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Kids Ministry

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Connecting the Gospel with Activities (Training from CentriKid)

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At CentriKid, we share the gospel with kids by connecting spiritual applications with many of the activities throughout the camp day.

We have a training session for connecting the gospel to every activity with kids. This is a page from our playbook that is available for you to lead your ministry as a more gospel centered kids ministry.

Download the free Training Plan that includes a guide for the session, links to the handout for participants, & training videos you can use as part of the session.

For your kids ministry or for parents in your ministry, here are some great additional resources:

We know the importance of clearly sharing the message of Christ to kids and camp gives many opportunities to connect God’s Word to camp activities. My prayer is that this training will give you confidence in connecting every activity to the gospel. 

With this training session, we are opening up the playbook and equipping kids ministry leaders to train their volunteers with the same materials and plan that we use to train CentriKid staffers. Thousands of adult leaders experienced this training session at camp in 2019 and we hope this resource is valuable for many more to be trained in connecting the gospel to every activity with kids.

Jeremy Echols leads the CentriKid Camps team. 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.

CentriKid

Celebrate CentriKid 2019 Ministry Results!

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We are grateful for another summer to share the gospel of Jesus at CentriKid Camps. Through incredible times of Worship, small group Bible Study, hands-on track times, recreation with a purpose, and more, we saw thousands of lives changed by God through our theme, “All Access.”

We are excited to officially announce our 2019 CentriKid Camps Ministry Results!

Lydia McMillan works on the CentriKid Camps team. She manages social media, produces videos, works with actors, and leads production elements. She is married to Joshua and they have three kiddos who keep them very busy.

CentriKid, Podcasts, StudentLife for Kids

Make Camp a Highlight of Your Summer

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Jeremy Echols joins Bill Emeott to discuss why camp can be a summer highlight of any kids ministry. Check out more at kidsministry101.com!

Jeremy Echols leads the CentriKid Camps and Student Life for Kids teams. 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.

CentriKid, Events, Kids Ministry, Leadership, Podcasts, Resources

5 Great Tips for a Great Camp

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JE

Here at LifeWay Kids, we consider the camp experience to be a mile-marker event in the life of a kid! We love camp at LifeWay Kids and if you are looking for a life-changing experience for your own kids, we strongly consider you check out CentriKid Camps. But whether you do your own camp, or come to ours, we want to give you five things you should do to make it a great experience for your kids and leaders.

In this podcast episode, Jeremy Echols, who leads the @CentriKid team, unpacks these 5 great tips for a great camp:

  1. Secure The Date
  2. Prepare in Advance
  3. Go All In When You Are At Camp
  4. Seek Out Intentional Conversations
  5. Follow Up

JE (@coachechols) leads the @centrikid camps team for LifeWay Kids. He met his wife Emily working summer camp, they serve in the kids area on Sunday’s at church, and they are blessed with their daughter #BabyMadison who was born in 2011.

CentriKid, Leadership

Utilizing Millennials to Make the Greatest Impact on Kids

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rp_Jeremy-Echols-BW.jpg“Frustrating” “Fleeting” “Tech-addicted” “Entitled” You’ve probably heard these words when describing millennials. But what about  “Creative” “Flexible” “Passionate” “Teachable”? Those words are at the heart of how God can use millennials and college students when they are well-led.

In this podcast, we get to talk to Jeremy Echols. He leads 30,000 people every summer. Well, not directly. That’s the point of this podcast. Jeremy directly leads a team of over 200 millennials to pull off one of the world’s largest camp organizations, CentriKid. You’ve got to hear these tips on utilizing this amazing generation of leaders. They are good, trust me. Here’s what you’ll get today.

  • A summary of work that goes into CentriKid,
  • Tips for tapping into the heart of millennials, including modeling and hands-on training.
  • Creating a culture of service in order to lead college students to do what they do naturally.

Are you utilizing millennials well? Here’s some bonus material for you that we highly recommend.

