Why VBS?

Our church began its Vacation Bible School this week.  Many would ask why we still have one.  It takes a tremendous amount of energy and effort.  People have put a great deal of time into preparing to teach, decorating rooms, and inviting families.  People have spent countless hours praying for this event.  Some would suggest that it’s a lot of effort to put towards kids that the skeptic says we’ll never see again.  Some would even suggest that we may be doing more harm than good because some children may make an insincere, emotional decision and rest in some false sense of security.

I am the first to recognize some of the pitfalls of something of this nature.  With that said, however, there are a few reasons why I believe it’s important for us to do VBS.  For one, it rallies people to a cause bigger than themselves.  This week is really like any other in our church’s calendar.  As I mentioned above, scores of people put in an incredible amount of time.  Designers and builders design and build.  Prayer warriors pray.  Teachers teach.  Sounds a lot like the body working the way that it should to me (Romans 12:3-8).

Second, it shows the love of Christ to children and their families.  In the world that we live in, so many families are fractured and overwhelmed.  Perhaps no institution in our society is under more assault than the family.  And, tragically, children often pay the price.  We have the opportunity to remind the children of our community that God loves them and that we love them.  For some of them, it may be the only time they get a chance to hear something like that.  At the same time, we can touch their parents and grand-parents with a biblical message of hope and love.

In the course of loving these children and their families, we have the opportunity to share the gospel of Christ with them.  Again, I understand what some may say about the sincerity of someone’s decision.  But, if someone (be it a child or an adult) asks to surrender his or her life to Jesus, and can express a basic understanding of sin and salvation, is it not our responsibility to help them in that decision? 

My own testimony bears this out.  I come from an unchurched family.  As a child, I would occasionally attend a Vacation Bible School in our community.  One year I walked an aisle, said a prayer, and went home and proclaimed I “had a white heart”.  I was sincere, but ignorant.  My family never went to church after that, and even though I sporadically might have attended, I was hardly a disciple.  Years later, I became concerned about my relationship with God, and asked my parents if we could go to church.  While attending a church (interestingly one of a different denomination than the one where I went to VBS), I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior.  At the very worst, my childhood VBS experience was a gospel seed planted that was harvested a decade later. 

That’s our hope and prayer every year when we enter into this venture.  That lives will be touched.  Perhaps today.  Or maybe ten years from now when a young adult will be prompted by the Sprit of God to respond to God’s grace and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  That’s why we do this.  May God bless us in these efforts once again.