Is Galactic Blast the right VBS for your church? Read my review to learn some pros and cons of the 2010 Vacation Bible School from Cokesbury. The tagline for Galactic Blast is “A Cosmic Adventure in Praising God.” Each day is about a characteristic of God and how we can respond with worship. The theme Bible verse is Psalm 150:6 which says, “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!”
This is the first year I’ve covered the VBS curriculum from Cokesbury. I want to thank Michael Auliso for sending me a starter kit to review here on the website. My first impressions of Galactic Blast VBS were very positive. They did a great job revealing the theme last summer with a series of teaser videos. So, I was excited to spend a few hours taking a closer look.
My Video Review
2010 Galactic Blast Preview Video
Galactic Blast Daily Content
- Mission 1: Creation of the Universe, Genesis 1:1-2:4
Our God is wonderful! Praise God! - Mission 2: Elijah at Mt. Horeb, 1 Kings 19:4-18
Our God is incredible! Praise God! - Mission 3: The Woman at the Well, John 4:1-42
Our God is amazing! Praise God! - Mission 4: A Blind Beggar in Jericho, Luke 18:35-43
Our God is magnificent! Praise God! - Mission 5: Two Disciples in Emmaus, Luke 24:13-32
Our God is awesome! Praise God!
My Review of Galactic Blast Vacation Bible School
First, check out the preview video above. You will get a feel for how this VBS program will work out in real life. Cokesbury was kind enough to send me a review copy of the Galactic Blast curriculum. Here are the notes I took when looking it over.
Space Theme: The first standout feature of this VBS is how well the space theme is integrated into the curriculum. Most of the booklets in their material have real photographs of astronauts, space shuttles, or planets. They made it easy to imagine this theme in my church.
Excellent Directors Manual: Most of all, I was impressed with the clarity of their director’s booklet. At 144 pages, it seemed to cover every detail without overloading the director. The layout is easy to read with clear visual clues about important content. I love the tear-out page format and pre-punched holes for my organizer. Inside, you will find excellent planning tips, directions for VBS leader training, parent letters, job descriptions, checklists, and planning forms. It has every feature I could image and then some. This Vacation Bible School manual is a valuable resource. I would feel very comfortable handing it over to a volunteer leader to organize our VBS.
Science Content: I was also pleased with the way Cokesbury has included science content into their VBS program. Each hands on science activity concludes by praising God for the physical universe he has made. This is a great way to help children integrate science with their belief in God. They also have environmental tips and geography elements included in the opening assembly time.
Going Green Tips: According to the description, cadets will “gain a new perspective on our planet Earth, and learn easy “green” earth tips they can practice at home.” This is the first “going green” elements that I’ve seen from a major VBS publisher. Global warming, climate change and environmental awareness are issues many denominations are still ignoring. But caring for the creation is a value with good support in traditional Christian theology. These going green tips are only a small component of the theme and are relegated to the opening assembly.
You Get Options: I liked the way this theme offers several options for VBS directors to choose. This comes out in the snacks, rotation schedule, Bible lesson presentations, and games. For example, each day’s science activity gives you three difference options.
Music: This theme includes 8 original songs and 2 familiar worship songs. The musical arrangement will appeal to kids. You can hear samples on the official Galactic blast website. To get the most out of the music you will want to purchase the Mega Media Pack, which is not included in the basic starter kits.
Missions: In this VBS, missions is taught using stories of real kids who saw a need and chose to make a difference in the world. These are very inspiring and will motivate kids to make a difference in their own worlds. Here are some samples on the Cokesbury website.
Concerns: My major concern with this VBS relates to the Gospel. In almost every way Galactic Blast is a God-centered curriculum. Each lesson highlights an aspect of God’s character and praise Him for it. Despite this, I could find only one mention of the cross and very little emphasis on our personal need for salvation.
