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For tons of fun that doesn’t need a big budget, try one of these alternative VBS ideas as a new outreach event in your community.
When other churches in your community are already doing Vacation Bible School, why not do something different? What if you spread it out over the whole summer instead of doing it in one week? What if you used the VBS curriculum as an element of another event? Or what if you didn’t do VBS at all and did something different instead?
These 15 alternative VBS ideas work for small churches because they …
- are low-budget
- use the gifts in your community
- use the strengths of your volunteers
- work with your church’s resources
They fit with your resources and use the skills and giftings of people in your church to reach your community. Try one or more of these ideas for alternative events to VBS. My goal is to inspire you to look and discover what God has blessed your small church with. Ask Him how you can use those things to reach your neighbors with God’s love, and you just might be surprised by what He shows you!
One-Day Alternative VBS Outreach Event Ideas
1. Sports Skills Clinic Day
If you have someone (or two people) with sports skills (i.e., a coach, a teacher) host a Skills Clinic Day. This alternative VBS idea combines the day with training, practical tips, and tools, then has sessions with games. Try an obstacle course with the theme of the sport of the day. Match your snacks, crafts, and your “team” names with your sports theme. Do a devotional about being on God’s “team” and what that means -Corinthians 12:26.
2. Making Music Day
Invite some of your worship team to come and lead the kids in music –– fun songs, lots of movement, and joy! Set up a craft station where you make your own instrument (rain sticks, tambourines, shakers, drums, kazoos, etc.), play some music-themed games (musical chairs, do a prize walk), and create cute music-themed snacks. End the day with your worship team and songs –– do a devotional about Him putting a “new song” in your heart – Psalm 40:3.
3. Whacky Water Olympics Day
A fun one for summer! Break into teams, do some water challenges (classic bucket brigade relay, frozen t-shirt unfolding challenge, stuff Santa’s belly-water balloon challenge) –– have a special area sectioned off for parents to watch (not get wet!!) and another area for smaller children to play in kiddie pools and sprinklers.
Have an obstacle course set up, and at the end, slide into the finish line at the end of a slip and slide. Serve ice-cold watermelon for a snack. Ask everyone to bring their towels and while they dry off, do a devotional time about God parting the waters of the Jordan for the Israelites – Joshua 3.
4. Socks Around The Block!
Have an old-fashioned 50’s style sock hop for kids, set up a “soda fountain” for snacks, and have some fun fifties-style Christian music (try the group, Go Fish for this). Have each child bring 1 or 2 pairs of socks to donate to a local homeless shelter. Use vinyl records from the thrift store as the base for a craft project. Have some fun “dance off” kinds of games. Perhaps you could get some older couples in your church to come and demonstrate some dance steps from “back in the day.” Do a devotional about being kind to one another – Hebrews 13:16.
5. Christmas In July
For this alternative VBS idea, pull out the Christmas decorations, put up a tree, and start the carols playing!! Do a themed day of the story of Christmas: Christ coming to earth. Make ornaments to hang up on the tree, have each child bring a wrapped children’s book to place under the tree, and donate to a local mother’s shelter or children’s hospital.
Play some Christmas-themed games and have some of the children participate in retelling the Christmas story for your devotional time. Decorate your own Christmas cookies for snack time, and at the end of the day, send everyone home with a small wrapped gift.
6. Butterfly Wings And Godly Things
Especially if you live in a rural area, do a nature-themed day. Name each group with a different butterfly species. See if you could get a butterfly collector to come in and show their display or a conservationist to talk about the butterfly habitat and how to have a butterfly garden.
Have kids plant seeds in cups of flowers that butterflies enjoy. Make a butterfly craft, and serve butterfly sandwiches and caterpillar celery sticks. You can do a devotional about the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly and how Jesus transforms our lives as well – 2 Corinthians 5:17.
7. Cupcake Creation Day
Play some games: Build a cupcake relay, or play chef-chef-cake (alternative to duck-duck-goose). For your craft time, set up multiple cupcake stations –– each station has a different style of decoration to do. Kids all bring home 4 cupcakes and have 1 to eat at snack time. Make sure to know of any allergies or food issues and offer alternative snacks or recipes. Make cards with cupcakes on them and “sweet” sayings to give to a local senior center. Do a devotional about how sweet the words of God are to us – Psalm 119:103.
8. ‘Lego’ To The Party Day
Have a Lego building and a challenging day. Either gather legos from used toy stores, borrow them from people, or have people bring their containers full. Set up stations for teams around the room. Present them with a challenge to build a specific item, and work together as a team. Have each item represent something that will be part of your Bible story or object lesson at the end. Make some huge legos from foam core and plastic solo cups glued on for decorations.
