Moving Cheese: VBS alternatives

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Permalink Reply by Jason Kaminski on July 16, 2008 at 2:43pm

Hey Joe

I'm a fan of VBS, but this year we stepped out of tradition. We brought in Winshape C3 Day Camp and it was a huge success for us. We have a small cm, between 20-25. Normally VBS we see around 50 children attend. We hit just shy 100 with this years camp. The main goal of Winshape C3 is to connect the church with the community - and it did. The cost per camper is $169. Our church set up scholarships for campers who could not afford it, ranging from full, half or partial. We handed out over 50 scholarships to two of our local elementary schools, connecting us with them in ways we've never imagined. New doors for ministry are open.

The days were set up very much like VBS. The children choose 3 different track times, which range from flag football to gymnastics. (A large variety to hit everyones interest). The best thing was, our volunteers were their to build relationships with the children of our community. We saw people volunteer that we never saw with VBS because they didn't have to teach anything. The camp crew did everything and we had the chance to get to know the kids.

It did cost, but the doors God opened in our community with local businesses, the schools and families we had never met, made it all worth it.

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Permalink Reply by Amy Hardeman on July 17, 2008 at 3:48pm

Coming up on my last day of VBS this summer... I echo your feelings about VBS. I am done.

I would love to hear more details about how you set up your Arts Camp and what you charge.

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Permalink Reply by Jane Farmer on July 22, 2008 at 4:48pm

This year was our 13th Kids' Praise. We have it the first full week after July 4. The kids who have finished Kindergarten through fifth grade stay from 9-5. We rent the local skating rink on Tuesday afternoon and we have a cookout on Friday afternoon. Up until this year, we worked on one musical and presented it on Friday morning, inviting all the local daycares, and on Sunday evening. Other classes were held that went along with the theme of the musical. This year we did "two mini musicals"(about 15 minutes each). We also have a preschool class that meets from 9-noon. In the past, they have just performed some of the songs they learned during the week. However, this year we included them in the musical for ages 3-8. We did "The Lighthouse Fire Station: by Celest Cyldesdale. The 9-11 year olds did four selections from Kathie Hill's The Word. The kids really enjoyed not having to learn but 4 songs. We also used Ministry Now! from Gospel Publishing. This focused on using our gifts to serve others. They really learned the message, because this year's offering raised $4400.00. We have always collected offering and had a contest to see which team(we had 7 teams this year) could raise the most money. They really got into the contest this year- the fact that the money was going to the family of one of our kids probably helped(He is a 3 year old who has cancer), but it was neat having kids bring in their piggy banks and emptying them into their jar. Our entire congregation was shocked at their efforts. Until this year, the most they had brought in was 800.00.
Classes during the day included music, choreography, musical rehearsals, recreation, and two electives that they chose from: drama, Bible Quiz, cupstacking, cooking(from Ministry Now), cardmaking(from Ministry Now), Dance Praise, computers, small group choreography, and God Rods. This was so successfull, I plan on offering more electives next year and letting them choose 3-4 classes.
We do charge a fee, but offer scholarships to any of our kids who can not afford to pay. We serve snacks and lunch each day. We also have t shirts in the team colors printed with Kids' Praise '08,
We use kids who have completed sixth grade through high school as team leaders in addition to team advisors for each group. I have pictures on my page.
We had over 150 participants this year including the kids and workers. It is a great deal of work, especially in the planning stages, but everyone looks forward to it each year- and they always are curious to what we will do the next year.-

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Permalink Reply by Beth Morrison on July 22, 2008 at 10:15pm

I am very interested in any other alternatives churches have done. We had a Kids Creatvie Camp "Fingerprints of God" this summer which was very successful. We plan to have it again but want to also do something as a Family alternative to our VBS, which draws about 900-1000 kids each summer. Ideas?

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Permalink Reply by Aaron Rathbone on July 22, 2008 at 11:06pm

This summer we did an alternative program instead of our traditional vbs. We did a months worth of Family Productions from 252 in four nights. So four family productions and then on each night following the family production we did something extra. We did a craft night, missions night, game night and then on the last night we did a big family picnic. For the first year it went really well and the parents loved having something to do with their kids that was fun and didn't cost an arm and a leg, we had about 100 families attend.

