What is VBS?
It happens every summer. All over the country, thousands of churches launch a week or more of Vacation Bible School–a program dedicated to teach kids in the community the important truths of God’s Word. The program involves countless hours of service, willing volunteers from the church body, help from all ages, dozens of crafts, creative brainstorming, funny programs, new relationships, cherished memories, a lot of sweat, a few tears, and most importantly–changed lives. The impact of a week of Vacation Bible School is inestimable, and is a tool that God can use to bring kids to Christ.
The next few posts on the Sharefaith blog will look ahead to the summer and will hopefully give churches some practical instruction and maybe some helpful inspiration regarding this summer program. Over the past few weeks, we have taken a survey of thousands of churches all across the country to find out what VBS program is the most popular. We thought we would share our findings with you and give you a survey of each one of these programs. Here are the top seven, in order of popularity:
1. Saddle Ridge Ranch
2. Egypt: Joseph’s Journey
3. Hero Headquarters
4. High Seas Expedition
5. Kingdom of the Son KJV
6. WildWood Forest
7. SonRock Kids Camp
Getting Ready for VBS
If you are still in the pre-planning stages for your own church’s VBS program, consider using one of these programs. We’ll explore each one in more depth to help you assess the value of each. For now, consider some of the advantages of using a VBS program.
- These programs are put together by a dedicated staff who know kids and who have a passion for bringing them the gospel.
- Each program is customizable, while at the same time adaptable for nearly any size group of kids at any level of Bible knowledge.
- No time to train a staff? Most VBS programs provide booklets for staff training, helps for dealing with kids, step-by-step instructions for teachers, and a host of other helps.
- Programs provide more than just a lesson plan. They provide a whole system of operations for a week of VBS. They will coach you through the planning stage, child registration, awards, snack time, game ideas, song themes–the whole thing.
- A lot of the work that goes into a VBS program has to do with decorations and media. VBS programs usually provide a whole book of reproducible images, a CD of clipart, or other decoration suggestions.
- Struggling with ideas for keeping kids attention, coming up with catchy songs, reinforcing Scriptural truth, or even what to do about games and snacks? Beyond prescribing a pattern for the VBS week, these programs furnish you with tons of ideas for every aspect of the VBS week.
Most churches opt for a VBS program for the tons of advantages that the programs provide. Coming up with your own, or just creating one on the fly will take vast amounts of time and may not end up as you hoped it would. Keep up with the blog over the next few days as we look in detail at each one of the seven most popular VBS programs.
For more VBS curriculum packages please visit: Christian Ed Warehouse