It’s that time of year and everyone is working on planning VBS. In this article, I’ll give you a simple 9 step process for organizing vacation Bible school. Then I’ll share some of my best practical tips about vacation Bible school. As always, you can leave a comment and help me make this resource better.
Update: This article was first posted last year, but I wanted to bring it back out for the VBS season. Let me know what you think – leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
Make prayer a part of your planning. I didn’t include praying as one of the steps below because it should be a part of every step. You’ll need God’s help at every point to make this year’s vacation Bible school an eternal success.
1. Determine your support level
It takes more than money to put together a great Bible school week. You’ll also need volunteers, donations, pastoral backing, facilities, and prayer partners. Before your launch into planning, take time to consider how much support is available. The approach you take will depend on how much backing is available. If you find low support, you might need to opt for a shortened schedule (3-days) or find another church to work with. If support level is high, you might be able to do something extra like an extended schedule (all-day or 2-weeks) or host a community wide VBS for several smaller churches to join.
2. Choose dates for your VBS
Several factors affect scheduling. In our town, we work around several major summer events like the county fair, the boat races and Relay for Life. It is also smart to check with other churches in town to see which weeks they have planned for VBS. Work together with church leaders to pick the best available week. (But there will always be someone on vacation.)
3. Choose & order curriculum for your VBS
I’ve written a whole article on How To Choose A Vacation Bible School Curriculum. This is an important step, because not all VBS themes will fit every church situation. Like everything, it’s better to start early and get the materials in hand ASAP. Most publishers include a very helpful guide to planning Bible school at your church. If you need more help finding the right curriculum, you can read my Vacation Bible School Curriculum Reviews.
4. Create a rotation schedule and room assignment chart
There are many right ways to do this. I tend to be as simple as possible. Your plan will be determined by your support level and facility setup. We have several large meeting rooms, so I prefer large group stations for crafts, music, learning and snack. You can download an example of my rotation schedule here.
5. Recruit volunteers for Vacation Bible School
The next step is to create your roster. To keep things simple, I put mine on the same document as the rotation schedule. The key to finding volunteers is relationships and helping volunteers find the right spot. Our church has many volunteers who work VBS every summer. I’ve written an article on this topic too: You can read more about finding volunteers for vacation Bible school.
6. Publicize and pre-register children for Bible school
Once all the pieces are in place (or at least you’re trying), it’s time to start promotion. Most churches will ask members to speak with their neighbors about coming to Bible school. I prefer a half-sheer registration flyer that also works for a promotion piece. Depending on your budget, advertising can be a major expense. We use a large sign on the road in front of our church to increase awareness. Some publishers offer online registration tools that can simplify the process.
7. Communicate the plan
Make sure all your volunteers know their roles before VBS starts. Some churches have multiple meetings to walk through the plan. For our church, I typically spare them the meeting but call everyone to make sure they are on the same page. If you do have a meeting, use it to encourage the workers and pray for God’s help.
6. Adjust as needed during VBS week
Even the best plans will need adjustments during Bible school week. For this reason, I try to delegate all the teaching responsibilities so I am free to make decisions during the week. If you’ve communicated your plan well, then adjustments should be minimal.
7. Follow up any new contacts made during Bible school
The missing step for most churches is to follow up after VBS. I suggest a letter from the pastor for all un-churched guests and possibly home visitations. If you have children who come to Christ, make these priorities. The most effective form of follow-up is to get prospects enrolled in Sunday school. If you struggle to make that happen, I recommend you read this article by Darryl Wilson: Grow Your Sunday School by Following Up Vacation Bible School. Tip: Write a follow-up letter for the children who attended VBS. You can send it home with them on the last day or mail it to them a week later. You can seem my sample VBS letter to children here.
8. Evaluate and make detailed notes
I keep a notebook open all week to record my observations from VBS. This has been my best teacher. During Bible school, you can see first hand things you may wish to do differently next year. So, write it down and file it away. If you’re brave, ask several key leaders to keep their own list. Have lunch together the week after Bible school and compare notes.
