5 VBS Volunteers that Make a BIG Difference
We had 8 weeks to pull off the biggest event of the year for 100 kids and 30 volunteers. To make it even more complicated this was the first VBS the church hosted in years, I started the position in mid-May with the VBS to be held the last week of July, and I got married the week following.
It was one of the hardest few months of my ministry career and by the grace of God we pulled it off. Kids accepted Jesus, learned about the Bible, and the church was encouraged.
I learned so much that first year and have built upon that experience ever since.
One of my biggest mistakes was trying to do it all. I’m a high-capacity person and sometimes (frequently in my younger days) over-confident. VBS has a way of humbling you. I learned quickly I need to give responsibilities away.
Many of the curriculums I’ve used over the years give you an idea of how many volunteers you need and where they should serve. However, if you’re doing a VBS for 100 kids or more, these lists can be found lacking. They’ll list small group leaders and station leaders, but what about registration? Décor? Marketing? Supply management?
Over the years I’ve added several positions to my VBS that have helped me reach more kids and made my workload so much simpler.
That’s a lot of people wandering around without someone in charge. What happens if they have questions? Problems? Lose their schedule? Who covers for a missing leader or when they’re late or have to leave early?
At my first VBS, I ran into all of these problems. Once, I stopped two preschool crews heading to elementary crafts instead of preschool Bible. When I asked where they were going one of them dropped their crew bags in desperation and said, “Because we don’t know where (expletive) we’re going!”
Cursing in front of preschoolers aside, I knew I had a problem. My solution was to create a new position called Crew Captain. This leader leads a crew like everyone else, but they’re a veteran and high-capacity leader. They make sure all the other leaders know where they’re going and when, handle basic behavior issues, and fill in the gaps when leaders are late or missing.
I told my crew leaders that if they have a problem or question, they should go to this leader first and if they can’t answer, go to my assistant director, then me.
I had some of my best leaders in these positions and they loved the opportunity to serve at a higher level.
It was one of the hardest few months of my ministry career and by the grace of God we pulled it off. Kids accepted Jesus, learned about the Bible, and the church was encouraged.
I learned so much that first year and have built upon that experience ever since.
One of my biggest mistakes was trying to do it all. I’m a high-capacity person and sometimes (frequently in my younger days) over-confident. VBS has a way of humbling you. I learned quickly I need to give responsibilities away.
Many of the curriculums I’ve used over the years give you an idea of how many volunteers you need and where they should serve. However, if you’re doing a VBS for 100 kids or more, these lists can be found lacking. They’ll list small group leaders and station leaders, but what about registration? Décor? Marketing? Supply management?
Over the years I’ve added several positions to my VBS that have helped me reach more kids and made my workload so much simpler.
Here are five VBS volunteers that make a BIG difference
1. Crew Captain
Most VBSs split the kids into small groups of 5-8 kids (let’s call them crews for clarity) and then group those crews into larger groups. These groups then travel together as they rotate through activity stations. Depending on the size of your group, you could have anywhere from 5-15 or more volunteers navigating from station to station, taking kids to the bathroom, and keeping them contained during snack time.That’s a lot of people wandering around without someone in charge. What happens if they have questions? Problems? Lose their schedule? Who covers for a missing leader or when they’re late or have to leave early?
At my first VBS, I ran into all of these problems. Once, I stopped two preschool crews heading to elementary crafts instead of preschool Bible. When I asked where they were going one of them dropped their crew bags in desperation and said, “Because we don’t know where (expletive) we’re going!”
Cursing in front of preschoolers aside, I knew I had a problem. My solution was to create a new position called Crew Captain. This leader leads a crew like everyone else, but they’re a veteran and high-capacity leader. They make sure all the other leaders know where they’re going and when, handle basic behavior issues, and fill in the gaps when leaders are late or missing.
I told my crew leaders that if they have a problem or question, they should go to this leader first and if they can’t answer, go to my assistant director, then me.
I had some of my best leaders in these positions and they loved the opportunity to serve at a higher level.
My volunteers and leaders were happy.
She did her best, but the system was so bad many of my station leaders didn’t have what they needed when they needed it. Many supplies remained tied up in a bag in the supply room, or we didn’t get it in the first place.
Thankfully after that disaster, I had a highly organized lady (angel?) offer to take over my supplies. She became my first supply coordinator, and I had no idea how much I needed her.
Depending on the complexity of your VBS, each station needs a mountain of supplies every day and many times the lists are decentralized and vague. With all the other details of VBS, it’s way too much to keep track of by yourself.
2. Supply Coordinator
At my first VBS, the supplies were a mess. I had each supply in a separate grocery bag spread around the perimeter of a room. I then had a stay-at-home mom literally spend all day going through those supplies and placing the appropriate supplies in their respective stations.She did her best, but the system was so bad many of my station leaders didn’t have what they needed when they needed it. Many supplies remained tied up in a bag in the supply room, or we didn’t get it in the first place.
Thankfully after that disaster, I had a highly organized lady (angel?) offer to take over my supplies. She became my first supply coordinator, and I had no idea how much I needed her.
Depending on the complexity of your VBS, each station needs a mountain of supplies every day and many times the lists are decentralized and vague. With all the other details of VBS, it’s way too much to keep track of by yourself.