Game time could include lego stacking contests and carrying the lego with a chopstick relay. Have snacks of Rice Krispie treats decorated with frosting and M&M’s to look like legos. End the day with a devotional about how all the parts of God’s family fit together (like Legos) to build the church ––Jesus is our cornerstone – 1 Corinthians 12:12
9. Blast Off To Fun
Have a space-themed day. At your craft stations, make simple balloon rockets together. Decorate with the planets, moon, stars, and sky backdrop. Have some games where they do a ‘moonwalk’ relay or a star toss game. Purchase 2 or 3 air jump rockets and have everyone go outside to do a “blast off” display. Have some planet or rocket-themed snacks, and “out-of-this-world” music, and end with a devotional using Psalm 8.
10. Young Artists Program
Use people in your congregation that are good with arts and crafts, and have several stations with projects around the church. Each station is a different type of art or technique. Serve art-themed snacks (pretzel rods w/fruit roll-ups on the end for paintbrushes, paint palette-shaped cookies, etc.).
At the end of the day, display all the artwork in a special designated “gallery” of the church, and invite folks from your church and parents to come in and attend the art show. Have everyone then gather for a time of devotion from Job 12:7-9 and how the beauty and art of nature point to the incredible work of God.
Looking for a step-by-step guide to starting or restarting your children’s ministry?
Check out the Children’s Ministry Bundle For Small Churches!
11. Kids Around The World Day
Set up different “areas of the world” around your church. Groups will travel to each section with their passports. Each station should include a craft that represents that area, a snack of something you may find there, and a lesson on what kinds of ways missionaries use to teach kids there. Wycliffe Bible translators, MAF, Open Doors, USA, and Children’s Evangelism Fellowship have great information about the work in many countries.
Give the children a token or “souvenir” from each country they visit. End the day with a devotional about God loving all children and how we have the responsibility to go and tell people about Jesus – Matthew 28:19-20.
12. Barnyard Bonanza
Yee-haw, let’s do a barnyard theme. Break out the bandanas and the overalls and be ready to have some fun. Have the kids separated into “animal” named groups. Try games like a classic kids “wheelbarrow” race relay, Barnyard Bingo for an indoor game, or toss a bag of white balloons in the room and have the kids “gather the sheep” back in the pen (an LG. cardboard box). Try making a “sensory” bin filled with corn kernels –– hide small objects and see how many they can find in the time allotted.
For snack time, serve cheese and crackers or make “sheep” by frosting a graham cracker and decorating it with mini marshmallows. Craft time can be simple barnyard paper bag puppets, or if you don’t mind the noise, you can make the “Squawking Chicken Craft.” For your devotional, talk about Jesus our Good Shepherd, and how He loves us so much. He knows our name – John 10:13-1.
13. Lights! Camera! Action!
Let your kids use their talents and make a video for this alternative VBS idea. Break into groups and have each group in charge of doing a portion of a Bible story that will be videotaped and shown at the end of the day. Pick a story that can be broken into parts. Parables are good for this. Each team will study the entire story together first, then they will focus on their portion of the story to act out. Give each group a box of props and items that could be used for costumes (bathrobes, capes, pieces of fabric, scarves, etc.).
Use cell phones to video. Each team has a teen or someone good with video/media. Make sure it’s ready to show at the closing program. Have fun with the “movie” theme. Have a red carpet where kids can walk down and have their pictures taken. Snacks could be movie fare items like popcorn in boxes, peanuts (watch for nut allergies), or boxed candies. Gather at the end of the day to watch the movie together and discuss the lesson from the Bible story.
14. Fishing Derby Day
If you live in a rural area or have someone in your church who does, have a fishing derby day. Recruit volunteers from your church to come and help. Older folks are great for this! We did an old-fashioned derby where each group had to craft their poles (have sticks available) and then have some odds and ends there for them to make their “line” and “hooks” (various string, twine, yarn and we used paper clips and safety pins for hooks). Then have some bait available and let them fish (catch and release). Have a scale and tape measure ready to take down the numbers and award prizes in multiple categories.
Have a picnic lunch or individual bagged lunches (ask the ladies of the church for help with this). At the end of the day, have a fun snack while listening to the devotional about Jesus the Master Fisherman – John 4:18-20.
15. Destination Go!!
Set this day up like a trip. You will be “visiting” foreign lands. In this alternative VBS idea, each child makes a travel bag when they arrive and receives a “passport” to bring with them to each station.
Break the kids up into travel groups. Each group will “travel” to a different country. Set up an airplane area where kids go into their seats, are served a snack by a flight attendant (older volunteers), and arrive at their destination. Stamp their passports. Once they arrive, they get to go to a “tourist” destination (this day will take research and some planning out of activities for each country. A local travel agency may be able to donate some used posters and brochures).
Have an area where they can make a craft reflective of that country and maybe sing or do a dance to a video from that area. Each country should have a “shop” where travelers can pick up a “souvenir” to take home in their travel bag. At the end of the day, everyone comes back to the main station where you discuss the need for “going into all the world” to make sure that everyone knows about Jesus’ love – Matthew 28:19 & Acts 1:8.
Looking for a step-by-step guide to starting or restarting your children’s ministry?
Check out the Children’s Ministry Bundle For Small Churches!
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