2008 Closing Celebration Ideas

LISTEN UP! CELEBRATION

Invite parents, grandparents, friends, and people from your neighborhood to join you for the final hour on the last day of vacation Bible school. Have the actors from the drama (or older students) portray Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jonah, Amos, and Daniel and share the themes for each day. Give awards for attendance. Share the total amount of your offering project. Sing favorite Listen Up!songs and enjoy refreshments. Play games from the “Prophet Games” Listen Up! Links workshop, or have children do skits they created in the “Act Like a Prophet” workshop.

EVENING PROGRAM

Announce a closing program along with your VBS invitation, so people can plan to come. In the foyer or adjacent hallway, display the message boards or wind chimes children made, their “Picture the Message” projects, and other items from the Listen Up! Links workshop activities.

Ideas for age-group participation in a closing program:

Early Childhood

Sing “If you have ears” (p. 39, Early Childhood Leader’s Guide; #5, Listen Up! Song CD), verse 1 and refrain, pointing to ears and then cupping hands behind them. Recite the Day 5 memory verse, “Have faith in the Lord your God,” as part of a litany with motions (p. 29, EC Leader’s Guide).

Primary

Sing “A new heart” (p. 43, Worship and Drama Guide; #3, Listen Up! Song CD). Hold up large paper hearts or the sponge hearts from the Day 2 session. With each child holding a Faith Focus scroll from Day 2 (p. 24, Primary Leader’s Guide), read Ezekiel’s message: “Listen, God can transform us from the inside out.”

Middler

Divide into parts and recite the worship litany “Listen!” from page 47, Worship and Drama Guide. Then sing “I can hear your message” (p. 41, Worship and Drama Guide; #2, Listen Up! Song CD).

Junior Youth

Recite the Day 4 closing blessing, using words from Micah 6:8 (p. 20, Junior Youth Leader’s Guide). Then sing “Listen up, people!” from page 45, Worship and Drama Guide (#4, Listen Up! Song CD).

All age groups together:
From the Worship and Drama Guide, sing “If you have ears” (p. 44; #5, Listen Up! Song CD), and “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me” (p. 42; #1, Listen Up! Song CD). Recite the memory passage, Isaiah 61:1-3. Repeat and ask the congregation to join you. Sing more songs, if desired.

SUNDAY MORNING CELEBRATION

Give the entire congregation a glimpse of VBS. (Be sure to invite the families of children who do not normally attend.) Share the enthusiasm and Bible learning. Use songs from VBS in the worship service. Let the children help to teach new songs to the congregation.

Call to Worship
Combine one or two of the Call to Worship texts from the Worship and Drama Guide, or read each of them in succession.

Processional

Children process into the sanctuary, singing “I can hear your message” (p. 41, Worship and Drama Guide; #2, Listen Up! Song CD). Ask the congregation to join in the song.

Hearing God’s Word

• Have VBS students recite the memory passage, Isaiah 61:1-3. Repeat and invite the congregation to join in.
• Meditation on the messages of God through the prophets featured in the Listen Up! VBS curriculum. See biblical backgrounds in Worship and Drama Guide.
• Present one of the favorite daily dramas.
• Have groups do still pictures (tableaux) that depict each Bible story.

Confession

God, we confess that we do not always listen to your messages. We are too busy with our own lives and activities to pay attention. Help us to hear your voice through your messengers in the Bible and through your messengers in the world today. Help us to share your messages with others, knowing that you are always with us and will help us. Amen.

Song
Sing “A new heart” (p. 43, Worship and Drama Guide; #3, Listen Up! Song CD).

Offering

Explain the offering project you chose for VBS and add to the special offering that will share God’s messages through actions as well as words.

Sharing
Use a roving mike to interview the children (or leaders) who were part of VBS: “The best part of Bible School was…,” “What I liked about Bible school was…,” etc.
Or invite children to read the Daily Challenges from the I’m Listening, God student foldouts, or share balloon messages from God and Jesus from the Day 5 drama.

Sending

Sing “If you have ears,” page 44, Worship and Drama Guide (#5, Listen Up! Song CD).