Why Do You Choose the Week for VBS You Choose?
For many years we have assumed that the biggest week of VBS is the first full week of June. I have referred to it more than once in this blog and during training sessions. So many indicators have given validity to my assumptions that I have easily convinced others that more churches conduct VBS the first week of June than any other week.
However, data gleamed from Church VBS Reports tells a very different story. I was recently surprised to learn that the single largest week of VBS – at least in 2014 – was not the first full week of June, but the fourth week of June. Who would have thought it?
Here’s a breakdown of schools by month and week*.
Why people choose the weeks and schedules they do has always interested me. So, the questions is, why do you choose the week for VBS you choose? I look forward to hearing from you.
*This information is based on 1/3 of the churches that reported a VBS in 2014.
I think you are forgetting about the churches up north. School gets out later here than the South, so many VBS programs don’t run till after the 4th of July
I think the many churches that can do an early event wait until the second weekend after Memorial Day. That way families are back home for a few days from their early summer vacations before VBS starts.
We look at the area school calendars. There are also some large churches in our area, so we try to schedule our VBS in a week other than when they scheduled it.
We have VBS in July, typically the 2nd or 3rd week for several reasons. We began having it in July about 12 years ago because
A) we have kid’s camp and youth camp in June
B) a large portion of our VBS workers were school teachers at that time. School teachers did NOT want to finish up their year, clean out their rooms, etc. at the same time as they were planning for VBS.
C) Every other church in town had their VBS the first three weeks of June. if we had it then, our enrollment would be down.
Over the years I’ve had other children’s ministers in town ask me why we have ours so late, and I told them my reasons (above). I’ve noticed that several have changed to July now!
Here at Mason Dixon Baptist Church, VBS is the last full week of July. This is my 11th year directing and it has always been that week… We are in PA and the kids get out of school around June 8th, but I teach school and I need June and most of July to prepare for VBS week. We have VBS, I go on vacation again and then the next week I am back in my classroom getting ready for Kindergarten! 🙂
As vbs director I get to pick the week we do vbs. We have always done it the second full week of July. I work full time and we are a union store so the vacation time goes by senority. That is one of the weeks available and we are a small church so we get out decorations from another church in our association. It works out well they do theirs the last week of June. Also by then the kids that attend have come back from vacations and can attend that week.
We choose the second full week of June. Many of our volunteers are teachers and have in service training with the local school system the first week. After the second full week of June many take vacations out of town – both students and volunteers. So, the second full week is when we plan our VBS.
Ours is always after the 4th of July parade. This year we are going to Nicaragua and will hold a VBS there as well the last week of July. We really like the orange shirts because of the map. I want one for everyone on our mission team. But Life Way no longer has any. If anyone out there has XLg I need 2 of them. Also 1 Lg. I have a 1 Med and 1 small I could trade or I will pay for them. Please let us know. We’d like to all have one of these.
We prefer the second full week after school finishes. Our logic is that most families take vacation in July and August. Kids usually are bored after 1week at home and are ready for VBS action!
I’ve been the director for 12 years and we have always had VBS the 3rd week in June. This is when all the school’s are on summer break and before our church family and workers go on summer vacations.
Our church goes in with 5 other church’s and we share all the decorations that we make together, so we all get together and coordinate our VBS schedules in the summer. Saves each church tons of money, and we gain some really good friends out of this adventure!
We do VBS the last full week of June.
We use to do it the Second Full Week of July but our schools are now on a balanced school year schedule and depending on the number of SNOW days, they may not get out of school until sometime during the first week of June, after make up days and they start back the last week of July/First week of August ( July 29th, this year and Teachers go back around July 20th affecting workers). With the Southern Baptist Convention during the Second Week of June, and depending on how the Fourth of July Holiday falls which is a prime vacation period for families, this may effect 1 or 2 weeks of our very short summer. As a result all the churches in our area are now generally having VBS the same week of June during the summer, rather than spread out as they were before the school calendar change took place.
Before this year we always chose the last week of June as our VBS week. Most people were home from vacation or hadn’t left yet. We saw the most volunteers then. Then our 4th of July Firemans Carnival (which I am a member of that department) was moved to that week. Not only did we loose children significantly but some volunteers including myself (being a director of VBS). So this year we chose to move it to the 3rd week of July hoping most people will be back from vacations since school will start the second week of August. Praying our numbers grow as does everyone who attends!
2nd full week of June. This gives a one week break after school ends and a one week break before our youth go on choir tour. We have considered trying July but are afraid our workers will be going on vacations.
We always have our VBS the third week in June at FBC Martin. We have our VBS during the day and many of our leaders are school teachers. They need as much time as possible when school gets out at the end of May to prepare for VBS. We can’t do the last week of June because that is one of the TSSAA dead weeks for High school athletes and our youth always go to camp that week. We tried July once several years ago but it just didn’t go over as well. We had a record breaking attendance with Journey Off the Map!
We now have our VBS the last week of June. School gets out the end of May, so that gives us a month to get ready and still have summer free time after. We used to do in mid July (based around the local Christian camp dates). We had more kids in June, but it was harder for getting workers. this year we had 80 workers and 80 kids!
I look at the school calendars to see when the local schools let out for the summer and then look at the post planning dates for teachers and try to plan the next week after which would be around the second week of June. If I try to plan it for later in the summer I then take a look again at school calendars and see when the teachers have pre-planning and try for the week before. A lot of my workers are teachers at the schools. So I try to plan during the time the students are transitioning from or to school mode and most family’s plan vacations for later in the months of summer.
This year we are having it two weeks before school starts. We are hoping this will help us to do better at continuing the connection and connect unchurched kids to our regular programs.
We have made changes to our dates and times over the last couple of years. For many, many years we held our VBS the second week of June during the day. We started to notice a drop in our number of volunteers due to so many of them being school teachers and involved in end-of-year professional development, summer school, etc. We didn’t have enough workers. So we moved it to the evening time last year. We had more workers but a significant drop in child participation. We learned that there were 4 other VBSs being held that same week and baseball/softball tournaments were still being played at our town’s sports complex. THIS year, we held our VBS the fourth week of June and in the evening. We were the only VBS going on and ball season had ended. We had a great week and plan to have ours the fourth week of June again next year.
I live in a small town where the majority of people disappear for the summer. Most of the churches in our town do their VBS early in June and we try not want to overlap. Since we have very low numbers of students in the middle of the summer we avoid July. We do our VBS the first week of August before teacher’s start back to work, however, this year the school district approved an early start of school and now our VBS falls on the same days as teachers go back to work. We will probably move VBS to the end of July for 2016.
We always have VBS at the end of July. June is camp, July is VBS and we promote and have some sort of VBS reunion just before they go back to school in August. I want them to have something to look forward to every month during the summer.
Michigan schools are just finishing the first week of June. We need time for parents/volunteers to get away from that ending so we choose the first full week after the 4th of July (allows our scenery crew to NOT work over the 4th weekend). We just finished a fabulous week with over 100 volunteers helping us see 300 kids a day! Many decisions! We host a camp week in August so this is right about in the middle of our summer as we do not start school again until September.