Summer 2018 will be here before you know it. We are working hard to prepare for CentriKid 2018, and today I’ve got a sneak peek at what your kids will experience when you bring your kids to camp.
For us, everything begins with developing the spiritual direction at camp. It is the very first project we begin for the summer, and we start working on the scriptural content almost two years before kids actually experience it at camp. This summer at CentriKid Camps, we will be learning about God’s design for us and who we are in Christ. We will learn how we are His workmanship and how we are created in His image. God’s blueprint shows us that we are truly loved, completely forgiven, and prepared for a purpose to share the gospel.
The key verse this summer is Ephesians 2:10. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.” I’m confident that this verse will give our camp staff and the adults from your church many opportunities to have intentional, gospel-centered conversations with campers.
The video series will have a new episode during each night of Worship, and while I can’t spoil all the surprises, I want to give you an idea of what to get excited about! During the video series, we’ll be following a group of kids who have been specially designed by God with different talents and gifts. Through some epic design competitions, these kids (and your campers) will be learning how they are made in the image of God and how they can use their gifts. 
Also at camp this summer, we are making a change to the afternoon schedule. We are moving from three Track Times to two, to allow campers more time to focus in on the activities in their chosen Tracks! We are also adding some new Track Time options! Be on the lookout for Track Time cards to be posted on CentriKid.com on the specific Location Pages by March 2018.
Many of you are already promoting camp dates to your families and some are getting ready to, so we have the “2018 Chaos Kit” coming your way to help with generating excitement for CentriKid. The Chaos Kit includes visual aids, promotion materials, and a special edition “Blueprint OMC” game that you can play at church to get kids moving and thinking about camp.
We look forward to serving churches with camp next summer, so if you have not reserved your spaces for CentriKid yet, call 1-877-CAMP-123 or go online to www.centrikid.com to find a date that works for your group. Contact our team anytime by email at centrikid@lifeway.com with logistical questions, parent questions, or anything else that we can help you with.
Jeremy Echols leads the CentriKid Camps team and manages the LifeWay Kids events. He, his wife Emily, and their precious daughter love their church, their neighborhood, and spending time together. Jeremy loves to read, watch sports, and grill burgers.
VBS is a milestone event in a kids life. We also know from research, that VBS is the #1 evangelistic outreach tool in churches today. Anyone that has helped to lead, plan, and execute a VBS event knows that there is a ton of work involved to pull it off. With all of that work, it’s extremely easy to get caught up in the details, to put more emphasis on the things that have a tendency to distract us from the main goal of introducing kids to life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ. So how can we maintain a level of excellence in our execution of VBS, while keeping evangelism at the center of what we do? In this episode, Melita Thomas, a member of our VBS team, joins us to talk about this delicate balance.
