Taking A Risk – Our VBS Story
“Is this what your church is like on Sunday mornings?” Sarah*, a YMCA Child Development Center teacher asked me. “I’d love to come check it out.”
“Yes! Well… yes and no,” I responded. Our church is full of lively people worshiping the Father and listening to Biblical instruction, so yes! But our church is not always full of more than 100 preschoolers dancing and singing at the top of their lungs. So yes… and no.
Our VBS Story
Sarah is one of many adult teachers who got to observe and participate in the VBS that Antioch hosts for the Child Development Center (CDC) at the Countryside YMCA. When Antioch first started meeting in the Countryside YMCA, in 2001, we used to put on a pretty standard VBS. You know the kind I’m talking about – you pick a week in the summer and get as many kids from your church and the community as you can to come for games, bible verses, snacks, and crafts. We always had a lot of kids show up! But, eventually, we started to notice something. The kids who were coming in our doors already knew the songs we were singing and the skits we were putting on! “How do you know these?” we would ask them. They told us that they had just gone to VBS at a different church with the same theme last week. Uh oh. So we began to ask God – what needs to change? What would you have us do with our VBS time?
That’s when something dawned on us. We meet at the Countryside YMCA, which just so happens to be home-base for the largest childcare provider in our county – the YMCA CDC. Hundreds of kids are dropped off at our Y for daycare every single day – and many of them might come from ‘unchurched’ backgrounds. So we decided to try something we had never really heard of before – a vacation bible school for a bunch of kids that might not even be familiar with church. And that spark of an idea has turned into a growing light inside the YMCA CDC.
Our VBS Today
We’ve been doing VBS this way for 15 years. This year, we had over 100 kids from the CDC, and it was a blast. They aren’t forced to come – each family is given the option. They know what they are getting into. And they all come. Every. Year. And then they leave every day having heard a story from the bible, danced to “Joy in the House of the Lord”, memorized a part of Romans 12:2, and having been loved on by over 50 volunteers from our church.
It is truly one of the joys of my job as a pastor at this YMCA Church that I help lead worship and volunteer at VBS with my family. We get to proclaim the gospel every day to all of these kids who might not get many other chances to hear about Jesus. They aren’t familiar with the stories we share. And they go home to their families sharing biblical truths and singing worship songs.
But it doesn’t end there. Hosting a VBS for the YMCA CDC has just been a foot in the door. Our outreach in this area of the Countryside Y is now significant. Before we started hosting VBS this way, we didn’t really know anyone in the Child Development Center. Now, one of our staff members spends a day there every week, going from classroom to classroom and praying for the teachers and seeing if they need anything. We host a Thanksgiving Dinner every year for all the CDC staff, kids, and families. Not to mention many other outreaches that take place all throughout the year.
This all started when we decided to take a risk, trust the Lord, and do something different with our VBS so many years ago. “Trusting the Lord and doing something new can look different at each YMCA. My encouragement to you is this: ask the Lord what “new thing” is on His heart for your Y; maybe it is a VBS outreach or maybe it is something completely different. But, you will never know unless you ask Him.”
If you have questions, feel free to reach out to Jeff at jeffsnyder@antiochstaff.com.
* For safety, Sarah isn’t her real name.