I was given my first opportunity ever to direct VBS in my small town church this year. It was on short notice because those who usually lead our VBS had reached the point where they felt they must call it off for lack of committed workers as the last month of vacation approached. Determined that we must never give up on our children, I begged for this opportunity to direct it and I was granted my chance.

I learned a lot about what VBS directors must deal with every year – so many parts of the program that must come together to make it happen, and so many loose ends that need to be tied up even at the last minute. I learned about the time and energy it took to find the right people to fill in for all the many jobs that needed to be done. I saw how the cost of VBS can shoot up sky high no matter how few children are in the church. And I saw people step forward to help with various tasks that hadn’t helped in the past because they couldn’t be there every night for VBS.

Several of these special people supported the teachers by helping gather the materials for their lessons and by decorating their classrooms. Wow! It was like a breath of fresh air to get that kind of support as I continued to search for the people who could be there every night to do the classrooms. As it turned out not all of our teachers were members of our church, but they were willing to help make our VBS happen, and they were great. Some helpers were older youth – not quite ready for the responsibility to teach a class, but willing to support the teachers and give extra attention to the children.

Getting ready and pulling off this VBS was a six week whirlwind. We didn’t have a large crowd, but the children had fun as they experienced the Bible lessons, memorized a few verses and applied them to everyday situations. I would do it again in a heartbeat, though I would prefer to have more time to organize and plan the program.

Looking back on the experience, what would I want to do differently?

• I would look for a program that depended less on expensive gadgets needed to carry out the program. These items were designed to carry the lesson home, but they were also quite expensive for small churches struggling to have enough children to have VBS.
• I would like to find a program that is designed to build on the previous year’s program and to use some of the same songs each year. The songs could reinforce the lessons or could actually sing the verses they were trying to memorize. I remember Bible school when I was a child and even as a young adult helping lead Bible school – we used songs that we sang year after year. With the current VBS materials many of the songs will never be sung again once VBS is over. The DVDs with today’s VBS programs may be impressive to some of the children and leaders, but they seemed over the top with others who were less eager to join in with the dancing.
• I want to see VBS programs that take teaching Bible lessons and their application as seriously as entertaining the children. Both are necessary; they go hand in hand. But when we sacrifice Bible literacy for entertainment, we have no real reason for holding VBS.
• I want to see VBS programs that are designed for small churches with small budgets. The materials we worked with (we chose our material this summer so that on a short time frame we could reuse the decorations from another church nearby) were designed for mega churches with up to 100 children. The decorations and some of the skits and lessons were way overboard for a church whose children could be counted on my fingers with several fingers left over. Publishing companies know where the money comes from, but small churches are being sacrificed as their number of children decreases every year.

What I would like to find for VBS is apparently not the norm. If someone can tell me where such a program can be found I would love to learn about it. And if it simply isn’t available, I would like to collaborate with one or more authors who have experience writing curriculum to see if we could start something.

Janice D. Green, author of The Creation and The First Christmas