Churches, attendees continue to find Vacation Bible School programs rewarding, and not just for the kids

Vacation Bible School, a longtime church tradition, continues to thrive in the age of social media and artificial intelligence. “We are VBS fans around here,” Pastor Brian Baker of First Baptist Church in Marceline, Mo., told “The Pathway.”

Richland Baptist Church in Kingdom City, Mo., has about 70 children in VBS this summer. It’s VBS director, Tammy Smiley, said they enlist about that many adult and teen workers as well. She uses the student VBS sessions with the teens early in the summer, and then some of them are able to be helpers in VBS with the children. She had 24 teens go through the youth VBS last summer.

But VBS is not just for kids. Pastor Ron Adrian of Chestnut Ridge Baptist Church, located in the Tri-County Baptist Association south of Ozark, Mo., was a campus pastor to the Baptist Home in Ozark until he retired. He led the residents there to have an adult VBS for three years. Residents sang old VBS songs from 60 years ago and did everything kids would do in VBS, crafts, refreshments, music, missions and Bible study. About 50 people usually attended the sessions.

“We had 22 attend who were past the age of 90,” Adrian said. “Two ladies were over 100 years of age.” Adrian encourages churches to consider having adult VBS while the kids are meeting or at another time.

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Lifeway Research found that 17 percent of U.S. adults who attended VBS as children remember making a spiritual commitment there. Nearly nine in 10 said VBS helped them better understand the Bible, with two-thirds either completely or mostly agreeing. Barna research found that that nearly half of all Americans who accept Jesus do so before age 13, and two-thirds of born-again Christians make that commitment before 18, underscoring VBS’s role in early spiritual formation.

Allen Lane, director of missions for the Barry County Association in Cassville, Mo, believes there is great value in churches having VBS, such as the evangelism and outreach that can occur. “You are teaching about Jesus to the children who attend your church but also to their friends that they bring along to VBS,” he said.

–Alan Goforth

–Photo: magnific.com