Tag: Christmas

Quick Tip: Be Willing to Ask for Help

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When it comes to asking for help, how would you rate yourself ? Are you really good at it? Are you someone who just goes at it alone and gets it done no matter the cost to you? Or do you ask others to jump in and help?

Asking for help is not something I’m naturally good at doing. I was raised with the mentality that you do everything on your own because you’re the only person you can rely on. We were the “pick yourself up by your bootstraps” type of family.

Now I could go on about how that’s a flawed type of system and how that very phrase is antithetical to what it means to be a Christ follower, but I won’t. Instead I want to encourage you to be willing to ask for help.

One of my favorite things we get to do in our ministry is host a Christmas party for our leaders. For years I took that responsibility upon myself to plan, decorate, and execute. I would spend countless hours and days and weeks preparing everything.

I’d handle decor, I’d build the schedule, prepare the gifts, purchase and provide the food, handle the emceeing, and of course I’d be the one cleaning up. Did you feel tired just reading that? Did it hit home for you?

When a ministry or job or an event hangs upon one person that’s a problem. What if that one person gets sick? Worse, what if they quit? This builds a culture of personality around a person, not an identity in Christ and that isn’t what we are meant to be doing.

Instead, we should seek help. We should bring others into the process, share the load, empower our people, and remind ourselves that the ministry doesn’t rest upon us but upon Christ.

Shortly after 2020-2021, we had to rethink how we hosted and ran our leader Christmas party. I knew I could no longer run it on my own and had to come to terms with letting go and allowing others to help.

A couple of parents had offered at different points to help, so I figured sending out a request for help would be a good first step. I wrote an email explaining what we had seen God doing over the last year in student ministry, all the ways our leaders had been serving, and outlined the needs and requests.

Our ask of parents was simple: would they provide desserts and appetizers for our leader Christmas party as way to encourage and bless our leaders? I was skeptical the first year we sent this out, but I was pleasantly surprised with the results. We didn’t just have food for the party, but leftovers we sent home with our leader. Even more leftovers were repurposed for our student party the next week.

We have continued to utilize this approach with our families each year, and every year they bless our leaders in abundance. In doing so it alleviates a huge need for that event and allows our team to better engage with our leaders.

It also shows our leaders that our families do see and appreciate them by providing very real and tangible gifts for them. Many families even send cards and notes along that we share with our leaders.

So at the end of the day it isn’t just about asking for food. It is understanding that by asking for help, we can alleviate the pressure we often feel as ministry leaders, bless others by asking for help, and allow other people to have ownership.

Asking for help can at times be difficult, but it is necessary for the longevity of yourself, your ministry, and the church. Bring others in, allow people to utilize their skills and gifts, and build the church and your ministry around Christ. If you do this you will see yourself, your ministry, and your church grow for the better.

3 Keys to Giving Leader Christmas Gifts

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It’s that time of year: stores are beginning to put up Christmas displays, Christmas music is playing, and holiday commercials have begun popping up. And we haven’t even made it to November.

Now we could engage in the debate of when is it too early for playing Christmas music, but that’s a topic for another day. Today, I want to talk about gifts for your volunteers and some key things to consider when getting gifts for them. This post is not a list of gift ideas but rather one that provides insight on the key elements that should go into choosing the gifts you are giving to your team.

When it comes to giving gifts to leaders, we like to have our gifts meet three key elements which allow for the gifts to be more intentional:

1. Personal and thoughtful.

When it comes to gift-giving, what gift has made a significant impact in your life? We could think of the biggest, most expensive gift, but what I’m getting at is a personal and thoughtful gift resonates and impacts us at a deeper level.

I had a student who recently gave me a handwritten note and a stuffed monkey for pastor appreciation month and that gift is one I will remember for a long time over a monetary gift. Why? Because it was the heart and thoughtfulness that meant so much to me.

The same is true for our leaders. When we make the gift personal and thoughtful it means so much more to our leaders. This isn’t an excuse to be cheap just to be cheap, nor am I saying that we need to break the bank. Instead, we need to find a balance within the confines of our budget to give a gift that is from the heart and is personal and thoughtful.

