This summer I decided to make the switch from Group VBS to Orange VBS. I knew this was going to be a big change for everyone. I've done Group for almost 20 years. It's the only VBS I knew and the only one I've led. I even got to be a part of a focus group for Group a few years ago.

A few years ago, I transitioned my children's ministry to the Orange curriculum. I loved the strategy, my small group leaders loved the simplicity of following the curriculum, and my kids loved all the fun they were having.

When I started at my church almost 6 years ago, they held several VBS programs in the past but they were hit and miss over the past 10 years, so I had a clean slate and did what I knew by bringing Group VBS to them.

Group helped us grow from a VBS of 100 kids to over 300. They were great to us. However, I wanted to be more strategic and I loved the fact that the Orange VBS theme lined up with the summer series.

So, I casted vision, laid the groundwork, and searched the message boards and Facebook groups for best practices. VBS this year wasn't a huge numerical success, but the time of year I held VBS, and all the changes inherent in a curriculum change affected the outcome. Regardless of the numbers, here's what I learned.

1. Small groups are a big deal.

Don't take them lightly. In Group you have crews and the crew leaders essentially show up and follow the kids around and lead discussions proctored by the station leaders. In Orange, crew leaders have stuff to do. One station is entirely focused on small groups and the SGLs must lead a discussion and activity by themselves. I almost didn't assign a station leader to that room, but I added one the week before and am so glad I did. Even though I made great efforts to make sure the SGLs had everything they needed, the station leader still got basic questions like, "What am I supposed to do?" and "What do I do next?" Next year, I'll have a small group station leader that can point everyone in the right direction and I'll send a daily email specifically to crew leaders with their curriculum. 

2. Group is the Easy VBS. Orange, not so much.

I knew Group held my hand in a lot of the planning and preparation process. Their decor instructions alone are worth their weight in gold. I've led VBS for hundreds of kids for almost 10 years, so I was confident I didn't need the hand holding. As I got into the VBS, I realized just how much Group was doing for me and how much I was going to have to make up on my own. Specifically, decorations and online registration. Thankfully Orange and Group were doing similar themes this year, so I bought the Group Decorating Places DVD and used a lot of their ideas. I tried to use Planning Center for registrations at our Egg Hunt as a test for VBS and that was a huge mess. I love Group VBS Pro and was super excited that they released a version for everyone regardless of which VBS they were doing. It was well worth the $39 a year to sign up. 

3. Large Group and Bible are the same, but different.

I originally thought that Orange's Large Group was a combination of the opening session and the Bible station from Group. Not really. Orange's Large Group is much more like the Large Group you do every Sunday morning with their curriculum. They use a lot of the same storytelling conventions and set ups. Don't get me wrong. It was great. The problem I ran into was my returning volunteers and kids were waiting for Large Group to be over to get VBS really started. I even made the mistake on my first night at the end of Large Group by asking, "Are you ready to get this VBS started!" Next year, I'll need to make it clearer that Large Group is the beginning of VBS and just as important as every other station. 

4. Do less for more.

One of the other reasons I switched from Group to Orange was the flexibility of the curriculum. I cut my VBS from 5 days and 3 hours to 3 days and 2 hours. It's tough to do that with Group, but Orange gives options for those kinds of changes. I discovered that while Group's stations are designed for 20-25 minutes and can withstand a cut of 2-3 minutes to get back on schedule, the 2-hour schedule for Orange was much harder. Orange's stations are designed for 25-30 minutes. To make the 2-hour time limit, I had to cut the stations down to 20 minutes like Group's. Then on Day 2 to make room for starting late and the salvation message, I had to cut 3 minutes off each station just to finish the event on time. Games loved it. Small Groups and Crafts hated it. Several SGLs barely got started and crafts was a mess. Next year, I'm going to expand to 2.5 hours and have the same stations. That gives each one an extra 10 minutes and won't hurt as bad when I inevitably have to cut time to make schedule. 

5. Mixed age groups or same grade, what's better?

I'm still on the fence on this one, but I'm leaning more towards Orange's philosophy on this one. My crew leaders were also split on which is better. I guess it depends on your church and context, but I do know that splitting by gender during VBS is not a big deal. On Sunday mornings, my small groups are split by age and gender because there are some things a 5th grade boy wants to talk about that he won't with a girl in the room and vice versa. I carried that thought into VBS. It was a little more work at the beginning but I made it work. However, as the week progressed, I had some girl groups with 8-10 girls and boy groups with 0. By the end of the week, just to relieve the pressure, we started mixing genders and it didn't really make a difference. VBS is different from Sunday morning because your kids are not together for long enough for those deep defining conversations to happen where gender makes a difference. Next year, I'll keep the same age groups together, but I won't worry about gender. For my size and the demographics of volunteers and kids coming, it doesn't make sense. 

After VBS, I sent out a survey to my volunteers to get their thoughts from the week. Many of them wanted to go back to Group, but I think a little of that is because people generally don't like change and I threw a whole lot of changes at them at once. They also only had Group to compare to. So next year, I'm planning on doing Orange again and see how it goes. My volunteers will have something to compare their experience to and I'll make improvements from what I learned this time around.

If you're thinking about the switch and you're doing Orange on Sunday mornings, I say go for it. It won't hurt for a year or two in the long run, and you may see a big change in the engagement of your volunteers and your kids’ lives may forever be changed.

Did you make the switch?  What did you learn?

If you’d like to read more about VBS you can find the posts here.