Grand Slam Idea for Your Volunteers

There’s nothing minor league about your children’s ministry team. You have a major league team that’ll take your children’s ministry to a World Series type of impact with kids this year. So celebrate your team and orient them to the new year with this fun Grand Slam event!

We’ve given you all the ideas you’ll need to pull off this fun-filled baseball-theme event. All you have to do now is wind up and pitch it to attract volunteers to your fall kick-off as you never have before.

So are you ready? Batter up!

Gate 5

When your staff arrives, greet them at your decorated “ticket stand” or registration table. Drape your registration table with the same color tablecloths as you used on your serving tables. Hang a large “Gate 5” sign above your table.

Have your paid staff — dressed in baseball uniforms — greet your All-Stars. Take people’s tickets and give them their goody bags for the event. Play the song “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at your ticket stand. Or better yet, invite your church organist to play this and other songs on an organ or keyboard as people arrive.

Decorations: For fun decorations, pin baseball jerseys, pennants, and baseball team posters to your room’s walls. In the center of your room, tape off a giant baseball diamond on the floor. Position your chairs or bleachers (if you have them) around the diamond.

Decorate your serving tables with two tablecloths: a checkered tablecloth first and a matching solid cloth draped over the top of the checkered cloth. You’ll want to have part of your checkered cloth showing from beneath.

For serving table centerpieces, make a bed of shredded Mylar plastic film in your ministry colors (if you have them) or the colors of your favorite baseball team. Lay a baseball glove on the bed of shredded Mylar. Place a ball in the glove and position a small pennant with your ministry name through any of the glove openings so the pennant stands upright.

Make this event more fun by setting up your serving tables under different vendor signs (See “Concession Stands”). Your All-Stars will have to line up for their choices — just as they’d do at a real baseball game.

Goody Bags

For each All-Star, prepare a goody bag filled with fun baseball-theme items. For very little cost, fill a striped popcorn bag with unshelled peanuts, insert a pennant with your ministry name into the bag, and tie it off with matching yarn.

Or fill each goody bag with small gifts. Baseball-themed items are available at minimal cost from the Oriental Trading Company, Inc. (orientaltrading.com).

Concession Stands 

  • Yankee Stadium — Serve steak sandwiches just as they do in the Sidewalk Cafe (field level, Section 15).
  • Fenway Park — In the good old Boston tradition, serve clam chowder similar to that offered at the Legal Seafoods concession.
  • Jacobs Field — Label this serving table “Section 154” because it’s this stadium’s area with the best soft tacos with sour cream.
  • 3COM Park (formerly known as Candlestick Park) — Serve guacamole and steak taco salads just as the Compadres’ stand does in this stadium.
  • Coors Field — No game is complete without a Rocky Dog (or Dodger Dog, if you’re so inclined.) Offer these ingredients for your All-Stars to layer onto their hot dogs: sauerkraut, sautéed onions and green peppers, mustard, ketchup, jalapeños, and relish.

Of course, no baseball game would be complete without soft drinks, potato chips, soft pretzels, and Cracker Jacks snacks. In addition to these things, take your lead from some of the best concession stands at major league ballparks around the country. Offer several choices of food at your Grand Slam event so you won’t strike out with different appetites.

Running the Bases

For your teaching time, have your All-Stars gather around the baseball diamond. Then use the acrostic “PLAY” to quickly “run through the bases.”

Protect: First Base — “Protect” is your first base because the first thing you want to do in your ministry is to ensure that children are safe. This is a good time to explain your security policies and distribute your policies and procedures manual.

Love: Second Base — Encourage your All-Stars to hit a home run this year by loving kids in Jesus’ name. Form teams of four. Have teams race to see who can come up with the most ideas of ways to show love to kids. Time the teams for three minutes, then have the team with the most ideas read its list. (Collect all the lists and compile them after the event to send to all your All-Stars.)

Apply: Third Base — Education without application is like a baseball game without bases. Encourage your All-Stars to pray for kids and teach for the result of changed lives.

To illustrate this point, you’ll need 1 yard of cotton fabric, one can of Faultless Wrinkle Remover, paper, and a pen. Cover the can with paper and write “God’s Word” on the paper. For a memorable devotion, crush the cotton fabric in your hands for 30 seconds. Then show the wrinkled fabric to everyone. Say, “The world presses in on our children each week. The ugliness of the world can seek to stain our children. And the pressures to give in to the world’s ways can push in, leaving wrinkles in their lives.”

Have a helper read aloud Romans 12:2. Then say, “God’s Word (show the can) irons out those wrinkles. With exposure to God’s Word, our children’s lives are altered. (Dampen the fabric with the Wrinkle Remover. Don’t saturate the fabric. Have three other people help you stretch the fabric.) Then as children stretch to apply the truths to their lives, God presses them back into the shape of being in the likeness of Christ. We must help our children stretch to apply God’s truths to their lives this year.” Show everyone the wrinkle- free fabric.

Yield: Home Base — Say, “All the bases are loaded, and it’s the bottom of the ninth. Our children’s faith development depends on you. The present and the future church will be strengthened by you All-Stars as you minister to our children, but we have to remember that we’re nothing without Jesus. We show our dependence on him by praying fervently. Let’s spend the next 10 minutes praying for God to do amazing things in us and through us this year in our children’s ministry. Then let’s spend the rest of the year praying and depending on God’s power to work wonders in our kids’ lives.”

Have your All-Stars form groups of three and pray.

Pitcher’s Mound

To close your event, play “His Banner Over Me” by Cheri Keaggy (from What Matters Most, Sparrow Records). Say, “No matter how you play this year, remember that God loves you. As you wear this hat, remember that God’s love covers you.” Then give each All-Star a baseball cap with your ministry logo on it. Thank people for being on your children’s ministry team and remind them that every player is important if your ministry is to have a World Series type season.