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A Message About VBS This Year. Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I wanted to write you about a change that has been made for 2016. At the Board of Goverance meeting this past Monday, it was unanimously approved to not have Vacation Bible School this year. We will instead host a one-day community event that will invite local families to join us for a day of fellowship and fun. The exact make up of this community day will be determined by the person who volunteers to coordinate the event. The decision to forgo VBS was far from easy! Calvary has had a long tradition of VBS! VBS has brought a number of young people onto our site. It has utilized the talents and skills of many members of Calvary. However, four areas in particular were discussed in reaching this decision. One, the attenders of VBS are not coming back to Calvary, so this is not an evangelistic event for us. Two, many of our VBS attenders have already been to at least one other VBS program in our area. This is evidenced by that fact that more than half of the children already know the songs and motions before we have even presented them. Three, parents (and others) are using VBS as Free Daycare. Four, our volunteers, and we thank every one of them, are getting worn out for an event that has become more of a chore than a mission. While this is a decision that can have a great deal of emotion involved, due to our own memories of VBS as a child, we need to examine this in light of our situation today. The Barna Institute, a Christian market research company, recently published its findings on VBS today. 68% of churches offer VBS today, down from 81% in 1997. They found that "churches that most commonly put on a VBS program are simply larger than other congregations – in terms of both financial means and congregation size." They found that the most common size churches with VBS had 250 or more adult worship attenders and annual budgets of over $500,000. A different study noted that the area of the country a church is in also indicates the likelihood of it having a VBS program. In the south, 80% of the churches have VBS. In California the percentage was 50%. The final paragraph in Barna's report is most important about VBS (or any program) in a churches ministries: "Finally, an effective VBS needs to have specific objectives," Jenkin says. "Is it 'conversions' or new church members? Is it new long-term relationships with kids and families or an increased awareness of the church in its community? Churches need to determine their own objectives and structure their VBS accordingly—not just do VBS because 'it's always been done'—but to have goals in mind. If you would like to read the entire Barna report, here is the location: http://tinyurl.com/jorhx84 This is exactly what we have been covering in our 24 to Double classes as well. Intentionality in our events and follow up afterwards. I wanted to conclude by thanking all those that have been active in VBS here at Calvary. I especially want to thank the ones who have taken to role of being in charge, Sue Ellis and, most recently, Jerrie Moyer. They coordinated a "cast of thousands" and did it with grace. I also wanted to put out a request for a person to chair our community event! Yours in Christ, Pastor Kelly Smith Sr.
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CALVARY LUTHERAN CHURCH & SCHOOL, 17200 VIA MAGDALENA, SAN LORENZO, California, 94580-2928, United States
