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Hi Parkway People!
I skimmed an article from Baptist New Global this week called A Eulogy for Vacation Bible School. The author writes that hosting VBS, once a staple in nearly every Children's Ministry, no longer makes sense for many churches. Lots of work, not enough volunteers, not enough children and families reached by the church. On and on.
And, to a point, I think the author is right. But Parkway is not one of those churches writing a eulogy for VBS.
This has been a FULL week – music, crafts, snacks, science, learning Bible stories, and demonstrating God's grace to all children and families. Between ~250 kids and ~70 volunteers, the halls of Parkway have been joyfully loud and crowded. As of this writing, volunteers have eaten nearly 10lbs of gummy worms. We are gearing up to celebrate VBS Sunday in a few days with our kids and families in Worship, along with a party after the ONE SERVICE at 10.30am.
It's always tempting to judge the success of VBS, or any other ministry, by how we can translate it into numbers:
How many kids?
How many volunteers?
(How many gummy worms?)
How many come back for Sunday?
These are important, but do not get at the heart of why we do this every summer.
The author of the article I mentioned writes that churches who need to write a eulogy for VBS are ones that need to start with 'why?'
Why do we do this?
Parkway's 'why' always comes back to Demonstrating God's Grace to inspire a hope-filled journey with Jesus. The work beneath the surface of the music, crafts, snacks, science, and learning Bible stories is that work of demonstrating God's Grace to all children and families. We do the work of showing that we care for our neighbors. We practice making room for others because God has made room for us – not for the sake of chasing numbers.
That's what we are going to celebrate on Sunday – and I hope that you will come be a part of it!
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