VBS - what’s our why?
Throughout the entire year, our children can receive a whopping 52 hours of teachings about Jesus by going to church on Sunday. If they are lucky to go to Sunday School or Children’s Church, you can double that. A whole year of Wednesday night Awana club attendance will give them another 42 hours. If that child went to church and Sunday School every Sunday and attended Awana every Wednesday night, that would give them 146 hours of learning about God’s love and care for them, of giving them opportunity to give their life to Christ, and discipling them in the way of Jesus in a whole year, in a total of 8760 hours of one year of their life. So what is the importance, why devote hours upon hours of preparation, hundreds of dollars, recruit dozens of volunteers for a mere 12 hours of a summer church program for kids? What is our WHY for putting on a VBS (Vacation Bible School) every year?
I was a bit appalled the other day when I read a post on Facebook saying that their church decided to not have VBS anymore because they had not seen any growth in their church numbers as a result of their Vacation Bible School program. As I scrolled through the responses, there were a good dozen more churches that had stopped offering Vacation Bible School in the summer. Granted, some were trying new ideas, some called their summer program a camp or adventure, some had various “fun” days during the entire summer en lieu of a week of VBS, some choose to do nothing to replace it at all. However, out of the 340+ comments, most responders to the original post had some really good reasons WHY they offered Vacation Bible School at their church. As I read through them, I wondered to myself, what is our WHY of continuously offering a week of Vacation Bible School in the summer months. Let me name just a few…
· Our WHY is Outreach, Discipleship, Fellowship, Ministry, Relationships, Service
· Our WHY is planting seeds, connecting volunteers for ministry, building relationships with families year after year
· Our WHY is 3 intensive hours each day for 4 days straight to speak the Gospel into the heart of each child present
· Our WHY is 3 months of ministry packed into 1 week
· Our WHY is connecting the children, the teens, the adults – everyone- to Jesus
· Our WHY is giving teens and adults an opportunity to serve in Kids Ministry, see what it is like, and gain an appreciation for the work of ministry on a kid’s level
· Our WHY helps families in our church and our community for one week of childcare, a safe place where they can receive the love of Jesus and His followers
· Our WHY is discipleship training for our church kids and where visitors are welcome
· Our WHY is seeing salvation decisions. Even only one decision is worth every bit of effort in having a VBS.
· Our WHY is reaching families who won’t come to church on Sunday, but will send their kids on a weekday
· Our WHY isn’t to grow a church building, but to grow THE Church
· Our WHY is to be kingdom builders
· Our WHY is to offer a deeper learning experience and a place to bond for kids to kids, kids to adults, kids to community, kids to the world
· Our WHY offers the chance to be pushed out of our adult comfort zone and meet the needs (spiritual and physical and relational) of kids
· Our WHY is a tangible representation of unity for the body of Christ. It is one of, or the only event, that brings out the entire church to support a Gospel-laden, disciple-making program for kids
· Our WHY gives opportunities for kids to memorize Scripture, sing songs with Biblical teaching, build friendships, and learn empathy and compassion with missions teachings
· Our WHY lets kids who think they are alone in loving Jesus meet other kids who love Jesus
· Our WHY goes beyond baby-sitting to reaching kids for Christ
· Our WHY may sometimes not see fruit in this season, but is guaranteed by the authority of God’s Word to bring forth fruit in God’s season
· Our WHY plants seeds of faith in each child and in each family represented
· Our WHY can be the catalyst to a future full-time minister of the Gospel or missionary-to-be
· Our WHY allows our church members to see the value of kids ministry
· Our WHY reaches the largest mission field in the world-our kids
· Our WHY shows the importance of multigenerational ministry
· Our WHY provides a great service project for our teens as they learn from adults and then pour into the younger kids a love for God
· Our WHY sees the importance of follow-up after VBS is finished
· Our WHY is YOU
Our VBS (Very Best Summer) :>) will be held this August, from the 5th through the 8th, from 9am until noon. We offer our program to 4-year-olds through those entering 6th grade. We will help our families by providing a snack and a sack lunch for each VBS attender every day of Vacation Bible School. We need your help.
Visit our display in our church’s Main Street outside the auditorium doors and register your kids, sign up to volunteer, grab an invitation, or be ready to donate a needed item for VBS. We also will have a few work days to get ready for our week of VBS, a training session for all volunteers, and an opportunity for every family in our church to make part of our underseas decorations. Come see what it is all about and be part of our WHY.
Here's my prayer. Maybe you can add yours.
“God, give us a place where we let children see Jesus through us!
Let them feel his presence by our actions and the setting we create.
Let us feed their tummies and their hearts so they go home each day knowing that someone cared enough to make them a meal and pray for them.
And let one seed be planted in fertile ground that it will grow to plant another. One day, Lord, when I am done with this job, let the next children’s director reap the harvest of each of those seeds planted one year at a time. I know if I give it up to my Father, He will take that offering of what we are planting and make it even more plentiful than I can even fathom! In Your most holy name! Amen!!! “
Because Kids Matter,
Shari Coelho
Children’s Ministry Director