My Beef with Bible Bucks: How do I get rid of them?
Posted on 18. Sep, 2008 by Kenny in Elementary, Fresh Ideas
Yesterday I talked about my thoughts on Bible Bucks incentive/award programs. This was all inspired by Sam’s posts here, here and here. Anyway, my experience has been only negative or neutral, so I’ve had the pesky little habit of getting rid of them at the churches where I’ve worked.
So, thinking about getting rid of your Bible Bucks system? It’s easier than you’d think. I’ve done it three times and I’ve had exactly the same experience every time.
First of all, your biggest reaction will not be from the kids, it will be from adults. In all honesty, the most noise I heard from were volunteers, not parents. Usually it’s been the “we’ve been doing this for 7 years” thing or “Why would we get rid of something the kids love so much?” reaction. The solution to this is just clear and honest communication. I’ll communicate to parents and volunteers something like this:
Although we’ve had success with the prize store over the last few years, we’re looking to makes some changes to see if we can provide an even better experience for our kids. Maintaining the prize store costs a large amount of money and requires a lot of our volunteer resources. We’re looking at ways to free up these resources and do something special and different that the kids aren’t expecting and will totally love (maybe give some examples like a big party bash with inflatables and games at the end of every series or an end of the school year lock-in that’s totally free).
Sometimes I’ll even be direct and say, “Did you know that we spent $5,000 on prizes last year? Essentially that was $5,000 on pencils, erasers and yo-yos. Can you imagine how we could totally blow these kids away if we used $5,000 differently?”
I’ve never had a volunteer or parents argue with the simple truth. Usually when we announce it to the kids we will get some push back. We’ll get some complaints and questions.
However, usually we’ll explain to the kids that the Prize Store is taking a break. We don’t know when or if we’ll open it up again, so be sure to spend all your money at this last one. We usually amp it up and make sure we’ve got enough prizes as well as some new items that the kids will enjoy. Then we close it. By saying it is taking a break, we’ve left ourselves some space to open it back up if we really need to (like if the kids totally rebel against the idea… although they never have). Then when we do a big Christmas party or end of school year blast, we communicate to parents and volunteers that we’re doing this because we’re not doing the prize store. They’ll see the light.
In the 3 to 6 months after the prize store is closed, you will have a parent come up to you asking if their child can use their bucks as they were gone for the final prize store. I always say yes. If I still have prizes, I’ll put together a little gift bag of prizes their kids will love. If I don’t have any prizes, I’ll give them a $5 or $10 Wal-Mart gift card. In all the places I’ve closed prize stores, I’ve only had to do this with 4 or 5 people… combined. Within a week or two of closing the prize store, kids stop asking about it. Literally, they forget about it. Yeah, you’ll have the one or two kids complain, but 98% of all the other kids won’t mention it again. That’s usually my sign that it was a good move.
So, if you’re looking to close down your prize store because you have or are building an experience that is fun and exciting in the context of connecting kids with leaders, peers and Jesus, then go for it! You’ll be glad you did.
Tomorrow will be my last post in this little series. There is one thing I’ve used incentives for. I did this for nearly 7 years at three different churches. I won’t apologize for it and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Who knows, maybe I am a prize store hypocrite. You be the judge.
10 Responses to “My Beef with Bible Bucks: How do I get rid of them?”
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jonathan
18. Sep, 2008
We are the Bible Buck Destroyers! (I might have just stumbled upon a fantastic fantasy football team name…)
Jan W.
18. Sep, 2008
Kenny: We converted our Prize Store this year to a ‘Giving Store’. Instead of purchasing things for themselves, our kids are able to use their bucks to purchase items for Operation Shoebox, Give A Kid A Christmas (coming soon), our Christmas morning homeless outreach, and other missions efforts around the community and the world. This way, they still have that incentive of earning bucks, but can use the bucks to benefit others in a big way! They seem to really be getting it! Blessings, Jan
jabberfrog
18. Sep, 2008
i admit. i’m not sold yet. but still chewing your thoughts. we have a store filled with the popular toys kids loved to buy. earning them takes work. but i’m not trying to argue the validity. i’m really curious about jan’s idea about the ‘giving store’. i like it.
Sam
18. Sep, 2008
Jan great idea!
Kenny great tips on getting rid of Bible Bucks. I have used some of those techniques and now have some new ones thanks.
Deby
17. Jan, 2009
We had Bible Bucks years ago and they fizzled out. We were giving out prizes just for memorizing verses but the kids were getting tired of that. We decided to bring back Bible Bucks but with a giving, not receiving, theme. The younger kids will use their bucks to buy food for the church food pantry and the older kids will be using their money for a children’s home in Haiti that we help sponsor. Our kids are so excited about the new program they can’t wait.
Jill
28. Jan, 2009
Could someone elaborate on how the Giving Store concept would work? How do the kids “buy” food for the pantry with their money? My husband and I help with the store at our church and the giving idea intrigues me.
Jesse Smith
20. Feb, 2009
We have an Awana store…my last church had an Awana store…I dislike both og them and your post inspired me to plot their demise, even though Sam just posted about stickystreet.com
But….I read Jan W.’s reply and I think that may be a new direction for us.
andrea wise
29. Apr, 2010
im about a year late jumping on this band-wagon but I just had another idea. Having a GOAL to be reached. The kids have to hit 1000 “bible bucks”, marbles, whatever you want to call them-to get to a party-so they cash them in at the end of the services and we give them “weekly” updates on the powerpoint. Maybe even have 2 options and whichever one the kid wants can cash in there-see which one gets to 1000 first? I didn’t think about HOW MUCH it would cost to keep it going-that’s such a waste of $-it just ends up in the washing machine or under the kids bed-neither one makes for a happy MOM!!!
Norma Cook
16. Feb, 2011
I don’t do a Bible Bucks promotion on an ongoing basis. The prizes come out of my own pocket, not the church coffers, so the kids only get their prizes once every month or at the end of the quarter. I work with 3rd-5th graders, and last quarter they worked for an ice cream party. They’d rather get their favorite candy than prizes, for some reason. I always limit each promotion to about 3 months to keep things fresh, anyway. I do like the idea of working toward gifts for others and hope to try that some time. We’ve always had service projects done separately, and the kids always love participating in those as well…
Jane
11. Mar, 2011
I respect your thoughts but we love our Bible Bucks Store. We use a little different concept. Bible Bucks are given for coming to Sunday school (and behaving), bringing their Bible, bringing a friend and donating items to our monthly mission projects. Our items in the store are strictly donated by the members of the congregation. No money is ever spent out of church funds to stock the store. The children shop only 4 times a year and those shopping trips are prior to Easter, Mother’s/Father’s Day, Back to School and Christmas. The children are taught to buy gifts for their family and friends before buying themselves a small gift if they wish. It has really caught on well and even the preschoolers get into it and understand the gift-giving concept. Parents have commented that it has really changed their children into being more giving and considerate of others before themselves. We’ve been doing this for 3 years now and I plan to continue with minor tweeking here and there to keep it fun and exciting!