5 Strategic Steps to Take After VBS is Over

It's summertime and for many churches that means it is time for VBS (or whatever you call it).

If you will be strategic, you can see great results not only during VBS, but afterwards as well.

In fact, I would say that what you do after VBS is just as, if not more important, than what you do during VBS.

Here are 5 strategic steps to take after VBS is over.

Step One - invite your VBS guests to attend your weekend services.

Some ideas to help with this are:

Have the kids come up and sing a VBS song during the weekend service. Parents and grandparents love to see their kiddos sing and perform and they will come.

Offer a special gift for first-time VBS attendees and parents who come to a weekend church service.

Send an email invitation to attend a weekend service.

Call them on the phone and thank them for coming to VBS. Invite them to a weekend service.

Send an invitation in the mail to attend a weekend service.

Start a new sermon series for adults the weekend after VBS that will grab their attention and will be relevant to their life.

Start a new, fun, exciting series for kids the weekend after VBS and promote it to them.

Step Two - Evaluate VBS.

Before you rush on to the next event, take some time to sit down with key leaders and evaluate how VBS went.

What went well?

What do we need to tweak or change?

What did we miss?

How can we improve for next year?

Be sure to also ask your volunteers to give their feedback.

Step Three - Invite one-time servers to join your team and start serving full-time.

Do a church-wide invite for people to sign up to serve at VBS.

Put the one-time servers with your rock star volunteers.

After VBS is over, call the VBS one-time servers and invite them to join your team full-time. I've had as as high as 85% say "yes."

Step Four - Offer a new believers class for kids who indicate they want to invite Jesus into their life. If you will follow my process and use the Starting Point curriculum for the class, you will see many children and parents follow Jesus in baptism. Using this resource, I've had as many as 178 kids and parents follow Jesus and get baptized in one weekend.

You can get more info. about this resource at this link.

Step Five - Thank your volunteers. Many volunteers never hear the words "thank you." Don't let that be your volunteers. Thank them personally and give them a small gift of appreciation for their service. Without them, there would not be a VBS.

So there you have it. Follow this strategic plan and you will see great things happen after VBS is over.