5 Keys to a Successful Bible Buddy Adoption

/ Family Events, Ministry / By

We all want our kids to jump in and read their Bible every day. However, we also know that our kids are busier than a telemarketer at family dinner time, and setting up a routine for scripture reading can be a difficult task for families. Hosting a Bible Buddy Adoption could help the families in your church establish this habit.

What exactly does a Bible Buddy Adoption look like? Here is what we did and what we learned. As a result, we have 5 keys to hosting a successful adoption night plus some resources you can use!

What does a Bible Buddy Adoption Look Like?

Our Adoption was really simple and easy. Every Sunday one month we held the adoption in our welcome center right outside of our Children’s area. We spaced the stuffed animals out over a table and had a volunteer sit behind the table.  

Each week as the kids come into the church they have the opportunity to adopt a buddy (only one per child). If they have not already adopted one and they want to do so, they approach the table and tell the volunteer which one they want.  

The volunteer then asked the child what the buddy’s name was going to be and wrote it on the adoption certificate (available here) along with the child’s name. The adoption volunteer also gave the family a care guide (available here) and explained to the kids how to use it!

That’s it! Easy cheesy lemon squeezy!

So what did we learn? Here are 5 keys to hosting a stellar adoption that we learned through our successes and failures. 

1. Have Multiple Adoption Weeks. 

When we originally set out to host this event I put it on the calendar for a single Sunday. I was going to make a big deal about it and hype it up all month etc. However, the more I thought about this the more I wanted to change this idea.  

What if a family is out sick that day? What if the weather is bad and only a few families show up? I wanted as many families as possible to participate and questions like these kept nagging at me.  

So we decided that we would host the adoption over the entire month instead. This allowed ample time for families to have the opportunity to attend. After all, the goal was for every child to read their bible regularly.  

We were glad that we made this change! Some families could not attend the first adoption! We also noticed that some of our older kids (boys especially) were a little hesitant to participate. They wanted to but didn’t want to be the only one in their class that did. Several boys waited with eager anticipation, and I am happy to report that all of them eventually adopted a buddy!

2. Have Variety but Uniformity

Wait what? I know that sounds weird or impossible but just go with me on this. We all know kids are obsessed with fairness. Try to find a set of animals that are the same, but a little different. We used some dogs and cats from Amazon. They came in groups of 6 and were all very similar, but they were different colors. You know as well as I do that you don’t want kids to be disappointed that they didn’t get the big elephant, we want them all excited!

If you are going to ask your church to help purchase these stuffed animals make sure you are very specific about which ones you want. Make a wish list on amazon or just ask for a set dollar amount to sponsor a donation etc.  

3. Involve Preschool

At first, we didn’t include the preschool area in this idea. “They can’t read yet.” Was our thought process. While this statement is true, I had a startling revelation I want to share with you.  

Prepare your mind to be blown! Ready? While it is true that preschool kids can’t read…here comes the revelation….their parents can!! I know startling right? I know most of you already knew this but for some reason, this thought never even crossed my mind and for almost the entire planning period the preschool department was not even a consideration.  

Thankfully God saved me from my folly and we decided to include the preschool children.  

The preschool kids LOVED it and what a great way to help parents get involved in reading to their children!

4. Baby Steps

Our main goal for this whole adoption was to help establish a routine for bible reading. We did not want to overwhelm families nor make this idea a burden to them. Therefore, we started small, only one verse a night. We provided a reading plan (available here) for two weeks that listed a single verse for them to read.  

These verses were ones we picked that would be easy to read and understand. They also have life implications for the child. After the 2 weeks were up we included a note that encouraged the kids to ask their parents for advice on what to do next or start reading Genesis or Mark. 

These verses were also from all over the Bible. This was done on purpose to help kids build Bible skills as well.  

5. Communicate

We all know that communication is vital for any program’s success and you’re probably wondering why it is listed here. Well, I’m glad you asked! We listed it here because there were a couple of unique aspects of this adoption that we did not communicate well. 

We had several adults ask if they could be a part of the “Bible Buddies”. While I was excited to have their help, they did not return my excitement when I expressed to them exactly how they could help. Every adult that asked to help thought they would be partnered up with a child to help them read their bible…they thought they were going to be the “buddy”. While this is kind of a cool idea, it poses many dangerous implications that we are not going to get into now. 

Another idea I wish we would have communicated better was for the kids to already have a name picked out before adoption day. We provided adoption certificates (available here) that provided a space for the buddy’s name. We wrote them in on adoption day. Some kids did not have a name picked out and either held up the line while they thought of one, or left with a blank certificate because they couldn’t think of a name for their buddy  

All things considered, our Bible Buddy Adoption was a huge success! A few days later I saw a set of twins from our church and without me prompting them they said:

“We have already read to our buddies today!” – Twin 

“Yeah…and they are LOVING it!” – Other twin

We hope that your church and families can benefit from this idea. We have all the print materials available here if you so choose to use them.

Bible Buddy Resources

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