2. Practical.

This is another key element of our gift-giving. We want all of our gifts to be practical along with being personal and thoughtful. I’ll admit that this does get a little difficult the more leaders you have because what may be practical for some may not be practical for others.

When you’re thinking about a gift, ask yourself, “Is this practical and will our people use it?” When we’ve looked at gifts we have always thought about the usefulness and practicality because we want it to be a gift that our leaders would appreciate and could utilize in the their daily lives.

3. Edible.

This one is listed last, but if I had my way I’d list it first (mostly because I love food). This element is intentionally listed last because out of the three elements, this is the one that if the other two are met, isn’t vital to have. That isn’t to say don’t incorporate this element, but realize it doesn’t have to be the priority of the three.

When you provide an edible gift, it is imprtant to incorporate the other two elements of gift-giving. Is it a thoughtful gift and practical? Did you simply grab something from Costco or is it handmade? Did you attach a personal note? Is it something everyone can have (think about food allergies)?

Edible gifts are some of my favorite because it means someone knows me and most of us love food. So to provide something to your leaders that is edible is a great gift to bless them with.

At the end of the day, there’s no magic formula to gift-giving. These elements have served our ministry well and have helped us to truly bless our leaders. There may be times our gifts don’t hit the mark, but this method helps us to think through the gifts we are giving and how they will be received by the people who get them.

When you give gifts to your leaders, how do you make sure they are well-received and intentional?

Quick Tip: Remember Your Neighbors

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It is fairly easy for church staff to get focused on their ministry and church because it’s where they work, are involved, and the place that host the people they care for. But if we take a step back and look, we will see that there are other areas in our lives where we should also be invested. The place your spouse or family members work, your neighborhood, your friend group(s), or places and businesses you frequent are just a few of the areas you can and should have an impact in.

We have an opportunity, privilege, and a calling to reach people in all the spheres of which we are a part. Over the course of our marriage, Elise and I have seen these additional areas as opportunities to love and care for others in a variety of ways. When we lived in Iowa, we were able to help neighbors shovel their driveways or get their cars out of snow banks. We also were able to help people with moving when I had a pickup truck we could load up.

Living where we do now in Pennsylvania, we have been able to get to know our neighbors and community even better and God has blessed us with opportunities to care for them. One of our favorite ways to do that comes during the Christmas season. We bake for our neighbors (including the staff at our local pizza shop), deliver the baked goods, and visit with them. It’s looked different year to year. Some years we use pre-made cookie dough or cinnamon rolls, other years we make the cookies from scratch. We’ve delivered rice cereal treats, and this year we may add candied nuts as well. It has become a tradition we love because we get to show our community that they are loved and remembered.

The point of this post though isn’t just to do things at Christmas, but instead to help us all think about how we can care well for the communities of which we are a part. It doesn’t have to be extravagant or involve things that only “people with money” can do. These are simple moments we can utilize to love and care for people and can be as simple as helping someone move, clean up a yard, deliver cookies or a meal, or simply visit with neighbors. This season, and this coming year, let’s make sure to remember and care for our neighbors!

Quick Tip: Gingerbread Houses Remix

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We just had our leader Christmas party this past Saturday and it was a blast! We had wonderful food provided by families in our ministry, we spent a good amount of time in fellowship, we shared stories, and played games. One of the games we did this year was a gingerbread house decorating contest.

Now I’ll be honest: we have done gingerbread houses before for both our leaders and students, and here’s what I learned. It takes a lot of prep time, you need to buy a lot more items for decoration including icing, it takes up a lot of time, it’s messy, and it can be frustrating for different teams or individuals.

So when the idea was floated that we should do it again, I’ll admit, I was skeptical at best. But my teammate shared that she had an idea that would make this go over well and by way less difficult than before. And let me tell you, she was right! Our leaders had a blast doing it and their creativity, story telling, and humor was on full display.

