Jerry Wooley

Kids Ministry, Leadership, Vacation Bible School

April 25, 2016

Six Simple Steps to Your Best VBS Ever

Looked at your calendar lately? Of course you have. And what you discovered is summer— less than two months away—sort of sneaked up on you. I feel a knot developing in my stomach just thinking about it.

With so much to do, and so little time to do it, you might be tempted to throw your hands up and declare it is just too late to pull off VBS this year. You could jump in with both feet and let instincts determine hasty actions. Or, you could take a moment to finish reading this post.

What you need is step-by-step actions to guide you through the process, while at the same time challenging you to give thought to why you are doing what you are doing.

LifeWay’s Administrative Guide for Directors is designed to make VBS planning thought provoking as well as easy using Six Simple Steps. Here’s the steps with some of my own ideas to help you make 2016 your best VBS ever.

Know Your Purpose and Theme

Determine why VBS is important to you and your church. Having a clearly defined and promoted “why” will increase congregational buy-in as well as the effectiveness of enlistment.
Create two or three stretch goals that insure VBS aligns with the overall goals and vision of the church.
Sell the congregation on why and how their participation helps accomplish both the goals of VBS and the goals of the church.
Spend time looking beyond the title and graphics of your theme to determine the true message of the curricula. For example, when you examine LifeWay’s VBS 2016 Submerged: Finding Truth Below the Surface™, you will discover the Biblical content has nothing to do with an underwater adventure. The theme of Submerged™ is all about your heart and what Jesus sees when He looks below the surface of you.

State Planning

Start by making your plans reflect your goals instead of forcing your goals to compliment your plans. Creating stretch goals and working to meet them will insure your VBS is fresh and exciting. Failing to do so results in the second verse of last year’s song.
Enlist a leadership team that represents all ministry age groups from preschool to adults. By diversifying the team beyond kid’s leadership you make VBS a church-wide event and sit the stage for continued connections with unchurched kids and parents alike.
Structure your planning team to include leadership for publicity, VBS Family Celebration, and continued connections (follow-up). With only two months to plan it will be tempting to take on the responsibility for these three areas yourself, but there is real danger in doing so since you will most likely be overworked to begin with.
Challenge your planning team to dream possibilities instead of settling for the limitations of the budget or simply putting a new theme title on what you did last year.

Enlist & Train Workers

Assign enlistment responsibility to each member of the leadership team. Have them enlist lead teachers who in turn enlist the rest of their team. Enlist with specific assignments in mind instead of saying, “We need workers.”
Create jobs for people who can only give time prior to VBS, for a few minutes during the VBS day, or the days following VBS. We often do more work ourselves than needed because we fail (or refuse) to include people who are not available the week of VBS.
Make training an expectation and mandatory. Provide training opportunities multiple times to insure everyone has a chance to participate.
Train for vision as well as job specific skills. Help workers understand the why and potential of VBS and how their participation accomplishes stated goals.
Equip every worker—including the snack and registration team—to share the gospel. It might be the snack lady a kid is most open to talking to about what it means to have a relationship with Jesus.
Make training sessions worth the participant’s time. Prepare for training events to the same degree you expect workers to prepare for their assignments.

Promote & Publicize

Promote VBS to the congregation and publicize VBS to the community. Since word of mouth is the very best way to publicize VBS, you need the help of every member of the congregation. To get the congregation on board you need to spend as much time promoting the ministry to them as publicizing the ministry to the community.
Give a team responsibility for publicity, unleash their creativity, and get out of the way. Publicity is a good job for people who will not be available the week of VBS.
Promotion and publicity is more than a one-time event. We are bombarded by thousands of messages each day. To get your message across you have to say it often and in as many ways as possible.

Register Participants

Provide a variety of ways (events, online, mail or phone) families can register. Make registration as convenient as possible.
Train the registration team to get complete information on every person.
Help registration team members understand the importance of their jobs for both VBS and follow-up.

Continue the Connection

Continued connections (follow-up) doesn’t automatically happen. When an unchurched family participates in VBS they have initiated a relationship with the church. It is up the congregation to take steps to continue connection. It must be intentionally planned and executed.
Continued connections begin well before the first day of VBS. They begin with VBS publicity and actions of the parking lot, registration, and greeter teams.
For continued connections to be successful the VBS leadership team has to adopt the philosophy that VBS is not the event. VBS is the actions that make the event (continued connections) possible.

