1. connecting with God
How to run an Evangelistic Holiday Club
By its broadest definition, an evangelistic holiday club is an event (hopefully fun and action packed!) held within the
school holidays that allows you to share the Gospel of Jesus with children and young people. Beyond this; the size,
duration, activities and teaching can be tailored to your individual circumstances.
First things first...
Prayer This is the first place to start the planning and preparation of your evangelistic holiday club. Incorporate this
into the very heart of your planning and during each day of the holiday club itself. Consider putting together a prayer
diary or prayer room during the holiday club for those who are not directly involved. Remember that ‘Unless the Lord
builds the house, those who build it labour in vain’ Psalm 127:1.
‘Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail’
It is an old cliché, but so true when planning an event of this nature. A large part of the smoothness of the week and
the enjoyment of the kids and volunteers rests on good planning. Planning such an evangelistic holiday club can be
daunting, so you might consider gathering a couple of people to help you coordinate the planning and delivery of the
event.
The Aim Before launching into the planning and delivery of a holiday club, it is essential to begin your preparation by
asking what it is you are seeking to achieve. Is it a one-off event or will it be followed up with a weekly club during
the rest of the year? Are you intending to make new contacts in your community or building on existing ones? By
answering these key questions will influence the content of your club and how it is run as well as helping you to plan,
evaluate and follow-up your holiday club.
The Basics Decide Who the holiday club is aimed at: Pre-School, Primary or Secondary aged kids? If you have the
resources, go for the whole lot! When will the holiday club take place? Setting the date well in advance enables ample
time to pray, recruit volunteers who might need to book annual leave and promote the event. Where will the event be
held: in your Church, on the local housing estate, in a local community centre? How long will it run for?
The Team Recruiting leaders is imperative in making your holiday club happen. Start this process as soon as possible
as this alone can be an arduous task. All volunteers will need to have a CRB check if that haven’t already had one
for your own Church. Consider asking people who are not usually involved in your children/youth programme. It is
worth noting down people’s gifting and interest when they sign up, this will help later on when delegating roles and
responsibilities.
The Teaching An evangelistic holiday club will have a time where the Bible is explained through storytelling, drama etc.
Choose your passage, story or theme (Parables of Jesus, the ‘I Am’s’ of Jesus or the Salvation story are good ones) and
plan fun ways of teaching your children/youth. It is worth doing any up-front teaching in the middle of the day as
this allows leaders the chance to follow up on any questions the kids may have afterwards.
The Activities It may sound obvious but, when planning your activities, think of things the children and young people
will like to do. This can stem from football to a trip to a local beach. Think as creatively as you can using the space and
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2. team you have. It is great if you are able to reinforce your teaching through the activities of drama, craft, cooking,
and games. You might want to delegate the planning of activities to other people/teams so that you have a specific
person(s) leading craft, cooking etc.
The Training Volunteers need to know what is expected of them during the holiday club. Arrange a training day to go
through the programme, any policies you may have (child protection, health and safety) as well as practical pointers
on handling difficult behaviour and starting evangelistic conversations with kids and parents. If you choose to put
people into activity teams i.e. sport, arts & craft, etc. then take the opportunity to do it here. Everyone should leave the
training day knowing what they are doing and what is expected of them.
Some Tips...
If you have not run an evangelistic event before, it can be hard to imagine what the actual event will look like. There are
some tips to help you plan your event. Resources may mean you are not able to achieve all of these things so please
adapt and adjust to your own specific situation. This is meant to kick-start your own ideas.
Seperation It does prove beneficial to separate children into older (Secondary) and younger (Primary) groups. This
means that activities and talks can be targeted to specific age groups and is likely to reduce the big kids dominating
activities. It might be that you have Primary children upstairs and Secondary children downstairs or Primary children
on-site and Secondary children off-site. Also, you may want to consider separating boys and girls. This will depend on
resources but may be worthwhile, especially if working with Muslim children.
Daily Timetable Having a set timetable of the day helps everyone know what is happening and when. Consider
something like the one below:
9:15-10:00 Prayer, Praise & Planning
10:00-10:30 Activity team meetings and Set-up
10:30-12:00 Activities (E.g. Sport, Cooking, Singing & Dance)
12:00-12:30 Bible Talk
12:30-1:30 Lunch for volunteers
1:30-2:00 Activity team meetings and Set-up
2:00-4:00 Activities (Sport, Craft, Workshops)
4:00-4:30 Pack away
4:30-5:00 Debrief & Prayer
Show Some Love Be under no illusions as to just how rewarding yet tiring an evangelistic holiday club can be for those
volunteering. Make sure you show volunteers how appreciated they are. Kind words, a nice lunch, good cake and an
ice pop go a long way when volunteers are tired or have had a frazzled session.
Jenny Bollans, The Good Shepherd Mission, Youth Worker.
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