It's VBS Season

It's VBS season--for those of you who don't know the acronymn it's a top secret Christian term for VACATION BIBLE SCHOOl, begun sometime in the early 20th century to teach the kids while they were out of school.

I laughed this morning when I read a local newspaper and they described their VBS this way:

Something incredible is happening at XXXX Baptist Church (corner of XXX and XXXStreets). It’s Crocodile Dock Vacation Bible School, where fearless kids shine God’s light. For children ages 5-12, the action starts Monday, June 15. Daily sessions last from 6-8:45 p.m. nightly through Thursday, June 18. Bayou Crews experience daily swamp excursions with their Crew Leaders. The Swamp Stomp begins the daily activities with singing and playing. Immediately following The Stomp, children will experience The Dockside Drive-in (daily video Bible point), Bible Bayou (daily Bible story with group discussion), Crawfish Crafts and Missions (crafts to remind them of the daily Bible story), Gator Games (where children play games connected to the daily Bible story), the Snack Shack (what else? Snacks!) and the Firefly Finale, which includes the Swamp Stomp songs and drama presentations to reinforce the day’s Bible story. You don’t want to miss out on the action! You’ll meet characters like Flash, Jacques le Croc, Belle, Blossom and Tucker. This Dock rocks! You can pre-register your child(ren) by calling XXXXXX Or, for more information, call XXXXXBaptist Church’s office at XXX-XXXX All that to say--we're having SONGS, RECREATION, CRAFTS and SNACKS!

Each year it becomes a competition between churches who can out do their neighbor church with VBS. Who will bring in the live camels? Who will hire the fire eating juggler to entertain during the opening assembly.

I laugh because it's become BIG BUSINESS to the Christian Publishers what the VBS material will be. LIFEWAY secretly guards next years theme until it is unveiled under lock and key at a Glorieta or Ridgecrest conference. (there was some espionage' a couple of years ago with one publisher trying to break the code and find out what another one was doing). Silly!

VBS should be about the kids. Most of them don't care about a theme, or the EXTRA EXTRAS that go into it. Give them some good music, some fun rec, some good refreshments and some good information and they are good to go.

So this week, let me see, I could send Daniel to Rome or to THE CIRCUS--nah, I'll just send him to our SUMMER CAMP where we're trying to reach community kids with the gospel and give out some new shoes to them. I think that's more valuable.