Instant Vacation Bible School: Just Add Kids

Do my kids go? Of course. Do they have fun? Of course. Do they sing songs about Jesus? Of course. Do they learn some verses? Of course. How many camps did they go to this year? 2+. Would they gladly go to 10 more? Yes, without blinking.

Of the 3 VBS's we were involved in. One is a large multi-church event with hundreds of kids. It has tremendous involvement from the community. It's a "mega" event, with many churched and non-churched kids, encouraging visitors daily. Another is with the church we do AWANA with, a closed, preregistered event. It ends with a tempting catered BBQ on a Sunday morning. The last is a church we've been loosely connected to via a homeschool group. It's almost a day camp, with the usual VBS stuff, with other electives thrown in (sewing, cooking, crafts). It's almost a full day. It's also a preregistered, closed event.

But with all that said, I'm ready to call a spade a spade. Consider a few quotes from some online articles about the VBS "market".

• "Despite the cost, many churches believe they could not do without VBS. With more parents working full time, VBS has emerged as a relatively inexpensive summer day care option for some families who rotate their children from church to church to fill up the summer school break."
• "Parents and children now compare church to other venues, to children's museums, to high-tech elementary schools, Disney, even their pediatricians' offices are multimedia now," May said. "That's where children and parents are now, and church should probably not have the same homemade feel as when I was a child."
• "About half a dozen major publishers now dominate the VBS kit market, and use development methods similar to any consumer product company introducing shampoo or cell phones: extensive market research, hefty technology investment, and field testing with children to see what works and what doesn't."
• “We’re about ministry,” says Cushing. “I know there are parents who use us as daycare. They’ll sign their kids up for five straight weeks. But [the Apostle] Paul said that what matters is that Christ is preached. I don’t care why they come. That they come is what I’m concerned about.”

I'll at this point add that Wonder Woman's first exposure to church was a large VBS. From there, she went to Sunday School, and then on to being a regular attender at church. It was at VBS she made a profession of faith. That profession, though simple in knowledge, developed into a deep faith with time.

So what is the purpose of VBS? Is it day care? Is it to strengthen the relationship to God of already-churched kids? Is it to introduce new kids and families to church? Is it simply for fun? Is it for day care? Is it all of these?

I'm not necessarily going to answer these questions. But I'll add there's a fine line here that parallels the American church in many other areas. The danger to make the primary focus the event and demote Christ to secondary. The danger to push the fun stuff to fit in to the culture. The danger to be a great club, available without membership dues.

As a Christian, if you're not struggling with these questions...then just call it day care.