2 Questions To Answer As You Promote VBS
If you are a kid ministry leader you know that summer means that it is time to promote VBS!
Many churches (especially in the Bible Belt) utilize Vacation Bible School to disciple children and serve as an outreach to the community. There are plenty of variations of the traditional VBS model of hosting daily programming on your campus, but no matter how your church ministers to kids you will be doing some promotion to get dates, times, costs, and locations out.
Can I be honest? VBS is one of those weird, churchy things. Trust me, I’m all for having a VBS event if it works for your community, but “Vacation Bible School” sounds weird and confusing for outsiders to the faith.
- Why would their child want to go to school during summer break?
- What is a Bible school?
- Will their children have fun or will they only memorize long passages of the Old Testament?
If we are not careful our event promotions can communicate a different message then what we are hoping is conveyed to the community. Because each church leads a different variation of VBS it is easy for parents to become confused as to what VBS is for YOUR church.
Even with an event like VBS, an event that we assume everyone knows what we are talking about, we must strive for clarity because the vast majority of people that we are hoping to reach have never stepped foot inside of our churches.
Before you design posters, set-up banners, and schedule Facebook ads here are two questions you need to answer:
2 Questions To Answer As You Promote VBS
Are We Communicating More Than Childcare?
Does your promotion material communicate life-change? Are there stories being shared or is your VBS viewed as free childcare? I know that you would never view VBS as childcare, but does your community? You will always have parents who are content with dropping their children off at the door and head home, but does your literature, promotions, and videos create a drop-off culture? How are you communicating the power of Jesus, importance of worship, and need to invite outsiders of the faith with your congregation?
Can Our Website Answer Parent’s Questions?
How much information is on your website? If you hope to leverage VBS as an outreach for your community you must think through the questions parents who have never been on your campus will have before they send their child. What food will be served? How are allergies handled? What is needed to register? How many leaders (and how are they screened) are in each class? Your website must be prepared to answer the most frequent questions that parents may have. This will limit the headaches you will experience and the number of phone calls you will receive.
Now What?
How can your team communicate the life-change that will happen at VBS?
