This week our church family is hard at work getting ready for Vacation Bible School. Next week, Sunday-Wednesday, will bring fun and games together with a study of God’s word and a wholesome time for our kids and adults. We hope you’ll make it a priority to be there each night. We have high hopes for a big turnout, but it’s only possible if everyone who can come, does come.

Some people, however, fail to see the great value in Vacation Bible School. Let me offer a few reasons why it is good, not only for the children but also for the parents, to support such an endeavor:

IT’S GOOD FOR THE PAST

Adults should love VBS because it can remind them of the fun they had as kids: The silly songs, the goofy rituals, the friends made with visitors from other congregations. As an adult, it’s great to sit back and watch children and teens get way too excited about a man in a cheap chicken costume, or wearing a giant Bible, or dressed as a pirate or a spy or something that looks more like it belongs to a minor league baseball mascot. It’s great to take a few nights out of your regular schedule and sit at the feet of a Bible teacher who takes material originally written with kids in mind, and brings you on a journey through Scripture. The Bible is so adaptable it can be taught to anyone from age 1 to age 100.

TV can wait, and I know it can be tiring to come every night, Sunday through Wednesday, but it is SO worth it. If nothing else, it’s a reminder of what it was like to be a kid and to enjoy summer away from school surrounded by God’s people and His Word.

IT’S GOOD FOR THE PRESENT

What about teens? Many of my favorite memories revolve around the early years of my Christianity. The church was strong in central Arkansas and it felt like those congregations revolved their calendar around the summertime activities they would host. Gospel Meetings, area singings, and of course VBS was (and remains) a major priority in that area. It should be our goal here at North Heights, as well. As a teen, I would go to Mars Hill’s VBS, to Greenbrier’s VBS, to Jerusalem’s VBS, to Higden’s VBS (and more), and I would sit with all the friends that I had made at Camp that summer. We’d sing together, study together, and eat those little cups of ice cream with a tiny wooden spoon together. I can’t fully explain to an adult how important it is for young/teenage Christians in one congregation to be close with the teenage Christians in another congregation. It is critical to their development, to their building an extended network of friends around them that share in their values. The bigger the network of friends, the less likely it is that the world will be able to sink its sinful claws into our young people.

Young adults and teens are going to be exposed to all kinds of sins in High School and College; the closer they are with Christian friends, the more likely they are to stick with Christianity and mature into adults as leaders of the church wherever they live. VBS is vital to that, because it allows the teens who don’t get a chance to see each other very often an opportunity to sit–IN PERSON–with one another, to sing with each other, to sit together and listen to the Bible be taught to them as one group of young people. It has been my experience that a group of high school/college age Christians, who have that closeness with one another, will be more faithful in attendance than most long-time members of the church. They will be there on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights. They will make the drive to VBS events and to Gospel Meetings. They will go here and there and everywhere because they know the value in gaining strength and encouragement from one another.

IT’S GOOD FOR THE FUTURE

If you want to ensure that your young child is:

A) well behaved in the assembly
B) observant when it’s time to sing, pray, listen to the preacher, etc
C) excited about going to Sunday School

then TAKE THEM TO VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL!

It is like boot camp for future Christians. There they will learn the songs they will later teach their own children. There they will learn the fundamental lessons from the Bible that will shape the kinds of adults they will become. There they will meet children from other congregations whom they will befriend and become close with as teenagers and adults.

If you don’t take them to VBS, you’re inviting them to grow up thinking it’s okay to settle; you’re feeding into the “we don’t HAVE to do it, so there’s no sense in putting in the extra effort” mentality that makes apathetic Christians so disappointing to the Lord who gave it all. The world has too many so-called “casual Christians,” who are always looking to do just enough to get by. That kind of attitude in parents will seep into the minds of their children, who will grow up not forming bonds with other young people/future Christians, and who will become more easily swayed by the world. They will grow up viewing spiritual things as a sideshow in their life, something they do when they have time, and only then doing the bare minimum. Sorry if that paints a grim and pessimistic picture, but that’s just what I’ve observed from experience. There’s something special about Vacation Bible School, in how it plants those seeds in the minds of children to put first things first and make God and godliness a priority to build one’s life around.

Whether it’s an adult who needs a reminder of how pure and wholesome and fun a night at VBS can be, or whether it’s a teenager who needs an oasis of righteousness and fellowship in the sinful desert of the world, or whether it’s a child that is being molded by the environment (one way or another), everyone needs VBS. It’s good for the past, the present, and the future of the kingdom of Jesus.

~ Matthew