Do it Yourself (But Not Alone) Children’s Ministry Themed Environments 3

OK, so at the beginning of July, I said that I was going to attempt blogging at least four times a month. Well here it is the beginning of August and this is only my third blog. I have been to Illinois, Florida and North Carolina in the last two weeks and as much as I try to convince myself that I will blog at the hotel or take some Starbucks time, I don’t. I get caught up with all of the details of the projects that I am covering or just excuse myself in the fogginess of traveling and I put it all on a back shelf. A few days ago however I received an email that made me remember why I started this blog and it motivated me to get back in as soon as I returned home:

Hello WowFactory team,

I just wanted to send a quick email to let you know how much I appreciate your blog. I volunteer as the children’s ministry set designer at my church. Your website and blog are great resources to draw inspiration/construction ideas from, as well as encouragement for challenging space/design obstacles.

Thank you so much for not only making your gifts and talents available to your customers but to church servants like myself trying to stay within a tight budget and reach others for Christ.

God Bless!

The writers name is Kimberly and I just wanted to say “thank you, Kimberly”. This meant a lot.

Well, I just wanted to write one more quick post concerning delegation before we go on to the next subject. If you have followed the instructions in the last two blogs then you should have your plan almost ready. You should have your list of element along with some sketches of your set and an art board. Now it’s time to detail it and select your people.

First, take it to your construction people. Get their suggestions for any walls or structural elements. If there is anything that they can’t build you can call us for some ideas of how you can create a certain look. Also see if they will be able to help with the construction and/or find talented people that can volunteer.

While the construction crew is developing  their plan begin working out colors. Really think this out, dont just say,”well, this is children’s ministry lets just throw up the brightest primary colors we can find.” If you have an interior designer, ask for their advise. Choose “Modern Colors”. Home Depot gives away a booklet from Glidden that shows several modern color swatches and helps you find all of the complimentary colors.

Make a copy of your sketch and start writing down the colors you want and drawing lines from that color to the areas on the sketch that they will cover. This will really help when you are delegating the painting out. Hand your volunteers a paint can and say, “paint all of the areas that have this color and when you are done go back to the beginning and re-coat it.”

Another thing that you will need to consider before you have a big work day for construction and painting is in regards to specialty items. what are the areas that you will need printed, custom cut or just simply ordered online. Go ahead and take care of all of those things first so that when you have everyone together you can utilize them for every area of the construction. Building children’s church themed environments takes a lot of detail and can be quite daunting. Make sure you have a good plan going into it!

Do it Yourself (But Not Alone) Children’s Ministry Themed Environments 2

Children's Ministry Themed Environments

Once Again, it’s “Delegation Month” for our blog and last week we talked about the importance of having a solid plan for your children’s ministry themed environment, so this week lets jump right into “how to develop a plan”.

Step 1. Brainstorm!! You have got to start with an idea. Brainstorming is very important, but remember that it really works best with 2 – 3 people. If you throw anymore than 3 people into a brainstorming session you are asking for chaos. Also remember that who you invite to your brainstorming session is just as important as how many people that you have there. Make sure that the people you invite into this circle are creative and excited about what you are doing. Don’t bring the skeptics in to the initial planning. Sometimes there are very important and key people that will need to approve your plan but if they are not “Big Picture” people, Don’t even tell them about the meeting! Wait until your plan is complete, then let them see it.

Once you have your key people together, here are some questions that you can ask to get the creative juices flowing and begin developing your children’s ministry theme ideas.

a. What theme do we want? This can be a tough question starting out. Everything is going to ride upon this one decision, including the children’s ministry name and logo. On place to start is to pick each persons top three and narrow it down from there by talking about which theme best suits your space.

b. What are some Specific Ideas? One way to decide what theme best suits your space is to start coming up with specific ideas. look through Google images for ideas or go to a theming companies gallery such as (of course) thewowfactory.net, wackyworldstudios.com or realfakebuildings.com . Once you have talked through your ideas it may become obvious what theme your children’s ministry should have. Also, while in this first phase of coming up with ideas, don’t limit yourself. It may surprise you what you will be able to accomplish and sometimes the outlandish ideas will develop into more realistic ones.

c. What style do you want? This is a very important part to your plan. I feel that it is best to stay consistant with your style. You don’t want to mix cartoon and realistic too much, it will feel choppy. Find a cartoon, movie or TV show that you like and fashion everything after that overall look. Pulling up images or watching movies or shows like sponge bob, Indiana Jones, Bob the Builder, etc. can also help create some new ideas for your space as well.