Now I know you’re anxiously wondering what we did, so here it is. We did cardboard gingerbread houses. A quick search on Amazon will bring up a variety of styles, sizes, and purchase options for you to choose from. The ones in the link above came with some decor but we quickly realized it wasn’t enough, so we bought more items to go with them. We purchased pompoms, pipe cleaners, stickers, markers, tiny presents (ones for dollhouses), little trees, and fake snow.

We packed up the unmade houses and supplies into baggies for each team and gave them fifteen minutes to build their houses. We then allowed each team to present their house to the judges and the stories we got for each home were just as unique as each of the houses.

All told, we spent less than $150 for 12 houses and additional supplies. We probably could have spent even less if we had shopped for the supplies at a dollar store, but time was not on our side for that. This is a great alternative to spending lots of money on an activity that could get fairly messy and would require significant prep work. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a fun new, yet timeless, Christmas activity.

Resource: A Fun Christmas Party Activity

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This year at our Christmas Party we are bringing back an activity we took a risk on last year because it paid huge dividends. The activity: decorate your own Christmas t-shirt with the opportunity to win a prize for your small group.

Last year we went with Christmas hoodies but that proved to be cost prohibitive, so this year we switched to t-shirts. The excitement, expectation, and energy this competition created has blown us away, and so we want to share this with you as a resource you could incorporate into your Christmas parties.

The objective: Create a Christmas-themed t-shirt that will impress the judges and allow your team or small group to win the prize.

The rules: Teams or small groups must design and create a Christmas-themed t-shirt using only the elements on their table. They cannot bring in any outside elements. Teams may exchange items with the game host if there are additional items available. Teams will have a set time to create their shirt and when the time ends, a member of the team must be wearing it.

Penalties: Teams lose points for using outside items, not having the shirt on at the end of the build time, having items on the floor (trust us, your facility team will thank you), not listening, or whatever else you’d like there to be penalties for. The judges can choose how many points to deduct for each offense.

Judging: Each person wearing the t-shirt gets 30-60 seconds to present (think runway style) their group’s design and explain why they should win. Judges will confer and choose the team they think has won. Judges can use scorecards to rank the teams in different categories (most unique, most likely made by someone’s grandmom, most over the top, most annoying, etc.) on a scale from 1 to 5. Judges can deduct points throughout the competition for penalties.

Prizes: We decided last year to incorporate a prize that we could reuse each year that would allow students to have a lasting legacy at our Christmas parties. We found an inflatable snowman that we have the winning groups sign with markers. We bring it out each year for everyone to see past winners and for the new winners to sign.

Variants: We are incorporating a new element this year. Teams can win advantages by participating in two additional competitions. The first competition is a lookalike contest where they need to do their best to look like a member of our student ministry team. The winners of that competition receive a golden gift box of extra supplies that only their team can use. The other competition is the team who brings the most first time guests gets a time advantage.

Supplies: We use large or extra large t-shirts with a variety of decorations including bells, tinsel, ornaments, bottle brush trees, fairy lights, jingle bells, pipe cleaners, bows, ribbon, and any other fun dollar store or Amazon items. We also make sure to have glue guns and glue sticks to attach the items, and we found these for a good price on Amazon a year ago. Lastly, we got some multicolored fabric markers to allow teams to draw and write on their shirts. The key is utilizing fun elements that are inexpensive.

Tips for Hosting a Leader Christmas Party

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When this post drops, we are only a week and a half away from Thanksgiving, which means Christmas is just a little over a month away. For our ministry, Christmastime involves two big events: a Christmas party for our students and a Christmas party for our leaders.

I love both of these, but our leader party is by far my favorite because we get to do life with our leaders who are our friends and family. We get to celebrate what God has been doing, there’s good food, we give gifts to our leaders, there’s games and friendly competition, and time to celebrate the season together.

