Creating outreaches that kids will love has never been the problem. But finding volunteers to pull it off is another story. So what kinds of summer activities make recruiting the right workers easier? Not every activity needs to require a lot of manpower to plan or pull off. Tours and road trips are my favorite style of low-prep activities that both kids and adults love.

Some parents may work at places that would be very cool for a kid to go see. These may not tap the same volunteer base either because approved parents who may not regularly volunteer can drive and chaperone. Here are some ideas of tours kids may enjoy.

• Dairy farm
• Chocolate factory
• 911 call center
• Fire station
• Old (empty) jail
• Air Force base
• Art studio
• Print shop
• Historic sites
• War monuments

An easy way to help manage these kinds of events is to divide up the responsibilities in the following way.

1. Transportation Coordinator: Make sure approved drivers have confirmed to be on-site to pick up the kids and take them to the tour location.

    

2. Color Identifier Coordinator: If your group is going to a very public place or is fairly large, you may want to consider matching hats, lanyards, or T-shirts to help adult workers easily identify group members.

    

3. Lunch Coordinator: Ask one parent to coordinate lunches for all the children and parents. This could be done by making bagged lunches in advance, or getting a deal at the local restaurant and collecting the money in advance for all the kids. By calling a restaurant ahead of time, meals can be ready when you arrive and reduce the amount of wait time.

    

4. Chaperone Coordinator: Recruit someone to make contact with approved parents who can accompany the children on the tour. These adults may also double as drivers or other coordinators.

    

5. Paperwork Coordinator: Select one person to make sure all parental forms required by your church and/or insurance company have been received and are filled out appropriately. This person may not even need to go on the trip; they just need to be the point person to collect and verify that all needed paperwork is completed.

    

6. Event Coordinator: To really make the job of the children’s pastor a dream, find a team leader who will coordinate all of the logistics, team members, and promotion of the tour.

Utilizing local tours and a structure of volunteers may make this one of the most enjoyable events you do all summer. When the planning is simple and the team is strong, it will allow the leader to focus on building relationships and investing spiritually.

What field trips for your children’s ministry have been particularly successful?