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Hosting a family night to end your VBS can give some fantastic results for small churches! VBS family nights offer a sense of community and connection to your small church and parents in your community.
Small Church VBS Family Night Benefits
- Builds connection between unchurched families and your small church
- Opens the door for conversation between guests and church members
- Brings children and parents together for a night of fun
- Takes a church event outside the church walls
- New guests are more likely to visit a church service because of the friendships they formed at Family Night
Adding a Family Night to your Vacation Bible School can potentially grow your reach within the community. The unchurched parents and children who attend your Family Night and build connections with your members will now have a reason to visit your church for a service or your next community event.
Family Night is a great way to get to know fringe families that attend your church. As leaders and members connect with fringe families, they are more likely to begin to plug into your church events and start serving in ministry.
Encourage Volunteer Interaction With Your VBS Guests
- Train your VBS teams to engage with the adults and parents at Family Night.
- Encourage your dads to connect with other men who they don’t normally see at men’s events.
- Invite women to join you at your next women’s Bible study or event.
4 Must Haves To Elevate Your VBS Family Night
These must-have elements go beyond adding some fun. They strategically build connections with your visitors and families to your small church.
1. Give something to each of the kids.
Whether it’s a small gift, their final craft or worksheet, or a postcard thanking them for coming, ensure each child has something of their own to take home. This also serves to help them remember you and the message they heard.
2. Show videos & pictures from the week.
Parents and families will feel a connection to your church as they watch the videos and look at pictures of their kids from the VBS week. It will help them share the fun and excitement their children had. **Your sign-in sheets will be super helpful as an aid to keep track of photos. Be sure to represent each child in your videos and slide show pictures. One way to ensure having a picture of every child is to take a picture of each child on their first day at the registration table. At the very least, that gives you one picture shot of everyone. Best Practices For A Safe Environment In Children’s Ministry offers excellent ideas for photo safety helps.
3. Gather children to do songs with motions.
Your students have been singing and doing motions to songs all week long. Use Family Night to showcase their excitement and what they’ve learned.
4. Stage a photo opportunity area.
Set up an area with fun props and background. Give the opportunity for parents to take selfies with their kids. Have a volunteer take pictures for your VBS scrapbook or slideshow. Get silly props, and let them have fun!! Match your prop ideas to your theme.
There are so many ways to celebrate the last day of VBS. So whether you have a sack lunch dinner for families to eat with the teachers and volunteers or you run with a carnival theme, the important thing to remember is to build relationships with your families.
Top Family Events To End Your VBS Week
Family Game Night
Do short-term games like Uno, Mancala, Charades, Twister, or Toss Up. For longer games, shorten the length of the games to two or three rounds. Check out the game night idea in this 7 Events For Children’s Or Youth Ministry post.
Pool Party
Whether you host this at someone’s house or the local pool, plan family-type games, food, and activities. Supervision is crucial for any pool events with children. How To Do VBS At The Park gives great tips for any VBS activity outside the church building.
Water Day
Fill this day with water balloon events, sprinklers, and popsicles. Check out Water Games For Summer Fun for amazing ideas for water games!
Ice Cream Social
Set up a Build Your Own Sundae table with several ice cream flavors and plenty of toppings. Then, enjoy lawn games or a DIY mini golf course you set up earlier in the day. Check out idea #4 for mini golf ideas in the article Your Kids Will Love These Summer Events.
Family Fun Night
Plan an outside dinner or picnic and rent inflatables. Offer games for adults, such as horseshoes or ring toss.
Open House
Host a VBS Open House, show off the crafts the children made during the week, meet the VBS leaders, and set up tables with craft activities. Set up guessing games and door prizes such as “Guess how many gumballs are in the mason jar.”
Old Fashioned BBQ
Include games such as corn hole, sack races, hula hoop rolling, 3-legged race (dad race, teens, elementary), watermelon seed spitting contest, and a pie eating contest. Plan ahead to have both grown-up and also kid-friendly foods. Barnyard Bonanza from Alternative VBS Ideas Perfect For Small Churches has some great ideas for this event.
Small Church Carnival
Plan ahead to build your carnival games, find a juggler in your community, do face painting, and have a balloon artist pass out balloon animals.
VBS Olympics
Get creative for some Olympic-style games. Set up a 50-foot sectioned relay race, cardboard box sled race, and a maze or obstacle course. Run a dad’s shot put event using cantaloupes. Check out the Pizza Pan Plunger Relay idea in 15 High-Energy Games For Small Church Children’s Ministry.
Island Luau
Celebrate with a pig roast or BBQ, fill the playlist with Hawaiian music, create surfboards out of foam board, and ask the youth to paint them for props. Purchase grass skirts and find someone to teach a hula dance.
Science Experiment Show Or Animal Experiences
Libraries often have local connections for family-friendly shows.
Fun Foods For A Fun Family Night
- Snowcones
- S’mores
- Hot dogs
- Cotton candy
- Popsicles
- Pizza by the slice
- Rootbeer floats
- Ice cream sandwiches
- Build your own sundaes
Foods play a significant part for families and children with allergies. Find super helpful hints and ideas for serving food for those with allergies here in Vacation Bible School: 5 Simple Steps To Dish Out Love To Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Kids.
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!
Extra Fun Ideas For Family Night
If you are looking for more things to add to your VBS to make it over the top, consider adding one of the following options to your small church VBS Family Night.
- Fireworks or sparklers (Reminder to think about safety –– follow local laws.)
- Bike Parade (July’s event in One Year Of Monthly Saturday Children’s Ministry Events gives bike parade hints.)
- Quick and easy arts and crafts
- Photo Scavenger Hunt
- Glow bracelets
Your small church can have a great VBS Family Night! Even though it takes some planning, remember the benefits. You are creating an event that can strengthen visiting and church families. Remember the must-haves to elevate the fun and build connections. Take time to plan your evening, and thank your parents for bringing their children to your VBS. 10 VBS Planning Tips For Success reminds us that visitor follow-up is often lacking after our VBS ends.
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