Worst. VBS. Ever

Posted July 27th @ 5:04 pm by Andy Print This Post

Dave Zimmerman has a humorous post about the difficulty of picking good themes for Vacation Bible School, complete with a top-ten list of the worst VBS themes he could come up with. Here’s the first six; visit his blog for the rest:

10. Fun with C-Span 9. Let’s Make Nikes! 8. Rocky Horror Bible School 7. Baywatch Junior 6. Death Before Dishonor! 5. The Herbs and Spices of the Bible

(If your church should choose to go with option #6 on the list, I know just the Bible for you.)

Any additions to his list? I’ve taught at a few VBS’s over the years, but I don’t remember my parents ever shipping me off to one when I was a kid. From my teaching experiences, I have only vague memories of Noah’s Ark-themed hand puppets and a lot of yelling and singing. Have any readers lived through any truly awesome/terrible-themed Vacation Bible Schools?

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5 Comments

Lisa
July 27, 2007 at 21:29

We had the same cowboy theme the blogger mentioned. It had leprosy-themed activites for both elementary and preschoolers! One leprosy story that our Bible Adventure leader told today will almost certainly give me nightmares and very nearly made me throw up, and I’m an adult. I’m not sure if I should hope that he researched that tidbit himself or if it came with the curriculum.
Paul
July 28, 2007 at 11:23

Can we ever forget the infamous “Rickshaw Rally” from the good folks at LifeWay? We ran like crazy away from that one!
Shaye
July 28, 2007 at 14:32

My husband did the music for one a few years ago, and the church made up themselves.
One woman from the church wrote all the skits for the VBS, and one of them was all about the spiritual life of vacuum cleaners—complete with talking carpet. I think the idea she was going for was that Jesus can make you clean.
We don’t think she ever figured out that everyone else realized she was saying “Jesus sucks”.
Siarlys Jenkins
July 31, 2007 at 17:40

Herbs and spices of the Bible sounds interesting. I might get pulled in by that one. Then we could move on to how people lived in those times, and put stories and verses in context, and maybe get an idea of what they really meant to people who lived them. Alternatively, how about inviting a rabbi to teach original Hebrew meanings of Genesis, Samuel and Amos?
mo
August 4, 2007 at 02:19

The worst one I can dream up:
Reality Show VBS
Dressed as old testament prophets teams of kids travel in vans to malls and attempt to give out tracts to: someone with a mullet, someone with at least four piercings, someone holding a sign, a security guard, someone wearing a branded t shirt and someone over sixty. Then they travel to a crowded park and perform twenty minutes of aerobics to a Jeezersize tape. After this they return to the church and cook a chicken spaghetti dinner. The losing team must vote someone off the van. That person must languish under tree like Jonah for the rest of the vbs. Please let me get voted off the first day!

I have actually seen one in which kids had to pass out tracts. It was so awkward.