BCNE’s Vacation Bible School Training Draws Church Leaders From 19 States

“When it comes to kids’ ministry I want to soak in every bit of training I can and hear the curriculum taught from different perspectives,” wrote Renee Hauser, an experienced Vacation Bible School leader from North Carolina.

“I had limited ideas about how to prepare” for Vacation Bible School, noted Mark Ye, who leads the Vacation Bible School for a Chinese church north of Boston. 

They were among the 239 participants from nineteen states who understood the value of preparation for Vacation Bible School. They decided to join the online training offered by Sandy Coelho, Leadership Development Coordinator for the Baptist Churches of New England. 

What's not to like about VBS, a time-tested and effective discipleship method that introduces children to Jesus Christ? The educational strategy provides children with almost twenty hours of Sunday School training in a single week and connects unchurched families with nearby congregations, sometimes for the first time.  

Vacation Bible School (VBS) or Kid’s Camp, as it is often called, gives many associated benefits and much to consider for the teachers, leaders, and churches who decide to sponsor a life-transforming VBS week for their kids.

A New England native who has been a key BCNE staff member since 1998, Coelho called on her “great connection” with Lifeway Christian Resources, the Southern Baptist publishing arm, who provided guidance, curriculum, and promotion for the online webinars.

She listed the training options—everything from event promotion and the importance of follow-up to effective teaching methods and strategies to involve special-needs kids—on national websites and Facebook, which is how VBS leaders from around the United States heard about and signed up for the New England seminars.

Hauser, who attends the annual Lifeway training in January at Ridgecrest, the Baptist conference and retreat center near Asheville, NC, explained in an email that “the reason I have joined in with you guys the last few years is because I want all the training I can possibly get.”

“I don’t want to ever feel ill-equipped when it comes to teaching kids about Jesus or leading a group to teach kids. I also want to be able to share as much as I can with those leading VBS teams. I am so very grateful for the trainings you do online.” 

The teachers “have been so helpful and I have looked forward to them each year,” added the VBS director for the Surry Baptist Association in Mount Airy, NC. She teaches an in-person workshop for sixty-five churches, leads VBS at her home church, and even organized a one-day mission trip to Virginia to share what she learned with another congregation.

BCNE does not charge a fee for its webinar training, which Hauser said “is awesome! It gives me an opportunity to get the additional training at no cost.”

A novice VBS leader, Mark Ye, who directs the summer outreach at Chinese Bible Church of Greater Lowell for only the second time, was asked to attend the BCNE’s VBS online training. “I had limited ideas about how to prepare. This training was a good educator for me to have a basic idea about different aspects of VBS,” he wrote in an email.

“I was swamped by the preparation as a first-year director and I did not really get time to apply too much of the knowledge to our VBS last year, but during and after the VBS I did [see] several things we missed that I can recall they covered in the training last year such as follow-up strategies. Therefore, I chose to join BCNE’s VBS training again this year,” he wrote.

Even though some topics repeated the 2023 content (which is still posted on the BCNE website), “I still [found] a lot of new things I can apply to our VBS this year. For instance, there is a topic this year about how to handle conflicts. We actually had conflict with our volunteers last year,” he said of his trilingual (Mandarin, Cantonese, and English) congregation in Chelmsford, MA.

When Coelho taught the “Handling Conflicts” online seminar on March 5, Ye said it “provided guidance that could have solved our problem, and I believe, with this knowledge, we can handle conflicts much smoother this year. This training also “benefits our volunteers a lot.”

Ye’s church requires all VBS volunteers to watch at least one training video. They recommended the session about follow-up that Melva Davidson, the VBS leader at Newbury Bible Church, Newbury, VT, led on March 7.  He reported that conflict management “is something we did not do well and want to put efforts on” in 2024.

He praised all the videos offered and described them as “really helpful to prepare and ramp up our volunteers for VBS service. Without them, I do not know how we [could] equip our volunteers, who are mainly youth at our church.”

2024 VBS Webinars

It’s clear from these two solicited testimonies that BCNE’s online webinars are beneficial as a reliable source of information and inspiration for Baptist congregations, not just in New England, but nationwide. “While our primary focus will always be on reaching New England, we are happy to invest in the broader Kingdom through training leaders in other states in how to do effective evangelism,” wrote BCNE Executive Director Terry Dorsett.

You can support Sandy Coelho’s training ministry with a donation to the Church Health Fund.

When asked about the impact of VBS on New England Baptist churches, Coelho says, “I don't think they [all] call it ‘Vacation Bible School,’ but I would say a good 60% of our churches do something in the summer that’s focused on kids and families, whether they're called block parties or some other type of outreach—and maybe 40% do a traditional VBS.”

For those church leaders considering VBS for their congregation, Lifeway says, “With so many options available, people often get caught up on the VBS theme or look. At Lifeway we say that the THEME DOESN’T MATTER—YOUR KIDS DO!”

Their “gospel-centered” curriculum and Bible study options for all ages, from preschool to middle school, “is the most important aspect of any VBS program.” In 2019 the Lifeway Kids’ publishing team released It’s Worth It: Uncovering How One Week Can Transform Your Church, a 128-page research-based book that may be of interest to those still pondering a VBS ministry.

When not coordinating the myriad of VBS details, Coelho can be found leading the BCNE ministries of discipleship, safety and security, small groups, English as a Second Language, and Sunday school. “God has entrusted us with an incredible treasure: our kids. But leading children with excellence can be a challenge,” she wrote online. 

She also coordinates “KidMin University,” an online certification program for children’s ministry leaders and volunteers that the BCNE offers in partnership with the Mississippi Baptist Convention, and is a key leader of the new Multiplication Center.

“The BCNE is committed to equipping children's ministry leaders and volunteers. We want to encourage you as you create an environment where kids are safe, are taught at an age-appropriate level, and are encouraged to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ,” Coelho summarized.

A Massachusetts native and a New England Baptist since 1970, Dan Nicholas is the BCNE managing editor.