Our church scrapped VBS. We never found any good programs. Many people slammed us for it, but let me tell you what we did with our youth… we made disciples out of them. We taught them about Sovereign grace, the Ordo Salutis, and they understand the Gospel just fine. Even our 5 year olds can comprehend their sin and God’s Sovereign grace. We did all this through expository preaching and using Connie Devers’ curriculum for childrens church. (She is Mark Devers’ wife.) If you must do VBS, I highly recommend getting some of her stuff and using it just to give those kids the true Gosple message, and making them disciples as well so that they can go home and evangelize their parents. I tied the link to Connie’s website to my handle so just click on it to go there. Soli Deo Gloria!

You know, there was a church who recently had a raffle drawing for money and cars for people who showed up on Easter (admittedly, just to get people in the door). Sounds an awful lot like the theme of this post… People have expressed their displeasure with commercialized VBS programs, but this mentality has now made it’s way into “adult church” too, and that’s even scarier.

A: Because of all the SAND WHICH is there.

(this is actually a better joke spoken than typed, but oh well… it doesn’t really manna)

By following the comments posted here, I was impressed by a few things: even though some had some very strong views, and even let a little depravity fly out here and there (oh, doesn’t it happen to us all though? And we sure hate it, too…) folks were able to work through differences and give grace where it was needed. I praise God that He does such great work in our lives!

One other point that was addressed by Carol: the lack of involvement by so many adults in youth programs – including VBS. Kids are difficult. I spent some time volunteering in a inner-city Sunday School program in a city in Virginia. It wasn’t good most of the time. You felt like you were making no progress. In fact, I had to take duct tape with me to 4th grade class because the room was in a basement, and the kids would turn the light switch off. I literally had to tape the switch to avoid serious difficulties – including lawsuits if a kid got hurt with all the horsing around in the dark!

Still, God is the One that saves. All He asks us to do is repent and trust in the saving work of Christ. We serve because we have a burden for the Gospel and gratitude for it. If only more adults got it – then they would put together simple programs that aren’t feeding the coffers of “big business” and are Biblically-based.

I say bring back the catechism! If they don’t like it, use the duct tape to hold ‘em in their chairs. When the Holy Spirit moves and they “get” what you are doing and why, you will have gained a young brother or sister in the faith – and they certainly will be grateful.