When you plan a ladies’ craft night outreach, a retreat, a mother-daughter event, or other special ladies’ meeting, where do you begin? I begin with a theme. Sure, you could just choose a fun activity, add any devotional, bring a plate of cookies, and call it good enough. Most activities, however, become much stronger when you plan them around a theme. You might find ideas off the internet, but this let’s say you’d like to create your own theme. Where do you begin?
As a writer I’m used to developing ideas and I’ve been developing my own ministry ideas for about forty years. I start with an idea and keep working until I’ve developed these components: visual theme, theme tagline, Bible verse or Scripture that goes with the theme, related activities.
I’m going to show you how I developed one visual theme into a full program that related to that theme.
Visual Theme
I was planning a ladies’ craft night and had some craft ideas that involved gingerbread men, so that’s where I started. The visual theme of gingerbread men could be used in many ways to make crafts and decorate. I could use a picture of a gingerbread man on invitations, posters, and promotional materials. I also knew it had great potential for a Bible devotional.
Theme Tagline
Once I had chosen the visual theme, I needed a tagline to go with it. A tagline is a catchphrase or slogan that communicates your theme in a few words. It ties the visual theme (gingerbread men) to the spiritual application of your devotional.
I thought about various processes of making gingerbread men: making the dough, rolling it out, cutting it into shapes, baking it. How could that have a spiritual application? How could I express that in a few words? I tried different phrases, used a thesaurus for some of the words. Finally I settled on this theme: Shaped by His Love.
Theme Verse or Scripture
When I planned the Gingerbread Man Craft Night, I used a lot of verses in my devotional to show how God shapes us, but it’s often good to choose one theme verse that pulls everything together. The craft night was a one-time event with a short devotional. Since the main purpose of this event was outreach, I didn’t print a theme verse on the invitations, but I could have used Philippians 1:6 for a theme verse.
But let’s say I was planning a ladies’ retreat with four or five different speakers. I would want to choose a theme visual and theme verse that were broad enough to allow many related topics to be discussed. A theme like “Guard Your Heart,” for example, could be used to teach moral purity, salvation, relationships with God and people, priorities, marriage, and other issues.
Other Activities
Once I’d settled on a visual theme with a spiritual application, I searched the internet for several simple craft ideas to use for our main activity. I made gingerbread cookies for refreshments. While making the cookies, I took pictures of the various stages that related to my spiritual application, and used those photos as a PowerPoint presentation. From there I went on to make a bulletin board promotion, invitations, and evangelistic folders to give to visitors. I already owned decorations related to gingerbread men that made for easy decorating.
You can plan themes in a similar way. You might start with a scripture verse instead, or a tagline. Wherever you start, keep working until you find a theme that work well for your activity.
Here are some themes I’ve developed for Mother-Daughter Evenings and Ladies’ Craft Nights:
International (All Are Precious in His Sight)
Shaped by His Love—Gingerbread Man Craft Night
Hang in There—Clothes Pin Craft Night
Follow the Star—Christmas Star Craft Night