The church I attend has been doing something a bit different with VBS for the past two years. It has changed it to Wednesday nights through the summer. I volunteered when I could in the past and love being the snack lady. Once we did a lava theme I brought a chunk of lava that had Hawaiian diamonds in it and let them feel the rock to show how rough it is. If you’ve ever been snorkeling in the tide pools on the Big Island you’ll know that they can shred you. I then passed a container of green sand and black sand and showed then how smooth it is from the water. I most likely don’t have to tell you where I went with the illustration of how God makes us smooth with water.
When I was a kid I attended VBS and still have those memories in my head of felt Jesus. I’m so glad to see that the VBS of the past is gone and we now have puppets, music, theme based snacks and so on.
I do have a point to telling about our VBSs. A great deal of the children that attended in the past were from our community or kids that were at friends or families house for a visit during the summer. We were an outreach for the kids. Now it seems that I’m not seeing as many new faces. What happened to VBS being an outreach? I will say that many volunteer and put on a VBS in another area so that they can have what our children have so we do have folks reaching out to those around us.
I spoke to some folks who were gathering things for their churches VBS about reaching the community. They had some really cool ways that I’d love to see more of. A bag of popcorn placed in a bag and hung on a door with the saying "Popping in to invite you . . .. ." A Kool-Aid package with something about having Kool time at VBS put on doors to invite kids.
The church where my son meets for Boy Scouts has a concession stand and charges money. This is a huge church and from what I hear they seemed surprised to see kids for outside the church attend their VBS. Are they alone in this or is the trend to take VBS away from the community?
I also realize that some parents did the drop and go thing but at least the kids got a bit of God in that week. You never know if that young person will be sitting on a bench on campus, thinking of what path to take, might think when he sees a rock on the ground and think about how smooth God could make him with the water.
Does your church use VBS as on outreach?
3 comments:
We don't do VBS - but maybe next year!
Milly, I was a "bused-in" VBS kid back in the day. Tons of kids would come. And for many of us it was our only exposure to Christ.
Churches don't do that anymore. I wonder if kids who's parents would never step in a church will miss out on Jesus in their early years - but then there are a lot of safety and legal concerns. Will churches ever be able to do what the church did for my siblings and I again? They picked us up for church every Sunday for more than a decade, gave us scholarships for camps and other church events and truly loved us like Jesus.
I'm really interested to know if anyone uses it as an outreach anymore, too.
We should do.
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