Step 2. Write a List – Once you have all of your idea’s together, list them out. The way I do this is I start with the rooms and list each thing that I want to go in that room.

Example:

LOBBY:

Check In Desk – This desk will have a bamboo front and a surfboard as the desk top.

Wall Mural – We would like the walls to have images of the beach. It should include lots of palm trees and kids playing.

Hallways:

Wall Murals – We want scenes of “under the ocean” on thes walls. we would like to show many ocean animals swimming around.

Door Frames – We would like all of the doors to look like coral rock or sand mounds.

Stage Area :

Back Drop – We would like the backdrop to show an island scene with a many palm trees and the sun rising over the ocean.

Puppet Stage – We would like the puppet stage to look like thick brush. We will get custom made coconut puppets.  We will also buy monkey puppets

Screen Frame – We would like to frame our projector screen with bamboo

Step 3 – Create an Art Board – This is simple, just collect all of the images that illustrate what you want your area to look like and print them off.

Step 4. – Sketch Your Ideas – This is very important in communicating your thoughts to the people that are helping you. But what if neither you nor anyone in your congregation has this type of artistic ability. Contact The WOW Factory! We are now offering free sketches along with our proposals. We do not want you to use these sketches to get quotes from other companies, but if you are building your own themed environment then we will work with you, also there may be a couple of small pieces that we can help you out with to complete your area.

Do it Yourself (But Not Alone) Children’s Ministry Themed Environments

Children's Ministry Themed Environments

So this blog has been on my heart to do for a long time but let’s face it, if your not a writer blogs are tough! Trying to come up with something new on the same subject everyday (at least for me) is impossible! Coming up with something every week…maybe not impossible, but a little overwhelming. Throw in the fact that I run a business, and a weekly blog becomes daunting! So her is my solution; I have broken each month of the year into themes and I will write four posts per month on that theme…or so my plan goes.

I say all of this because this month is delegation month and the first step to delegating is getting a plan. As much as I would love to believe that as the (1 Corinthians 12 ) Body of Christ, we all, having different gifts, could gather together, say “GO”, and everyone will all at once jump right into their callings immediately and will begin doing what they are anointed to do. Wouldn’t it be great if your teachers would all be in one mind and accord and could begin teaching in harmony with one another by the Spirit. Those who are called to “helps” ministry would automatically show up and begin moving stage pieces around where you need them to and turning on the sound system on in the morning, so that music is playing before the children begin piling in (pet peeve of mine). And, of course all of those people who are called to design, to build, and to paint would all have the same vision and walk out there call to consistantly add on to your children’s ministry center…wouldnt that be great!

Maybe your people are closer to God than the help that I have worked with but I’ve been in ministry and in business for a very long time and I have yet to see everything work out this perfectly. I’m not saying that people cannot develop their gifts and callings to this place, but that’s the point…these things need to be developed. Ephesians 4:12 tells us that it is the authoratative gifts of the pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc. who are called to help everyone else mature. That’s what you need to do as the leader. You are not just a minister to the kids, you are a minister to your help. So what does this mean? Give them a plan!

A plan will help your people come together. It will train them to think in one accord. As long as you stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit in developing your plan, you will help them learn to be sensitive to his leading as well. Also, don’t forget that one of the gifts that are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 is the gift of administrations. This means that even when people are mature in their own gifts they will still need some direction from those who have this other very important calling. (Though, hopefully not as much). So how do you develop a plan when it comes creating  Children’s Ministry Themed Environments? Well, that will be in Blog number two for July. (I need to stretch this thing out somehow!)

