CASSVILLE—The Emmanuel Baptist Church holds VBS every summer and their pastor, Rich Cummings, says it is a “very beneficial outreach which is popular in our area.”
“We have a number of outside families who bring their children,” he said. “There are usually professions of faith as a result and sometimes baptisms.”
But then he added, “We try to connect the VBS kids with the children’s ministry on Wednesday nights. Sometimes we reach whole families later on as a result of VBS.”
The director of the VBS there is Jamie Morris, who has served in that role for seven years. She said when she is enlisting workers she tries to “play to their strengths.” She observes where they serve in the church and talks with them individually at some of the worship services. “I like to sign them up one by one,” Morris said.
She makes sure they are background checked as they are enlisted. They tend to get a lot of people involved. “It’s a whole church experience for us,” Morris added. “We are investing in the future of these kids.”
Morris said they enlist a lot of workers but they make sure there is a security team and they watch over the doors and the outdoor recreation areas to make sure the kids are safe during the VBS sessions.
The Richland Baptist Church, Kingdom City, has about 70 children in VBS in the summer. Their VBS director, Tammy Smiley, said they enlist just about that many adult and teen workers as well. There seems to be something for everyone to do. They put a lot of effort into it and see it pay big dividends in discipleship as well as in evangelism.
Smiley is the youth teacher on Wednesday evenings, and she uses the student VBS sessions with the teens early in the summertime. 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.
They are using the LifeWay curriculum which is called “Illumination Station” this summer. It takes it’s theme from John 8:12 where Jesus said, “I am the light of the world…” Smiley said it really reinforces Bible teaching that Jesus is: 1) the promised Son, 2) the personal Son who wants a relationship with people, 3) the proven Son (He is what he said he said He would be), 4) the priceless Son (worth more than anything else) and 5) the promised Son (He keeps his promises). Smiley said, “If you are not digging into the Bible you are not growing.” She’s a fan of LifeWay curriculum because of it’s Biblical orientation.
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, 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. He would set it up and he enlisted retired pastor Dan Swadley, a facility resident, to help teach the adult Bible studies.
Adrian said they would sing the old VBS songs from 60 years ago and do everything the kids do in VBS, crafts, refreshments, music, missions and Bible study. They had cookies donated and a missionary would stop by every day and tell about missions activities. Adrian said about 50 usually attended the sessions.
“We had 22 attend who were past the age of 90. One man told him he was in his 90s and this was the first time for him to attend a VBS.” He added, “Two ladies were over 100 years of age.”
Adrian encouraged churches to consider having adult VBS while the kids are meeting or at another time.
Christy Nance, the MBC VBS consultant, led a team of trainers to 9 locations around Missouri this spring. They had training sessions in the LifeWay curriculum. In some of the locations, they included information from other VBS publishers, such as Group Publishing and Answers in Genesis. In other locations the training just focused on LifeWay Illumination Station curriculum.
Allen Lane, the director of missions for Barry County Association, Cassville, said he thinks there is great value in churches having VBS and one of the benefits is 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 it is an encouragement to the church and can be a training ground for new leaders in the church who are enlisted to help.
Pastor Brian Baker, of First Baptist Church, Marceline, said, “We are VBS fans around here.” He said their director, Joann Mott, also serves on the Linn-Livingston VBS team and always has a good VBS in their north Missouri church. Baker encourages churches to have a VBS and do it well.
For more information on VBS, check the Missouri Baptist VBS web page at mobaptist.org/vbs or the LifeWay site at vbs.lifeway.com.
