During VBS 2023, we chose a local homeless shelter & soup kitchen to support. Kids could bring non-perishable items, hygiene items, or money – In total, we raised just under $100. The following week, I took our non-perishables, along with our small check, to the local ministry, and after I left the ministry, my heart broke. I sat in my car, looking at the poverty around me, and cried. We had just spent thousands of dollars and endless hours on a one-week-long program when there were many who would go to bed hungry in my own community, and this didn’t feel right.

After that experience, I started to evaluate how we were running VBS seriously and how we were using our resources (both time and money), and I questioned if we were really accomplishing the goal of VBS, which for many years has been evangelism. My conclusion:

Resources were used poorly.
We spent too much money.
If evangelism was our end goal, we fell short.

Most of the kids that attended were either our own church kids or kids from other churches.

This conclusion may be different for your church, but I think that VBS needs to pivot in Canada. How? I think it has to do with not wasting resources/money, finding the needs within our communities and reaching them, and not just teaching our kids about the Gospel of Jesus but giving them opportunities to live it out! But changing a ministry as prominent and traditional as VBS can seem impossible, especially in a church with a long history of doing it, but here’s what we are doing.

We are taking a standard VBS format and tossing out one of the stations (KidVid), although you can toss any of them. We are filling it with a station we are calling Serve. Daily, kids come to the station and serve the community or a ministry overseas. Here’s what we are doing.

Partnering with a homeless shelter and making bagged lunches
Working with an organization that supports women by making hygiene bags
Decorating sugar cookies for our local emergency services
Partnering with Open Doors Canada to write letters/draw pictures for the persecuted church.

At our church, we are writing our own curriculum and calling our camp Camp Serve, but you can do it with a purchased curriculum! I just find writing ourselves saves even more money, and we can make it more specific to the children in our community. For a template and blog on writing your own and saving money, click the link – Running a VBS for Under $200.

If you’ve got questions or thoughts, I would love to hear them!

Jonathan DuHamel

With a few years under my belt, I have spent the last 15 years working in churches, daycares, public schools, and camps. I have experienced ministry in churches as small as 20 to 2000+ and everything in between. I am still learning, but I decided to start writing what I have learned to try and help churches better reach the next generation.

I have three kids and am married to my wonderful wife, Heather. Together, we have moved from Ontario to Saskatchewan and now to Alberta. Children & Youth have always been a part of my life. I started volunteering in my church’s children’s ministry as soon as I was no longer one (12 yrs) and haven’t really stopped. I have worked as a Children & Youth Pastor, just a Youth Pastor, just a Kids Pastor, and even a Lead Pastor for a short stint. I pray that what I write here is helpful to you as you seek God’s will in His ministry.