Do It Yourself – Custom Wallpaper Murals

One of the things that we do a lot here at The WOW Factor-y is custom wallpaper murals. Wallpaper murals are definitely attention grabbers in children’s ministry. The kids love them!  If you have a capable computer designer on your staff who knows vector artwork then this is a big possibility for you to do yourself, but here are a few hints before you get started.

-          Measurements

Measurements are definitely your first step. Take very detailed measurements of your walls. Get doorways, fire alarms, light switches, molding….everything! When you have them taken down have your graphics designer builds them to scale on the computer for a template before you get started on the graphics.

-          Draw the images first.

Graphic designers are not always good at cartooning. If you have someone who does well at sketching then have them draw up some images first. Your graphics person can easily create the sky and land and possibly water but have an artist sketch up some cartoon kids, animals, trees etc. then give the images to your graphics designer to vector and color.

-          Give yourself room.

When you are designing the graphics over your template give yourself some room to play. In other words create your wallpaper in such a way that you could shift it several inches in any direction and it will not create a problem. Just remember that he wall covering is not going to go on perfectly here is a list of things to remember:

1. Make sure each image is far enough away from objects on the wall that if the covering gets moved in any direction the objects and images will not overlap.
   

   Cartoon Wall Mural

2. Leave yourself an extra three inches on the top and bottom of the wallpaper. For instance, if the wall area is 103” high then make sure you make your custom wall covering 109” and remember not to place any of your important images inside of that extra space.
3. Add at least an extra foot to the end of each wall. Once again the wallpaper will not go on perfectly every time and installers generally like a little extra when they are putting it up. I will generally put all of my excess on the left side of the wall and have them install it from left to right.
4. Hire professional installers. I know it’s an extra expense and it seem like it should be pretty easy but, trust me, this is not your bathroom wall. HIRE INSTALLERS! We do, and we do this stuff for a living!!

One Last Important Detail.

I’m sure many of you are asking one important question right now…”How do I get it printed”. Well that is your own homework assignment. We have a good relationship with a local company but there are printing companies all over the nation. Just call around and compare prices.

The WOW Factory’s Plug.

So I don’t normally do this on this blog but I would like to add that we have very competitive prices on are wall covering so before you go too far in your mural adventure, give us a call and see what we may have to offer, thanks and God bless.

Check In Desks

Recently we built and installed an “Apple Core” themed check-in desk and right now we are building another desk for a children’s ministry in Savannah GA. I started to think about it and well over half of the children’s ministries that we have created themed atmospheres for have asked for some type of desk for their Ministry Center.

Custom Apple Core Check in Desk

Desk under construction for Savannah

The more I have thought about it, the more I realize the a check in desk can be a very affordable piece for the kid’s ministry that is planning on building their own themed environment. Most ministries already have some form of a desk which means the structure is already built for you, now all you have to do is deck it out. My suggestion is a very simple two-fold process, it is to cover it and then brand it

Cover It: Covering it can consist of wrapping it in something as simple as fabric or reconstructing the exterior in wood or even boxing it out in drywall. Another option if you already like the structure of the desk could be to just simply paint it.

If you would like it to be curved in the front you can cut the curved shape out of a three pieces of plywood. Once you have your shapes cut, frame them in to the front of the desk and cover them with some type of flexible material such as luan or hardboard.

Printed Vinyl is also an option. With Vinyl you can actually brand it when you get it printed but I suggest that you just get the back ground design printed and brand it in3D.

Brand It: By branding it I simply mean to put your children’s church name on it. If you have a logo, use that. The best look will definitely be to make it 3D. You can cut them it of plywood and paint it or print it on some form of dimensional product. Either way, a couple of simple steps can create a fun and beautiful desk for checking in your children.

Why Create an Atmosphere for Kids?

This is a letter that my friend and business associate, Joe McCullough, recently wrote regarding spending money on a themed environment. I feel that it is also relevent when it comes to the expense and labor of building

your own themed environment.

“The best answer to the question ‘why should a church spend so much money and effort on children’ is for us to see world through God’s eyes.