Can you pull off a great VBS in two months? Sure you can, and thinking through and putting purpose to why you do what you do, you can make 2016 your best VBS ever.

Jerry Wooley is the VBS GUY! He serves as the Vacation Bible School Specialist for LifeWay. Don’t expect to talk with Jerry for too long without him asking about VBS. Jerry loves the local church and serves as a 1st-3rd grade Bible study teacher his church.

Kids Ministry, Small Groups, Sunday School, Training

November 20, 2014

Making the Point

By Jerry Wooley

In a previous post titled Speak as a Child, I shared about my journey to discover how best to teach or talk to kids. I have taught adults for years, including multiple years as the lead teacher for a Sunday School class of 200 senior adults. Now I find myself leading a class of fourth and fifth graders as well as serving as a pastor for CentriKid Camps. Talk about a learning curve!

I Corinthians 13:11 is a great reminder that kids and adults not only speak and understand differently, but should do so. The problem is, many adults expect kids to give up childish things – including age-appropriate understanding – before they reach adulthood. Communicating to kids doesn’t require acting like a kid but it definitely requires thinking like a kid thinks.

A major challenge of communication – to people of any age – is clearly communicating the main point of the lesson. With kids, this challenge is made even more complicated by none other than our own language: words with multiple meanings, expressions that are regional or generational, and illustrations that are abstract and difficult for concrete thinkers.

Here are a few lessons I have heard about communicating the point of a lesson.

1. Write out the point or goal of the lesson in your own words. Look for words or phrases that might cause confusion or need defining.

2. Get the kid’s attention before attempting to make the point.

3. Avoid cliches, illustrations, or phrases that may make sense for adults but are too abstract for kids.

3. Use appropriate illustration from your own life. Be real. Be transparent. But be filtered.

4. Make it a one-point message and drive it home. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

5. Help kids understand what the point means to them personally and how it applies to their lives.

6. Judge understanding by asking kids to share the main point of the lesson in their own words.

Kids Ministry, Sunday School

November 10, 2014

Speak as a Child

By Jerry Wooley

So what does it mean to speak as a child anyway?

First, speaking like a child and acting like a child are two different things. Second, to do the first doesn’t require doing the second. In fact, a sign of maturity is understanding and demonstrating the difference.

Several years ago I spent a day observing Bible study sessions at a kids camp. Most of the presentations were noisy, active, a little rambunctious, and led by highly engaging and energized leaders. Basically the sessions presented serious content in a kid-friendly way. Good stuff!

However, one session drastically stood out from the rest for one basic reason – transubstantiation. You’re familiar with that term, right?

While the leader demonstrated adequate knowledge and tremendous passion for his subject, there existed two glaring problems – transubstantiation was not the assigned topic, and the audience was a group of third graders!

The leader allowed his well-intentioned passion to take priority over both the prescribed content and the needs of the kids. He had put aside childish things and felt his audience should as well. He failed to realize his audience spoke, thought, and reasoned like children because they were children. (I Corinthians 13:11)

While I’m still a little fuzzy on the subject of transubstantiation, the session did start me on a journey to discover how best to teach kids. Here are a few things I have learned along the way:

1. Search the Scripture passage and lesson content for words and concepts that are difficult to understand and might need to be explained.

2. Use a variety of illustrations and visuals to refocus short attention spans.

3. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, but be ready to both affirm and deflect unexpected and inappropriate answers.

4. Teach in bite-sized chunks. God didn’t create the world in a single day, so we shouldn’t try to teach everything we know about it in a single session.

5. Make your point clearly and repeatedly. Don’t shy away from repetition. That’s how we learn!

6. Willingly admit you personally do not understand everything.

Jerry Wooley is the VBS GUY! He serves as the Vacation Bible School Specialist for LifeWay. Don’t expect to talk with Jerry for too long without him asking you about VBS. Jerry loves the local church and serves as a 1st-3rd Grade Teacher at Creekside Fellowship in Castalian Springs, Tennessee.

Evangelism, Kids Ministry

September 26, 2014

Now That VBS Is Over

By Jerry Wooley

The decorations may be in storage, but there is still much to do before calling it quits on VBS 2014.

