Summer can be a really strange time for people who work or volunteer as ministry leaders. On the one hand, it can feel like your ministry has slowed down. You might not hold Sunday school or other regular classes. And, when you do, attendance can be spotty.
On the other, churches often ramp up for big summer ministry outreach, events, and activities. Planning for and executing Vacation Bible School certainly does not make summer feel like a “slow season.”
The problem is not that your church and ministry provide no opportunities for summer faith formation. It’s that those opportunities are less consistent. Bridge the gap between the school year and summer seasons with these resources from Sparkhouse. Not only do they complement VBS—they also draw connections to your regularly scheduled faith formation programming.
The Flat Jesus Project
Flat Jesus is a fun, FREE project that supports your early childhood or children’s summer ministry. Inspired by a national school project called Flat Stanley, Flat Jesus helps children stay plugged into the Bible message by giving each student their own personalized paper cutout of a Jesus character to take with them on summer adventures.
Taking Jesus with them will encourage natural questions and important discussions between children and their families. Plus, with a Frolic, Spark: Activate Faith, Whirl, or Holy Moly Flat Jesus character, they’ll have a tangible connection to their school year Bible curriculum.
Spark Family Magazines
Spark Family magazines are colorful, award-winning children’s devotionals based on seasons and themes from the Bible. Each issue contains interactive themes and activities to engage children and their families. Because the activities encompass a wide range of options, including Bible factoid trivia, these magazines are great for long summer car rides and fun days at home alike.
This summer, we’ve got a special Spark Family offer just for you! Save up to 67 percent on select back issues like “Kids in God’s Word,” “Animals in God’s Word,” and more, on purchases of 11 or more copies. This fun, affordable gift for your class will yield long-term rewards for kids and their families.
Holy Moly: Unit 5
Sparkhouse’s Holy Moly is an engaging, hands-on curriculum. It’s designed to help kids from kindergarten through grade 4 discover and relate to the Bible stories and characters. Kids also connect to their Bibles directly in each lesson and use their imagination to reflect on the stories through an activity.
The two-year, 10-unit curriculum is designed with the summer in mind! Each school year, students complete four units. During each summer, they get to explore a special fifth unit of four important stories that are sometimes excluded from traditional, year-long curricula.
These summer faith formation resources strike the perfect balance to help you continue your regular school-year ministry in a creative, fun, and interactive way. Whether you’re looking for a simple project that connects lessons from the year to summer fun or hoping to deepen your students’ understanding of the Bible, any of these options will help you continue to encourage faith formation in the summer.
