Most VBS directors work hard to make VBS an effective and life-changing event for everybody involved. But if you're not into that, here are some great tips that could help you make your VBS totally meaningless and a complete waste of time. Implementing one or two of these will certainly cause damage, but all eight might just make the perfect VBS storm!
Plan everything at the last minute
Planning a VBS is usually a huge undertaking. You can't afford to wait until a few weeks before the big event to start planning it. Reserve at least 4-6 months to put it together. If you only have a few weeks, downsize, reschedule, or change the format. Throwing it together looks bad and causes everyone tons of unnecessary stress. Anything of value is worth doing well.
Forget your purpose for VBS
What are you aiming at? Hopefully, you're looking to introduce children to the King. VBS is an excellent tool to help children start a relationship with Jesus. If your purpose isn't set and followed through with, you're running an expensive 2-3 hour day care for the week. Time is too valuable and passes too quickly to miss out on an opportunity to change lives for Christ.
Keep it a secret
Don't keep VBS to yourselves! You're doing all of this because you love kids and are passionate for them to know about God's love. Invite your neighbors, coworkers, and relatives. Use the media, pass out fliers, host a VBS promotional event, march in a parade...just invite people. It's tempting to just focus on "our kids" in our churches, but if there are children in your community, refusing to invite them is saying, "I don't care about you."
Be disorganized
If you've ever been to an event, which all of us have, that was completely disorganized, you didn't want to stick around. On top of that, you lost any respect for the people in charge. It takes time and fore thought to run an excellent VBS. Be sure to have the supplies you'll need. Diagram your traffic flow through the church as children rotate from one activity to the next. Make your check-in process a pleasant experience for parents, not a 45-minute disaster.
Avoid training your teachers
Great teachers are a treasure to be highly valued (Amen!). Invest in them by introducing them to the curriculum well in advance of VBS. Communicate your daily schedule and processes you've set to execute VBS like a well-oiled machine. Give them tips on creative Bible teaching, disciplining children, and safety issues. Throwing your teachers (especially new recruits) to the "sharks" and asking them to "wing it" is a BIG mistake and may be the end of a budding VBS teaching career!
Make it boring
Church is well-known for the "Boring" stereotype, so please don't reinforce it. Your church should be the most exciting place your kids experience. Remember, we're the ones with the greatest news in the world! Choose a cool theme that will spark the interest of your kids. You might reconsider if your theme is something like "Adventures in Leviticus". Use interactive learning in your teaching time that gets them out of their chairs. Make the Bible as fascinating as it really is.
Make visitors feel unwelcome
If God is bringing new children to your church, treat them as such. If you treat them as nuisances or outsiders, you'll lose them and have some "'splaining to do" with God! They've never been to your church, so don't expect them to know where the bathroom is or the insider language you use. Love on them and let them know how excited you are to have them at VBS. They might just keep coming back.
Don't follow up
After directing my first VBS, I messed up on this one. It was an exhausting week and I just wanted to put everything aside. After getting back in to the swing of my busy summer schedule, I started contacting my follow-ups...about 3 weeks after VBS. Because I waited too long, I showed these families that I really didn't care enough about them to strike while the iron was hot. If you're not following up with children and their families, you're not demonstrating the love and honor God's called you to show them.
Well, you've probably thought of a few more. If so, please post them. I pray you'll avoid every one of these and have your best Vacation Bible School ever!
I'm currently serving in two churches. I've been active innumerous ministriesat Lexington Baptist Church outside of Columbia, SC for the past seven years.Last summer, my wife and Ijoined the launch team of a church plant in Northeast Columbiacalled Crossmark Church. God is doing great things in both churches. It's an honor to be a part!
I asked Sandi Self, the children's minister at Lexington to write an entry for this site. Each week, she ministers to over 700 children. She has a passionate heart for reaching kids and families and views VBS as an important tool in that mission:
There are as many different ways to do Bible School as there are churches. All day, weekend, 4 days, over Easter or Christmas break, in Sunday School…regardless of the format, the main thing is to keep the MAIN ONE as the main thing.
Evangelical in purpose, VBS is a target for the Evil One. He would prefer that the elements (decorating, recruiting, snacks, etc) take the place of Jesus. But we are wise and in using that Divine Wisdom, we use decorations and snack and rec and music and rewards and other methods to point to THE REASON for Bible School.
Here' ;s The Great Balancing Act:
The Old Testament says there is a time and place for everything. Use logic and moderation in setting the tone in a VBS room. If the decorations overpower the Bible learning time, consider taking away some of it.
I heard a famous movie star say once that when she was ready to go out on the town she would look in the mirror for one last glance before getting in front of all those cameras. If there was one thing that stood out about her makeup, hair, or clothes and it was so “attention demanding” that the rest of her attire was unnoticed, she replaced it with a more subtle version.
May Jesus and His love be our theme, no matter the decorations/theme. If someone is held back from teaching by being overwhelmed by decorating, an idea is to select several who really “get into it”. Let them use $20 or so per classto decorate a corner or a theme wall with little things around the room and throughout the building tohighlight the theme. Let the teacher teach and decorators decorate. Remove the excuses and enable the gifted!
How many children attending your VBS is the definition of Success? Limits in VBS can be defined by the size of the worship center, size and number of classrooms, or amount of budget. Could it be that our true limits are our teacher resources? Never sacrifice safety/security and quality in classroom learning for more children. Ratios of children to workers should be followed to be sure we can teach God’s Word and that we don’t spend all of our timeshushing or disciplining children. Some feel one teacher for 30 children is adequate.
In a VBS setting, as with all church settings, please follow the “two-deep leadership” rule (Two teachers minimum at all times in all classes). This rule protects us and our children from all sorts of security and safety issues, but it also helps to have children receive some individual relationship-building inside the classroom. A thought I have had recently is this: God offers blessings in working with our children. Volunteers must step forward with a cheerful, receptive heart to receive those blessings. A sense of guilt or duty only breeds disgruntled volunteers and gives way to complaints and impatience.
As God provides the leadership, so grows our VBS. He provides the creative minds, sincere hearts and focused minds to teach the children. Perhaps the definition of success should be that the children were safe and loved.
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