids. I always end the day with a massive dance party! This is the biggest highlight of the day for many of the kids.

The final piece has the next step already scheduled and planned for families. Suppose you can hand them an invitation at the end of the day. In that case, they will be more likely to consider participating in your next event.

Guest Author, Lisa Gorsky

Lisa and Chris Gorsky co-pastor Shepherd's Gate Church in Calgary, Alberta. Lisa leads the Children's Ministry and outreach to families. She loves helping kids become passionate about Jesus!