Program to be more accessible for smaller churches

Pioneer Clubs has revealed its first-ever Vacation Bible School (VBS) offering for 2014, The Wacky World of Water. Billed as being simple, collaborative, Bible-based, mission-focused, flexible and fun, the new VBS program targets smaller churches without huge volunteer forces as well as larger churches wanting to get back to basics.

“Many of us at Pioneer Clubs volunteer for VBS at our churches, and through discussions of how complex VBS has become, we realized most of us felt this way,” said Terry Logan, sales and marketing manager for Pioneer Clubs. “We love the kids, love the concept of VBS and the community outreach it has. However, preparing for VBS has almost become a year-round project.”

After surveying its church networks and finding a consensus, Pioneer Clubs found evidence of the negative effects of the complexity.

“The ‘icing on the cake’ in the research was from a Barna research that reflected small churches were not conducting VBS,” Logan said. This was “mainly due to cost and lack of volunteers—hence needing many volunteers to help with the complexity.”

Pioneer’s first entry into the VBS market seeks to strip away the complexity to make VBS a more feasible reality for small churches as well as large ones.

“Pioneer Clubs’ midweek programs has a strong connection with small churches, so Barna’s research resonated with us,” Logan said. “We are getting interest from large and small churches all desiring to take the complexity out of the weeklong program and bring back the strong adult-to-child relationship aspect. 

“Many people over the age of 45 can still remember their childhood VBS teachers’ names, mainly due to the relationships they built,” Logan added. “In the end Christ’s Kingdom has always been built through relationships.”

For a full list of VBS offerings, see our 2014 Vacation Bible School Product Guide at www.christianretailing.com.