Sharing Resources
How One Church Shares Resources Across Two Campuses

One of the hurdles for churches trying to host a Vacation Bible School is finding (or funding) resources, but even something as simple as sharing decorations can help. Redeemer Lutheran in Southwest Missouri is a unique church; they are one church with two campuses: Springfield and Nixa. One of the special things this church does is share VBS resource materials amongst campuses.

Rev. Stephen Moser, Associate Pastor Parish Life at Redeemer, explains that Redeemer does a five day VBS, in the evening. (While it can be a bit challenging for the younger ages to be out five evenings in a row, they found this schedule that works really well for both volunteer availability and parents.) Usually they host one VBS, allow a week break, then finish at the second campus. And while it’s essentially the same VBS in terms of material both weeks, the towns serve different audiences. There’s variety in terms of staffing, too, as Redeemer uses volunteers from each location.

Pastor Moser notes that licensing may not allow for the VBS source material from the company to be shared between different congregations– although many VBS themes allow for multiple campuses. But even sharing items like decorations and craft supplies really go a long way. “One of the advantages is that I tend to get a little over enthusiastic for the decorations,” Pastor Moser jokes. “So it feels good to be able to use the decorations for two weeks… it’s a huge benefit. For example, we can create the sets in Springfield, use them in Nixa, and then even pass them onto another congregation.”

Congregations don’t need to be directly linked like Redeemer to benefit from sharing resources. Smaller churches can group up with surrounding congregations and order supplies in bulk. Or different congregations can coordinate and rotate VBS decorations. Redeemer has even found that it’s a benefit for their t-shirt order, since it’s cheaper to print with a larger quantity. There are a number of ways for congregations to work together to save time and money, keeping the focus on sharing the Gospel.