There’s a ton of work that we put into this to pull it off, but it is so worth it because it affirms and encourages our people, and it’s a special time to build into our community and show them how much they mean to us. However, that doesn’t mean that it needs to be a lot of work for you. Planning ahead, creating a memorable moment, and caring for your team are things you can do even without a budget or months of work. Today, I want to provide you with some key elements to consider implementing to make your leader Christmas gathering special and in doing so, help you plan ahead for a busy time of year.

Provide refreshments.

This could look a hundred different ways, but I would highly suggest having some type of refreshments at your Christmas party. This could be a full on meal, snacks, appetizers, or even a potluck. We have been asking students’ families to provide baked goods and appetizers for the past few years to resounding success.

We have simply put together a digital signup coupled with an email highlighting this past year and asking for supplies. This works best for us because it saves on finances and allows our leaders to see just how appreciative families are for the work and care they put into their students. You don’t need to incorporate our idea, but instead seek to implement whatever works for your ministry and your budget.

Incorporate what leaders enjoy.

This is a big part of making these moments special. If your leaders love to play games and compete, find ways to incorporate those types of activities. If they strongly dislike games, don’t play games or limit the amount of games to only one or two. I’ll be honest, we have found that our leaders enjoy more community than structured activities at our Christmas party, so we try to make our Christmas party more community-focused with time to fellowship, eat, and enjoy being together.

Share encouragements.

Encouragement is something I have striven to build into the schedule for our Christmas party because it helps leaders recognize their value and worth to our ministry and church. We highlight what we have seen God do in and through them. We look to highlight big God stories from throughout the year like baptisms, students following Jesus, students who have grown spiritually, and trips we have taken.

The reality is there can be hard moments in student ministry and it can be discouraging. Taking time to reflect and share encouraging stories and moments is so important to building up and showing your leaders the impact they are having.

Play together.

Earlier, I highlighted incorporating aspects that leaders enjoy and I mentioned that if they dislike games then don’t incorporate them. And you may read this point of “playing together” and question whether those two points are compatible together. And the answer is “yes.” Just because some leaders may not like games, that doesn’t mean you can’t play together; the two are not mutually exclusive.

You can incorporate activities that aren’t competitive or are more laid back like cookie decorating or gingerbread house building. You can play one game versus five. You can have fun by encouraging leaders to share stories from the past year that just made them laugh. Moments like these will help build the atmosphere and environment of celebration and fun into your Christmas party.

Build relationships.

This may sound like a no-brainer, but sometimes we need to be intentional in crafting opportunities to foster relationships among our people. This can be done in a variety of ways including how you set up seating, encouraging conversational moments, shaping the schedule to allow for intentional moments, and even stating that to your people. These times can be built in through a variety of means, but the key is making sure to do so. When you have these moments with your people it not only builds relationships at that specific time, but it also helps your team to draw together in ongoing ways and creates a stronger bond among your team.

Make the gathering special.

When it comes to moments like these where we are trying to bless and encourage our people, we need to make sure we are doing our best to make the gathering special. This can include how we decorate, bringing in environmental elements like cozy seating and decorations, having music playing, intentionally crafting a schedule that reflects the occasion, and giving gifts. These don’t need to be things that break the bank, but instead can be creative elements that bless your leaders and help them to know they are seen, loved, and valued.

Our Picks: A Christmas Resource

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You are probably reading this after Christmas, but we wanted to share with you a resource we have found incredibly beneficial and meaningful for students and ourselves. Our desire isn’t that you rush to buy this resource and accomplish it, but instead to recommend something you can utilize in years to come in your ministry and personal life.

This resource is the Advent Study Book by She Reads Truth. If you click on the link it will actually take you to a resource page that has all of their advent guides for this year listed. They have resources for men and women that are also applicable to students, resources for children, and both physical and digital options. And if you purchase a study book, they will send you even more resources through email.

We have written about She Reads Truth before and the devotional guides that they have. These guides are hugely beneficial for students and they have all different types of studies that can relate to different students and learning styles.

