Vacation Bible School Ideas

It's that time of year again: Vacation Bible School! We are looking forward to Vacation Bible School at our church next month; and since my husband and I have participated in this ministry for many years, I thought I'd share a few ideas for a successful Vacation Bible School.

1. Have a Vacation Bible School Theme ~ It is easier to plan, prepare, and decorate for Vacation Bible School when everything can revolve around a certain theme. We have used ocean, circus, rodeo, Noah's ark, patriotic, and many other themes. Tell your V.B.S. theme to your congregation as soon as possible, and watch their creative juices flow! You never know what kind of cheap and wonderful resources people can tap into.

2. Consider using a guest speaker for Vacation Bible School occasionally ~ Every other year we schedule Child Evangelist Tim Crumpton to hold our V.B.S. for us. The kids at our church hear us teach every single week, and they get really enthusiastic when we have an exciting new speaker in. Professional child evangelists have all sorts of resources at their disposal from puppets to gospel magic to ventriloquism. I highly encourage every church to periodically schedule a special speaker like this for Vacation Bible School at least once every few years. Some other good choices are "Uncle Jerry" Purtell or Jonathan Wells.

3. Treat your Vacation Bible School like a giant, fun, exciting Children's Church ~ If your church typically has a Vacation Bible School in which the children are all divided into groups that rotate between crafts, snacks, Bible stories, etc., consider doing something different: keep all the children in the auditorium for games, songs, and exciting Bible and missionary stories. I would recommend separating the preschool age kids into a different room where their needs can be met on their level. Check out this children's church website for great game and other ideas.

4. Divide all of the Vacation Bible School children into two teams ~ Hold a big competition among the children to increase attendance, visitors, and scripture memory. Have a big Army vs. Navy Vacation Bible School or some other division that is appropriate to your theme. You could even do boys vs. girls; that always drums up some good competition!

For specific questions or ideas related to Vacation Bible School, just leave a comment. We have worked in this ministry for years and would love to help you!