From the Pastor
(Summer 2011)
Since it’s such a highlight of summer I just thought you might be interested in a little of the "history" of VBS….
Mentioning Vacation Bible School to an adult almost anywhere in the nation brings recollections of a happy summertime adventure from childhood. Vacation Bible School may be the only church experience some adults remember. If pressed, they likely will be able to remember, if not produce, a cherished item they made in VBS.
No matter their religious background or current church involvement, many adults have had positive experiences with Vacation Bible School and are willing to allow their children to attend.
Vacation Bible School began with a nondenominational tone. It was a plan of a compassionate doctor’s wife who sensed a need to get children off the streets of New York during the summertime. Mrs. Walker Aylett Hawes went to New York City from Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband who was specializing in a medical ministry to children. She noted that many of the children attended to at her husband’s clinic received injuries as they played in the streets of New York City. She surmised that they needed something safe and fruitful to occupy their time. In 1898 and 1899, Mrs. Hawes rented a saloon in the city’s East Side to conduct her Everyday Bible School. Thus, Bible School began with an evangelistic thrust of taking the study to where the people were. However, her pastor insisted that the school in 1900 move to the church, Epiphany Baptist Church, located about a mile from the East Side saloon. After two weeks of meeting at the church, it became clear to Mrs. Hawes that children from the East Side would not attend at the church. She returned the school to a location near the saloon for the rest of the summer.
Mrs. Hawes was a Baptist and a sister-in-law of John A Broadus, a founder and later president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. The stamp of Baptist missions and evangelistic involvement was on the very beginnings of Bible School. By 1921, Vacation Bible School was a trend that was finding favor among pastors of Southern Baptist churches. It eventually was permanently built into the education program of the churches planned, promoted and administered by the Sunday School.
By 2009 Southern Baptist Vacation Bible School enrollment averaged around 3,000,000. Approximately 10 percent of participants identify themselves as unchurched. Statistics tell us that more people have come to know Jesus as Saviour through VBS than through any other single church event. ( text taken from VBS: An Historical Perspective, Lifeway Christian Resources)
Please join me in praying for our VBS which takes place July 10-14. Pray for our co-directors, Misty Owen and Lana Orgeron, our workers, for our workers, and that God will send children to hear the gospel and be changed for all eternity.
Pastor Bob