Pros and Cons of Evening VBS
Approximately sixty-six percent of Bible schools are now conducted in the evening. This rapid move from morning to evening results from a variety of reasons including worker availability and cooler temperatures. Before turning your VBS into an evening experience be sure to consider all of the pros and cons including the following:
PROS
1. Younger workers and more men are often available.
2. Kids who attend summer school, day camps, and child care are available.
3. It is easier to create a family experience by offering classes for teens and adults as well as kids.
4. Cooler temps in some locations.
5. Workers, especially leadership, have the bulk of the day to prepare.
CONS
1. It is difficult to schedule a three-hour school in the evening.
2. Churches often experience lower attendance due to family conflicts and early bedtime schedules.
3. Kids are tired and often more lethargic.
4. Workers are tired and rushed, especially those attending straight from work.
5. There is a temptation to decrease number of sessions to allow for VBS Celebration or due to number of workers unwilling to commit to Friday nights. Schools with fewer than five sessions appear to result in fewer professions of faith.
6. Where younger workers are gained, older workers worker unable to drive at night are often lost.
7. Food costs increase due to the necessity of turning snacks into full meals.
The first step in preparing for VBS is knowing the purpose and anticipated results. Scheduling – both the time of year and time of day – should reflect the purpose. Before moving your VBS to an evening event make sure to consider whether the move will support or hinder your purpose for conducting VBS in the first place.
Join the conversation! What are the pros and cons you have considered when scheduling your VBS?
We are at a church that does evening VBS, for all of the pro’s you list. I was disheartened to read that fewer than 5 sessions results in fewer professions of faith, but I can’t disagree. However, I think the first and most important step to successful VBS is to pray for God’s clear direction. If we seek it, He will give it. And He will achieve His purposes. We also need to remember that if we yield our plans, our goals, and our expectations to Him, there will be success. Remember, every profession of faith is to be celebrated. Let’s not so focus on numbers that we overlook the joy of every lost sheep coming to the Shepherd.
The pros far outweigh the cons in our context. If we attempted a day time vbs it would most like be very small.
I disagree with you cons. We have always done a 3 hr schedule for our evening VBS with no issues. We start at 6. After roll is taken, older kids go to Bible study for 45 min and the little ones eat first and have rec time. For the older kids after Bible study move into Supper, music, rec, craft/missions time. The last 15 min of the evening is our whole group worship time. Been working for the last 7 years very well for us.
The plus to evenings is MORE workers!!!
I agree their are Pros/Cons, but to say a 3 schedule is difficult? Kingdom work is not suppose to be easy. That’s why it’s kingdom work.
Just my 2 cents.
I am very thankful for all you do for VBS! You help to make us all better leaders.
We have always done evening VBS for 25+ on a 2 1/2 hr schedule. There is not enough bible study time. Teachers always run out of time! We are going to try 3 hours from 5:30 – 8:30 this year hoping to get more study time in. We start on Sunday to get away from Friday and you are already going to be there anyway. The first lesson is taught on Sunday morning instead of SS lesson. The downside is Sunday morning attendance is low.
We do ours at night and always have a great turnout.
One way we help our workers not feel so rushed is by feeding them dinner every night. We have a group of ladies that prepare a meals for all workers and their families. We also meet from Sunday night to Thursday so we don’t have to compete with Friday night activities
We struggled along trying to make daytime VBS work, but about 3 years ago we made the change to night time and it has been great! The number of workers has increased, we added younger workers but most of our seasoned workers still work. It has also given working parents a chance to be a part of VBS with their children. We increased by at least 20 children each year and the professions of faith have increased as well. It is hard on staff because we are here from 8:00am until after 8:15 pm. every night (some of us longer), but for what is accomplished in that week it is well worth it!
We do an evening VBS and we do it in 2 1/2 hours or so we offer everything from nursery to adults our rotations are great everyone in Worship Rally which we tie Missions into for the first 30 minutes. Then we do 45 minute bible studies and we do 15 minutes or so for rotations a lot of time music is happening outside during our rec time and of course at end of the night everyone gathers in for the last 10 minutes back to the end of night rally. Our ladies in snacks have it down to an art where we get full on dinners & on Friday everyone brings a finger food and we typically come in way under budget every year for VBS. We start on a Sunday Night and attendance is good through out and love having time with my family although I teach I am still able to get in time during snack with my husband and well see one of my kids while teaching the other.
