Diving Deep into the Gather and Send Site

At ReNew, the day begins and ends at the Gather and Send site. Kids experience the Gather and Send space as a large group and the main focus of the site is to introduce the Bible story. Click here to see what the Gather and Send space could look like.

What do kids do during the Gather time?

At the beginning of the VBS day, kids will prepare for the day by singing, learning the Bible story, collecting the Mission Moment offering and begin their daily planting ritual. After the gather time is over, kids will rotate with other kids in their age group to the various activity sites, before regrouping at the end of the day. If a congregation is using the all kids option, the kids would stay together to experience the rest of the ReNew activities.

What is the Planting Ritual?

The ReNew planting ritual is a very important part of the ReNew VBS experience. Kids use their kid packs to make seedling pots, planting different seeds each day to remind us of God’s renewing love. The seedling pot consists of a portion of their bible book—so kids are planting God’s word as they grow in faith. Over the course of the week—kids will plant a “pizza garden” (organic tomato, basil, oregano, onion, and pepper seeds), which can be sustained, at church or at home.

Music! Music! Music!

Music is a very important part of the Gather and Send time. Kids will rock out to the seven original songs commissioned for ReNew—a great way to experience and dive deep into the Bible story—as well as enjoy the five “recycled” VBS favorites included in the music CD. The entire music CD is reproducible—you may consider making CDs for all of your kids, or sharing the music on iTunes. For music samples, click here.

How does the day end?

Kids celebrate the day by completing their planting ritual, reflecting on the day’s activities, singing songs, and choosing a ReNew It! Challenge to help carry VBS home. The ReNew It Challenges are intended as conversation starters for kids to share all of their VBS fun with their families. Kids get the chance to share their Challenge experiences with the group the next day.

To view actual Gather and Send samples and to see how ReNew may work for your congregation, click here.