This is a great resource for Christmas and one that can be utilized in small groups, for individuals, or even as a guide for leading a large group study through advent. She Reads Truth sets up this study to be easily accessible and relatable to anyone who picks it up, and provides connections from Scripture to our daily lives. One of the ways this is helpful to students is highlighting the connectivity of the Old Testament to the New Testament. The story of Jesus that is featured in this study is a wonderful opportunity to highlight the redemptive plan of salvation that God has for humanity.

Another awesome aspect of this study is the intentionality it shows in highlighting rest and peace by incorporating “grace” days for each Sunday. These days are designed not to just be a break from doing devotions but to truly help us engage with sabbath rhythms and to rest in Christ. They are designed to help us rest in the goodness and wonder of God, and to take the time we would have spent engaging with the study to reflect on what God has been speaking to us over the past week.

She Reads Truth always includes fun extras in their studies, and these extras will vary from study to study. This one includes a very special cider recipe, some classic Christmas carols, tips for memorizing Scripture, prayers, an introduction to advent, and much more. This is a wonderful study for the advent season or even if you are doing a “Christmas in July” event.

Another thing that I love about the advent studies from She Reads Truth is that they stick around, and typically the prior years will go on sale during the current Christmas season. So if you’re on a tight budget or looking for something a little cheaper, you can purchase the prior year’s study and utilize it for your current setting. There are no dates in the actual study, but the front of the book will list the year it was made for. If you are willing to look past the year, these are awesome resources to pick up on the cheap in the new year.

Overall, this is an incredible resource and one of my favorite studies that She Reads Truth puts out. The intentionality and ability to draw people into the story of Jesus is amazing.

What resources have you found to be helpful and meaningful to your community during the advent season?

Last Minute Christmas Party Games

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It’s the week before Christmas and for some of us, that means taking a break from ministry for a week or two. But there are other ministries that keep going and may be meeting sometime this week for their Christmas party. If you are in the latter category and looking for some easy, quick, and little-prep games for your party, you’ve come to the right place.

Let’s face it: we’ve all had a moment where for whatever reason, our event and activities have been placed on the back burner. That’s not a reflection of you or your heart, but it sometimes happens. And right now you may feel pressed for time and wondering if you’ll even be able to pull this party off because you still need a great Christmas message and games may not be your thing. It happens, we’ve all been there or will be there. This post is meant to help you have a great Christmas party for your students, or maybe even show up at your staff party as the hero with fun activities, or give you something fun to do when all of the family is over during the holidays. So here are some quick and easy Christmas party game ideas.

An easy Christmas scavenger hunt.

We have written about scavenger hunts in the past where we have used Scavr. This is not what I am suggesting. That takes a lot of back end work and would completely bog down any prep time you have this week. Think of this in the classic “Bring Me” style game but instead of doing it one item at a time, it’s a scavenger hunt where students either have to physically collect items or take photos of them. It could also have various elements like “have a group take a video singing Christmas carols in front of a manger,” “take a group picture by Christmas lights,” or “have your group dress up as wise men.” Including elements that are within your church and relatable to your church will help make this game relatively easy and successful.

Charades or reverse charades.

Charades is always a fun group game to utilize where you have a group of people guessing the action of an individual. This can be played in head-to-head fashion with multiple teams competing against each other, or if you have a smaller group it can be played all together with your group guessing the actions of one individual at a time.

Another fun way to play this game is reversing the function of the game: the group will act out the action while one person or only a couple of people guess. This allows for your group to be a little more creative and to craft a scene. I would suggest giving your groups around 30-60 seconds to come up with a plan if you are doing reverse charades. The scenes that you are utilizing should be Christmas-focused and could be Christmas movies, winter/Christmas activities, Christmas carols, or Christmas stories.

Christmas Scattergories.

Scattergories is a great game regardless of the time of year. It can be utilized in a smaller group where individuals play against one another. Or larger groups can be broken into small groups competing together, or even as a head-to-head style game where competitors go back and forth on answering. Regardless of how you run this game, think about different categories you can use to make the game more Christmasy.

