In some ways it is easy to have a holiday club. You can just run it the same way as last year.
Just rope in some leaders from the youth organisations, arrange a few games, sing 'Jesus' love is very wonderful' and hit them with a few 'old-faithful' Bible stories.
Or . . . you could have a successful holiday club!! Yes, if you want your holiday club to achieve anything this year, it will take prayer (didn't I mention that?) vision, fresh thinking, hard work, committed leadership, planning, preparation, and, of course, more prayer.
What's it all about?
Have you ever thought: 'Why are we having a holiday club?' It's an important question, because the answer to it will strongly influence the sort of club you should be having. To think of a holiday club as simply 'evangelism' is not enough. In many cases the real need may be for Bible teaching, or building up relationships if trust and friendship, You may be hoping to attract children to join your regular church organisations or to provide training for the young people of the church who will be helping. Whether your aim is one, some, or even all of these, by talking about and agreeing your aims beforehand, you can plan the club to achieve them more effectively, and afterwards review the success of the club, at least from a human viewpoint!
It is all too easy to stick to the same old formula for a holiday club because it has worked well in the past . . . and the past may have been last year! But maybe you are in third gear, and there are still fourth and even the fifth, to explore. Any children who have come in previous years may look forward to doing some of the same things again, but they will look forward even more if it is going to be new and better! Change will mean dropping old ideas. Even activities that are good in themselves may go because there are alternative activities that will be fresh and effective.
From the child's perspective
Write down the format of your current programme and try to see it from the point of view of one of the children . . .
* When I first come in does it look as though it is going to be exciting?
* Will I be made welcome and helped to get to know some of the leaders and children straight away?
* Is there something for me to do from the moment I arrive until it is time to go?
* Are there any long boring bits during which I might switch off?
* Have the leaders so well-organised everything that I don't have to sit waiting for something to happen?
* Is it going to be fun?
* Are there bits I can volunteer to take part in at the front?
Get the idea? If your holiday club is for kids, then make sure you have a programme that is right for kids today. Watch a few kids' TV programmes (if you don't normally) and pick up the ideas. Have regular components each day, but keeps things fast-moving and varied. That means being well-organised and prepared. Timetable the whole programme for each day down to the minute and if after the first day your timings are out, readjust your programme for the rest of the week accordingly. Think about how you move from one activity to the next so that you can prepare the children and avoid confusion and delays.
The surroundings
Put some real effort into making the place look good. Crepe paper and balloons don't cost much but can transform a dull hall. If you have access to disco or stage lighting, why don't you put it to good effect, and also have a good sound system with someone at the desk keeping control of the microphones. A radio mike is marvellous with kids as you can use it anywhere in the hall and you can get their comments on the spot. If you are stuck for musicians, pre-recorded backing tracks can be great, providing you have a good person leading.
Most important resource
A holiday club will only be as good as its leaders, and building up a team of experienced, committed and enthusiastic leaders may take a number of years. There are many opportunities to mobilise people of varying ages within a church to help, bringing benefits to all.
I can remember, for example, a young person helping her mum prepare a meal for the team and being so impressed that she made sure she was on the team the next years, and within a few years had become its leader. A lady helping to wash the dishes after tea overheard the helpers praying and realised that there was a spiritual depth among the young people of her church that she had not previously been aware of.
Time spent in training is never wasted, and it can be an opportunity to bring in outside expertise. Often training can be combined with preparing the programme and working through new ideas. It is also wise to consider important issues during training, such as safety, being aware of child abuse, working with those of different ethnic and religious backgrounds and coping with disruptive children. When allocating leaders to prepare parts of the programme, put an experienced leader with a younger helper who can learn the ropes and at the same time make their own contribution.
By making sure there is time in the programme each day for the helpers to pray, check through their activities and responsibilities, and at the end discuss how it has gone, the leaders can have the opportunity to keep setting the highest standards. Having a meal together each day can greatly increase the fellowship of the group, as will fitting in a team Bible study where possible. Having an evening or a day out for the helpers at the end of the club, will help them to know their hard work and commitment have been appreciated.
Developing teaching material
There are many good ideas for holiday club material published by Scripture Union and other organisations, but they rarely fit the bill exactly! Using such material is not an easy option to save you making the effort, as you still have to take ownership of your own programme. Don't be afraid to adapt and modify the material to fit your local situation and aims, or, alternatively, work out your own original theme.
The secret is to be able to integrate the teaching into the whole programme and not just have a 'God slot' with the Bible story, memory verse, prayer and choruses! Have craft activities that relate to the lesson of the day . . . make giant posters on the theme . . . have quiz visual aids that illustrate the message . . . choose songs that are appropriate. Group times may also be used when leaders work with a small number of children to follow up the story, working on activity sheets, preparing dramas, banners or crafts.
Making them feel special
While we may think we are running the club for the children, are we really making them all feel that they are special? It is so easy to fall into such traps as just picking the enthusiastic outgoing children to take part at the front rather than encouraging the quieter children, who may in fact be longing to be there. Instead of asking for volunteers from the front, perhaps you should ask group leaders to select volunteers beforehand from within their groups.
Another important area is how quizzes are conducted. A quiz always attracts enthusiasm, but may be a put-down for children who can answer few of the questions. Allow an element of chance so that the points awarded for each answer may be high or low. For example, if the story has been about the lost sheep, have the points to be awarded written on the back of 'sheep' to be moved into the 'fold'. In this way even a team that gets only one answer right can win if it picks a high-scoring sheep! If the questions are related to the teaching theme make sure the answer can be heard by everyone, otherwise the teaching value is lost.
Friendships formed between helpers and children can be very special, but helpers need to be careful not to take advantage of the trust placed in them. Talking one to one with children should always take place where others are around and not alone, and questions about the Christian faith should first be raised by the children (and not the helper) when talking personally.
There is positive harm in allowing children to think they are making a Christian commitment when they have little or no understanding of what they are doing, have not thought deeply about it, and may be only trying to please their leaders or friends.
Encouraging children to think about such things for some time, or to talk about it with their parents, and then to take the initiative in coming back to the leader will help to clarify if the Holy Spirit is really at work. Always give a child an unbiased choice, letting them know they are appreciated and loved, whether they choose to become a Christian or not. 'Do you feel you would like to follow Jesus now, or would you like to think about it a bit more?' is the sort of unbiased choice we need to give children.
While it is not ours to know the true spiritual 'success' of a holiday club there is no doubt that the fresh effort put into planning, preparation and running it will be more than repaid by the great time enjoyed by the children and helpers, and the progress you will see in the spiritual development of both.
Dr. Lindsay Easson lectures in Crop Production at the Queen's University of Belfast. A native of Dundee, he moved to Northern Ireland in 1977, where he is actively involved in Trinity Methodist church, a new and rapidly-growing congregation in Lisburn. He has been leading SU beach missions and holiday clubs in Scotland and Northern Ireland since 1969. He is married with a one year-old daughter.
