One of the most popular feature on Ministry-To-Children.com has been my reviews of Vacation Bible School curriculum. At first this was mostly about finding the right VBS for my church, but I was glad to help so many other children’s ministers and church volunteers find the right Vacation Bible School. favorite
Which Vacation Bible School Is The Most Popular?
I’ve been asking this question. I would guess sales figures would favor publishers that deal with the larger churches. The only democratic way to find out is to run a poll – or better yet and election!
Vacation Bible School Elections
So, for fun I thought we would make this poll an election style deal. For the 1st round (primaries) you can pick your top three choices. This round will run through Thursday May 8th. If you are reading the e-mail newsletter click here to vote.
Have fun!
[poll id="7"]
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I really appreciate you reviewing the VBS curriculums. You can’t assume just because you used a certain company’s material last year that the current stuff will be what you’re wanting. There’s so many options and this is the first place I’ve seen an actual list of what’s out there and who publishes it, so THANK YOU. We’re planning on using Cosmic City this year and last year we used Concordia’s which was excellent content-wise.
Julie’s last blog post..Crummy Church Signs: Humm….are you idiots??
Normally every year I use Gospel Light. In the distant past I used Group for a couple of years. This year I found Cook’s 2003 God’s Allstar Champions in my library, never having been used. So we are using that, as I wanted to a sports theme anyway.
Glen Woods’s last blog post..Learning Compassion From a Gang
We used to use Cook because it was so easy for our very small church to use. Unfortunately, they went to the same format as everyone else a year or two ago, which requires more volunteers. We’ve had to make do with other programs. I’m looking forward to using AiG’s Amazon Expedition this year, but we have had to rework our entire set-up and try to recruit more help. I miss the old Cook programs!
We have used Standard’s materials mostly because they are the only ones of the materials I have found that have material for the teens. We plan to use it again this year for the same reason. Does anyone have any other experience with any other teen materials?
You need an “other” button. We buy everything that is a year old and have members of our church rewrite the lessons. It’s great! So, we are using “Galilee by the Sea” from last year.
Gretchen’s last blog post..The Gospel and Children’s Ministry
Gretchen – Done; Poll Updated. Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve heard of churches using last years material to save money and use props/decorations from other churches.
We used to do something similar when we used LifeWay. The churches in our area would pass around the leftover supplies and custom decorations to one another after their VBS week was up. I’ve been told that one year our stuff was used in over five churches!
We’re using Cosmic City this year. Our congregation is predominantly older folks, so we have very few children. We’ll follow the same format as last year because it worked well for us: a one night event in late June where we invite other kids, 8 weeks of using the materials in Children’s Church, and a closing program in morning worship in August. Cosmic City seemed to be the easiest this year to adapt that way. I especially like the music!
Thanks for your reviews, Gretchen. What a labor of love! I would like to see someone divide the available programs into general categories, such as “Evangelism,” “Foundational Truths,” “Spiritual Growth,” “Fun and Games,” “Physical Fitness and the Gospel,” and so on. You can wear out a theme after a while, and being able to change themes could be a refreshing change for both the kids and the workers. And sometimes the name of the program does not reveal its category. “The joy of the Lord” is a great thing, indeed, for God’s precious children. And VBS brings out that joy!
We used God’s Big Backyard from Standard Publishing. We’re huge fans of their resources and music. I love being able to project backgrounds from a CD onto a sheet and have a classroom transformed into an ancient town. Having clipart in all formats was a great help too. The music was phenominal and the lessons on serving were absolutely inspiring to children and adults alike!
We just finished our VBS and the week was fantastic. We used Group Publishing’s “Power Lab: Discovering Jesus’ Miraculous Power.” The kids loved it and so did all the VBS workers. There are sooo many hands-on activities. The kids keep very busy learning in multi-sensory ways with this curriculum, and the worship music is fantastic! We would highly recommend this VBS curriculum. The only difficult part of it all was that Group sold out of the supplies “needed” for Chadder’s Theatre (Cinema Science). Praise God we were able to get our hands (last minute) on ONE kit and it was enough for 100 kids. Most of the games/experiments were pretty easy to pull off or to improvise with. When you have kids NOT wanting the week to end because they had so much fun – makes ALL the fuss worth it all!
My favorite VBS was Walk It Out. I think the adults and youth really enjoyed the lesson , the music , the food that went along with each day’s lesson. The crafts were phenomenol especially the community quilt that each group made. Each day they learned new power words and events in a multiculral way. They learned new songs and dance routines that were unbelieveable.
WE used MEGA SPORTS CAMP (Game Plan) and it was awesome…. 19 saved, 12 recommited their lives to Christ. The curriculum was easy to use and had awesome resources as well as online updates. The catolog was included so I was able to buy everything I needed in one place. Also the props and set up was effortless. A few sports backdrops and a couple of items from the catalog and I was done. The curriculum rocks! Don’t miss out. Use Mega Sports Camp next year!!!! It is by GPH (Gospel Publishing House). The curriculum is also easily adaptable, you can add or take away without hassle or stress. DO IT NEXT YEAR!
Thanks for all the great thoughts about 2008 VBS. It really helps to get all the extra feeback, especially since I was only able to really use one curriculum in our church.
Keep up the great comments.
I am looking for a ONE-DAY VBS for our church. We are a small rural church with limited volunteers and a one-day works great for us. We did it last year and it was wonderful. I am looking for different curriculum to choose from. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Brenda
Our church used the Children Desiring God curriculum for VBS (Backyard Bible Club/VBS: http://www.childrendesiringgod.org/vbs.php) last year and will be using it again this year. Although they don’t have all the resources that other publishers have, their Bible teaching is SOLID! and challenges the kids more than ever to live God-centered lives. Last year we did “God Always Wins” and we came up with our own theme, the Olympics, and worked with our own materials and resources. This year we will be doing “Things Hidden” and will have a jungle safari theme. This curriculum only costs around $80 as opposed to the hundreds of dollars you pay for most publishers. One of the keys that’s helped us save money has been asking for donations from our congregation who are more than willing to help support a Children’s outreach program. Using the talents and gifts found in your church family is also key. Even in our small church, we have people who are gifted at decorating (painting, drawing, making things out of cardboard boxes, etc.), crafts (searching online for age-appropriate crafts), games, writing skits, designing logos… If you search hard enough, I’m sure you can find more than enough people with amazing ideas to make your VBS cost-effective. If you have any more questions of how we’ve made this happen, I’d love to answer them.
We have a small church and wanted to use 2008 God’s Big Backyard in July for our VBS but cannot find it. If anyone has used material we would be glad to purchase it from you.
Jeannine Combs
Lebanon UMC
Lower Salem OH
740.934.2621
I am looking for a vaction bible school kit that would range from 10 to 15 years old. There is a hand puppet in one of them that looks like a parrot. If anyone knows where I can find this I would be greatful.
Thanks
JC Sharp
304-574-1697