Donna Baker
Dightman’s Bible Book Center
Tacoma, Washington

“We mail information to the churches and have a video player set up in the store so our church customers can watch DVD demonstrations of VBS curriculum.  We still carry all the kits and let churches check them out and return the ones they don’t want.”

Mollie Lassiter Flowers
Gospel Music and Christian Bookstore, Laurinburg, North Carolina

“Starting the first week of January, we will ‘stack out’ the VBS kits. We will post our VBS sign-up sheet for our VBS workshop in February at the front counter, listing the church name, number attending and phone number of the director. We will bold-print on the January (end-of-month) statements about the VBS workshop. We will send out letters to the churches that do not have a balance due on their January statement, as well as the VBS directors who attended last year’s workshop. We advertise on the church page at our local radio station and Facebook page for the workshop. Also, if I find a church that purchased on the Internet for this summer’s VBS, I make sure I contact them personally for this upcoming VBS season.”

Bob Gillett
Manager, Kregel Ministry Resources, Kregel Parable Christian Stores, Grand Rapids/Grandville, Michigan

“We started promoting the 2015 VBS as soon as the themes were released in late June 2014 by sending emails to our current churches. We usually pick up a few pre-buys early for next year’s VBS. We then follow up with a mailing and e-mail in October. Our kits will arrive in December 2014 and January 2015, and we continue with the mailings and e-mails. In late January and early February, we have our VBS showcases. We strategically place them in locations in our area that are close to the majority of our churches. Our showcases are a great time for church leaders to be introduced to the various VBS themes all in one place. We serve refreshments, have representatives from the VBS publishers give presentations and allow the attendees to ask questions of the representatives. I personally invite potential attendees by phone, e-mail and direct mail.”

Melanie Worstell
The Abbey Christian Store
Norfolk, Nebraska

“For our VBS and curriculum orders next year, we are planning to call the churches and schools ahead of time to remind them when we will be placing our orders and to see if they need anything extra from us as a business. We want them to know that we can help them out getting any supplies that they need, and that extra phone call can make the difference with that or answer any questions that they might have.”

Danni Schneidt-Hill
Promises “His” Coffee & Cottage Shoppe, Malta, Montana

“Most of our rural churches are having teams come in and do their VBS’s, or in one case this past year, the church wrote their own curriculum. Therefore, I have gotten to the point of simply trying to carry support items. … In that sense, I work at building or gearing up for VBS by carrying new children’s prize items, gifts, Bibles, etc. I will also send a letter to the local churches offering support and material available in case they choose to do a VBS curriculum.”

Lorraine Valk
Parable Christian Store of St. Joseph, St. Joseph, Michigan

“My goal is to reach the churches earlier—before they get blasted directly from the companies to buy direct. I am pushing VBS at our Pastor Event this fall also. Putting a flier with the upcoming VBS offerings in the church statements as I send them out the next few months is also a tactic I hope to implement!”

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