Here are a few ideas to get you going: Christmas movies, Christmas songs, Christmas food items, Christmas characters, stocking stuffers, Christmas activities, Christmas traditions, something at the North Pole, gifts, or Christmas decorations. This is a game that is sure to produce lots of laughs and some spirited debates. But as long as you can keep it moving and see that your crew is having fun, the longer you can lean on this game to help make your Christmas party a blast.

PowerPoint Games.

Download Youth Ministry has a bunch of PowerPoint games available on their website, and I’ll be honest with saying these have saved me in many circumstances. There are all different styles of games and they can be utilized in a variety of ways depending on your group size and dynamic. Most of these will need to be paid for, but they are totally worth it. My advice would be to purchase games that have a higher review rating and ones that will connect with your group.

Christmas tree or Christmas present decorating.

Now I know what you’re thinking: why would we have our students decorate a tree or wrap a present? But hear me out: what if the tree or present was a student or leader? Right?! Now you’ve given your group the challenge to decorate someone in the most festive way possible and this is easily accomplished by purchasing (or finding) some gift wrap, bows, tinsel, tape, and maybe a few other additional items.

Another fun piece to include if you’re going with the gift idea is to get some larger boxes to wrap your people up in. Let your group go crazy with how they decorate their people and then up the ante by having them walk a runway and have a teammate explain their creativity. Another quick tip: purchasing these items can be done in an inexpensive way by shopping at a dollar store or Walmart or in a pinch purchasing online on Amazon.

Theme Night Ideas: Christmas Parties

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“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!” It’s colder out, Starbucks has debuted their holiday drinks, radio stations are blasting their Christmas selections, and your hoodies and gloves are becoming a common clothing staple.

Don’t look outside thinking you’ve slept away the summer, it’s still July. But Christmas is fast approaching, it’s only 147 days away. Some of you may need to catch your breath because it feels like we just saw our seniors graduate and summer is only halfway over. But before we know it, Christmas will be here and we will be trying to formulate a plan for a Christmas party for our students, our leaders, and maybe even one at your home. So why not get a jump start on things and begin preparing now for Christmastime so you are better prepared when it comes along?

Today, I want to share some helpful tips and ideas for hosting a Christmas party either for your students or your leaders. My goal is to help you make it the best it can be and to help take some of the stress of planning everything off your plate. So what are some key elements that we’d encourage you to include?

Games.

Incorporating various games at a Christmas party is a great way in include excitement, fun, and engagement. Depending on your group dynamics your games may look different. With a smaller group you might want to make it more interactive and maybe include “all play” style games. Some games include the plastic wrap ball game, a Christmas themed “Find Me…” game, a Christmas carol rap competition, or a decorating game where students each have to decorate a person in a specific style.

If your group is larger you may need to look for games that are small group-styled PowerPoint games or ones that invite an individual or two up from each group. You can find a bunch of these games at DYM and many other ones you can utilize for any sized group.

Celebration.

Christmas parties should include an element of celebration and feel different from other youth group gatherings. This can be accomplished by having a themed party like ugly Christmas sweaters or dress up as your favorite Christmas movie character. It can be done through a hot chocolate and Christmas cookie bar, or through the decoration of your youth area.

These events should be celebratory and different so your students get excited about coming and want to bring their friends. That is also true for leaders. If you can add some festive elements and share a theme for the party, it turns a simple gathering into a really special day. Consider doing table decorations and centerpieces, having Christmas music, leveling up your food game, and community.

Stories.

For both student and leader Christmas parties, taking time to share stories of what God had done over the last year is a really cool way to celebrate God and to encourage those in your ministry. These stories should and will look different based on which party you’re hosting, but you could ask people to share how they’ve seen God move or to share their favorite memories from this year.

If you want to have things a little more polished and planned out for the student party, consider asking students to record a brief video sharing their stories that you can edit and show at the party. My encouragement for leaders would be to allow them to share live at the party whether in front of the whole group or at their tables.

Team competition.

