Bible Camp is a big deal! Your youngest parishioners will be gathered together – having fun, making friends, and learning about God’s Word and the meaning of our Catholic faith. It’s an event that can have a lasting impact in young people’s lives, and you want it to be perfect. So let’s think about this…
Are you using all the church management tools at your disposal to make this year’s Bible Camp your parish’s best ever?
With more than 20 years of experience in helping parishes bring the best of technology to their most important ministries, ParishSoft can share four essential church management resources that you can put to work for this year’s Bible Camp.
- Volunteer Management:
Summer kids’ programs like Bible Camp are powered by your hardworking volunteers, and you can make their lives easier and their service more rewarding with church management tools.
The right volunteer management platform lets you keep track of which volunteers have signed up for specific camps and individual responsibilities like sign-in, snacks, crafts, music, first aid, and other tasks. You can set automatic alerts for your individual volunteers, so they’ll remember where they need to be and when. The more valued and efficient your volunteer team feels, the more successful your Bible Camp will be.
- Communications:
Parish families will be busy this summer with lots of trips, sports, and camps – including Bible Camp. So you’ll need to keep them in the loop about your Bible Camp registration, location, and schedules. Be ready to reach out through multiple channels like email and text, depending on families’ preferences.
A popular ParishSOFT feature is ParishCast, which is perfect for communications large and small. You can send church-wide mass messages to your entire congregation about Bible Camp, so parents can sign their kids up and others can share the news with friends and family. Once people sign up, you can create a specific group of participants for messages, such as day-before reminders or last-minute, day-of updates. This will keep your communications targeted and effective.
- Your Parish Website:
This is where lots of people will be looking to find out what your Bible Camp will be like, when it’s happening, and how to sign up. And when you send out your parish-wide emails about Bible Camp, or if you’re talking to individual parishioners about how their families can take part, you’ll want to be able to direct them to your website for information and for registration forms.
So make sure your website is up-to-date; it’s best to have a page dedicated to Bible Camp. And ParishSoft makes it easy for your team to create it (and you can then share the link on your social media channels and via email). It’s also important for your site to be mobile-friendly, since so many people browse the web from their phones.
- Live Streaming:
Even as restrictions are lifted, there will still be families in your church who are not ready for their kids to go full blast back into big groups. Some children are more vulnerable, or they may live in close proximity to an older family member who must take precautions – there are still so many variables where COVID is concerned. (And of course, after two years of limited travel, many of your parish families have big trips planned this summer and may be out of town during Bible Camp.)
Live streaming programs like Bible Camp is a way to keep kids connected, no matter where they are. The children who are attending in person would NOT be on camera, of course – you’ll keep the focus on adult leaders who are instructing a Bible lesson or demonstrating a craft. And access to live stream videos can be password protected or controlled by a staff member for security. ParishSoft partners with ChurchStreaming.tv for live streaming capabilities; it’s a safe, fun way to let kids be part of your Bible Camp, even if they can’t attend in person.
Ready to make your summer Bible Camp the most awesome ever? ParishSoft is ready to help! Let our team share how our software solutions can help you lead your most important ministries; you can request a free demo here!