For starters, it’s not too late to express appreciation to the army of workers – both volunteers and staff members – who made VBS possible. Genuinely recognizing and thanking workers this year is the first step in enlisting workers for next year.

Second, take time to evaluate VBS 2014. What worked? What needs improvement? Give everyone involved in VBS – including the kids and parents – a chance to participant in the evaluation process. Formal evaluation methods (written surveys and meetings) are always helpful, but some of the best evaluation will most likely come from one-on-one conversations – especially with kids and parents.

Evaluation notes will be a valuable resource for the VBS 2015 planning team, so keep a record of all evaluations and suggestions.

Third, numbers are important not only for celebrating and evaluating VBS 2014, but for setting goals and determining needs for next year. Take time to pull together numbers and report them to your church and to LifeWay. Fill out your report for LifeWay here. We would love to celebrate with your church, plus, your report helps us plan curriculum and resources for future years.

Fourth, it’s time to begin dreaming and planning for VBS 2015 by creating an actions calendar. This is best done while the memory of this year’s VBS is still fresh.

Work with other VBS leaders and staff members to list every action that will need to be taken from this point through making continued connections following VBS 2015. Create deadlines for each action and place them on the calendar.

Finally, take time to celebrate VBS 2014 and congratulate yourself and your team for a job well done!

Evangelism, Missions, Vacation Bible School

September 10, 2014

6 Steps for Turning the Unchurched into the Churched

By Jerry Wooley

As kidmin leaders, we spend a lot of time and resources trying to find and attract unchurched families through VBS, carnivals, egg hunts, and countless other “y’all come” events. We often rush to the conclusion of one event just so we can get on with the next. Without realizing it, we have jumped on a hamster wheel of prospect gathering that never slows yet produces few results.

What if we stopped spinning long enough to take a good look at the prospects already discovered through this summer’s VBS?

Statistics tell us 10% of the people who attend VBS are not connected to a church. On average, that’s 10 people (mostly kids) per church, but when family members are added to the equation the number of prospects discovered grows to 35! Now that’s something to celebrate!

However, statistics also tell us we establish ongoing relationships with only 1% of the unchurched who participate in VBS. We have successfully found and attracted unchurched families, but we didn’t keep them.

So what’s the problem?

The biggest issue seems to be the lack of an intentional plan to build upon the relationships begun during VBS. While we planned how to find prospects, we haven’t planned how we will keep them.

Here are six steps that help us go beyond finders to become keepers.

Step 1: Create a follow-up plan that focuses on building intentional relationships not just assimilating information about the church.

Step 2: Intentionally connect with the entire family, not just the kids. Don’t become so focused on the kids you ignore the parents.

Step 3: Train volunteers to be connectors (relationship initiators) instead of greeters. Greeters welcome guests then leave them on their own. Connectors welcome guests and make sure they are connected to others.

Step 4: Work with ministry leaders to connect parents with church members through ongoing ministries such as women’s and men’s Bible studies and support groups.

Step 5: Work with adult ministry leaders to create connection opportunities such as a new Sunday morning Bible study group for unchurched parents to connect with each other.

Step 6: Stay focused on working to keep the unchurched families you have already found.

Kids Ministry, Vacation Bible School

May 21, 2014

It’s Time to Reimagine VBS Follow-up

By Jerry Wooley

With the first days of Vacation Bible School just around the corner it’s time – actually past time – to start making plans to continue the connections begun with unchurched families during VBS.

You might assume I’m referring to follow-up (an action or series of actions), and on some level you would be correct. But continuing the connection is much more than an action. It’s a philosophy of why we conduct VBS in the first place. It’s a change from believing VBS is an end in itself, to believing VBS is just the beginning – the launch pad for future evangelistic opportunities.

Simply put, approximately 300,000 unchurched individuals attend VBS each year. During VBS we have a great opportunity to share the Gospel, resulting in approximately 80,000 professions of faith. This is a phenomenal number for one week of ministry, but what might the number of professions of faith be if we truly became intentional about building on the relationships (continuing the connections) begun during the week?

Each of the 300,000 unchurched individuals are connected to family members who did not attend VBS, yet we have their names and contact information on the registration form. When parents and other siblings are added in, we have discovered 1,000,000 (that’s one million) unchurched individuals who are at least interested enough in a relationship with a church to allow the kids to attend VBS.

