WHAT IS THE IGNITION MIDDLE SCHOOL EVENT?
It’s a one (or one and one half day) retreat-style conference, geared toward helping students in 6th-8th grade encounter Christ and grow in faith.
WHERE IS THE CONFERENCE HOSTED?
Ignition is hosted in local churches with a partnership between Harvest Ministry and the local hosting church.
POTENTIAL SCHEDULES
One-Day Event Schedule
The one-day event can be on a Saturday during the school year or a weekday during the summer.
8:45 am – 9:15 – Registration and Gathering
9:15 – 10:15 – General Worship Session 1
10:15 – 11:00 – Snack and Small Group / Church Group Meeting and Games (With Harvest Leaders and Other Local Church Leaders)
11:00 – 11:30 – Seminar 1
11:30 – 12:00 – Music and Fun
12:00 pm – 1:00 – Lunch (Pizza lunch provided by Harvest)
1:00 – 1:30 – Seminar 2
1:30 – 2:45 – Tootsie Roll Carnival (Provided by Local Church Volunteer Team and Harvest) — Or other afternoon games/entertainment.
2:45 – 4:00 – Closing Worship, Wrap Up, Send Off
4:00 – Conference Concludes
(Extra Details)
Friday Before: Harvest Arrives to set up and prepare, the local host church provides light dinner around 6 pm for the worship team, volunteers, speakers, etc.
Saturday After: From 4-5, we clean up, pack up and the Harvest Team is usually out by 5 pm.
TWO DAY SCHEDULE POSSIBILITY
Saturday stays roughly the same and we add on the evening before.
Friday: 1:00 pm – Harvest arrives to set up; 5:00 pm, snack supper hosted by the host church for leadership team; 6:30 pm registration opens; 7:00 pm first worship gathering and speaker; 8:15 snacks and refreshments (provided by local host church), 8:30 pm Ignition Blast (a concert, comedian, etc). 9:15 pm – head out to motels, host families, or host churches for the night. See you back at 9:15 tomorrow!
Church groups are responsible for their own lodging.
Local church host team may consider securing community church buildings to host groups, as a lower-budget option (and with some fun community building!).
PROGRAM AND SPEAKERS
Harvest Worship Band will provide the music and programming, in partnership with the host leader / host church. We typically invite a speaker to join us to speak during the main sessions and possibly help with a seminar. We also invite a couple folks to help lead seminars for students – at times this is some of the Harvest Team members, the youth worker from the hosting church or another local ministry leader. Harvest covers the cost of the speaker for the event.
HOST CHURCH OBLIGATIONS
We try to create a partnership between the host church and Harvest Ministry. Here are some of the best ways we have found to do that:
- Host church provides a meal on Friday night before the event for Harvest, speakers, and or volunteers (12-15 people total).
- Host church provides lodging for Harvest Team the night before – either host homes or motel rooms. If motel rooms, we need three.
- Host Church provides snacks – this is typically done by inviting church members to bring 1) Bottled Water or cans of soda pop, 2) Prepackaged snacks / LIttle Debbie type stuff, 3) Individual small bags of chips 4) possibly some fruit. We often use these cards to hand out to folks after church about two weeks before the event. [View Snack Donation Cards]
- Host Church partners with Harvest to provide space for the event – including a large gathering room (equipped with sound and projection, most often the sanctuary or worship space), another large enough space for meals and at least one other seminar / breakout room.
- Host Church provides some volunteers from the ministry to help with various parts to the day – refreshments, afternoon fun, etc. [Volunteer Grid For Ignition]
WHAT HARVEST PROVIDES
Harvest Conferences partners with the church to provide:
- Planning and programming for the event
- Online Registration and promotion of the event
- The worship band and leaders
- Cost of the speaker
- Cost of pizza for lunch
- Planning for seminars and small group meetings with local churches
- Cost of transportation for Harvest to the event
- Design and Printing of T-Shirts – Included in the registration fee for those who register early
- Someone to help with sound and projection of lyrics and videos
- Help with afternoon fun activity – in cooperation with local church leadership team
- Prayer team focus – our team praying for the students and the event
FINANCES AND BUDGETS
We strive to be good stewards make this all feasible for families and local churches to be a part of an effective day of ministry and discipleship for students.
- All registration fees go to Harvest Ministry to help cover the cost of the program and event.
- The cost per student and leader is $45, which includes everything and a t-shirt if they register before the deadline needed to print shirts.
- We invite the host church to register their own students at a slightly discounted rate of $40 and volunteers from the host church don’t have to pay.
- The Approximate Working Budget (Subject to change):
- >>> 20 Students and Leaders at $40 = $ 800
- >>> 80 Students and Leaders at $45 = $3600
- >>> Income from other sources/sponsors = $ 500
- TOTAL INCOME: $4900
- >>> Speaker Budget: $250 Plus $200 Travel = $450
- >>> Seminar Leader Honorariums at $75 x 2 = $150
- >>> Pizza for lunch for 100 people – $250
- >>> Shirts for 100, plus volunteers from the host church = $1200
- >>> Harvest Travel – Mileage to and from the event will vary: $200 – $800
- >>> Promotion, Printing, Publicity, Website, and Online Registration: $700
- >>> Harvest Leaders and Conference Leadership Team: $1200
- >>> Extra, Misc Stuff: $150
- TOTAL EXPENSES: $4900
MORE INFORMATION:
Contact Tim Price, 618-541-8291 – tim @ harvestministryteams.com