The cross matters because this is where we can clearly see the intersection of God’s attributes. Both God’s love and justice are on display when Jesus died in our place. The atonement gives us the deepest insight into God’s character and the best reason to praise Him. Without the cross, we would still be God’s enemies. Understanding the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection is the ultimate motive for us to lay down our lives in service to others. Leaving out these elements is my one disappointment in an otherwise excellent VBS program. If you share this concern, be ready to add extra Gospel content to your teaching time.
Resources for Cokesbury’s Galactic Blast VBS
In this section, I’ll add links to resources that will help churches who are using Cokesbury’s Galactic Blast. If you know of more resources, leave a note in the comment section below.
- Visit the official website from Cokesbury VBS. They will have decorating ideas, and other suggestions as VBS 2010 gets closer. You can also sign up for their email newsletter.
- Follow Cokesbury VBS on Twitter
- Read my interview with Michael Auliso from Cokesbury / Abington Press
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I was a staff member at a test church this year in West Virginia. The children had a “blast” at Galactic Blast. It was a lot of hard work but well worth it. I would be happy to answer any questions.
The second most important aspect of VBS for our church is the music. The first being the Bible lessons. Can you describe the songs for this VBS? Thanks!
The music is great. Our kids enjoyed the theme song “Galactic blast.” There are 10 songs. I don’t know if Cokesbury will decide to use them all or not. There is a song with all the “Praise Phrases” that is good. The kids liked the upbeat songs, but did really well with the slower songs. We had one of our church members sign one of the songs. Some of the songs are easy to learn, harder for the preschoolers, but they tried. The songs were great with the theme. This was a very rewarding experience. Hope I answered your question.
I am looking at this curriculum for our VBS next spring…does anyone know what kind of drama it comes with? We like to have at least a 5-10 minute drama each day with a few key characters. My impression from the website was that the drama was one key character and a puppet. Am I missing something? Thanks!
Hi Becky!
Let me try to answer your question. There are daily skits that take place during the opening and closing assemblies. The skits feature the commander of the Starship Galactic Praise and Galileo, the Galactic Green Gorilla. They set up the missions for each day and introduce the daily praise phrases and “green tips.” In addition to that is a video link with our own talking GPS – Galactic Praise Satellite – which shows the children views from outer space as well as a “Google Earth” type look back at earth to see where the day’s Bible story might have taken place.
Hope this helps, but feel free to let me know if you have any follow up questions! Thanks!
I love the way the curriculum has a space theme which will be of interest to the kids in my church. I also love the science projects and green ideas as we are trying to implement those things at church and home.
Laura
Wow, Space or Scuba,, both would be awesome themes to share God’s word and salvation to our kids.
I love the video presentation. It has the visuals, high energy music, and even the costumes, but I’m sure we won’t have all that. My church is very small and has a low budget. I wonder if it would have he same effect without those props. I tried to get a price but the downloading took too long.
But I’m sure my kids would love it. However, I won’t be using it as a week long program, but for our Sunday children service.
Hi May!
Galactic Blast is easily adaptable for smaller churches with a lower budget. If you have 35 children or less, I would recommend the Smaller Church Pak which includes leader guides, the music CD, a package of nametags, and a package of invitation postcards. It is $49.99.
Also, most of the decorations you saw in the video were created by church members from items donated by their congregation. The Decorating Guide (and Galactic Blast website) contains tons of ideas and pictures of what churches can use to decorate if they choose not to purchase the decorations Cokesbury offers for purchase.
Please let me know if I failed to answer any of your questions or if you have any other questions!
Michael,
Thanks for being active in the comments here. People can really see the support level Cokesbury gives.
I love the feel and energy of this VBS. It looks like the kids are reallly having a good time. My only reservation would be in decorating. The video and website showed a lot of elaborate decor that we may not be able to replicate. Do you think this VBS would have the same feel and energy with less visual and physical decorations?
