Some local families see VBS as the prime summer evangelism opportunity for kids throughout Morrow County, while others worry that opening it widely without follow-up discipleship produces shallow results. Which approach is more faithful to the Great Commission?
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Add your commentBorn and raised in Boardman, and I'll tell you what — when I was a kid in the 90s, VBS at First Baptist was THE event of the summer. Kids from the migrant worker families, kids from the farming families out on Bombing Range Road, everybody showed up. Nobody was checking church membership cards at the door. That's how my neighbor Carla first heard the Gospel. She's a deacon now. Don't tell me 'community outreach' produces shallow results.
Fun fact that nobody in this debate seems to know: the original Vacation Bible School movement started in the early 1900s specifically as urban outreach to children whose parents worked all day and left kids unsupervised. It was ALWAYS meant to be community outreach. Somewhere along the way churches flipped it into a members-only perk. We're the ones who drifted from the original vision, not the outreach advocates.
Actually I want to push back on something I keep seeing in this thread and in conversations at church. People keep acting like 'church-family children' don't NEED VBS too. My kids know John 3:16 but do they know how to live it? VBS done well builds faith in kids who are already in the pew. That has value! It's not either-or. Also can we stop acting like Boardman is some massive city where we have endless resources to run two separate programs. We're a town of like 4,000 people. We do what we can with the volunteers we have.
ok genuine question for the Boardman churches running VBS this summer: how many of the kids who attended last year's program are now regularly attending your church or a small group? anybody tracking that? because if the answer is zero or close to it maybe its time to rethink the model instead of just arguing about it online
Someone upthread said VBS started as 'urban outreach' in the 1900s — actually the very first VBS on record was held in 1898 in New York by Everyday Bible School but the movement that really spread it was D.L. Moody's influence through the Chicago programs, so it was always evangelistic in DNA. That person is basically right even if the details are fuzzy. Point stands: we've drifted. Boardman churches should reclaim the original mission and stop treating VBS like a summer perk for the already-saved.
The Great Commission says GO and make disciples. Disciples. Not just hand out crafts and juice boxes and wave goodbye. If your VBS has zero follow-up plan, zero connection to a Sunday school class, zero anything after Friday's closing ceremony, then yeah, you've thrown seed on concrete. Faithful evangelism includes the discipleship component. Both things can be true — open the doors AND have a real plan for what comes next.
lol the idea that we have to choose between 'genuine outreach' and 'program for church kids' is a false choice and honestly a little insulting to the volunteers who pour their summer into this. my wife spent 60+ hours preparing curriculum last year. the kids who came were from all over — some church families, some definitely not. everyone got the same Gospel. everyone got the same love. discipleship happened naturally because relationships formed. stop overthinking it boardman
I used to live in Boardman before moving to Hermiston and I'll say this — the churches there that partnered together for a combined community VBS had WAY more impact than the ones doing small separate programs. Pool your volunteers, pick a central location like the community center or a park, and you suddenly have something the whole county notices. Denominational pride is the real enemy of outreach in small towns, not the VBS format itself.
I moved here from Portland two years ago for work at one of the data centers and our family started attending a small congregation out here. I was honestly surprised how much debate there is about VBS. Where I came from, any church that could get unchurched kids through the door for ONE WEEK and show them Christian love was considered doing the Lord's work, period. Morrow County has real spiritual need. Open the doors.
Nope. Hard disagree with the 'just open it up' crowd. VBS run purely as a community event with no doctrinal substance becomes glorified summer camp. Fun doesn't save souls.
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