Every year, I’ve asked for donations and inevitably, I’ll have someone ask me questions like, “what kind? How long? How many?” By having a supply coordinator who is living and breathing this stuff, I can go to them to find out.
In addition, as the VBS draws closer, I’d have each station leader meet with the supply coordinator to go over everything we have, what we still need, and what we’re not going to use. The coordinator would then make a list of supplies for each day and attach it to the lid of a bin that contained all the supplies.
All the station leader had to do was open their bin, find what they needed for that day, and they were ready.
My station leaders were happy.
As the director, I found I couldn’t get ready to be on the stage, make sure all the station leaders have all their stuff, find subs for the missing crews, and solve registration problems. All within a span of 15 minutes in as many locations.
So, I recruited a registration director. This leader owned the registration process from beginning to end. They knew how pre-registration and new registration worked and helped me assign kids to crews before and during the VBS. They made sure parents were happy as we kept friends and siblings together and insured that safety protocols were being followed at check-in and check-out.
After check-in, many of my registration people will help other stations, but my registration director will stay and update rosters, move kids around as needed, and give me a total attendance number by the end of the night.
3. Registration Director
Registration is a completely different beast than what everyone else is doing. I started having a separate training for them after our main training to make sure they knew what was expected.As the director, I found I couldn’t get ready to be on the stage, make sure all the station leaders have all their stuff, find subs for the missing crews, and solve registration problems. All within a span of 15 minutes in as many locations.
So, I recruited a registration director. This leader owned the registration process from beginning to end. They knew how pre-registration and new registration worked and helped me assign kids to crews before and during the VBS. They made sure parents were happy as we kept friends and siblings together and insured that safety protocols were being followed at check-in and check-out.
After check-in, many of my registration people will help other stations, but my registration director will stay and update rosters, move kids around as needed, and give me a total attendance number by the end of the night.
It’s not uncommon for kids to move to different crews throughout the event. As part of my closing meeting, I would ask my crew leaders to tell my registration director about the changes, so they would be assigned the correct spot.
I never wanted a parent to show up early to pick up and not be able to find their kid because they were in a different group.
A lot of times with free VBSs you’ll have people pre-register and never show up. As a result, their name is taking up space preventing another kid from joining that crew. My registration director kept track of these kids and made cuts and moves as necessary. All her work during the VBS saved me hours or daily prep work.
The director made my parents and registration volunteers happy.
4. Chief Decorator
Some curriculums call for a lot of decorations and others not as much. They make your environment fun and exciting as kids come and are transported to another place.If you let it, decorating can take the lion share of your time and budget. My first VBS, my wife and I hand painted over 100 beakers with 4 different coats of paint. We held work nights 5 nights a week for three weeks leading up to our VBS. We were exhausted by the time it rolled around and while the beakers looked great, I started to wonder about the investment we’d made.
I’m not very crafty and by not very I mean not at all, so bringing on a Chief Decorator helped shore up my weakness as they made the environment look great while staying on budget. They had ideas for materials and talent for creating pieces I had never dreamed of. Many times, I’d find a cool decoration idea from a Facebook group and not long after they’d have a facsimile.
You’ll want to recruit this person early to start talking about ideas, collecting supplies, and creating sketches. Then release them to make some magic.
The decorator made my kids happy.
5. Marketing Coordinator
One of my strengths is marketing, so I’ve never had one of these for VBS. However, I know many people don’t know how to create and implement a marketing plan.A lot of people during the summer are looking for a VBS and there is a little bit of “If you build it, they will come,” magic especially in the southeast where I’m from. Nevertheless, even if you have the greatest event planned, if you don’t tell the community that you’re doing it, they’re never going to come.
Your marketing coordinator needs to either create or commission your graphics, videos, Facebook and Google ads, website, invite cards, follow up cards and so much more. Whatever they need to do to get the word out before, during, and after.
A lot of curriculums provide these things and great ones give the tools a graphic designer needs to build great pieces that are specific to your church. If you start advertising VBS at Easter, recruit this person by January. Give them all they need and talk with them frequently about what you want and expect.
Their work brings more kids and families to your VBS and hopefully more to your church and most importantly into the Kingdom.
They make you happy.
If you’d like more tips on how to market your VBS read my post here where I show you step by step what to do regardless of what curriculum you’re using.
VBS is large, complex, exhausting, rewarding, exhilarating, and just plain fun. Adding these positions to support you and the event will help you have a much better summer. What’s more, your capacity will increase, and you can reach even more kids than you thought possible.
Make sure to come up with a job description for each one before you recruit them. Then, work closely with them giving them the resources and freedom they need as they soar in their God-given strengths creating a fantastic event and reaching more for Jesus.
If you’d like more tips on how to market your VBS read my post here where I show you step by step what to do regardless of what curriculum you’re using.
VBS is large, complex, exhausting, rewarding, exhilarating, and just plain fun. Adding these positions to support you and the event will help you have a much better summer. What’s more, your capacity will increase, and you can reach even more kids than you thought possible.
Make sure to come up with a job description for each one before you recruit them. Then, work closely with them giving them the resources and freedom they need as they soar in their God-given strengths creating a fantastic event and reaching more for Jesus.
If you’d like to read more about VBS you can find the posts here.
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