9. Say thank you to every volunteer
I’ve saved this one for last, but it is very important. We try to recognize volunteers at VBS graduation, in church the following Sunday, with personal thank you notes. Go the extra mile for key leaders and phone them to say thanks. Practically, you can’t do Bible school without the workers. Pray that God will bless them for all their hard work.
Need more ideas? Then here are six more ideas for how to plan VBS . . .
Practical Tips For Planning Vacation Bible School
- Begin early. Some people work best under pressure, but this is not true for team efforts such as vacation Bible school. Don’t wait until the last minute! If possible, have your volunteer roster filled several weeks early. Starting things late will cause stress and distract your focus from ministering to the children.
- Talk about it. Start talking to people as soon as you can. Be vocal about the progress of your VBS plan all through the process. This will help people share your excitement and provide redundant channels of communication. I’ve discovered that talking about Bible school with our church volunteers is a great way get feedback and to refine my ideas.
- Learn from last year. Even if this is your first year as VBS director, you can still get some great information by asking about what worked in the past. So, talk to volunteers from last year and see what they liked and what needs improvement.
- Have fun. Doing God’s work should bring joy into your life. Don’t let all the details and worries rob you of that. Besides, if the leaders aren’t having fun, then the kids will suffer.
- Find ideas online. Most major VBS publishers have forums on their website for churches to share ideas about the curriculum. This can be a great source of inspiration. Here are a few that I’ve checked out: LifeWay, Group, Gospel Light
- Keep it simple. This was the biggest lesson I learned after my first year leading Bible school. All those bells and whistles were distracting our people from the real ministry with the children. So, whenever possible go simple. Spend your time and energy on what will make a lasting difference, like relationships, prayer and teaching.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. You can get all my practical tips for children’s ministry by signing up for my free email newsletter. If you have something to add, please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
One thing that helps our church in planning VBS – it is always the third week of July. Once it ends for the year – our team has already decided which VBS material they will be using for the next and start promoting it. Helps gets the kids excited and keep them that way. VBS is one thing our church does exceedingly well. In 2007, we had 42 children come to know Christ! 42….. It was amazing to say the least. We treat our volunteers right too. We have a lounge where they can come and take a break and get breakfast, a snack and/or lunch. It’s just one way we show them they are appreciated and a vital part of VBS. It’s not a “us/them”…
Cameys last blog post.."Walked Away When 16."
Have an idea to ad to follow-up.
Every year, instead of having a closing program we have “VBS Sunday” and invite all of the children and their parents to our Sunday worship service.
We don’t have kids church and instead of the worship team we use the VBS songs and the kids lead from up front. Instead of preaching a full sermon the pastor uses the five points and Bible lessons from the weeks and inculdes some of the charcters, activities and stunts we did during the week to illustrate the points. We end with our traditional fellowship time.
We’ve had a pretty good community attendance and it helps to build the first bridge to get the families in on a Sunday morning with the rest of the congregation. We’re a small to medium sized church but have had at least a few families per year join us through this and I think the follow-up of VBS Sunday is a major help.
Camey,
Sounds like a great plan to have the set date each year for vacation bible school. It’s very good to hear how God has blessed your VBS.
Jamie,
I really like that idea. We’ve been doing our “VBS Program” on Sunday night with cookies afterward. But I could see that Sunday morning would really make for better results. Great tip – thanks for sharing.
Thank you for all the great information on VBS. Although I have a major concern for my church. My pasture recently stated that he is going to bring up in our next business meeting about not having VBS any more because for the last year we have
started Kingdom Builders which is a outreach ministry program that reaches kids and family and that alot of people are tired. Our congregation has grown through this program, and my pasture don’t think that we need to do both.