Jeremy Echols (@coachechols) leads the @centrikid team, finds new camp locations, plans training, and lots of other projects. He met his wife Emily working camp, and their daughter #BabyMadison was born in 2011.

CentriKid, Events, Fun, Games, Kids Ministry

Three Lessons I Learned at Kids Camp

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Jeff Land-150x150This year I was blessed to be able to serve as camp pastor for CentriKid camps at Austin College in Sherman, TX. It was a fantastic experience. One Sunday afternoon, I loaded my family up in our rented minivan (along with one of our “mannies”) and we headed on the long drive. When we arrived in Texas we were greeted by the most awesome staffers and had the most wonderful time for two sessions of camp.

Being at camp for a couple of weeks taught me several things and I want to share those with you today:

  • The Gospel Matters, Even at Camp
    •  There are some who might say that kids should come to camp and have fun. Some might say kids just need to get away from life, and therefore,  come to camp. One of the things that I was most impressed with at CentriKid was the focus on the Gospel. The kids were constantly busy and constantly having fun, but regardless of the activity, it always came back to Jesus. Through OMC, Weird Science, even Build It, kids were constantly being told about our Father and His precious Son, Jesus.
  • Seeing Your Ministry Multiply Is AMAZING 
    • Serving with Team CK6 was extra special for me, because I had the privilege of serving alongside one of my former kiddos, Kelsie. I got to see her as she taught kids, loved on the kids, and built relationships. It’s easy to get into the “does what I do matter?” rut; however, God has a way of always nudging us along and allowing us to see through His eyes. As a KidMin leader, your impact on the world is immeasurable.
  • CENTRIKID Is the Best Camp Ever 
    • As a kids minister, I took kids to CentriKid and was always amazed at how great of a camp it was. I was totally interested in learning about the “other side” of the camp. For months now, I have been on a CentriKid 6 Facebook group where the group got to know each other even before camp. While there, I was amazed at how “gelled” this group was. They loved each other, they prayed for each other, and they were constantly encouraging me and each other. I’ve said many times, I don’t know why anyone would not do CentriKid camp, and after having served on CK staff, I can promise you, it is legit. In my opinion, there is not a more Gospel-centric and kid-focused camp in existence. I so hope that I get to return to camp next year and am thrilled that my oldest son will be old enough to go to camp next year with our church.

Jeff Land loves life! That’s pretty great, because his job here at LifeWay is the Team Leader for Bible Studies for Life: Kids. Jeff loves his life which is so blessed by his amazing wife, Abbey, and their four sons, Reed, Nash, Will, and Tuck. A natural encourager and fun-lover, look for Jeff’s posts about teacher appreciation and game ideas. When not serving at work, Jeff serves 2nd graders at his church, First Baptist Church, Joelton, TN.

CentriKid, Fun, Games

14 Little Known Facts About CentriKid

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JEblogmugshotCentriKid Camps provides a week-long camp experience for 3rd-6th graders every summer. Here are 14 fun facts you may not have known about CentriKid.

1. CentriKid traces its history back through 2 different camp programs – Centrifuge the original LifeWay camp for students and Crosspoint the sports camp for kids and preteens that preceded CentriKid.
2. We once had a mascot that was a remote-controlled mini-cooper car.
3. Campers have given over a million dollars to mission projects at IMB and NAMB through CentriKid.
4. There’s a 4 year plan for the spiritual direction at camp. This way, we cover different aspects of God and our relationship with him year to year.
5. We’ve had 2 different logos in our history….the current one, and the one with the dash.
6. There have been 2 official OMC t-shirt backs…but dozens of proposed changes and designs left on the drawing board.
7. Originally, OMC shirts were only for staffers, and they were just random colors not associated with their Bible study groups.
8. The first year OMC shirts were sold in the camp store was 2008, the only color for sale was green.
9. Pink, purple, and camo were rejected colors of OMC shirts for the camp store in 2009. We went with red.
10. Cooper the Kangaroo had a fun back-story, even though he’s never made an appearance in camp programming.
11. With the new (current) logo, we dropped the dash from the official spelling of CentriKid.
12. CentriKid has never officially capitalized the “KID,” but early on a lot of people wrote it that way because of the LifeWay product TeamKID.
13. OMC was not a part of the very first years of CentriKid.
14. OMC evolved from a game called “Grab Bag Adventure” that involved cutting strips of paper with individual tasks typed on them and putting them in brown paper sacks.

