One of the biggest questions I hear for VBS is “How do you get the kids to come back?”  I had this same question myself.  Actually, the first person to ask me was my pastor.  We were sitting in staff meeting a week before VBS.  We had over hundred kids signed up and almost as many volunteers.  The décor was almost finished, and my station leaders were checking their supply lists.  Then, my pastor asked me for my goals for the event.  I quickly rattled off attendance, volunteer, missions and salvation goals.  Then he asked me how many I want to come back on Sunday. 

I was stuck.  The thought hadn’t occurred to me.  I figured just having the kids come for a week was a win, and it is, but if you count VBS as an outreach, then you’ll want to see your church grow as a result.  Throughout the week, we introduce kids to Jesus, but we also want to have a continuing conversation with them about their decision. To play a part in their discipleship.  After all, Jesus didn’t command us to get people saved.  He commanded us to make disciples. 

Before you try to get your kids and families to return and hopefully attend your church there are a couple of things you need to understand.  First there are three groups of people who attend your VBS, your regular kids, VBS hoppers, and kids who don’t attend church.  I talk more about those groups in this post.  Second, the goal of your VBS follow up efforts need to be centered around getting those families to attend a Sunday service.  If you do get them to come to a Sunday service, and they don’t return, that’s not a VBS problem, that’s a Sunday morning problem. 

These two ideas narrow our focus on getting kids to come back.  We’re looking for families who don’t attend another church to come to one of our Sunday Services.  While I don’t have the one-size fits all solution, I do have several strategies that have shown success over the years.

1.  Follow up, follow up, follow up

One of my major mistakes with VBS and church in general was that my follow up was abysmal.  If it happened at all, it was weeks or even months after the event before the people who attended got any contact from me.  You need to strike when the iron is hot.  If you’ve had unchurched kids attend the entire event, the iron is white hot.  Now is the time.  Don’t miss it.  I outline exactly how to do that in this post.  It is for Easter follow up, but the principles still work.

One thing special touch for VBS is to have your crew leaders (small group leaders) write a personal note on each of the kids follow up postcard.  This means so much more to the kids and families than the generic “Thanks for coming card.”  In addition to the special note, make sure to invite them to come back.  So many times, we think the invite is implied, but everyone likes to be invited. So, invite them personally.  It’ll go a long way.

2. Incentivize the Return

How many times have you gone back to one restaurant because they gave you a free coupon?  It may not have even been the greatest experience, but you’re willing to give them another chance because you get a free molten lava cake. 

In the same way, you need to give families a reason to return beyond “We’d love to see you.”  This can be a lot of different things.  I’ve given away things from my kidmin store, candy, and even a big after party after church. (More on that in my next point.) 

Each of these incentives answers the question, “what’s in it for me?”  People want something that’s going to make them feel good right now.  And if they’re kids are begging to come back to get that “thing,” there’s a good chance they’re going to bring them.

3.  Throw an after party

After my talk with my pastor in that fateful staff meeting, this is where I landed.  While attending kids have learned your building and people and become comfortable with being on campus, the parents most likely have not.  They dropped off and picked up and enjoyed the three hours of free babysitting.  You need to invite them back and get to know your church as well. What better way than a party?

I’ve held these on my last night of VBS and on the following Sunday with varying degrees of success at multiple churches.  If you do one, you’re going to have to find one that works best for you, your church, and your community. 

Regardless of when you hold the party, you need to have three things.  Good food, good music, and fun.  For me that looked like grilled hot dogs and chips, the VBS music, and lots of inflatables.  Depending on your budget and energy level (honestly, who has a lot of energy left at the end of VBS?), you can do a lot more, but this is what has worked best for me. 

The point is not the activities, but community building.  I challenge my crew leaders to meet their kids’ parents and talk to them about their kids.  We make personal invites to come back and give out flyers or make announcements about what’s coming up at the church.  The big thing is, we want the new families to feel welcome. We want them to know this is a safe place for their whole family. 

4. Create a Family Service

The main goal of the after party is to celebrate what happened throughout the week and build community with the attendees and their families.  A family service can do the same thing. 

I’ve held post-VBS family services three ways. 

One, we invited all the families to come back on the following Sunday where we featured the kids and what they learned.  This was either a section of the service where the kids performed a song or the whole service where the church got to see what VBS was all about.

This works ok especially when I held my after party after the service, but sometimes it was awkward for those people who didn’t have kids who went to VBS.  In addition, many families skipped our service and just came to the after party.

Two, we invited all the families to come back and join the kids service.  I called it an Open House and invited all my parents whether they attended VBS or not to see what happens in kids church on Sunday morning.  It was an eye-opening experience for most parents because many thought we just played games and crafts.  We do that, but it’s so much more.  My parents learned this was a safe, fun, and Christ-centered environment they can be happy to send their kids to.

Third, we invited all the families to be a part of the last night of VBS.  This was a shortened one-hour service where we overviewed all the things we’d learned throughout the week. We also got the parents involved in the service with games and object lessons.  Afterwards we’d have the after party and celebrate reaching our missions goals with a pie in the face or silly string the leaders.

Getting people to come back after you VBS can be difficult.  There are a lot of factors that determine whether a family will return or not.  But if you focus on families that don’t attend a church, create a safe, fun environment, welcome them into a community and invite them back, you’ll be far more likely to see them return Sunday after Sunday, giving you an opportunity to make disciples.  And that’s what it’s really all about.

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