Family Vacation Bible School

We all have good childhood memories of Vacation Bible School. On those hot summer days, we gathered for assembly, pledged the American and Christian flags, sang “This is My Father’s World”, then off to our classes. Great Bible lessons, crafts, snack time consisting of one cookie and Kool-Aid, and game time outside. Not bad for those days but allow to me share with you a new way of doing Vacation Bible School. We have found remarkable success with a Family Centered Vacation Bible School.

What is Family Vacation Bible School?  Why do we do Family Vacation Bible School?

In the church world, summer usually involves VBS. Traditionally, elementary aged children are dropped off for a morning at VBS one week during summer break. This is a wonderful time for kids to have fun and learn about Jesus. However, the traditional VBS model is targeted only to children. Our church wanted to find a way to extend this time of learning and fun to the whole church congregation, our church family. This is in line with one of our major goals to _“Partner Together With Families To Raise Godly Children.”_We want families to worship together and to experience Jesus together. As a result, Family Vacation Bible School, or FVBS, is our favorite week of summer.

Family VBS involves the entire church, everyone is needed and invited to attend. Everyone has the opportunity to serve others and be fed spiritually. It is a wonderful way to get more families involved with serving in different ministries of your church! This year our church had a decor team, security team, worship team, dinner team, clean up team, game team, and small group leaders.

We began the planning process by thinking about the roadblocks many families face with going to any function or activity. We decided to do an evening FVBS so that more people could attend after normal working hours. The only problem was that this time frame is also right at dinner time. Sometimes families struggle with getting their children fed and to church for our weekly Wednesday night services. So, we decided to include dinner as part of our schedule for FVBS. This took away so much stress for families, especially since we provided it for free.

After dinner, we come together in the sanctuary for our large group lesson. Having everyone learning the same thing makes it easy for families to extend the conversation at home because everyone is on the same page. The night continues when we break into small groups according to age for discussion and crafts. This is the only time the children and parents are separated. The school-aged children go into groups according to their grade level and the adults gather in small groups as well.

Family Game Time is next. Each night we have different games for the families to play.

Two of our favorite nights are the photo scavenger hunt and yard games. The last night of FVBS is our big finale. We want this last night to be special and memorable, for example one year we had fireworks, and last year we had a petting zoo and pony rides.

We end the evening together with a recap of our daily Bible lesson, review our memory verse and then enjoy some praise and worship time! We discovered that our children love the celebration, praise, and worship at the end of the evening. They exuberantly sing and dance with pure joy. The adults are encouraged to “cut loose” too, and it is a joy to see the families worshiping and singing together. Many tell us that this is one of the most special moments of our Family Vacation Bible School: families worshiping together. We close in prayer and families go home, many a little exhausted, but full of the joy of the Lord.

Of course, you can plan your evening and events differently. Just remember the main idea is to provide an opportunity for families to experience Jesus together. It is a beautiful sight to see, and I guarantee you that you won’t forget these Family Vacation Bible School times together.

05-23-24

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Believers Church of Statesboro

scott.moore@believersmail.com