Your third Stompers & Chompers VBS workshop can focus on relating to kids in areas such as motivating desirable behavior, preventing child abuse, presenting the gospel, leading a student to believe on Jesus as Savior, and having a child-friendly demeanor.
Workshop 3 Agenda
- Open the meeting in prayer.
- Sing a few Stompers & Chompers songs.
- Hand out copies of “Motivating Desirable Behavior” (p. 28 in the Director Guide) and discuss additional ideas, including “Child-Friendly Demeanor” (below).
- Give each worker a copy of “Child Abuse Prevention” (pp. 19–20 in the Director Guide).
- Distribute copies of “Leading a Student to the Savior” and “Sharing the Salvation Message” (pp. 15–17 in the Director Guide) and a gospel bookmark.
- Encourage workers to practice giving a clear gospel message using the salvation poster and a gospel bookmark.
- Divide into groups according to departments or job responsibilities and spend time in prayer and preparation.
- Set up overhead projectors. Provide poster board, markers, and transparencies of the clip art (p. 38 in the Director Guide and on the Decorating CD of the Director Resources CD Set).
- Encourage workers to begin making decorations for their classrooms.
Kid-Friendly Demeanor
Some children will attend VBS because they have to; their parents are workers or church members. Others will come, at least once, because a friend invited them. Some will come out of curiosity. And others will come because they’re used to attending your church’s ministries for children. But once they’re there, what’s going to keep them engaged and coming back?
Here are five things you can do to motivate your VBS students to return.
- Smile. The psalmists write about breaking out in song because of the joy of the Lord (Psalms 20:5; 33:1; 92:4; 95:1; 98:6). Children might consider you a freak if you did that, so a smile will suffice. A smile communicates “You’re welcome here,” “We like you,” “We accept you,” “Being a Christian makes me happy,” “We’re nice people here at VBS,” and more.
- Speak gently. Speaking gently is especially important when you are giving directions, correcting misbehavior, or helping a child do something (Proverbs 15:1–4; Galatians 5:22; 1 Thessalonians 2:7; James 3:17).
- Be patient. If you have a large number of children from your community, particularly unchurched kids, they will misbehave. Don’t expect them to live up to your standards of proper church behavior. Instruct them (gently but firmly), and always remain patient with them (Ecclesiastes 7:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:14).
- Be kind. You reflect Jesus Christ. Your kindness, empathy, and compassion are important to unsaved children—especially since the lessons are about God’s salvation. Make sure your words, tone of voice, facial expressions, and gestures are kind, even when you’re joking around (Proverbs 26:18–19; Ephesians 4:32; 1 Corinthians 13:4). And don’t forget, the Christian students are watching too. You are modeling for them what they will become.
- Help visitors feel a part of the group. Be aware of how you refer to church kids compared to visitors. Do you make visitors feel like outsiders? If some of the children can’t afford Stompers & Chompers–related apparel (and your church didn’t provide it), consider purchasing some—at least a button—to show that each visitor is part of your class, department, or program.
This is part 3 in a three-part series, Train Your VBS Team. Read “Your First Workshop,” and “Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty.”
