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- t;3 year a VBS director in Illinois had almost 950 pupils. She reported that 190 genuine decisions for Christ were made — and all of them were in the second week! “ In the first week we did not press the children for deci sions. We were sowing the seed of God’s Word. In the second week, ten der hearts to whom God’s Spirit had been speaking, responded readily to the Gospel. Every pupil who professed to receive Christ was dealt with per sonally. With a five-day school, our results would probably have been far less.” Many VBS workers testify that the second week is the time when most boys and girls accept Christ as Sav iour. The first week is seed-planting time; the second week is harvest time. Surely you wouldn’t think of planting seedsJm a field and not be on hand to reap the harvest! But in the face of these facts some churches still continue with a one- week VBS? Why? “VBS workers lack vision and are not dedicated to the Lord,” says one director of Christian education. “ Some adults in our churches are intoxicated with the desire for mate rial things,” a n o t h e r director ex plained. “Many Christians are self- centered, unwilling to give of their time and energy to the Lord and His work.” There is no getting around it, a ten- day school is tiring. It is inconvenient. It is time-consuming. One VBS de partmental superintendent told me that after Vacation Bible School, it took her several weeks to get fully caught up on her housework! From the teacher’s standpoint, you could very quickly build a strong case for a five-day school (or even no VBS at all!). But when you consider what VBS is for (or better, whom it is for — pupils and the Lord), you can see why one director said, “ I’d be in favor of having even a three- week school!” Of course in some churches, cir cumstances do prohibit a two-week VBS. But unless you are forced to go to a five-day school, consider sticking with the ten-day program. Give your best to the Lord. If you are asked to serve in VBS this sum mer, be willing to make the necessary sacrifices. Or if you will be asking others to serve in VBS, enlist them p r a y e r f u l l y and enthusiastically. Whether people respond to challenge often depends on how they are ap proached. This summer don’t simply take the road of least resistance. As workers for the Lord, let’s be willing to im part “ not the Gospel of God only, but also our own souls” (I Thess. 2:8)! New Trends in VBS by Dr. Roy B. Zuck tian education leaders are weighing these strong arguments for a ten-day Vacation Bible School: • M ore Bible-teaching time! With two and a half to three hours each day, for ten days, you have 25 to 30 almost consecutive hours for Bible teaching and Bible-related activities. This is the equivalent of six months of Sunday school — an e n v i a b l e amount for any alert teacher who knows how fast one short hour goes on Sunday morning! If you cut your VBS down to one week, you also re duce y o u r “ six-month equivalent” down to only three — a move hardly justifiable in our day when we need more, not less, time for teaching God’s Word. • More '‘building” time! According to a Phoenix, Arizona pastor well trained in Christian Education, “ It takes a week for most teachers to es tablish good, lasting rapport with their pupils and to get ‘in the swing of things.’ Then in the second week teachers can build on that foundation as they continue teaching God’s Word.” An experienced VBS director in the midwest says that it takes much of the first week “to get oriented.” • More opportunities to know your pupils! Workers who have more time to get acquainted with their pupils and discover their spiritual needs are able to minister more effectively to them. A two-week school gives you more than tw ice the spiritual impact of a one-week school. In VBS, one plus one equals more than two! • M ore contact with new unchurch ed pupils! As pupils catch your bub bling enthusiasm the first two or three days of VBS, they’ll excitedly urge their friends to attend. This will mean that more new children will come for the first time toward the end of the first week. Why be satisfied with giving those newcomers only a day or two of VBS? • M ore possibility of getting un churched pupils to attend Sunday school! A director of Christian educa tion explained the benefit in this way: “Many unchurched children come to our Sunday school on the Sunday between the two weeks of VBS. But we are confident that most of them would not come if we stopped VBS after the first Friday.” • More decisions for Christ! Last “ C ay , P astor , I h e a r d that the C5 church down the street is plan ning to have Vacation Bible School for one week instead of two. That sounds like a good idea. Why don’t we try it?” “Well, I don’t know, Tom. I’m not convinced yet that it’s the thing to do.” “Why not? If we really work at it, can’t we get just about as much value from five days as ten? After all, you remember last year our workers com plained after the first week of being too tired to continue. How can they do their best for the Lord when they are fatigued?” “Maybe before deciding, we should discuss this with our VBS workers to see what they think.” “ If you insist, Pastor, but for me a five-day school sounds a lot easier than ten.” In recent summers, conversations like this have led some evangelical churches here and there to experiment with something almost totally up- heard of a few years back — a one- week VBS! Large signs in church yards that used to bear the words, “ Come to VBS— two exciting weeks!” now have the less portentous, “Come to VBS — one full week!” Not all church leaders are assured that this “movement” is a salutary thing. In fact many pastors and VBS directors are looking on this new con cept with consternation and deep con cern. For example, the Christian edu cation director of a large church in Moline, Illinois remarked, “ I fear for it. This is a trend in the wrong direc tion. We ought to be giving our chil dren and young people more Bible instruction, not less.” A Chicago DCE feels that “ if this trend grows, we’ll be failing the Lord, simply because we can’t do in one week what we can in two.” But why are churches cutting VBS from two weeks to one? What ac counts for this? According to reports, there’s really only one reason: It’s easier to enlist workers for a five-day VBS. People are away on vacations, many mothers are employed, workers fear the physical exhaustion that comes with a second week. In contrast with this reason, Chris 25 A P R IL, 1964
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