Continued connections are required to reach the 1,000,000 and to disciple the 80,000 making professions of faith. This is bigger than a postcard or even a single home visit. What is required here is the mindset that says our work is not done until every person discovered through VBS is connected with the Gospel and connected with the church. We know that more people become active in the life of a church through relationships than for any other reason. VBS is not a relationship, but it is the catalyst for relationships.

Actions are required, but more importantly relationships are required. It’s time to start making plans – not for follow-up actions but for relationships!

Jerry Wooley is The VBS GUY!! He serves as the Vacation Bible School Specialist for LifeWay. Don’t expect to talk with Jerry for too long without him asking you about VBS. Jerry loves the local church and serves in various roles (including VBS teacher extraordinaire) at Inglewood Baptist Church.

Vacation Bible School

April 3, 2014

Why You Should Plan Your 2014 VBS Now (in 7 Easy Steps)

By Jerry Wooley

It’s the season for fall break, fall festivals, and fall holidays. But it’s also the time you should begin planning for your 2014 Vacation Bible School. The earlier you plan, the better your experience will be.

Some of you have already gotten your VBS catalog. These seven tips will help you keep it simple and make your VBS planning a complication-free experience. The last thing you want causing frustration is an event as fun and life-changing as Vacation Bible School.

1. Set up a meeting with your pastor.

Ask him to share his heart for the purpose and potential of VBS. Use this opportunity to get on the same page and align your vision and goals with your pastor’s.

2. Make sure VBS dates are on the church calendar now.

Find a week that does not compete with other ministries. Be ready with a couple of good dates that can work, in case someone else has already booked your first choice. Nail down the date on the church calendar and begin publicizing your VBS dates to the congregation now.

3. Enlist a co-director or small leadership team.

There is tremendous energy in dreaming, planning, and dividing responsibility with another person who has a shared passion.

4. Create a calendar of bite-sized chunks of work that needs to be accomplished over the next nine months.

Begin with your VBS dates and work your way backwards. It’s amazing what you can accomplished by breaking the work to be done into small parts. It keeps the workload from getting overwhelming and reduces the stress on everyone involved.

5. Enlist key leaders early.

Get division or age-group team leaders and others on board as early as you can. Then make them responsible for enlisting their own teams. Be sure to give a clear list of responsibilities and expectations before enlisting any workers.

6. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate!

Lack of communication – with church staff, congregation, and VBS volunteers – is one of the biggest culprits of complication and stress. Make sure everyone is constantly informed of the who, what, where, when, why, and how of your VBS.

7. Get the VBS resources you need to plan – now.

Have you heard about the new VBS Jump Start Kit? It’s a new resource that contains everything you need to begin planning and promoting for VBS 2014 — the Administrative Guide for Directors, Decorating Made Easy, music, posters, and more. Watch a video about how it can help you at Lifeway.com/vbs.

Vacation Bible School

April 1, 2014

Making Continued Connections through VBS

By Jerry Wooley

Many times “VBS follow-up” is relegated to a postcard sent the week after VBS thanking kids for attending. Once mailed, we can joyfully check “follow-up” off of our to-do list and close the books on another successful year of VBS.

The problem is not the postcard – kids love to receive mail – but the reality that for far too many of us a postcard is both the beginning and end of our follow-up efforts. For this reason LifeWay’s VBS team has begun changing the term — and hopefully the mindset — from follow-up (a one-time action) to continued connections or continuing the connection (an on-going relationship).

Collectively, each year VBS allows us to discover and connect with over one million unchurched kids, teens, and adults. Statistics reveal that 10 percent of everyone registering for VBS represents an unchurched family. They come to us initiating a connection — bringing with them everything we need to continue and grow the connection (names, ages, contact information). Yet, the same statistics show we continue the connection beyond VBS with only about a third of the unchurched.

For too long we have made VBS “the event” of the summer. Connecting with millions of people but making a lasting impact with only a small percentage. To turn these numbers around we must change the way we think about VBS. Instead of VBS being “the event,” it must become in our minds the prelude to the “real event” — which is continuing the connections created as a result of VBS.

By changing our way of thinking, the success of VBS is not measured by the number of people enrolled during the week, but by the number of previously unchurched families connected a year later.

Continuing the connection must be intentional. It must be planned for and pursued with the same intensity and attention to detail as the week of VBS.