We are excited about what the future holds for CentriKid. For 2015, FIT – Faith in Training, campers will learn about the spiritual practices that help them grow in their faith. Check out more info about the 2015 camp theme at the CentriKid blog.

JE (@coachechols) leads the @centrikid camps and events team for LifeWay Kids. He met his wife Emily working summer camp, they serve in the kids area on Sundays at church, and they are blessed with their daughter #BabyMadison who was born in 2011.

CentriKid, Encouragement, Kids Ministry

CentriKid: God at Work in Summer 2014

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JEblogmugshotThis summer at CentriKid was an incredible time of ministry. It has been awesome to see kids worshipping and hear how God has been at work in their hearts and minds. We love that campers learned about big truths from Scripture about how we are rescued from captivity, reconciled to God through Jesus, and restored for a purpose. Here are some stories of how God was at work.

  • A church leader in Kentucky was chatting with one of his adult sponsors who attended camp that was really tired and questioning why he came. That adult sponsor picked up a coke bottle with the name of one of the campers in their group, and later that week had the opportunity to lead that child to Christ. The church leader thanked me for helping create an environment at camp where God can move in the hearts of kids.
  • A church financial secretary called to get details about how to contribute to the missions offering after camp. The kids from their church in Georgia got home and continued to talk and pray about the IMB missions project, One Cup of Water. She said they collected another $150 to help repair water wells in India because the kids cared so much about what they heard at camp.
  • A staffer, who spent 3 summers serving with CentriKid Camps, shared about the impact camp had on her life. She gave her life to Christ as a child while attending CentriKid. She never felt called to serve in full-time kids ministry, but she wants volunteering and serving in kids ministry to always be a part of her life. This summer while teaching the kids about God’s purpose for each of us, she was challenged to use her degree in Political Science in a way that best honors God and serves him. She expressed how CentriKid had a huge impact on her life.

We are blessed to serve in ministry that affects so many children. The work of the Lord is sometimes unseen, but I’m thankful for these instances this summer where God’s hand was clearly evident. Thanks to all who attended camp this year at CentriKid. We look forward to the opportunity to serve your church at camp next summer!

Jeremy Echols (@coachechols) leads the @centrikid team, finds new camp locations, plans training, and lots of other projects. He met his wife Emily working camp, and their daughter #BabyMadison was born in 2011.

Leadership, Resources

10 Reasons Your Church Should Do Overnight Camp

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JECentriKid overnight camps can have a significant impact in the lives of kids, adults, and even the staff who serve there. If your church doesn’t do camp at all, this can help you better understand that camp can be an important part of your summer ministry. If you’re a kids minister that’s planning camp or trying to get kids at your church signed up, these ten reasons can help you with explaining to kids — and to their parents — why they should consider going to camp.

1. Get away.

At camp, kids get out of the normal day to day routines they have. It’s healthy to change it up sometimes. Take advantage of the retreat aspect of camp. Sometimes when kids are away, kids just tend to hear things in a new way.

2. Remove distractions.

Are the cell phones, video games, homework assignments, sports team commitments making it tough to connect with kids in your ministry? At overnight camp, there’s usually not a setting for any of these things so those distractions are removed.

3. Deep engagement.

At an overnight camp you can visit over meals, walk and talk around campus, have late night chats. There are many rich opportunities to spend quality time with kids in your ministry.

4. Unique opportunities.

You can do things at camp that you just can’t do at home or at church. It isn’t often that you can get away with smearing shaving cream on adults or smashing water balloons on strangers, but camp is the place where these are normal, acceptable behavior. Because of these unique opportunities at overnight camp, you can break down barriers to relationships with kids in your ministry.