God calls us to preach and teach the Gospel making

disciples in all nations. (Matthew 28:19) There is no greater influence that a

parent or grandparent (i.e. the largest segment of

members filling your congregation) will have in this

world than on the people they spend the most time

with in their own house… their children.

Most parents want to do a great job raising their children. Priorities among believers are God, family, everything else. That is the right answer, but an examination of time commitment might reveal the priorities to be family, God, and everything else. The task of parenting is overwhelming at times and could benefit from a network of support. The truth is, parents are not perfect people and they don’t always get it right when it comes to training their children in the way that they should go. Even so, God places the development of children, our future leaders, teachers, philosophers, entrepreneurs, etc. in the hands of imperfect parents and He trusts us to follow His lead as we endeavor to set their steps on the right path. Enter the modern church.

If bible based churches would see their role as partnering with parents to influence children, we would see a dramatic increase in christian leaders going to Washington, representing local government, fighting fires, becoming teachers, missionaries, etc. Why? Because children are open to learn when they are young and impressionable. If we just babysit them until they can conjugate verbs, they have already made up their mind about life, God, and faith. They put up walls and defenses and keep “teachers” at arm length.

If we are to be fisher’s of men, we must understand that we can catch smaller fish and nurture them into healthy, adult fish in a controlled environment. So what kind of environment helps children learn the central message of scripture? I’m glad you asked.

Almost any environment will work as long as it accomplishes three goals:

•it must engage the senses to create positive, impressionable memories in a child’s mind.

This is easier to accomplish visually for younger children from 5 to 12 (the period of time George Barna of the Barna Group says is the most impressionable in a person’s life).

•Secondly, it must reinforce the scriptural teaching.

Christ used everything around him to make a point… a millstone near a lake, a vineyard, a desert experience. The Bible is rich with visual descriptions and parables used to illustrate a lesson. We can not ignore the power of visually illustrating the living bible.

•Third, an environment must be relevant.

That’s how Christ did it. He changed water to wine at a wedding, because the wedding party would recognize that the good stuff doesn’t usually come out till later in the day when most guests are tipsy (my words).

So today a teachable environment can be as varied as a shipwrecked crew on an island to a jungle camp or a Sesame Street styled neighborhood where neighbors meet in the street or park and talk about real life. Visually rich, relevant, engaging.

So why build an environment when the money could go to an African orphanage or feed children in Russia? By all means, send money to efforts of worthy causes but also remember that the investment you make today in your own  church will have an impact for multiple nations and generations as the children in your community pass through your influence and are empowered to reach out into the world. It is a seed (God’s word) planted in the hearts of children (fertile soil) watered and nurtured with the guidance of the church (hands and feet of Chirst) in partnership with parents (salt and light) to effect the growth and maturity of children in their journey to fully committed followers of Christ (disciples).

I spoke to a pastor this week who addressed this subject better than anything I have said. He told me his church of 100 members has stopped asking, “how much will this cost?” They are now asking, “what will it cost if we don’t do it?” This was in reference to theming his children’s department for 15-20 current students. This is not a trendy startup church moving into their first building. This is an established church of 35+ years who have opened their eyes to God’s call to step out in faith and obedience. They already preach a message of hope, grace, love, forgiveness and freedom in Christ, but they have room for more listeners. Now, they will have a way to make that never-changing message tangible to children, who invite friends to attend the most fun hour in their week, which brings news of the church environment home to families, who in turn visit the church with their children in order to get their kids to the lively children’s program, which allows the church to minister to the parents, who in turn seek adult classes (especially classes on parenting… see the connection?). Ultimately the church benefits from increases attendance, tithes and resources so that the church can continue to impact the world, families, and more children.  Hmmm, there seems to be a continuum like a circle…. which happens to be the shape of the world…. how very visual of me to notice that.

I’m speaking to you as a parent, as an artist with a gift to share Christ in very meaningful, intentional, and visually stimulating ways. I would not suggest we change to the content of the christian message, just the means by which we share it. Thank you for reading.

p.s.