Well, I guess I’m going to be the first to say we do our VBS 9am-12pm every year. And for us it would be a huge disadvantage to switch to an evening VBS. I would not consider us a mega church. We average 400 on Sunday mornings. We average 300 children and 150 leaders. We average 50-90 professions. Our pastor sets up a class a week after VBS to make sure the children understand their decision and answer any questions parents may have. Our VBS is the highlight of the year. As Director I plan VBS year round. My VBS team meets monthly. I completely agree with your cons. I have let my 4 girls attend a night time VBS for 2 years now and every one of your cons hit it right on the nail. And your pros are our pros as daytime VBS as well. 80% of our workers are teens. I couldn’t run our VBS without our teens. We have no problem getting men to volunteer. I require 2 men, 2 women and 4 teens for every grade. Some of our adults even schedule their vacation time specifically during our VBS! That’s awesome! Evenings may be cooler, but here in Florida summers are our rainy season. Our games are played outside because we don’t have room for it to be done inside. You can set your clocks to the rain here. We wouldn’t be able to do game time at night because we would have soggy ground. We welcome parents to stay and watch opening and closing ceremony. Our family celebration is always the Sunday after VBS. The whole service is VBS dedicated. Kids sing their songs, pastor sums up what the kids learned that week. We show the video. Afterwards we have a luncheon and everyone brings a dish. Prep time for our leaders, that’s done well in advance. But we have teams for each rotation. Our pastor leads bible time. We have a worship arts team that leads music. Game team, craft team and snack team. Our kids rotate through these by grade. Most of our volunteers are divided among each grade for crowd control, safety, cheering and encouraging their grade. VBS may not be about numbers but we are dedicated to reaching the children of our community, not just the children that attend our church. Which is why marketing is so important to us. We pass out our flyers every where. Community events, walking neighborhoods, restaurants, newspapers. There are so many easy ways to market your VBS. We video our VBS every year and give it to our children. If interested, I’ll send you a copy.
For us daytime VBS all the way!
The average for 300 children and 150 leaders and 50-90 professions is during VBS
I should add, our rotations are 20 minutes opening ceremony, we have three 40 minute rotations between bible/music(first 15 minutes of bible time is learning the daily songs), crafts and games/snacks(25 minutes games then 15 minutes snack). Then 20 minutes closing ceremony. So I guess it would be 20, 40, 40, 40, 20. With time for transitions.
We do a 2.5 hour vbs in the evening. We also have a kitchen committe that makes diner for the workers and their families. Ours is 6pm-8:30 Sunday to Thursday night. We rotate for crafts, rec, snack, and mission each age group starts out in bible study after opening worship rally. It had worked for us. In the past we rented a school bus from the public schools and picked up kids in it. Our church van only holds 6 and God blessed us with more kids than that. On Friday night we have family night. We do a cook out hot dogs hamburgers and the whole nine yards for sides. All the teachers bring sides. The families go to the classes with the kids after the worship rally and we do inflatables and a scavenger hunt on family night.
We’ve had evening VBS as long as I’ve been a member here. Many of our VBS workers have professional careers that forbid them participating in daytime VBS unless they take a week of vacation, so daytime VBS is just not an option for us. This year we moved to a Sunday-through-Thursday format and it was fantastic! The rationale was that since we would all probably be at the church on Sunday anyway, why not consolidate that into VBS and allow our workers to have Friday and Saturday night free before starting another week. Another plus for having evening VBS this past year was that we had SO many snow days in this area that school was still in session during our week of VBS (scheduling conflicts prevented us from changing our VBS week). Although there were some parents who did not want their kids out late on a “school night,” there were probably an equal number who were able to attend that week but would not have been able to after school was let out due to spending their summers away.
Our morning vbs (9:00-noon) became so crowded that we moved our 5th & 6th graders to the evening (6:00-9:00). It’s been great, the 5th & 6th graders love their new super cool VBXtreme time just for them, plus the timing allows them to be helpers in our morning preschool program. Our evening program runs Sun-Thur and the morning is Mon-Fri with a closing picnic to which the 5th and 6th graders are also invited; the kids who are helpers have heard the lesson the night before so they’re ready to help the little ones and can really put the lesson into action. It’s been a great mix for us.
Thank you for this article Jerry. We are considering switching to an evening Bible school and are in the midst of weighing the pros and cons. Breaking with tradition of a 3 hour morning vbs is difficult, but I’m becoming more convinced it the best decision for us. I enjoyed everyone’s comments so far, it’s helpful to see what others are doing.
Thank you for the article. I’m directing VBS for the first time at the chapel. We live on a military base, so we have to do bible school a little different than other churches. For many years this chapel has done it in the morning, and we’re going to take a chance on the evening schedule this summer. It works better for our active duty members who work during the day. It should make our volunteer count rise with the change of hours. any advice is welcome! Thanks again!
Catherine, I have heard of Bible schools on military bases but you are the first person I have actually communicated with who is leading a base VBS. Please let us know how it goes.
We are thinking of a VBS for adults for five Sunday mornings in the month of June. (instead of Sunday School) from 10:00-11:45 am. Morning worship would begin at 11:55 am. Any suggestions will be appreciated.