One of the things I love to do at our student and leader Christmas parties is to have some sort of team or group competition. In years past we’ve done gingerbread house competitions and they have gone over very well. We broke students up by small groups and our leaders we divided by the table they sat at.

Depending on your group, and their propensity to follow or not follow rules, you can adjust the competition and rules accordingly. You could also do a karaoke-style competition or a group-style trivia game. There’s also Christmas Pictionary or charades. These are easy and fun opportunities to help the whole group participate in a game.

Gifts.

We always try to incorporate gifts into any Christmas party we do. We celebrate and bless our leaders by getting Christmas gifts for them as a way of saying thank you. Putting intentional thought and effort into getting a gift that your leaders will not only enjoy but also use is a great way to make Christmas parties special.

When it comes to our student parties, we do a white elephant gift exchange. We ask students to bring a new or gently used wrapped gift that is no more than $10 to utilize in our gift exchange. However, we know that some students may not be able to provide a gift or a friend may come to our party and didn’t realize they needed a gift. So we provide additional gifts for our students so everyone can leave with a gift at the end of the night. Typically we also tell our students that if they receive a gift they didn’t like they can swap out with one of the gifts we purchased which we make sure are things students will enjoy.

Worship.

Incorporating worship into Christmas parties is a great way to keep everyone focused on the true reason you are gathered together. Now before I go any further, I want to emphasize that I don’t simply mean music when I talk about worship. I mean holistic worship. So think about singing and music, reading and teaching the Christmas story or another passage of Scripture, prayer, and different responses. We don’t always sing Christmas carols at our parties but we do carve out time to talk about Jesus and why He is the reason we are gathering.

When it comes to our student parties we try to keep our lesson time to 15 minutes or less for two reasons: we know we have lots of first time guests who haven’t been to a church setting before and we will be giving them ample small group time to dig deeper into the Christmas story. For leaders, we love to read the Christmas story to remind all of us of how great God’s love is for us and then to spend time in prayer together. Sometimes we also sing Christmas carols together even if it’s a capella. Whatever way you choose to incorporate worship, it is an essential part of keeping the focus of Christmas parties on Christ.

Small group time.

Our student ministry is a discipleship-based program which means we allot ample time for our small groups each week (45–60 minutes). When it comes to events and theme nights, we know that these are highly relational and invitational. Because of that we know that extended small group time can feel awkward for our newcomers, which means we include small group time but only for around 30-35 minutes. That way groups can gather to talk through the reason for Christmas, to talk about their plans for the holiday, to do any gift exchanges for their small group, and to pray together.

For leader parties we take time to pray together at our tables during the party and to celebrate what God has done and to pray for any requests that we may have whether personal or focused on our students. This time of prayer and community is typically how we end our parties as it allows for us to engage in interpersonal relationships and be for one another.

What are some must-have elements for your Christmas parties?

How to Make Leader Parties Special

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This is typically the time of year that many of us are hosting parties of various kinds and undoubtedly will host a party for our leaders. Our leaders are amazing, and without them our ministries wouldn’t be able to happen. Regardless of our ministry budget, how many leaders we have, or even what our options may be, showing love and care is vital to help our leaders know that we value them.

Today, I want to share a few ways you can host a party for your leaders that is meaningful and special, even if resources are not ideal. The ideas below are low- to no-cost and meant to hopefully provide a spark of creativity and insight as you seek to encourage your leaders.

Utilize families.

One of the blessings of student ministry is that we get to partner with families. We are able to walk with, encourage, and be for our families in all moments. Families see this and most are aware of how important our leaders are because they see the evidence in the lives of their students. So consider asking families to help with putting on a leader party.

You may have a couple of parents or families who love to host and put together parties who will run the whole thing for you. Or there may be a family who would love to offer their home as a place for you to gather offsite that feels more special and intimate. You can also create a Sign Up Genius form where families could sign up to bring food for either a meal or a dessert buffet. Another fun and really special idea would be asking families to bless their student’s small group leader with a gift, a meal, or card shower to make your leader party even more special. Imagine if you could give each leader a special gift from the families in the church and consider how seen, loved, and known they will feel.