I did not set out to make so many fish references. Here is just one more on the subject of investing time and resource, but could also be applied to efforts to make disciples.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

— Chinese Proverb”

Questions To Ask When Creating A Themed Environment.

Check out some of our stage sets and themed environments at thewowfactory.net.

If you want to build your own Stage Set or Themed Environment for your children’s ministry then you will want to ask yourself some foundational questions before you begin. When a customer calls The WOW Factor-y there are a lot of abstractions that we need to work through before we actually come up with a definitive product and a definitive price.

Kid's Church Marquis

For instance, if someone calls us and asks for a price on a stage building they might as well be asking how much it costs to buy a car. The answer can only be found when they in turn answer a few more questions such as “”Do you want a 1975 Pinto that has no engine or do you want a brand new Lexus with all the extras?”.  A stage prop building could range anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 depending what you want. “How much would it cost?” is an abstract question that can only be given a definitive answer when more information is given. Here are five questions that The WOW Factor-y asks to help us work through these abstractions. Hopefully they will help you in your venture to build your own stage set or themed environment.

1.      Do you have a specific theme in mind?

Themes are very important; they bring you into focus and stir creativity. Of course it wouldn’t make sense to go into a project without one. I couldn’t imagine walking into a doorway that had an old wood logo with vines hanging off it and jungle animals all around only to walk into a children’s ministry center that had a 3D rocket ship prop attached to one wall a cityscape mural on the other and a clubhouse on the stage. Creative??? Maybe…but probably not a good idea! My suggestion is to come up with a basic theme and let your creativity grow out from there.

2.      Do you have any specific ideas that you definitely want?

Working in the theming industry I hear a lot of statements like “Something like this would be cool!” or “I was thinking of doing something like…” Now I love to throw ideas around as much as anyone but eventually we are going to need to come up with a solid goal. Write down one list of all the ideas that you know for sure you want and another list of all the ideas that would be cool but are not definite or still need work. Eventually you will want the list of definite to be complete and the other list to be eliminated.

3.      What Style do you want to theme your project with.

First you can break it in to two categories which are realistic or not realistic. If you want it to be cartoony then ask yourself what type of cartoony. Do you want it to look like a comic book, a classic Disney cartoon or do you want SpongeBob? What style do you want?

4.      What is the area that you are theming?

When we are looking into a job one of the first thing that I do is break the area down into sections. For instance, “Section 1” might be the hallway, “Section 2” could be the lobby and “Section 3” the children’s ministry center. After that I will take very detailed measurements of each section and make an itemized list of everything that we are going to create for that area.

5.      Do you have a budget?

Whether you are hiring a theming company or not please understand that you need a budget. Supplies are expensive and before you start throwing around too many ideas you are going to want to have a good idea of what you are going to be able to afford.

Of course by answering these questions you will not necessarily have a completely definitive goal in front of you but at least you will have a starting point.

Help Building A VBS Set.

A Kid’s Worker’s Question Concerning Building A Vacation Bible School (VBS) Prop.

CHECK OUT THE WOW FACTOR-Y – STAGE SETS, PROPS,  MURALS AND ROOM THEMING

or contact us at info@thewowfactory.net 1.877.WOW.IN3D

This is an email that I got from a lady that wanted to build a large boat prop in their Gym for Vacation Bible School and my response to her email. Of course if you are building a stage set for VBS you are not going to have nearly as good of a budget as you would for a permanent stage set or themed environment. The truth is that I have never come across even a large church that was willing to drop a hundred grand on their VBS set, but I know that you still want to make a good impression. If anyone else wants to build their own VBS Set and needs help with ideas just write and ask. We will try to help you out to the best of our ability

Hello, I am interested in creating a really great environment for our Vacation Bible School this year.  It will be located in our gym areas and the theme is the Jesus Chronicles.  I want to set up different stations that can visually capture the events of the life of Jesus. One event that I need your help on is when the disciples were in a ship and a storm came.  Then they saw Jesus walking on water.  I want a large ship that the children can come in, listen to that story and then act it out. Our gym is pretty big so I envision the ship to be very big. Our budget is limited, but I know that creativity can go a long way. I want that Wow factor; because I know that the children will remember the story more.  We are inviting homeless children and feeding the children dinner so we are excited, and want to do a great job. Please contact me so we can further talk about the vision and the cost.  God Bless!!

