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Turbo charge your VBS

Posted on by Michigan
Cokebury's 2017 VBS Theme is "Hero Central--Discover Your Strength in God."

You can no longer post VBS info on the church sign and expect people to come.

ERIC SEIBERLING
United Methodist Communications

In the past, a successful vacation Bible school (VBS) required only that the church change the sign to reflect the new dates and — voila! — people showed up. However, churches find themselves competing with a myriad of sports events, school-sponsored camps and programs and other activities that fill the calendars of children and the adult volunteers who are key to making vacation Bible school exciting and even life changing.As your church prepares to spend hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars to stage VBS, be ready to do the research, planning and preparing necessary to deliver a high quality event.

Start Right

VBS planners can set themselves up for failure by not understanding how the dynamics of the community have changed. Do some homework to avoid costly mistakes.

  • Set the right time slot.
  • Select a compelling program.
  • Remember that quality is most important.

Plan Right

Planning goes beyond logistics — it is about locations, agendas and finding volunteers. It may be wonderful to gather everyone weekly for two hours for several weeks and plan. However, most people lack the time to do this more than once or twice. Consider these ways to keep everyone on the same page.

  • Set up a GroupMe account and team.
  • Use Google Docs and Google Calendar to stay in sync. 
  • Use Dropbox to share files.
  • Provide face time digitally with Skype.

Invite Right 

Once you have your basic plan for VBS, start to invite people individually and connect them to what is happening. Invite people into the conversation, keep them up-to-date and ensure they are ready for VBS.

  • Set up an event blog or micro-site.
  • Create a Facebook event.
  • Provide an engraved electronic invitation.
  • Distribute “hard copy” invitations in new and different ways.
  • Invite people who have connected with your church in the past.

There’s plenty of how-to information around each of these bullet-points. Click here for the full details.

Last Updated on May 30, 2017

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The Michigan Conference