What is Calvary Kids JAM and What Happened to VBS?
Vacation Bible School is a summer staple around Calvary. We have been kicking off our summers with a week of fun-filled Bible lessons designed to make disciples of children for a long time. We have seen many of our own children come to know Jesus through Vacation Bible School. All you have to do is mention VBS to parents or children, and most any person who has been in church for longer than a year knows what you’re talking about.
But what about the family or child that has not been in church? What does VBS mean to them? To that child, does Vacation Bible School sound all that “fun”? I don’t know anyone who likes going to school while on vacation.
When we began thinking about VBS for 2017, we began asking, “does this program reach unchurched children? Do unchurched children hear ‘Vacation Bible School’ and think, ‘I want to go to that!’?” When looking at the attenders of VBS for the past couple years, it was obvious that we were attracting our children and other church kids. There were few children coming to VBS that were unchurched. We desire to minister to our children, but we also want to share Jesus with the unchurched.
A Different Approach
We began to think it might be time to consider a different approach.
We wanted to keep doing the program we had been doing. It was highly effective. We were seeing children come to know Jesus. We were seeing kids have fun and engage with one another with our current program. But we needed to think about how to communicate it to our community in a way that was descriptive and engaging.
Calvary Kids JAM is the same program we have always done in VBS. We are now working on materials and information that will better explain and describe what we do at Kids JAM to unchurched families and children.
Now What?
As we gear up for Kids JAM, there are two things we would like to ask you to do.
First, pray! Pray that children will hear about Jesus and respond to the Gospel. It is our prayer to see children come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Salvation is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit, so begin to pray that He will work in the lives of the children who attend.
And second, invite your neighbor’s children. We want to see unchurched children brought to Kids JAM by your children. This is an opportunity to disciple our children about inviting and bringing people to Jesus.
Let’s Get Ready!
Calvary Kid’s JAM begins June 5th at 9:00 a.m. Let’s get ready to see what exciting things King Jesus does in the lives of children this summer.