How to build a large boat prop for Vacation Bible School (VBS)

-           Build a 90 degree angle out of 2x4s approximately 8ft tall and 6ft wide.  Support them with another 2×4 at 45 degrees leaving enough room on the end for some type of weight to support it. Build as many as you think you will need to cover your area. I suggest that you span them 5ft apart from each other.

-          Cut the curvature of the side of the boat out of 4×8 sheets of OSB. Mount the OSB on to the long side of the 90s.

-          For the front and the back of the boat build the same kind of structure, however make it with much more of a straight angle. You could do this with 2x4s instead of OSB.

-          Once all of your structures are constructed set them up on to the gym floor however you want the boat to be curved across the floor.

-          Of course you will want to run braces across the top and bottom and maybe the middle of each structure for support.

-          Once you have all of your structures in place and braced together you will want to figure out where your door is going to be and frame it out.

-          Next, run brown cloth in between each structure. (I do not suggest running one piece all the way across for it will be a lot harder to limit you wrinkles (which you will have some). You will be able to mount the cloth with staples

-          Cut strips of Hardboard and run them along the seams with trim nails. You will probably want to paint them first giving them the look of wood braces and covering up your seams at the same time.

-          After you have finished building the boat take a picture with someone standing next to it (to show scale) and show it to an airbrush artist for a quote of how much he would cost to put a wood grain on it.

-          Another idea – If you have poles for volley ball that are tall enough (You could also extend them with PVC Pipe) you might be able to make sails by running a piece of PVC horizontally across the top and hanging a sheet from it.

If anyone has any other ideas send them to me and I will in turn convey them to this children’s minister.

Airbrush Extra

Stage Set Props www.thewowfactory.net

Check out The WOW Factory’s props,stage sets, murals and themed environments or contact us at info@thewowfactory.net. 1.877.969.4633

Remember that while your themed environment is being airbrushed there is the potential for overspray. Consider well all of the things that should probably wait to be finished until after the paint and airbrush is complete. While creating your children’s room décor, of course there are some things that you just want to keep nice and clean.

On the Rincon Job a couple of things that we tried to protect were the Theatre lettering equipment and the vinyl on the café. Not only did we wait to put those up but we also felt that it was best to wait before we installed the Clock and a few other pieces that were also going to be airbrushed in order to keep everything crisp and clean.

Airbrush

Check out The WOW Factory’s Custom props, stage sets, wall murals and themed environments or contact us at info@thewowfactory.net. 1.877.969.4633

When you finish painting your Kid’s Church stage set we at The WOW Factor-y strongly suggest that you get someone to airbrush it. When it comes to themed atmospheres airbrushed artwork is definitely the icing on the cake! This is what will set you a part and make people ask you for the name of the theming company that created your stage set. It’s like the difference between ice cream and a hot fudge Sunday with whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on the top…it makes a difference!

If you don’t have an airbrush artist at your church then, I’m not going to lie to you it can be expensive. It is however an expense that you should save up for. The going rate on an airbrush artist is about $65.00 an hour which if you give them a picture of your set they should be able to give you a quote for the whole project.

Now there is more than one type of airbrush artist. Just because someone painted beautiful murals on the side of a van back in the 70’s does not mean that they will be able to accentuate your stage props. To tell you the truth, it would probably be better to find someone that does cartoon characters on T-shirts. Before you hire someone ask them if they have ever worked on props before and go ahead and look at their portfolio. If you need help don’t be afraid to contact me

Taff airbrusing the City Hall

ed@thewowfactory.net 1.877.wow.in3d. I will look at someone’s work for you and tell you what I think. Also, one guy that I work with that is phenomenal at accentuating stage sets and props is Taff at nextlevelairbrush.com . He’s a good guy and will make your children’s facility pop!