7 Ways to Make VBS More Evangelistic and Reach People for Christ!

[James Nored]

Vacation Bible School was once billed as an outreach event. And indeed it was at one time. Unfortunately, today it is often merely an event for our own children. So, how do we make VBS more evangelistic.

1. Pray for this event, that God will send seekers the church's way. Evangelism does not happen without God!
2. Give Members Invite Flyers to Hand out to their Unchurched Family Members, Neighbors, and Friends. 
3. Send out a Flyer to the church's visitor mailing list (a list of all visitors who have come to the church for worship or for an event), local pre-school the church may have a partnership with, other children's community groups that members might have a connection with (boy scouts, etc.)
4. Have a final VBS event night where parents come and watch a VBS video (of course they will be looking for their kids), share a meal or desert, and have members mill about and meet the visitors/guests.
5. Have something to drop off at the homes of those who visited that they will want to receive. For instance, take a picture of each child in his or her VBS T-Shirt, by a VBS set piece during VBS. Then, print these pictures and deliver them to family's home, along with a church brochure. Thank the family for coming, ask them if they have any prayer requests, and make a light invitation to worship. Also, create a follow-up team to send email, Facebook messages, and texts out to those who have attended, thanking them for coming, asking if they have questions, inviting to worship, telling of future children's ministry events, etc.
6. Have a follow-up event for children or an event that would be of interest to their parents (such as a parenting or child safety seminar). Invite those who came to VBS to come.
7. At all of these interaction points, have naturally friendly and evangelistic people at these events who are free to roam around the foyer and make connections with people, get contact information, and personally follow-up with an area of interest and need.

Let me give you a vivid example of how this works. Today I met a woman named Jenny in the foyer when she was waiting to pick up her kids from VBS. She said that she had recently moved here. I asked if it was for her job, and she said, It was because of divorce.

Immediately I felt that this was a "God moment," that God had deliberately brought the two of us together right then. Why? Two of our new members, Shannon and Jennifer, have been talking about having more ministries for single mothers and those going through a divorce. I am working to help facilitate/explore this.

When I told Jenny about this, and asked her if she was interested in getting together with them, she said yes! It is so great to see God at work in this way! Please be praying for our VBS and those being held around the US right now--that God will help us make these connections and impact people for Christ.

What do you think are some ways to make VBS more evangelistic?

[Jayaraj.E]

Thank you Brother!. I am so blessed to have you as my Brother and friend. I am always thankful to God for giving this unique,lovely and special person of multi-talents in our Christian family! thank you so much for your prayers and especially for this wonderful Network thru which i am learning more for my spiritual life! 

[James Nored]

Jayaraj, I am glad that you found the article helpful. And I am so encouraged to hear of you seeking to reach out to children!

[Jayaraj.E]

Great article!Thank you so much for sharing this. Your thoughts are very useful to reach our community thru VBS. most of above thoughts are very helpful in my ministry. we are conducting VBS  in our congregations for Children. we have many children in all of our small congregations ,where my co-preachers are working . we are also helping some poor children with things what we can  Children . you can see some pictures of my recent program helping Children with small gifts . in this programs , some of you are praying and encouraging with your generosity .in our Churches ,there are many children ,poor , orphan , and destitute children  who need your prayers and help  thanks for your prayers. thank you Brother for your wonderful thoughts for VBS programs.

[Wes Force]

Good article! Too often, we are simply "blessing the blessed" with our VBS events, and not making a conscious effort to reach beyond our facilities to target the unchurched in our communities. (Quote borrowed from Jen Hatmaker's book, Interrupted.)