From Saloon to Church Buildings

I grew up with Vacation Bible School (VBS). This is attributed to the fact that my dad was a preacher, and therefore I grew up in church. I have always been involved in some form of VBS, and so never really gave it much thought. I just assumed everyone did it as well, and that it had always been around! Seriously, I think there was time when I thought Jesus and The Twelve led the first VBS! Of course, that would bring on questions like, “What is the drop off policy for Levites? Who plays Jesus in the skit? And other very confusing questions.

If you hang around Farragut Church long enough, you will hear this phrase about VBS: “it’s for the kids”. And that is absolutely true. We do almost everything that we can to get the kid’s attention. We want them to walk away from the week with a solid foundation that Jesus loves them very much. But I find myself asking, “where does the CONCEPT of VBS come from?” It’s really an interesting story….

As the Christianity Today reported a few years back, VBS originated at the turn of the century in New York City’s East Side. Although Methodists offered “summer Sunday School institutes” as far back as the 1870s, the term VBS is attributed to Mrs. Walker Aylette Hawes, of the Epiphany Baptist Church. Mrs. Hawes was the wife of a doctor who specialized in medical ministry to children. During their initial stay in New York, Mrs. Hawes noted the numerous injuries from the children, and that they more than likely came from playing in the streets. She believed that they “needed something safe and fruitful to occupy their time.”

In 1898, after a near exhaustive search of places that would actually allow her to rent space for such a thing, a saloon (i.e. bar, a place that sells beer) agreed to rent her space for 6 weeks during the summer days. Mrs. Hawes designed her program around music, Bible stories, scripture memorization, games, crafts, drawing, and cooking. By the time of her retirement in 1901, Mrs. Hawes was overseeing seven separate schools in the New York City Area. An interesting fact about her original location, the bar: “Her pastor insisted that the school in 1900 move to the church, Epiphany Baptist Church, located about a mile from the East Side beer hall. 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 beer hall for the rest of the summer”. It seems, even to this day, that location is everything!

After Mrs. Hawes retired, Dr. Robert Boville took over for her. By 1903, the movement had grown to 17 schools. Over the next four years, schools were opened in Philadelphia and Chicago. In 1911, Dr. Boville established the Daily Vacation Bible School Association as a national organization.

So now that you know where VBS comes from, does that change how you think about it? Do you drive across town to a church’s VBS? If they held it in a bar that was really convenient to you, would you take your kids? Do you participate in another denomination’s VBS? What do you look for in a VBS? Do you hang around, and get to know the staff that are working the VBS? In your opinion, what is the purpose of VBS?

You know you are having a successful VBS when:

1) Your 3 year old expresses his or her ability to spell J-E-S-U-S on the ride home. Of course, it will probably start out with something like: “Give me a J! Give me a J! Give me a J! [undecipherable humming and mumbling] Give me an E! Give me an E! Give me an E!....” The shaking of the head and simulated dance moves while strapped in the car seat are obviously optional….

2) Its day three and workers are still showing up at 7am when VBS doesn’t really start until 8:30.

3) You had to run to the store for MORE water balloons.

4) The word “pyrotechnic” came up in conversation, and no one looked surprised.

5) There was a brief discussion about the possibility of getting a jetski on stage. And again, no one looked surprised….

6) Your 9 year old sleeps in his “next day clothes” so he doesn’t have to “waste time” getting ready to go to VBS.

7) Spouses stop by the church building for seemingly random tasks, and “have to” check the quality controls in place for the food dispositioned for the staff.

8) The youth minister puts in 20 plus votes for his pick on The Voice^© backstage before performing the skit for the morning, and then brags about it on Twitter^©, while referencing his church and the hash tag #vbs. OK, so that one may be a little random, but it still sounded cool!

9) Its day three and the college students are still showing up.

10) Your smoking hot wife who just happens to be in charge hasn’t lost her marbles yet. Figuratively and LITERALLY.

Farragut Church VBS, Part 1

I don’t know about your home church, but ours does VBS big. I mean BIG! I thought I would pass a few quick facts about how Farragut Church does VBS. Some of these are really funny. And some of them, are just plain scary! Enjoy.

The initial meetings of planning the theme start around 8 – 10 months of the actual date. Of course, a lot of this is social time around dinners, talking in the halls, etc. But we really do start planning that far in advance.

Families plan their vacations around our VBS. The work is so intense and involved, that many of our families have just accustomed themselves to planning their family vacations so that they can still be here to help out at the church building.

Having a lift is a necessity. I don’t know if you have been to our building before, but if you haven’t here is a fact: the ceilings are huge! And since we do things BIG, we need a lift to get up into the ceiling area. So when it comes to decorating, we just assume we will have a lift, and that we can hang things from the ceiling WAY UP in to the air! The kids love that stuff, because it is like creating a completely different world!

Most everyone is involved. I am quite certain you would be hard pressed to find a family at our congregation who is not in some way involved. Whether they are a teen who is an actor in a play, a retired older gentleman directing traffic, or a college student who is herding children from one location to another, every family is represented in some fashion. Our VBS is one of the biggest events that we do each year, and it helps in building our own relationships while we teach some 300 kids about Jesus.

