Suppose you prepared a big party and no one came?  All the planning, preparation, expense, anticipation, expectation – all for nothing.  Talk about being devastated. During one of your bouts of depression, you confide to a close friend about your feelings when no one showed up at your party.  The friend, close friend, mind you, said, “What party.” You threw a party and didn’t invite me! I’m really insulted. I thought I was your friend.

You guessed it.  You forgot to tell anybody about the party.  Ok, this is a ridiculous example, but it is too often true when one is putting on an event such as a Vacation Bible School.  Everyone gets excited and works hard preparing for the VBS assuming the rest of the world was as excited as they were. Yes, the people in the church, including the children, were anxiously anticipating the VBS.

However, one of the goals of the VBS is to reach children new to the church, to spread the love of Jesus to other children of the community. Is that goal being met?

Many times just the encouragement of the pastor and instructions to the children for everyone to bring a friend is enough to meet your goals.  However, if the desire is to reach children who have not been exposed to the love of Jesus, a broader approach is necessary.

The more the publicity, the more chance of increased attendance.  On the one hand, more children will have the VBS experience, and that’s what we want.  On the other hand, shortages of supplies and personnel can lessen the positive results we hope for. Be prepared.

The sample poster shown, plus other publicity yielded an attendance of over 500 children (the church had planned for a large group).  I recall two bible study classes had over 20 children and had to meet on opposite sides of the balcony of the church because there were no other rooms available for such large groups.  

Let’s look at some guidelines.

1. appoint someone to be in charge of publicity. to get the word out
2. Identify ways to spread the word about VBS.
3. Announcement from the pulpit or in a church bulletin
4. Invite children from other churches in the community and ask pastors to announce the event.
5. Identify local newspapers that may publish publicity. Prepare news articles giving the who, what, when, and where of the VBS.  Include a picture is possible. Give it to the editor well ahead of time so the editor can maybe mention it twice.
6. Prepare flyers advertising the VBS.  These can be various sizes from ones that can be placed under windshield wipers of cars at markets, or large enough to be placed on telephone or utility poles.
7. In larger communities, there may be a radio station or TV station that would like to cover the event.  This can mean coverage before during and after the VBS. That’s OK. Think “next year.”
8. Encourage the congregation, friends, relatives, club members, anyone who can influence a child to attend the VBS.
9.  Have alternate plans ready to handle various levels of attendance (50 children, 100 children, 150 children, etc.)
10.  Another possibility is to consider limiting the size by taking advance registration.  This will give an idea of what to expect. Sure, some won’t show despite the advance sign-up, but those spots will be filled by others who just show up the first day.
11. Keywords  to remember: BE FLEXIBLE.

Included are examples of a half page news article and a large poster.   You could also have small flyers to pass out on the street and in the neighborhood.