7 Reasons to NOT Cancel VBS This Summer

Of all the years I spent going to VBS as a child, I only really have two memories of those flannel-graphed summer days.

The first, and most vivid, is the year that I asked my group leader if I could use the restroom, and then left the church. I walked away and hung out with some friends at a nearby neighborhood pool, without the slightest awareness of the chaos taking place as everything shut down to look for a missing 4th grader. Like most strong memories, the associated sensory connection to the smell of chlorine and the pain of a wooden paddle keep that day in front of my mind.

The only other VBS memory I have relates to what I remember as Backyard Bible Club that a neighbor in the cul-de-sac down the street hosted. I’m not sure what we studied or if there was even a theme, but I do know that I got to hang-out with my primary summertime friend group, the kids on my street, and learn about Jesus at the same time. Maybe there were also sensory triggers in the super sweet lemonade and mailbox balloons that I may or may not have popped (I was an “active” child).

Here’s why those memories are on my mind today. As the stay-at-home orders begin to lift and a return to the normalcy found in the rhythms and relationships of the church begins to happen, I am thinking about the implications on VBS. Thinking tends to always lead me to ask, “What If?”

What if instead of trying to gather hundreds of kids in a big room together, which probably won’t sound appealing to an unchurched parent anytime soon, we deployed our VBS resources into our neighborhoods and homes?

What if instead of renting an already germ-infested, array of bouncy castles and inflatable slides, we trained our parents to connect with a smaller, socially distanced group of neighborhood kids?

What if instead of one person learning and teaching the lessons each day, tens or hundreds of people received the curriculum and the opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus right in their front, or back, yards?

What if VBS worship wasn’t on a stage with dancers and motion lights, but played from a laptop alongside awkward teenagers trying to keep their younger sibling’s friends engaged?

What if craft time was on the porch and recreation time was at the driveway basketball hoop?

What if we equipped people to be the church with smaller gatherings in neighborhoods across our city this Summer rather than inviting a crowd-averse community back on campus?

What if 30+ years from now, adults everywhere fondly remembered gathering under tall pine trees with their neighborhood pals, drinking lemonade, and learning about Jesus from their friends’ parents?

I guess I am saying, don’t cancel your VBS this Summer… deploy your VBS this Summer. Put curriculum in the hands of families all across your communities, from cul-de-sacs down the street to apartments and neighborhood pools, and watch what happens when we empower and train people to be the church! 2020 may be the most crucial Summer of programming your church will ever experience. 

Just remember to keep an eye on those fidgety fourth graders.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bryan Rose

Bryan Rose

As Lead Navigator for Auxano, Bryan Rose has a strong bias toward merging strategy and creativity within the vision of the local church and has had a diversity of experience in just about every ministry discipline over the last 12 years. With his experience as a multi-site strategist and campus pastor at a 3500 member multi-campus church in the Houston Metro area, Bryan has a passion to see “launch clarity” define the unique Great Commission call of developing church plants and campus, while at the same time serving established churches as they seek to clarify their individual ministry calling. Bryan has demonstrated achievement as a strategic thinker with a unique ability to infuse creativity into the visioning process while bringing a group of people to a deep sense of personal ownership and passion.

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comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
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comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
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