Jerry Wooley The VBS GUY!! He serves as the Vacation Bible School Specialist for LifeWay. Don’t expect to talk with Jerry for too long without him asking you about VBS. In addition to VBS Jerry serves at his local church in various roles (including leading the 4th & 5th Grade Life Group and Party Pastor) at Creekside Fellowship north of Nashville.

Encouragement, Vacation Bible School

February 17, 2014

20 Things I Love About VBS!

By Jerry Wooley

There is much to love about Vacation Bible School. Let me count the ways!

The joy and laughter of a kid racing into the building from her parent’s car.
A dining table that hasn’t witnessed a meal in weeks due to a marathon of VBS preparation.
A teary-eyed worker who says: “Thank you for giving me this opportunity.”
Flower-shaped butter cookies and red fruit punch.
The realization that salvation really is a gift.
Glow-in-the-dark stars stuck on the classroom ceiling since VBS 1998.
Adults becoming kids again and loving crafts as much as the second graders.
The look of wonder when a child “gets it” during Bible study.
The chaos of the first day.
Learning that I am a “pearl of great price” to God.
The phrase of an ABC song that randomly pops into your mind at the strangest moments.
The baptism of a parent who met Jesus as a result of his son attending VBS.
Shell macaroni glued to a cigar box and painted gold.
The pastor who joyfully returns to the dunking booth until every kid has had a chance to hit the target.
The boy who drops five sno cones in less than five minutes.
The unchurched family that comes back on Sunday.
The timid first-time volunteer who shines like a star in the universe as she holds out the Word.
The kindergarten boy who breaks every rule in the book yet melts your heart when he hugs you good-bye.
Total exhaustion resulting from a day that made a difference.
The legacy of a time-tested outreach – this thing we call VBS – that year after year impacts more lives and results in more professions of faith than any other single ministry.

Thank you, VBS, for giving me so much to love!

Also, read: 7 Resolutions for Your VBS 2014

Training, Vacation Bible School

January 24, 2014

7 Resolutions for Your VBS 2014

By Jerry Wooley

For many of us VBS leaders it’s time for a change in the way we think about the purpose and expectations of VBS — especially those of us who have been in leadership for a while. Each January we get the opportunity for a “do over.” We have the opportunity for a fresh start. It’s time rethink not only what happens during the week of VBS, but especially what happens in the weeks following.

Before we get much further into the VBS 2014 year I invite you to join me as I resolve to do seven things:

1. To change the way I perceive VBS as THE event, to VBS being the prelude to the real event — Continued Connections (follow-up). For many churches VBS continues to be the best way to identify and begin relationships with unchurched families. However, when we think of the week of VBS as both the beginning and the end of an event we tend to allow the relationship to end with the last session.

2. To enlist a Continued Connections leader/director to help create and lead the process of building on relationships initiated during VBS and moving families into the life of the church.

3. To become more intentional in preparing for, inviting, and welcoming unchurched families through VBS.

4. To make sure every worker understands the evangelistic potential of VBS and has been trained to lead someone into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

5. To stress the importance of training by taking my workers to the nearest associational or state VBS training event or VBS 2014 Preview. Statistics reveal a correlation between the number of VBS workers trained and the number of professions of faith. Some areas of the country report 1.1 professions of faith for every one person who attends training.

6. To ensure every member of the congregation not only knows when VBS is being held but why VBS is being held, and the part each person plays in making continued connections.

7. To reproduce myself by making VBS a team effort and by delegating as many responsibilities as possible.

Consider attending a VBS 2014 Preview event. Find one near you!

Have you seen VBS 2014 Starter Kits, Decorations and Music & Worship?

Jerry Wooley is the VBS GUY! He serves as the Vacation Bible School Specialist for LifeWay. Don’t expect to talk with Jerry for too long without him asking you about VBS. Jerry loves the local church and serves in various roles (including VBS teacher extraordinaire) at Inglewood Baptist Church.

Six Simple Steps to Your Best VBS Ever

Making the Point

Speak as a Child

Now That VBS Is Over

6 Steps for Turning the Unchurched into the Churched

It’s Time to Reimagine VBS Follow-up

Why You Should Plan Your 2014 VBS Now (in 7 Easy Steps)

Making Continued Connections through VBS

20 Things I Love About VBS!

7 Resolutions for Your VBS 2014

All Ministry Sites

Digital Resources

LifeWay Network