I am going to the next business meeting, I usually attend these meetings to keep up with what is going on inside and out of the church. What I am asking is, can you email me, to help me bring positive pros and cons on why we should keep VBS.
I have prayed about this and the Lord has directed me to your website can you please help.
Sincerely
Dan Wilcoxen
Dan,
Thanks for the question. There is a lot of good information on LifeWay and other sites about the impact of VBS. But I think it’s completely a church decision. There may be many churches doing VBS with little fruit. I would suggest doing something smaller like a 3 day VBS if the work is too much for the people. But if the expectations is for a major-major event, that would need to adjust.
Thank you so much for this great information that you have displayed in this site.
I know God works in ways we cannot see. VBS is truly a great help for the church, specially when finding the souls who are not yet found to follow JESUS as their LORD and SAVIOR. May God always continue giving his blessings to his children and show mercy to every people in the earth. GOD SAVE. TO GOD BE THE GLORY.
i am enjoying this
I am new to this web site and love every page!
I’ve coordinated VBS programs for the last 4 years and have learned a lot! The biggest thing has been not to try to reinvent the wheel. If you want to try something new, check around on line or with others involved with children’s ministry to see if they have tried similar things, what worked and what didn’t. If I had done that, I would have saved my self a lot of trouble the first couple of years!
Also, I have seen a lot of VBS programs that use the rotation schedule and go to different stations or rooms to do each activity, as Tony suggested above and it works great. Another “tactic” I have always used is giving each “team” of kids and leaders a team station. I’ve used a gym separating the stations with banquet tables and long table cloths. They do the crafts and small group lessons with their leaders at the team stations, then all the small groups come together for large group where we learn the songs and verses for the day, and have skits and stories. It works great to build team spirit, and for contests between the teams. (best decorated station, cleanest station…etc)
I’m looking forward to exploring this site! Thank you for this great resource Tony!
Mary,
Thank you so much for your encouraging comments!
My Son and his family live miles away recently they just had their 3rd son who is 2 months old…Our oldest Grandson was looking forward to attending Bilble School in this local neighborhood..His Mother dressed the boys and went to enroll…To Cody’s disappointment age 5 he was told he could not attend unless his Mother would stay to volunteer each day…Well this was impossible with a newborn breastfeeding and a recently turned 3 year old . My heart cries out to Cody and his Mother who recently gave birth…rejection no room at the Inn…Whatever happened to “Suffer Little Children come unto me. spirit of the church..and compassion…
Yes, for many years after VBS, its tough doing the follow up. I’m glad I did and will continue to do the same in years to come. I recycle the material every 10 years knowing the children who did before have grown and its ok to recycle, it only means I get more familiar and less preparation.
My husband and I lead a mission team to do VBS with the Native Americans. It seems as though most VBS curriculum is geared for those who have some knowledge of the Bible. Do you know of any material that is geared for those who are lost and have never heard of Jesus?
I have heard of some material from New Tribes missions, but its in a longer Sunday School format. Most VBS publishers assume some bible knowledge, but do a good job introducing kids to Jesus also.
I was asked by my pastor just a few days ago to conduct VBS for our church. I’ve never done this before and would appreciate as much help as possible. I read the nine steps for planning and that is a great help, plus the suggestions on creating stations. Thank you for this site because it has helped already.
Hi! I want to say “Thanks!” I am a member of a small church and we can’t afford to spend the money on Children’s Ministry at this time. I appreciate the help I get from reading others ideas and their successes and failures in the ministry.
Pray for us. This year I am doing a Noah’s Ark theme for one day. Does anyone have any ideas how to simulate an ark? I thought of trying to borrow a boat and improvise from there. However, any ideas will help. Also, I will need animals. I was thinking of stuffed animals, but would like to have 2 of each. Please pray for our success!
Do you have any examples of a schedule for a 1-day VBS? We are taking our VBS on a Mission Trip and I have always done a 5-day Bible school. I have never done a 1-day Bible School and I have no idea how to plan it.