newsletter

Summer means Vacation Bible School

Is your church reinventing ministry to meet the desperate spiritual needs of your community? I hope so. There is a great hunger for God today – a new openness to spirituality, yet we find the church leaning toward an inward focus – consuming ourselves with ourselves while people outside the walls of the church are going to hell.

The community has grown to expect Vacation Bible Schools from the local church. That’s a good thing we need to exploit! Unchurched parents are much more likely to send their children to an event that has been a summer pastime for the last one hundred years. What an opportunity for the church to display their best to the public!

Here is a quick history course on VBS -from New Horizons in Vacation Bible School compiled by Willie R. Beaty.

Vacation Bible School was the idea of Mrs. Waler Aylett Hawes, a doctor's wife. Her goal was to get children off the streets of New York. In 1898 and 1899 Mrs. Hawes rented a beer hall in New York's East Side to conduct her Everyday Bible School. In 1900 Mrs. Hawes' pastor, Howard Lee Jones, insisted that the Bible school move to the church building, Epiphany Baptist Church. After two weeks it became clear that children from the East Side would not attend at the church, so Mrs. Hawes moved the school back to a site near the beer hall.

In the early 20th century, Vacation Bible School became a growing trend. While Mrs. Hawes was indeed a Baptist, Vacation Bible School was a non-denominational event in those early years. In 1922 the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention assigned the work of Vacation Bible School to the Sunday School Administration Department. In 1924 a Vacation Bible School Department was formed and Homer Grice, a pastor from Georgia, became its first director. At that point Vacation Bible School was usually a 4-week event!

Why Vacation Bible School?

I know that most of you that read this newsletter are not Southern Baptists, but since SBC is one of the largest denominations, I found the following SBC statistics from the year 2000:

• Almost three million people were enrolled in Southern Baptist Vacation Bible Schools.

• Over 91,000 decisions for Christ were reported during VBS.

• More people have come to know Jesus as Savior through VBS than through any other single church event.

I believe that these stats need our attention. Vacation Bible School needs more of our attention than just an activity delegated to some teenagers to hang out with the “church kids” from 8:30 am to noon for a week during the summer. Pull out all the stops! Include your entire church in VBS to make the event a community outreach. Don’t limit the size or scope to just a select number of kids. This is an open door to the church for the community!

Got a problem with enough volunteers? This goes back to previous newsletters – Most people do not get involved because they are not “PERSONALLY ASKED.” Just putting an announcement in the bulletin or mentioning it casually during the announcement time is not enough. Don’t rob your congregation of a blessing because you did not engage them in the project.

OK, what about curriculum? Remember the filmstrip? No problem today! Publishers have caught up with technology and the expectation of children that have been raised in a sight and sound era. Most denominations write great materials, provide videos, custom music, and ad slicks. Also, many non-denominational publishers are providing extremely good materials. Check out this year’s SCUBA by Group Publishing.

When should we hold VBS? Traditionally, the time has been from 8:30 am – noon for a week. I know many people that believe so strongly in VBS, they take their vacations from their job to participate. But, you may need to look at other time periods. Many churches are holding VBS in the early evening to involve more volunteers. Study your community and volunteers for the best time to reach kids.

Hold an event for the parents to attend. Host a Friday evening Hamburger picnic for the kids and their parents. Have a time that the pastor shares with the parents about Jesus. Hold a movie night and show the JESUS Film. There are many ideas – do something to bring mom and dad into the building. That will make the next step of visiting on Sunday morning so much easier.

And finally, don’t forget to use the techniques that we have used in past newsletters. Write the news releases and tell your community! .

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