There did seem to be a lot of “space” that was decorated in those photos. On the flip side, we don’t have that much space so our efforts could actually be intensified and even more interesting. Previously we decorated a techy” scene before,largely using left over computer parts from a school, recycled materials like old CDs and garage sale finds to make a space station, robots, a time machine and other things (SILVER SPRAY PAINT EVEN MAKES OLD GOLF CLUBS AND SAP BUCKETS LOOK SPACE AGE!.) we had a very small budget but a big desire to serve. The children (and parents) were blessed. additionally, we told the children that the space station needed more robots as the mission was very large. we gave them an additional mission to create and bring in more robots throughout the week to get all the work done. Each child that brought in a robot (made of every conceivable material) got their picture taken with it, and displayed their robot in the station. The robots were in different places each day, performing different duties! The children were delighted to see their creations incorporated into the set each day. An additional benefit was that quite a number of robots were a product of some great bonding time between parent and child. (some of the robots I made adorn my gardens during the summer)
I really like the excitement of the test church but, as a small church using VBS as an evangelism tool, the decorating shown in these test programs tends to discourage rather than captivate. I always “assumed” the publisher helped with props but as stated earlier the church did their own. We don’t have the resources to get that elaborate and would love to see a pilot program designed with the basic decorations a small church could feel good about. While we love to draw the kids in with eye-catching decor, the message and lessons are first and formost, this program has that. I like that service is included and centers on serving the earth that God made. Great tie in with the theme.
In reviewing this material for VBS, i wondered if the scripture material was from the KJV of the Bible or some of the newer
editions. We only use KJV in our materials.
Thanks,
Kathy Martin
Hi Kathy!
Galactic Blast VBS primarily uses NRSV.
Hi,
The music sounds good. I do enjoy the quality of Cokesbury materials and have found the company to be very supportive and accomodating overall. I am left wishing they had better crafts, seems like I can always think of crafts/games that connect w/the theme that I prefer over what they have. I am hoping to get craft ideas and game ideas from other leaders due to this. I am not planning to purchase any of the craft items but will use the glow in the dark beads for another idea. One of my favorite pieces that keeps me looking at Cokesbury is the quality videos that they have to offer for assembly time. I haven’t seen any other company offer anything similar as well as a drama piece. Cokesbury VBS is appealing to me because of quality, video,drama piece that allows parishioners to participate, original and theme-like music,the overall Word and message that connect, organization, variety of ideas, trinkets and tshirts. Their themes have been very appealing to a broad range of ages. I think they’re lacking in crafts and I have to do a lot of copy/paste and rewording to chop up the “skits” and make them work for us, time consuming. I also spend a lot of time reading ALL of the manuals and making 1 large notebook that includes the relevant pages to me for each day. It’s hard to read and go back from one manual to the next but they are well-written and contain very useful info. Finally, I just wish there were a way to make it less time consuming and I’m not sure about decorating, may purchase the large space picture that comes in tiles. I like the silver spray paint idea that I read and we have a very crafty person in our church who really does a ton and gets into each theme that we decorate for. Well, please share any ideas you have as I think we’re going to go forward with Galactic Blast! I wish I could figure out how to make a space suit easily! Nikki 
We have used Cokesbury the last two years(Beach Party, CAMP E.D.G.E) and are looking at Galactic Blast for this year as well. I am missing the posters but see the powerpoint slides. I wish they offered the lyrics in poster format again, they’re great for assemblies(although there were always a few songs that were not included in the posters), worth the money and w/o them I have to handcopy everything onto poster board.
Hi!
My church is doing This VBS this summer, and I was assigned music director. I was wondering how good the music was, and are the moves to the songs easy for kids to learn.
Magan
I am helping to run an ecumenical (three churches) VBS this summer and so far love what I see with this package. One thing we *thought* we saw mentioned was Cokesbury’s offering of an online registration tool – can anyone expound on that for me? I’m having a little trouble navigating to more info on the subject on the website.