As I’m writing this note, I find myself in the middle of Vacation Bible School with a group of over 70 (!) children who have descended upon our campus to learn more about God and how God provides for and loves us – no matter what. Over the course of the years, I’ve participated in a lot of Vacation Bible School programs. And there’s a definite trend on how us pastor-types get utilized for these events.
It seems more often than not, because pastors spend a lot of time immersed in the Bible, it’s natural to ask them to be the person who shares the stories from the Bible that the Vacation Bible School program intends to use as guides for learning over the course of the week. This year is no different. I’m greatly blessed and honored to be able to tell the stories of how God has related to God’s children over the generations. As I’ve been filling this role as the person who gets to tell these stories, I’ve learned that there is a deep hunger and excitement to learn more about what God is doing. Even if these kids don’t attend church more than a couple of times a year, they all seem to still have this innate need to hear about God’s power through the stories that we are telling in Vacation Bible School. In fact, as I was showing the kids in one group my Bible that I was using to reference the Bible Expedition story of the day, one of them asked whether I could start reading it to them – from the very beginning.
Truth be told, it’s easy to get discouraged about the lack of younger folks attending worship on a weekly basis here at Esperanza and in churches around the nation. Families get busier and busier over the course of the years. You never have a ton of time to catch up, and so even Sunday morning’s sacred spot as a time to worship has gone by the wayside over the past several years. And because of these things, kids aren’t getting to hear the stories as much in our churches as they used to. But the good news is, because they haven’t heard these stories as much in church, many of them are excited to hear them now. Absence from regular attendance doesn’t mean these stories die – it simply means we need to find ways to tell them in other ways and places. Vacation Bible School is one of those places where we can tell those stories.
But there are other places where we can tell those stories as well. The stories of the Bible – stories telling God’s love – are being told every day through how we interact with one another. These are stories that can be told around a dinner table, as we travel in a car, or as we prepare for bed. We have the power to tell stories that shape the lives of the people in our own lives. As I’ve been blessed to share these stories and see the joy and wonder in the lives of our young charges over the course of this week, I hope you all get to share the amazing stories of God at work in our lives to those you meet along the way.
Pastor Chris