by Roy B . Zuck
Rev. Roy B. Zuek, Th.D., is Executive Director of Scripture Press Foundation, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. W h a t is t h e f u t u r e of Vacation Bible School in evangelical churches? In what directions have Vacation Bible Schools been moving in the last two or three years? Is VBS on the upswing or is it on the way out? How do pastors feel about VBS? Figure 1, 45.8% of the pastors said last fall that their churches plan to schedule a 5-day VBS this year and 40.4% plan a 10-day program. (It is also interesting that, according to Figure 1, there has been a slight increase in Vacation Bible Schools conducted for periods of time other than 5 or 10 days.)
Many Christian educators and pastors recently have been asking these and related questions about this popular church agency. In an effort to provide some meaningful answers, the Christian Education Research Division of the Scripture Press Founds tion, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, conducted a survey of VBS characteristics and trends last fall in thou sands o f churches of many denominations all across the United States and Canada. More than 5,000 pastors completed the six-page questionnaire—a response o f 11.0% out of the more than 42,000 to whom the questionnaires were mailed. The ques tionnaire was designed to provide information on VBS characteristics in 1966, 1967, and 1968, and church plans for certain aspects o f VBS in 1969. The following highlight some of the findings: 1. The 5-day VBS is now more popular than the 10-day VBS. Figure 1 shows that in 1968 5-day schools were conducted in about half (49.3%) o f the churches whose pastors participated in the survey. That was an 11.2% lead over the 10-day program, which was conducted by 38.1% of the churches. The 5-day school has gained about 4% each year since 1966 —from 40.9% in 1966 to 45.0% in 1967 to 49.3% in 1968. Correspondingly, the 10-day school, which was more popular than the 5-day program in 1966, has dropped by about 5% each year since then. However, the trend will begin to reverse in 1969, if the churches actually follow the plans expressed by the pastors on the questionnaire. As shown in
The schools that were held for 5 days in 1968 were more prevalent in the South than elsewhere, and 10-day schools were more prevalent in the East. 2. However, higher percentages of pastors were satisfied with the 10-day schools. In 1968, 93.4% o f the pastors whose churches had held a VBS for 10 days felt that the length of days was “ about right.” But only 73.5% o f the pastors whose churches had led a VBS for 5 days felt that the length was “ about right.” This indi cates that more pastors sense a greater value in a 10-day program, even though the trend favors a 5-day schedule. 3. Evening schools are increasing slightly in popularity. Table 1 shows that evening Vacation Bible Schools have increased from 14.9% in 1966, to 16.9% in 1967, to 18.0% in 1968, and that in 1969 plans call for 18.5% of the schools being conducted in the evening. Also a slight increase was prevalent in the moming-evening combination. Even though the majority o f Vacation Bible Schools are sched uled in the mornings, there was a slight drop in the percentage o f morning schools (from 71.7% in 1966 to 68.0% in 1967, to 65.4% in 1968, and a planned 63.6% in 1969). 4. Lack o f leaders and workers is the main reason certain churches did not conduct VBS in the last three years. In 1966 about 1 in 11 (8.8%) o f the churches participating in the Scripture Press Foundation
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