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Permalink Reply by Joe McAlpine on July 23, 2008 at 11:49am

I really like the idea you have going there. I think so often we create a family friendly church in regards that we have something for everyone but we miss out on the family INCLUSIVE side of it. I really like what you have done to include the family.
-jmac

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Permalink Reply by Joe McAlpine on July 23, 2008 at 11:54am

We charge 65.00 for our arts camp. We then split our kids up into 3 tracks (drama music and dance) from there we offer them workshops in the morning where they learn different songs, dramas, and dance routines. All while teaching them how we can praise the Lord and tell others about Him through the Arts. We kick off each day with a couple theme songs and periodically play them throughout the day. We always end the day with wild water wars of some sort. At the week end, we do a show for the parents and families of the attendees to show off what they learned in their workshops. I can send you a DVD of the show if you would like. just email me your info at joe@ccwired.tv.
-jmac

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Permalink Reply by Beth Morrison on July 23, 2008 at 3:26pm

Joe,
I would love a DVD of your camp if possible. My address is:
Beth Morrison
Woodmen Valley Chapel
290 E. Woodmen Rd.
Colorado Springs, CO
80919

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Permalink Reply by Reed J Cape on July 23, 2008 at 3:42pm

We have had:
Princess Camp - based on the God's little Princess books for 4-8 year old girls - went great!
Sports Camp - Soccer and Basketball
Fun Camp - Activities included - Cake Decorating, Scrapbooking, Cooking, and a field trip to a cave.
Pre-School VBS - We had it for the pre-schoolers only

The Sports Camp/Fun Camp was at the same time as the Pre-School VBS.

I agree the VBS is a chunk of money and low results - the Camp idea works well for us and we charge $20 to cover some of the expenses - VBS is free for the pre-schoolers.

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Permalink Reply by Christine Murray on July 23, 2008 at 4:27pm

Well, i actually like VBS. We just finished ours last week and got 146 kids in the door. We are a new church so I felt that that was a good thing.. I think we don't always need alternatives because if it works, use it! To an area that is not even used to churches, VBS is a good idea. Maybe one day we will do alternative camps.. you can't say VBS doesn't bring in people.

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Permalink Reply by Joe McAlpine on July 23, 2008 at 4:37pm

It's great that you got 146 kids in the door, but how many of those stick? How many of those kids attend another church or have attended more than one VBS this summer. The bottom line is that what is taught at a VBS is easily destroyed if there is no follow up and attempt to plug these kids and families in.

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Permalink Reply by John Hassert on July 24, 2008 at 3:33pm

Hey Joe -- I think there are 2 key questions to ask: what do you see as the purpose of VBS and how would you define success?

We don't do a traditional VBS, as in rotating between 5 stations and using Group, Lifeway, or another curriculum (not that their is anything wrong with that). Instead, we have 4 teams with captains and have a week long competition. A typical day is looks like this:

Open Assembly with Captain's Challenge
Team Challenge (outside games)
Snack Time
Large Group Worship & Teaching
Small Group Time
Dismissal

We run it from 6 - 9 PM and promote it heavily in the community. Do we have parents that view it as free babysitting? Absolutely, and I actually encourage parents to use it as a date night. We do whatever we can to get as many kids through the door as possible. Were we successful? In my opinion . . . yes . . . 207 kids came and 34 of them trusted Christ as their Savior. I see the purpose of VBS (or whatever we want to call the 1 week of the summer devoted to kids) as the number one evangelistic event of our ministry and if our ministry grows from it . . . that's just icing on the cake.

There are a lot of kids that come from other churches, some are unchurched and won't be back in church again until the next VBS, and our own church kids . . . all of which need Christ, and if 1 of them accepts Him . . . to me it's worth spending a significant chunk of my activities budget.

So, do I think we should do some sort of VBS? YES!!

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