Why Your Church Should Really Not Host Vacation Bible School This Summer

June 18, 2024•3 min read

There are definitely reasons to host a Vacation Bible School program (VBS) in your church! Yet, there are also definitely reasons not to host (VBS) in your church. Too often churches do things with the best of intentions, but for the wrong reasons. Let’s explore some of the reasons why a church should NOT host VBS.

Don’t host VBS because the church always hosts VBS every summer (another version of “we’ve always done it that way”).
Don’t host VBS because the church down the street or the big church in town is hosting VBS so we need to host one, too.
Don’t host VBS because Ms. Martha started VBS 40 years ago and it must continue to honor her and her legacy.
Don’t host VBS because the church calendar (copied year after year) indicates the church is scheduled to host VBS a certain week.
Don’t host VBS because it is simply one person’s pet ministry.

Now let’s explore reasons why a church could host VBS.

A church hosts VBS when it is a part of the overall strategic plan of the church (not a silo ministry).
A church hosts VBS when it is a ministry strategically aligned and planned to specifically reach the targeted demographic in the community who the church has discerned they are called to reach.
A church hosts VBS when it is aligned with the mission, vision, and core values of the church and is one of the objectives established for obtaining one of the church’s annual goals. (Annual goals are intentional steps of living into the discerned vision of the church.)
A church hosts VBS when it has a ministry team leading this ministry who clearly understands how this program is part of the overall church strategy. Because of this understanding, the team establishes the intended outcome for VBS, what fruitfulness and effectiveness would look like when implemented well, and how to measure it. The team then plans, implements, and assesses VBS based on these critical factors.

VBS was used as an example in this exercise. One could substitute any ministry in this illustration of why a church should or could invest. Ministry is how we engage others in discipleship, evangelism, hospitality, and worship. The purpose of making disciples does not change, but the how needs to shift depending on the church’s current vision and context. Too often, churches get stuck in the traditions of the how rather than discerning God’s preferred future for their church (vision) which is steeped in context, relevancy, competency, and focusing on what the church must do to reach the people in the community.

What are the driving factors in your church for how ministry is planned? What resonates with you from the first or second list above? What might your church be able to do to better align their ministries?

If your church leaders are looking for resources to assist in aligning its ministries with your church’s mission, vision, and core values, they might find these resources helpful: Strategy Matters and Strategic Ministry Planning.

Kay Kotan

Kay’s purpose is to Equip and Empower Leaders of Faith Communities How to Engage in More Effective Ministry. Kay Kotan is the founder of You Unlimited (coaching, consulting and training company) and The Greatest Expedition – a collaboration of more than twenty thought leaders providing resources and insights for a congregational journey to develop new MAPS (ministry action plans) to reach new people in your community. Kay also launched Multipliers’ Movement – a gathering of kingdom multipliers for sharing, equipping, and encouraging. She is a CoachU and Advanced CoachU Graduate, an accredited coach (PCC: Professional Certified Coach) with the ICF, International Coaching Federation, a Certified Path 1 Coach, and once served on the faculty at Coaching4Clergy. As a passionate lay person, she has a banking background and has been a business owner for more than 25 years. Kotan has served as a church developer for conferences and worked with churches, pastors, conferences, and judicatory leaders across the country for more than a decade. She is most proud to be the wife of Bob for over 30 years and the mother of their adult son, Cameron. Kay is the author of multiple books, workbooks, and resources including Gear Up: Nine Essential Processes for the Optimized Church, Cry From the Pew, Full Schedules, Barren Souls, Being the Church in the Post Pandemic World, and Journey Preparation: Surveying Your Church’s Landscape, as well as the co-author of the books titled: IMPACT!: Reclaiming the Call of Lay Ministry, Small Church Check-Up, Insights on Productivity, Renovate or Die – Ten Ways to Focus Your Church on Mission, Ministry 3.0 and Get Their Name , Ten Prescriptions for a Healthy Church, Necessary Nine – Nine Things Effective Pastors Do Differently, Launching Leaders: Taking Leadership Development to New Heights, Strategy Matters: Your Roadmap to Planning a Strategic Ministry Planning Retreat, Voices of Christmas: A Daily Devotional for Advent and Expanding the Expedition Reach Through Marketplace Multipliers. Mission Possible for the Small Church. Inside Out: Everting Ministry Models for the Postmodern Church, and more. Kotan and her co-author Bradford published their third version of the best-seller, Mission Possible: Simple Structure for Missional Effectiveness. Mrs. Kotan spends her time investing in pastors, laity leaders, congregations, and judicatory leaders through equipping, coaching, and creating resources to help them discover and live into their fullest missional potential of effectiveness and fruitfulness to reach people for Jesus Christ. Through her enthusiasm, truth-telling, and passion, she challenges those who encounter her in both their thinking and their doing.

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