VBS Your Ideas Shared

VBS Main Page	Program goals & Objectives	Planning Timeline	Prayer Power	Curricula
Missions	Games, Snacks, Crafts	Music	Finances & Administration	Publicity
Staffing	Facilities	Daily Schedule	Registration	Closing Celebration & Follow-up
Site Index	Your Ideas Shared	Author's Background	Additional Resources	Web site updates

This page has grown to a size (thanks to so many of you sharing) that it needs its own table of contents:

Lunches
Community Contacts
Teacher Devotions
Curricula ideas
Closing Celebration
Mission ideas
Music
Publicity
VBS Costs
Answered prayers
Questions needing answers

For ongoing interchange of ideas, take time to check the Delphi Forum which was created this year to provide ongoing VBS discussion. You can add your ideas & questions there at any time.

If you have additional suggestions to be added to this site, you may also write to me directly: nancy.guenther@gmail.com

Lunches

One aspect that makes our program different from the others in the community is that we serve lunch to our children and staff each day. We have a different menu each day consisting of the various foods children enjoy.One day we might have ham and cheese sandwiches, the next chili dogs or corn dogs. We like knowing that the children have been provided with a meal and lots of love and fun for one week in June.Most of all they have heard the good news of Jesus Christ which is why we have VBS.

from Julie Buckner, Freedom Fellowship in Silsbee, Texas

Community Contacts

In order to let the neighbors get to know us a little better, we created our VBS Adult Hostess ministry. Here, the parents can choose to have some a breakfast beverage and muffins or donuts, just after dropping their children off or, a beverage and a special dessert just prior to picking up their children from the morning's activities. This has been a wonderful time just talking with parents and sometimes, as you would assume, get to share the gospel message with them!

from Sharonbeth Brauksieck, Grace Chapel of Clifton Park, Clifton Park New York

Teacher Devotions

We design our own VBS curriculum. Along with lesson plans, I write a five-part teacher's devotional. We find that it brings an added dimension of awareness when our teachers begin each day with a special devotional that helps them prepare for the day's teaching. Anyone interested in including devotionals in their program can download them from http://www.netwalk.com/~layman/vbs/vbs_devotions.htm

from Mark Layman

We did a thing we called UR Academy about 27 years ago in Fitchburg, Mass. It was a two week look at the five races of humanity and the contribution each has made to the other. We had a dragon parade down main street.(should have cleared it first with the police, but didn't. We used every pot'n'pan in the church, made a dragon head out of paper-mache, long plastic dragon from trash like bag material we got from a discount party place and used two CO₂ fire extinguishers for the flaming nostrils; had an afro-american art-music display (slept in the church sanctuary with the artwork, because with 1.5 million dollars worth of stuff and no insurance, we weren't taking any chances.) We used local elderly folks for story-tellers, who told the kids about what life was like when they grew up and how Buffalo Bill came once on a train to Fitchburg. UR Academy was from UR the launching point of Faith Journeys (Abram's) and Academy from the greek academy idea where the student and teacher walked and talked, learning from each other. NOT the traditional idea of VBS, but then we made the front page of the local paper two or three times the first week, and they called us to find out what we were "going to do next." (We didn't need a publicity budget that year.)

from Michael Kundrat

Last year was my first year of coordinating VBS with another member. We had a great time and alot of enthusiam. We start off our VBS on Sunday night with a dinner. This year our theme is "Promise Builders for Jesus" by Standard Publishing. So our dinner theme is build your own Subs. Our VBS is in the evening so the whole family is included. We have classes for all ages, nursery for under 2 and at least 2 adult classes. We are going to ask senior high class to help with the children. We include with our nightly Bible lesson, music, crafts,skits (this year by our puppet ministry, snacks and recreation. VBS runs for 5 nights and on the fifth night we close with a huge sundae to be shared by all.

Geanie Schmidt from Cokesbury United Methodist Church in Margate, Fl.

I am entering my third year as planner, designer, coordinator co-chairman of our VBS. Our church had discontinued doing traditional VBS, because no one was available to take the whole week off, plus all the pre-activity planning that was necessary. So, on a week-end woman's retreat, another Mom and I decided to offer to do a shorter, evening and Saturday program. We also wanted to avoid the "I don't want to be a teacher" problem that had come up in the past.

Our first year's program was designed after my little home-town Christmas pageant that is still going on after 60-some years. On Friday night, the children watched drama and did activities that told the story of Jesus birth. Teens played the part of Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and angel. The evening ended with a nativity scene and a real baby. The next morning, they saw King Herod hold court, with a visit from the three wise men. Then, the day was filled with parables and stories and crafts. Several of the stories were done in such a way that the children took turns playing all the parts in the story.

The second year we told the story of Moses. The mistake we made the second year was to plan too much, too long on Saturday. The children again watched drama. Some of the activies that year were making bricks of mud and (shredded paper) straw, making sandals out of ribbon and cardboard, constructing buildings out of large boxes and tape, then moving the buildings from one place to another.

This year our subject will be Joseph. The program will be held Friday eve., Saturday morning and will close during Sunday School, with a presentation of some kind done during the church service.

I would be glad to share any of our scripts, stories and ideas with anyone who would wish them.