5. Fast friends.

Camp is a setting where you can build deep relationships in a short time. The fact that nobody has home-court advantage means we are all thrown into this together and have to “make it” together even if the food isn’t my favorite or the activities aren’t your strong-suit.

6. Childhood memories.

Many of us have meaningful, lasting memories from going to camps as a kid. Kids will be making memories this summer, so let’s make some of the best memories in the context of having fun with friends and talking about the things of God.

7. Learn something new.

Nobody is a “pro” at all the things you can do at camp so its a great time to get out and try something new. The environment of camp is a safe place to attempt and fail, attempt and fail, and ultimately succeed.

8. Leave your comfort zone.

Nobody that I know lives at home all the time in a bunk-house with 18 people. Nobody gets up each day and goes through a day like camp, so there are lots of things about it that push kids (and adults) out of their comfort zones. This is healthy growth for kids and can lead to great ministry opportunities.

9. Disconnect from media.

Too many kids are “connected” all the time to video games, phones and all the trappings of modern media. Use the overnight camp environment to give kids a taste of being unconnected from media. Looking at things from the “unconnected” perspective could have profound impact on how kids (and adults) approach things when they return home.

10. Learn spiritual truths.

In the week of camp, kids will learn from the adults from their church and from the camp staff.  Make no mistake, they are learning and forming associations with spiritual truths even when we aren’t in a “teaching time.” They’ll learn by the things we say, the attitudes we display, and by the way we model our own spiritual lives in front of them.

Overnight camp is such a cool experience because of the quantity and quality of the time it provides. We know that meaningful spiritual decisions and lasting relationships can form at camp, so we are hoping to see you at camp this summer.

There are many more reasons your church may want to go to overnight camp, so what other things would you add to this list? Connect with me on Twitter (@coachechols) or on Facebook, or leave a comment below.

Jeremy Echols (@coachechols) leads the @centrikid team, finds new camp locations, plans training, and lots of other projects. He met his wife Emily working camp, and their daughter #BabyMadison was born in 2011.  

Networking

Camp… the Other BIG week!

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Two weeks ago we road into town on a horse (VBS) and we “rounded up questions and drove home answers.” (It was so much fun!) This week I traveled down to Clinton, MS to experience the other big week of the summer… CAMP!

I was privileged to spend part of the week at CentriKID, LifeWay’s incredible camp for kids, 3rd-6th grade. This is the 10th year of CentriKID camps (hard to believe) and this is, by far, the best year yet! The “KID” team has worked hard this year to prepare the best camp to which you can bring your children. Here’s a picture of the Opening Celebration:

CK3.jpg

As a children’s minister (before CentriKID camp) I spent hours and hours (perhaps weeks and months) preparing for camp. I was responsible for everything… securing and dealing with the camp facilities, finding a camp pastor (or being the camp pastor) finding a worship band (again… or being the worship band), developing the Biblical content, recruiting volunteers as chaperones and small group leaders, deciding on what crafts we would do (and recreation, and other special interest activities) and then purchasing/collecting all the supplies for those activities, designing and purchasing the camp t-shirt, and on and on and on…

Then it happened… a fellow Children’s Minister (Susie Webb) encouraged me to try LifeWay’s new camp for Kids, CentriKID. Reluctantly (what will I do all spring if I don’t do my own camp…) I said yes and signed my group up for the CentriKID 2000. I got to CentriKID and instantly FELL IN LOVE.  I remember asking myself, “Where has this been all my life?” It was, and still is… GREAT!

I share my story to encourage you with yours.  I talk to hundreds of Kids Ministers who are where I was in the late 90’s, slaving over a week that I had even begun to dread. I just couldn’t keep up the level that was beginning to be expected. I’m so glad I found CentriKID and so glad that they do such a great job at making sure it’s a GREAT experience for the kids and the adults.  It’s a blessing!

Bottom Line:  Try CentriKID.  Contact my friend Jeremy Echols (Jeremy.echols@lifeway.com) about coming to visit camp this summer. I promise you… you won’t be disappointed.

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