Inside Nspire - Our Thoughts about Nspire, Church Management Software & Ministry

VBS is right around the corner. For many of you it has already come running around the corner, tackled you head on and made it’s stamp on your Google Calendar (or in other words, you are in the middle of it).

Vacation Bible School is one of the best times of the year. Kids come from all over and as much work as it is I think most VBS workers would agree the work is worth the reward.

This week I wanted to take the opportunity to share a few ideas on making the most out of your VBS by focusing on Post-VBS follow-up.

Now it is easy to get consumed with the preparation of VBS and completion of your VBS program and miss the giant opportunity laid before you. I’ve seen so many church organizations spend large amounts of money, resources, and volunteer time into the VBS program, year after year, but never actively pursue participant follow-up.

Each year, during VBS, you are given an opportunity to minister into the lives of children of various ages. The opportunity to teach and show these children the love of Christ is a rewarding and encouraging experience. What is even more rewarding is to take the opportunity to teach and show the love of Christ to the children attending and go one step further and do the same for the child’s family. What if your 1 week, 1 weekend or 1 day VBS looked further down the road and became a ministry tool to affect the families of each one of the children attending? What if VBS took the form of a children’s and family ministry opportunity?

I’m sure many of you reading are already doing this, if so, leave a comment below with your tips and advise.

Now, no matter how small or how big your annual VBS is, one thing is for certain if you want to follow-up effectively; you will need very good records of the children attending and their parents names and contact information. Most of you already gather this information but I would also venture to guess that many of you have it stored on paper sheets or in excel. Both work, but effective correspondence is about consistency and timeliness.

So, leads Nspire’s List of VBS follow-up ideas:

1. Plan your registration ahead of time.

Registration planning can be one of the toughest jobs to plan and get volunteers for. But, don’t skimp on this one, especially if you are a small organization and feel you already know who is attending. Accurate registration will not only give you contact details to use for later ministry opportunities but it will also be worth it’s weight in gold if an emergency arises where the parents need to be contacted.

You have put a lot of work into planning and preparing this years VBS so plan for new visitors and parents. Make sure that when they arrive they feel like they are leaving their children in a safe place that takes the necessary procedures to ensure, as a parent, they can be contacted if needed.

You also might want to consider making Pre-registration available. Many VBS curriculum’s now make online registration sites available for a small fee or for FREE! Here are a few options:

• If you are using Group VBS Curriculum, they have a free resource for making online registration available along with a free promotion website. You can register and setup you website by clicking on the following link:

https://www.groupvbs.com/webtoybox/director/login.aspx?partner=auto

• If you are using another VBS Curriculum that does not provide online registration you could consider making your own online registration form using one of the many services available. I personally like Wufoo.com. They will allow you to create a online form that will have up to 10 fields store 100 users per month for FREE. If you need more than that you can go one step up and pay $9.95 per month for Unlimited Fields and up to 500 stored users.

The benefit of a service like this is you can export your registrants out and import them into a ministry database like Nspire or Children’s Assistant… wink, wink. Here is the link:

http://wufoo.com/

2. Plan your Correspondence

After you gather your registration information either from an online form or paper form in the back. Make sure to enter this information into your church/ministry management database under a group/event of your VBS. Don’t have a ministry management software? Take a look at Children’s Assistant or Nspire (We offer non-advertised special pricing for small ministries and church organizations, call 1-888-297-6495 to see if you qualify).

At this point you are ready to develop your correspondence plan. This is your opportunity to thank the parents for bringing their children to your VBS and invite them to join you again. Consider the following (in no particular order):

• A thank you email sent to all parents and attendees sent the day of registration or after the event is over. If you are using a program like Children’s Assistant or Nspire you can personalize the email by mail-merging the parents names into each one automatically.
• Send a post-card to all the children who attended inviting them to attend your weekly children’s meeting (with parent’s permission). Postcards can be printed directly out of your management software or you can have them pre-printed from a place like www.gotprint.com (they have a online postcard software which will guide you through making your own custom postcard for this event).
• Make a phone call. The power of a simple phone call is often under-appreciated. It only takes a minute and gives you an opportunity to make a one-to-one connection with the parents who brought their children. This is something you just can’t accomplish with emails and postcards.
• Consider holding another event to meet and greet with the parents and families who attended. This could be done after VBS is over or even on the last day of VBS. Think cook-out. Just something to give you and the families an opportunity to get to know one another and share all the great stories from VBS.

3. Be Creative!

I know the very mentioning of the “C” word sends shivers down many of your spines. But no matter how uncreative you think you are I bet digging down you have an untapped well of creativity; you just need to unlock it. Try thinking like your kids think. What would they like… how do they want to learn… what are other people and organizations doing… Yes, look at what others are doing. Remember that old saying in Ecclesiastes “there is nothing new under the sun”, well it’s true. Much of the most creative stuff we see is just a rehash of something someone else did just with a new twist.

If your still having problems get a group of your friends and volunteers together for a creativity round-table. Give everyone a pack of post-it notes and for 10 min have everyone write down any ideas they have. Not idea is too small or too big. Anything goes, even the silly ideas. Have them centered around a question like, “How do we minister to the kids better than we have before” or  “What would make this years VBS the best and most influential in a child’s life than any VBS before”. For that matter you can even make it more specific like, “How do we make (this point, lesson, illustration) better than ever before”.

Everyone writes for 10 min, one idea per note. After the 10 min have everyone stick their ideas in the center of the table or on a nearby wall speaking them as they go through each one. Next, start discussing the ideas and watch the magic happen. Remember, no idea is too off-the-wall, what you might find is the off-the-wall ideas are the ones that spark the very best and most creative ideas you get. Try it out.

Well, I hope this article has been helpful. I’m sure many of you have a slew of other great ideas. Let me urge you to share them. Post a comment below and tell us what you think.

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