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| | | Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 12/3/2007 7:33:02 PM
Posts: 4, Visits: 14 |
| Hi all.
I am in charge of planning this event at our church and would just like to share a few of my ideas with everyone.
It's going great so far. I have all my directors in place who are just as excited about doing this as I am. Which really helps. We are not a big church so we are asking the entire church to coem on board and help out and so far the response has been great from all. We were a little skeptical of the cost, especially when we realized all the items we would have to purchase from group but our Pastor is really committed to community outreach and feels that every penny spent will be well worth it. And we are finding ways to cut costs in other areas so that the overall cost won't be so much.
We chose to only go with 8 of the marketplace booth's - cost and room. We are looking fo soem animals in our area that we can use for the night.
One of our biggest concerns is how many guests will come. We are hoping for quite a lot. But then we have to figure out how long to hold the event for as well. The kit suggests for only like 2 or 3 hours but in my opinion that just isn't long enough. We would also like to be able to send each family thourgh 1 at a time so the experience is more personal but I think if the crowd gets too big we'll have to send them through in groups. The biggest thing we are doing that I would like to share with you is at the end of the walk through. We have it set up so that the last place our guests come to will be our sanctuary where they will be greeted by a member of our congregation who will sit with themfor a few moments and share with them how Jesus has changed their lives. They will then see a video including the song "Mary did you know". Right after that our pastor will speak to them for a few moments about accepting Jesus as their savior and will then give them the opportunity to come to the altar as a family and accept Him into their lives. This is, I think, the most important part of what we are doing. In our area there are a lot of lost people who will need this opportunity. That is also who we will be targeting in our publicity. Everyone who comes will be welcome of course but we are going to concentrate on the ones who need us the most.
that alone is well worth the cost of it all.
I am new to planning anything of this size so I am looking for all tips and helps that I can get as well and would love to hear some other's tell of how they are planning theirs!
Thanks so much and God's blessings to all! |
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| | | Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 9/25/2008 7:29:21 PM
Posts: 17, Visits: 48 |
| | Glad to hear of someone else running NIB. Our plans are coming along, but it is coming up so fast!! We've had great interest and support from our Parish. We feel we will have to limit registration to about 360 people in the 3 hours and are already talking about plans for extending the numbers for next year. We are running the event in our parish center which was an old school, so we are using the classrooms and will run 8 shops/areas. They are: Jewish home, Farmer's Market, Grain Mill and Bread Bakery, Mosaic Box shop (Joseph Bible Memory Maker), Fabric Shop (mostly visual, actors bartering, Manger Bible Memory Maker), Roman Coin Making (we are making up our own die-cuts) and Music Shop (we are making shakers from toilet paper rolls and rice, covered by masking tape), Pottery and Basket Shop (mostly visual, actors bartering, Mary Bible Memory Maker), Perfume Shop (Wise Man, BMM - we will use our own cheap plastic bottles for the perfume), and Stable (Sheep, BMM after exiting). We are also adding a Modern Christmas area in another building. We will have guests start here and hang coats and we are asking people to bring sandels or flip-flops to change into..then they will go outside for a very short walk to "Bethlehem". We hope to light the way with battery-operated luminaries. At the end of the their pilgrimage, guests will return to the Modern Christmas building for refreshments, Christmas Carols, socializing and a chance to look at our charity tie-in: Heifer, International www.heifer.org. We're doing a massive supply collection next weekend and will also start registration then. Our major fundraiser is on the 12th at Fuddruckers - we get 10% of all sales and will have raffle baskets as well. The event has created great excitement in the parish and has already had a very positive impact in bringing people together and in the families of the leadership team (we are splitting the director roles and have 21 people on the Leader Team) - my son went to get .12 from his piggy bank for him and .12 for his baby sister to give toward our fundraising efforts. NIB is touching hearts all around with the true gift of Christmas - Jesus! |
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| | | Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 12/3/2007 7:33:02 PM
Posts: 4, Visits: 14 |
| | can I ask what your plan is for leading the families through the market place? Are you having a guide take them through or letting them just roam thourhg on their own? We are trying to figure out how to make it flow smoothly. We don't want to see any major backups happen. Our church is small so if there is any wait time it will be down outside in a tent - heated of course but still outside nonetheless. We've talked about having guides take groups of 10-15 in at a time and lead them through. As a tour and once through it all they can go back to the marketplace to spend more time in each shop. We are hoping for a large crowd from our community and need to make sure we watch our timing. I'm struggling with how to keep it run smoothly and yet keep it running as authentic as possible and giving tours was not what I had in mind. So I am looking for other suggestions on how to keep a good flow so that noone is waiting too long and noone is stuck there for hours waiting to see each set up. |
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| | | Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 9/25/2008 7:29:21 PM
Posts: 17, Visits: 48 |
| | We're going to let people go on their own, but have decided to have a staggered registration. We have asked people for preferred times (6:00, 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00) and will then schedule people about every fifteen minutes. We are using classrooms and I figured the smallest number of people is the stable...I don't want any more than 15 there at a time, and I think they may spend 5 minutes there (we'll try to move them along since Mary & Joseph are so tired)....so our plan is to try to move about 15 people in through Registration about every 5 minutes and then we are making a map of Bethlehem with an estimated time to spend in each room. We have our "modern" Christmas at the end, so we actually don't want people to "go back" because it will disrupt the flow. |
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| | | Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/22/2008 7:23:57 PM
Posts: 13, Visits: 76 |
| | I love the idea of a map! I'm going to make one for our village. We are planning to let families explore on their own. We've done HLA VBS for 2 years, but are planning to spread out the marketplace a bit, allowing space for 10-12 at a time in each shop. We'll also use our drama team to help guide visitors to less congested areas, if needed. Diana |
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| | | Forum Newbie
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 12/3/2007 7:33:02 PM
Posts: 4, Visits: 14 |
| | We too are going to let the families explore on there own...except when it comes to the inn and stable. We have set up an inn and the stable in a different area of our church and are going to have shepherds guiding groups to it about every ten minutes. We'll have shepherds throughout the marketplace very subtley ushering the families towards the area where the guides will be. Once they have visited the stable they will then be escorted to our sanctuary for a brief message from our pastor and an altar call. Once they leave there they will be given the opportunity to go back to the marketplace if they didn't finish looking around before. I'm praying it goes as smooth as it sounds!! :-) |
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