“The Value of Vacation Bible School”

Monday, July 02, 2018

Some of my fondest childhood memories include attending Vacation Bible School at various congregations in the Southern Illinois community I grew up in.

The church where my family attended started conducting a VBS early in my lifetime. It was always a highlight of my young summers and I enjoyed it so much that I usually went to 3 or 4 different VBS sessions each year.

I most clearly remember a wall chart that one of our elders used to help us learn the books of the Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament. It was made on a huge sheet that covered a big part of one wall of the auditorium. It was popular in those days before projectors and Powerpoint to use bed sheets with charts drawn on them in gospel meetings and other teaching settings. Gospel meetings would often consist of a single chart on a bed sheet discussing various subjects or book studies from the Bible and the preacher would use that chart every night. At VBS, we learned the divisions of the testaments: Old Testament as Law, History, Poetry, Major Prophets and Minor Prophets and New Testament as Gospels, History (Acts), Epistles (or letters) and Prophecy (Revelation). And then we would all say the books in order every day.

I recall a time when attending another congregation’s VBS and having the lady who taught my class say to me, “Wow, you can really find those verses in your Bible. You are the fastest one in the class.” Do you think that made me feel good? Of course it did and I remember it more than 50 years later.

There is tremendous value to the local church that can be seen in conducting a Vacation Bible School. Our desire is to teach the Bible to as many people as possible, right? In my experience, as a child and as an adult and a preacher, more guests are willing to attend something like a VBS than almost any other special event.

If the congregation where you worship doesn’t have a VBS (maybe you used to have one, but haven’t in the last several years), it might be a really good teaching opportunity that can reach some lost souls for the Lord.

In 2017, I had the privilege to preach regularly for a church that was between preachers. Early in the year, someone mentioned that they were disappointed that they didn’t have very many children. A lot of churches are like that and it is a very difficult trend to reverse. Young families with small children are drawn to churches that have other children to be friends with their children. So if there are only a few young ones, many families decide to worship where there are more kids. It can be a self-defeating cycle.

I asked why they quit having VBS because I knew they had previously enjoyed good crowds at VBS. They told me that they didn’t think they had enough children to have a Vacation Bible School. But it seems to me that this is exactly why it would be helpful to have one. If you don’t have VBS and it would attract others to the church, why not try having one? It will be small at first but if you have faith that God’s word will not return to Him void, then it is worth the effort. If you have four children and they each bring a friend, you have planted seeds of God’s truth in the hearts and minds of eight young people.

That church had seven children in Bible class on Sunday before we did a one day VBS on Saturday. We had 41 children to attend classes that day and 40 adults. Everyone was thrilled, of course and we repeated the effort in 2018 with similar results.

There are lots of ways to conduct a VBS. Many churches have a 5 day study – Monday through Friday, either in the day time or the evening. A recent trend has been to have these special classes for children for 3 days, Sunday through Tuesday. We tried an idea that I had read about several years ago from a church in Indiana that had a one day Saturday study. We chose that plan to start with and began at 9:30 and ended at about 2:30 in the afternoon. Individuals paid for a lunch break at a local pizza shop and then we came back for more classes and songs.

Our theme was Faith, Hope and Love, 3 classes with 3 separate Bible stories. We wrote our own class material. It was marvelous and the children had a wonderful time and the church members really worked very hard to invite people to the class and to prepare and deliver the lessons.

The biggest benefit from VBS is that it shows our young people how important they are to the church and therefore, to the Lord. It helps children to be excited about learning the Bible and that is always good.

It is also helpful for adults as well. Churches that have VBS in the evening usually have better attendance and teachers who volunteer are able to do so, even if they work during the day, so you have a bigger pool of workers.

Songs are a really important part of a VBS. The children always enjoy them, plus you can teach them important things in song. Songs may make it easier for them to memorize the days of creation, the sons of Jacob, the judges, the books of the Old Testament and New Testament and lots of other valuable things.

Remember that you are planting seeds of truth in young hearts. What was it that brought the prodigal son to his senses in Christ’s parable? It was what he had been taught when he lived at home with his father. So he had rebelled against that for a while (haven’t a lot of our young people in the church made this same tragic choice?) but he was brought back by what he remembered from his youth.

A Vacation Bible School does not have to be “big” to be a success or to have an eternal impact on souls. If you have ten children and show them that they matter to the Lord, it can make a difference in eternity. The number is not the important issue. If you have 2 or 3 children, make this a special event that they will remember forever.

But if you aren’t going to work hard to prepare useful and practical Bible lessons, if you aren’t going to make much effort to invite friends, neighbors, family members, if you don’t really want it to succeed, don’t waste your time and effort. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right.

If you are willing to really work at this, VBS can be a powerful teaching opportunity for the people of God. Do it right and you will reap eternal rewards that will honor and glorify God and save souls.

--Roger Hillis

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