VBS Family Night Celebration – Ideas & Outlines

• Watch the video under “The Five Missing Pieces of VBS” for a discussion about having an effective VBS Family Night.
• Open the “Lesson Contents” below for two Family Night outlines.

Suggestions

• Send home flyers about Family Night from VBS for at least two days. On it, don’t just list the time you begin but list the end time as well. For example, instead of putting. “Join us Wednesday at 7:00pm with snacks to follow” put “Join us Wednesday at 7:00-7:45pm with snacks to follow.” Unchurched families are more likely to attend if they know both the start and end time.
• Include information about Family Night on your VBS registration form.
• Send an email about Family Night to all the parents who registered their kids for VBS.
• Get your kids excited about Family Night by telling them about it – i.e., “We’re going to have a great time with illusions, a video of pictures from the week, etc.”
• Have a drawing to giveaway prizes at the Family Night – i.e., gift baskets, gift cards,etc.
• Give something away to all the kids – “If you come to Family Night tonight, you’ll get…”
• Have several volunteers take pictures throughout the week to give you a great variety of photos. You can easily upload these pictures using a free account at Animoto.com to make a short but quality-looking video.
• If you have enough pictures, have a slideshow going as parents arrive so that they are engaged from even before the event begins.
• Choose several kids as volunteers to be at the doors as people arrive to greet them and to give out whatever is needed—i.e., give tickets out for prize giveaway, a schedule of the service, an invitation to something special that is happening the following Sunday, etc.
• Instead of having kids sit with their classes, tell your kids in advance that you want their families to sit together and that they’ll want to sit up close to have the best view for what will be happening.

Other Ideas

• Ask the WHY? Always ask yourself, “Why would kids and parents want to be a part of Family Night?” What is the draw? What is the hook? What makes the kids go home and say, “Mom, we can’t miss this.”
• Walk the Plank – This takes some time and expense but is a big hit. Buy a swimming pool that is at least 3-feet deep. Put air mattresses at the bottom, covered by hundred or thousands of foam-like balls or balloons. Randomly choose a student (or perhaps the boy and girl who brought the most friends) each day of VBS to jump feet-first into the pool and then to dive down and find a prize at the bottom. During Family Night, randomly choose two people (adults or kids) to jump in and dive for a prize. If you do this, you’ll want to include some great prizes at the bottom like a gift card for a family meal at a favorite restaurant, etc. You can even put the prizes inside balloons so they don’t know what they’re choosing until they get out and pop the balloon. (One church where we did this built a plank extending off their stage and their kids literally walked the plank!)

VBS Family Night Outlines

Two powerful and fun ways to engage families and lost parents with the Gospel at your next VBS Family Night Celebration. Open the “Lesson Contents” below.