Utilize students.

What if you encouraged your students to bless your leaders whenever you have a party for them? If you have a Christmas party for your leaders, have your students write Christmas cards or bake for them. Maybe even have your students bring a gift for their leaders. Even a small card or gift will do wonderful things in encouraging your leaders. If it’s an “end of the year” party, maybe have your students gather around their leaders and pray over them.

Any time you have a gathering for leaders, you could have students write thank you notes to them. A handwritten note acknowledging what you thought no one saw or understood brings such a sense of joy, peace, and accomplishment. You could also have your students be the hosts and waiters at your parties if applicable. Having students bring out the food and serve leaders or even greet them and say thank you is a really fun way to encourage leaders. These are a few ways you could utilize your students to make your leader parties special and meaningful.

Have food and drinks.

Refreshments don’t need to be extravagant or expensive. You could make a quick and tasty punch from items found at Aldi or Dollar Tree with orange juice, cranberry juice, ginger ale, and sherbet, and you wouldn’t break the bank. Tasty snacks can also be purchased at these stores and by putting them in a bowl or on a platter, you have made the gathering a lot more inviting and intentional.

If purchasing items is off the table (food pun intended), consider making the gathering a potluck and create a theme to make it more fun. Do a baked potato bar and have everyone bring their favorite toppings. Host a brunch and ask everyone to bring their favorite breakfast dish to share.

Provide a gift.

This can be a tough thing to do depending on your budget, but even small gifts mean a lot. You could find things on Etsy or at places like 5 Below that may not cost a lot but can be meaningful or funny or relatable to your team. You may not be able to purchase gifts, but you may be able to make something special for your leaders. I love to make candles as a hobby, and I have a ton of supplies at home where I could make a votive for each leader with minimal cost. Elise is a gifted artist, and loves to create all types of things that leaders would love.

For those type of things to be able to happen, you need to be thinking intentionally before the party because otherwise you will be stressed for time and it may not happen. Even a nice handwritten card encouraging your leaders and speaking about the ways you have seen them step up would be a wonderful gift to receive as everyone loves encouragement and a handwritten card. Often times the smallest gifts are the most meaningful because they show thoughtfulness and intentionality.

Take time to encourage them.

I try to be very intentional about encouragement because our leaders need to know how important they are and how thankful we are for them. Student ministry is hard! And there are times we may want to quit, and we are paid. Think about our volunteers who show up and probably don’t see much return on their investments, and yet they keep coming back and taking more and more upon their shoulders. They are awesome individuals, and taking the time to recognize them and encourage them is not only welcomed but I would assert it is necessary. So at your gatherings carve out time to intentionally speak into their lives, to highlight God moments you have seen, to laugh with them, and to honor them. Don’t throw it at the back end of a meeting but be intentional with where it is placed to show your leaders how important and valuable they are.

Shape the environment.

This is super important and should not be something we push to the side or forget about. I know for many of us, we have less than ideal locations for hosting a party. Perhaps you have a small church where the options are slim-to-none for hosting, except for the gym/Awana Room/fellowship hall/storage area. Maybe you are a church that is all multi-purpose so you don’t have a space to call your own and shape fully to your desire. Or maybe you are a church plant and you don’t even have a space because you rent a building only on Sundays.

I get it, shaping the environment can be hard sometimes, but I don’t think that should cause us to not try. Wherever you end up hosting, whether the Awana Room, your youth room, or at your own home, look to shape the environment to make it warm, welcoming, festive, and fun. Think about playing music for the party. If it’s Christmastime, play Christmas music. If it’s an “end of year” celebration, play throwback tunes for your leaders. Think about decorations. Are there ways you could make the time together feel special? Add tablecloths to the old wooden tables, hang Christmas lights or put up a Christmas tree, or rearrange the furniture to make it feel more welcoming or like a living room space. These things, while they may seem small, show intentionality and communicate that your leaders matter. So don’t think about what you don’t have, consider what you can do to make the setting special for your people.