Lead Well

If you have looked into running a VBS at all you will soon realize that it is not cheap.  Sure the craft looks cheap at 1.50 per unit, but multiply that by 150 and it is all of a sudden not so cheap.  An additional expense to VBS not including supplies for each class is decorating the main room and each classroom. Last year I made a list of everything I will need for VBS and sent some volunteers on a scavenger hunt.  Keep in mind that this was done 4 months in advance.  I had them go around and label paint, find decorations, and locate supplies.  Just by them looking for what we needed and using what was already available, I was able to save hundreds of dollars. In addition to looking for what your church already owns, make a booth where members can see what you need and provide for you.  Group suggested this to me for Power Lab by making a molecule wall.  Members who helped me during the actual week of VBS or not were able to participate simply by picking sheets of paper off a wal

A very important part of VBS is the team you're working with.  It is impossible to have a successful VBS without an incredible group of people working around you.  These people bring creativity, ideas, skills, and resources that you could never have imagined.  Sometimes getting people on the team is all about putting them in the right place.  Jim Collins talks about this concept in Good to Great.  He says that building a team is like getting people on a bus.  You may have the right people, but you must get them in the right seat as well. I am reminded of how this concept worked for me.  I had one volunteer who is an incredible organizer, but is also good at crafts.  I originally wanted her to work in crafts, but because of outside circumstances became a regular crew leader.  The next year she said that she would not like to be a crew leader again.  I was worried that I might lose an incredible volunteer so I asked her what she would like to do.  She said that she did not like h

So we've picked a VBS, now what do we do?  In planning a VBS, we have to think about the big picture at get smaller and smaller as the event gets closer.  When I did my first VBS, I had to decide what time to do it.  No one time is the right time for any church and if you don't get it right the first time that's ok.  Just chalk it up to experience and adjust next year. There are several questions we have to answer to help us plan. 1. What time works best for my church for this VBS?      a. At night      b. During the day      c. Sunday School      d. Summer Camp      e. Sunday Morning      f. Wednesday night? 2. How long do I want this VBS to last     a. 1 week     b. 2 weeks     c. a weekend     d. the entire summer? 3. Consider volunteers     a.  Do you think you have enough people to work at the time you want     b. how much of a commitment are they going to need to make     c. how many volunteers will you need 4. Are only children in the VBS or are w

One of the daunting tasks of putting on a VBS, is which program to do.  If you put it out that your looking to do a VBS a veritable flood of flyers and advertisements and the like will flood your mailbox and your inbox.  One thing I did this year to help me with this decision was to attend a VBS fair at my local Christian Bookstore .  At the fair they allowed me to look into all the starter kits and get a better idea of what the program really looks like.  This is an advantage because, if you don't already know, a VBS starter kit can run up to $150 dollars, which can be quite expensive if you want to do this on your own.  When picking the VBS, I look for several things.  (1) Is this the program I feel God is leading me to do in my ministry? (2) Does the message line up with my beliefs and the goals of the ministry? (3)  How does the structure lend itself to what I have done in the past?  Will it be easy to get my volunteers to buy into and understand the new curriculum? (4)  Doe

I have been thinking for a long time about blogging. All the books I have read on marketing have said I need to start a blog. Then that begs the question... what do I have to blog about? I began to think what is something that people would want to read, but also be a sounding board for ideas I have in my ministry. It hit me the other night what I could finally blog about. VBS! Vacation Bible School takes a lot of my time and effort and while the actual event won't be until July, the planning has already begun. So here is my proposal for the blog. I will blog about the entire planning and preparation process of putting on a VBS from picking a program all the way through follow up of the kids who attend. Since this is my third VBS, I am still learning, but I have a pretty good idea of how to make the program successful, and I hope that some other new children's pastor can find this blog and use it as a resource for their own VBS. I hope you enjoy and that you find the