‘Ramblin’ Road Trip’ VBS theme debuts
MBC staffers criss-cross state training workers
March 10, 2005
NASHVILLE, Tenn.(BP)—A total of 283 Vacation Bible School workers were training last year in Missouri, and more were expected to be trained the week of Feb. 28-March 4 as the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) state VBS training team conducted sessions in Kansas City, Moberly, Poplar Bluff and Springfield.
“Pray for the end results of all of the training that will take place in the months ahead—adults, teens and children saved,” said Sondi Scroggins, MBC preschool/children ministries specialist. “With 38 percent of our churches reporting, we had 2,307 saved in VBS last year. We believe our numbers are actually higher than that.”
The MBC staff’s statewide tour is a precursor for this summer’s “Ramblin’ Road Trip” VBS and comes on the heels of a record 380-plus VBS leaders from state Baptist conventions who made their own road trip to LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 13-14 to learn how to train groups from associations and churches in their states in using LifeWay’s 2005 VBS resources.
Another 300 traveled to LifeWay Glorieta Conference Center near Santa Fe, N.M., Jan. 20-21 for similar training.
Multiplication of leaders already has begun, with 540 people joining state leaders for the first preview/training event open to church and associational leaders Jan. 14-15 in Nashville. The following week, 160 attended the preview at Glorieta.
They came at their own expense to get an early start in learning about this year’s options. They experienced the Ramblin’ Road Trip children’s musical and attended conferences related to the various jobs VBS workers do in their home churches, along with other conferences on how to promote VBS, enlist workers, explain the ABCs of salvation and plan a successful family night celebration. Participants could also choose to attend an introduction to LifeWay’s new Club VBS Beach Blast materials.
Last year, more than 86,000 local church VBS workers benefited from the state VBS leaders’ experience, often through state-led associational VBS training teams after the initial Nashville and Glorieta events.
This year’s motto is “Show me! Teach me! Guide me!” drawn from Psalm 25:4-5, “Make your ways known to me, Lord; teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me; for You are the God of my salvation” (Holman CSB)
LifeWay President James T. Draper Jr. has called VBS “the single most important evangelistic outreach for our churches.” According to the latest figures available, more than 3.2 million children, youth and adults were enrolled in VBS in 2003. Of those, 104,208 made public decisions to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. (Polly House of LifeWay Christian Resources and Baptist Press contributed to this story.)