Barbara fredonia@cjnetworks.com

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Closing celebration

Each year during our VBS we take several rolls of slide film, have them developed at an overnight processor, then arrange them to a song which is sung by someone from the church (using an accompaniment tape, so that it will come out the way it was rehearsed). This slide show is then shown at the end of our closing program. The children love seeing themselves on the "big screen" and will drag their parents out to the closing program for this slide show. The Gospel is always clearly presented at these programs as well, so that many parents hear it who might not otherwise.

Malcolm and Pegeen McConnell

We have a vacation bible school in our town that always has a turtle race. There are a lot of turtles out around vbs time. They have a contest for the fastest, biggest, smallest, etc. This is a great way to get the community involved. We always look forward to vbs because of the turtle race, and are always on the look out for great turtle prospects! After the turtle race they have watermelon. I think it is a great community outreach, and a great way to get parents to come to the last night.

First Baptist Church, Newcastle, OK

Mission ideas

I always check with the Mission person in the church about what ideas may be available in our area. One year the West Side Community House in downtown Cleveland was building a new playground, so our VBS collected money to help with the building of it. This year I found out that the Sunday after VBS we would have a guest minister from the Berea Childrens Home (a home for abuse children, fragile infants, etc.). I asked what projects they had going on and found out that they were in need of sports equipment for the children. So we will collect for soccer balls, basketballs, etc. - something our children can relate to. We also have had videos and speakers from the places we give to. It helps the kids to see where their money goes and what the places look like.

Mary Hitch North Royalton United Methodist Church N. Royalton, OH

As a small church in the far suburban area of a city, we invited children from a city church to spend our VBS week with us. Families opened their homes so the visitors could spend the week in the country. Our visitors experienced new adventures of seeing cows up close and pick-your-own orchards. Our church children learned how different life can be for children who don't live so very far away. For anyone considering this, we know now more information about the children would have helped (e.g. a child with great fear of pets was placed with a family with several cats.) If at all possible, families hosting children should not be those families with members in leadership roles in the VBS program. (Adults felt themselves pulled too many directions when trying to provide special times for the children, care for their own families and also be fully prepared for their VBS sessions.)

Nancy Guenther Marshallton United Methodist Church, West Chester, PA

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Music ideas

Last year I found several musicians in the community who were willing to come in and be part of the music program for VBS. My chiropractor played the bass guitar; my neighbor played lead guitar; a friend of mine played the keyboard; and the granddaughter of a member of the congregation who was studying music taught songs and lead the singing. This group worked for a period of time with each age group and then closed out the program for the evening at a brief worship session. We had excellent music and everybody enjoyed it!

from a Web surfer

Publicity

We hand deliver flyers to every residence in our immediate community two weeks (or so) prior to VBS. That's over 2,000 flyers; but it's cheap publicity.

We have received permission from the local grocery chain to take their large paper bags, paste a VBS flyer to the bag (hand colored by children), then they're used as regular grocery sacks when people buy groceries. They're taking home a VBS ad.

Mike Mansfield, pastor; Wesley UMC; Ludlow, KY

VBS Costs

Our congregation has only a $62,000 annual budget; but our VBS program has grown from 19-222 over the past five years and is still growing.
Two funding methods we use are:
1. We do the school ecumenically and ask each church to donate. (The school is OUR VBS but it is done so well others have wanted to join with us. We had more than 70 workers last year; but our average worship attendance is only 43. 2. We ask area businesses to donate money and/or supplies. For example the local Kroger supermarket donated several cases of their generic brand soft drinks, a local butcher donated hundreds of hot dogs, the local "day old" bread store donated dozens of hot dog buns, etc.. Mike Mansfield, pastor; Wesley UMC; Ludlow, KY

What I have found works for us in the area of funding, is that we include VBS as a line item in our CE budget and hold different fund raising activities during the year. We have been able to cover the cost completely this year and will have about $200 left to start with next year. The funds are earmarked for just VBS and they are used for nothing else.

We also supply T-Shirts with the theme on them each year but we design them ourselves and purchase them locally. Last year we saved over $300.00 dollars on our T-Shirts alone. (Cost was still $600). It is a great tool however and well worth the cost, since the kids wear these shirts all year round and look forward to getting a new one each year. The shirts are given to those who attend at least 4 of 5 nights.

Something else we have done is to hold our VBS in the evenings, it allows more parents to participate and they supply the cookies or other eatables themselves and this too saves on monies. Our VBS runs from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM 5 nights and a graduation program on Sunday Morning at Church. The seams bust out every year in our church and some folks who normally don't attend church do so for this program.

from John Quigley, FUMC Seadrift TX

Over the years I have discovered a wonderful way to cut the costs for our VBS. We began approaching the merchants in our area and offering them the opportunity to help with donations. We get everything we need for snacks from grocery stores and fast food restaurants. These businesses love helping, because not only are they investing in the children of our community, but we are providing free advertisement for them. We might get cups from Burger King, napkins from Braums, and ketchup packets from Sonic. We make a list of everything we will need, then present it to the businesses in a letter. We have never been turned down by anyone! By doing this, we are able to provide great snacks to the children, not just cookies and Koolaid. Last year we had pizza donated for 200 kids by three different pizza restaurants. We've served everything from hamburgers & hot dogs, to hot fudge sundaes!

After VBS we print up the names of everyone who made a donation and place a thank you note in our church bulletin. Then we mail a copy of the bulletin, along with a personal thank you note, to each merchant. It has been a wonderful link between our church and local businesses.

from Shelley Mullins, Children's Pastor at Bethany Fellowship, Ft. Worth, TX

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