Nail guns, water balloons, black lights, endless supply of card board, and a bag of fireworks are a must. Enough said…..

Food for the staff is amazing. I am not really sure how else to explain it, but we have individuals who bake home made goods for the staff, so that they have enough energy to keep up with all the little ones! Its just another perk of working VBS at Farragut Church!

Sleep overs at the building are not uncommon. There have been a couple of days where we got there in the morning, and a couple of people were sleeping in the halls! They worked all night, crawled into their sleeping bag, and woke up then next morning, ready to go! They felt the travel time to and from home was too much, so they improvised!

Professionals are running the show. We have interior designers, construction contractors, engineers, teachers, ministers (currently working and presently in school), IT professionals, chefs, you name it, we got it! They are all doing their part in showing Jesus to a ton of kids are eager to hear!

Oh, and did I mention that my wife is in charge? She is doing an awesome job! When you see her walking the halls making sure that your child got that craft done, stop her and tell her how great a job she and the rest of the volunteers are doing!

Father's Day 2011

This year’s Father’s Day was really awesome. I got to experience all sorts of things throughout the whole weekend. I was gone all week prior on business, so coming home on Friday, knowing I was spending the weekend with the family, made it even more special.

When I walked through the door Friday afternoon, my little girl met me in the hall with one of the biggest hugs I had ever received! “Daddy! I missed you sooooooo much! Oh! I got you a present for Father’s Day!” she said with such enthusiasm. She skipped out of the room, and came back with a delivery box….. “I know you like jetski parts, and this is what I got you!” You see, at the beginning of the week I ordered a few parts for my jetski. But what I didn’t know is that in a conversation with Michelle a few days prior, Abby makes an offhand comment that she was going to get me jetski parts for Father’s Day, because I like jetski parts. When the box showed up on Friday, she brought it to Michelle wanting to know what it was. Michelle said her face was priceless when she announced it was in fact jetski parts for me!

Saturday morning I was awoken to my son and daughter “steam rolling” and body slamming me to “get up!” Everyone gets out of bed, we get dressed, and head to Farragut Church for VBS work. We dropped Michelle off at the building, and then the kids took me out for a Father’s Day breakfast. It was absolutely wonderful. After breakfast we head back to the church for a couple of more hours of VBS work, then it is out to run some last minute errands.

Afterword, we head over to our friends, whose quads are having a party celebrating turning 5. I was actually told by one of them (I think it was Jonathan) that they were in fact 4 on Saturday, but would turn 5 in a few days. The tone was such that he did not fully approve of the party not being on the actual birth date, but that it would suffice since he was part of it….. Jim and Allison are awesome people, and I am grateful to God that they are in our lives. Since this is a Father’s Day post: Jim is a great dad who works tirelessly being a Christian example for his kids, loving his wife, supporting his family, and being a great friend. After the quad’s party, it was back to the church to clean up for worship in the morning.

Sunday morning, Michelle rolled over and quietly whispered, “Happy Father’s Day” in my ear. Very cool, very sexy, and very awesome. Have I mentioned before how awesome my wife is? I was then (shock and awe here) awoken by two little ones “trying” to sneak into bed with us. My son said something that resembled “Happy Father’s Day”, while he burrowed himself under the covers and pillows. Abby just came in, crawled under the covers, and went back to the sleep.

After worshipping with my family (something we don’t get to do very often since Michelle I and have commitments on Sunday mornings), we rush out of church to grab lunch just as a family. And afterwards, I know you find this hard to believe, but we headed back to church for the last preparations of Farragut Church’s VBS 2011, “Dive In”. Let me throw out a shamelss plug for our congregation at this point: Farragut Church is absolutely amazing. If you are in the area this week, come by and check out how BIG we do VBS. Seriously, words can not describe how much of a production we put on. Oh, did I mention that my smoking hot wife was in charge of it this year? Yeah, its going to be awesome....

After we were done, Michelle and I led a devotional with the college students. I love these guys (and gals). They are young adults beginning to make their mark in the world. Michelle and I do our best to mentor them, as well as, work with their parents in making sure they (the college students) are hearing what God has to say about all kinds of topics. I am truly honored to not only be tasked with teaching them, but also calling many of them friends.

And finally, I got to reflect on the fact that the Scott family is coming to visit this weekend. They arrive on Friday, and I can’t wait. David and Stacey are in the process of raising some amazing God loving boys that are going to make the world a better place. But it is not only how they are raising their boys that is so awesome, but it is also how they impact their neighborhood. Their home is truly a beacon of light in what is sometimes a very dark place. Although we named our David from David out of the bible, my David sometimes comments that he was named after Mr. David (David Scott), and I am ok with that. Outside of my David, I don’t know of a better David!!

If you are a dad, or have a dad, I hope your Father’s Day was enjoyable, and filled with memorable experiences that you can take for years to come.