VBS - Your Church Reaching Your Community
By Sue Harmon

    Vacation Bible School is an important outreach tool for most churches, whether they recognize it or not. People come to VBS who never attend church at any other time. Parents that have little or no relationship with a church will send their children to Bible School. In South Carolina, it is truly an event where “if you have it, they will come.” What a great opportunity for Kingdom growth!

      As your church makes VBS preparations, develop plans for advertising your Bible School to the community. Your advertisements can be based on the VBS theme, to attract attention and stir interest. The administrative helps in your VBS curriculum materials will contain theme-related promotional ideas. The theme is a “hook” to draw people in, so that by attending Bible School they will learn from God’s Word and grow in relationship to Him.

     Relationship is a key word in VBS. The teachers in a class build a relationship with those who attend. Even parents who do not participate in VBS have a relationship with the church through their children’s attending. We must build on those relationships after VBS ends, with the goal of leading people to a saving relationship with God.

     When guests attend Vacation Bible School, it is vital to get a record of their contact information. Names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses can be passed on to Sunday School teachers, visitation teams, FAITH strategy teams, or age-group ministry leaders. Then cards, calls, visits, or emails can show that the church cares beyond just the week of Bible School. As a church follows up on those relationships by continued contact after Bible School, that’s when VBS reaches its full potential as an outreach tool. 

 Sue Harmon is the Associate Director of the Childhood Ministry Group

Click here for the Vacation Bible School home page.