Vacation Bible schools adjust to modern families
Melissa Crenner enjoys bringing her young daughters to vacation Bible school but realizes they wouldn’t be able to attendif not for the unorthodox schedule of the program at her church.
“I work ‘til 5 (p.m.),” said Crenner, 38, of Westerville. “Lots of programs start at6 or 6:30 p.m. Nobody’s eaten dinner; it’s a lot less convenient.”
And a daytime program during the week doesn’t work, either, Crenner said.both she and her husband work.
To accommodate busy parents such as Crenner, who has been a member of the congregation for fouryears, Highlands Presbyterian Church moved from holdingits vacation Bible schoolover four Sundays during worship service toa singletwo-day event that will runfriday nightthrough Saturday.
“We’re realistic,” said Brenda Wilson, director of children’s ministry at the Northwest Side church. “Some people just can’t manage it with their schedules, but they still want to be involved with it.”
More churches are slowly changing their VBS schedules to be more accommodating, but it’s not a trend quite yet, said Melita Thomas, VBS and kids ministry specialist at Lifeway Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.
About 65% of Christian churches nationwide have five-day vacation Bible school programs, according to a 2018 Lifeway poll. When just Southern Baptist churches are tallied, the percentage goes up to76%.
Just 2% of churches do twoday programs, the poll shows.
Lifeway offers fivedifferent formats for VBS programming and activities, including one for a weekend program like the one at Highlands Presbyterian.
Shannon Robinson, VBS director at Shining Light Baptist Church in Marion, has reworked a five-day programinto a three-day one, whichithas had for the past four years, in large part because of the church’s needs.
“We just don’t have that older congregation that’s retired that can run a five-day Vbs,”robinson said. “We all work.”
Children attend the program from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the designated Friday and Saturday nights, and it finishes on Sunday during service in front of the whole church, she said.
“I want them to learn God is there for you,” Robinson said of the roughly 50 children who attend the program, which was held this past weekend. “Know you’re not alone, and God is just there for you ... It’s a good introduction.”
With its change, Highlands’ small congregation hopes to attract children and families who don’t have a regular church or who may not have gone to Highlands before, Wilson said.
She wants families to know “you’re welcome here and we’d love to get to know you and you get to know us,” Wilson said. “VBS is one of those outreach opportunities.”
In years past, the church didn’t have luck getting children from outside its congregation to join in on Sundays, which is another reason to try a Friday nightSaturday session, she said.
This year, the church will welcome entire families to enjoy a light meal at 5:30 p.m. Friday before the children attend a short session. Kids can register that night, or the next morning, when Volunteer Joan Hartman builds a spaceship out of egg cartons for Highlands Presbyterian Church’s vacation Bible school, which has a space theme. the program resumes at 9 a.m. and goes until 3 p.m.
“People’s schedules are so nontraditional anymore that the traditional kind of programming is not working for some churches,” Wilson said.
Crenner has seen her daughters, 5-year-old Ruth and 4-year-old Samantha, get a lot out of VBS. She’s hoping the shorter format will help them and other children remember the material better this year.
As for what she hopes her children walk away with from the activities, she said just the idea that “God loves us.”