After coming off of an intense week of Vacation Bible School, I found myself asking the age-old question, "is doing this really worth all of the hassle?" And you may be surprised to find out that this year the answer was "no." But before you start trying to expel the demons out of your pastoral brother, let me explain myself. Let me tell you about our V.B.S. so that you can judge for yourself.

This years V.B.S. at our church was unlike any other. We decided that we were going to throw the format and styles from the past out the window and go with something more original. What we wound up with was a carnival theme. We rented a big top tent, along with cotton candy, snow cone and popcorn machines. Our game time consisted of personally designed carnival games, along with many prizes to be won. We had convinced ourselves that this year’s V.B.S was going to be much easier than any previous year. At the same meeting we had voted unanimously on the need to send missionaries to minister to the ever-elusive “Bigfoot,” so we should have known right off of the bat that we may not have been thinking overly clearly.

This endeavor consisted of having volunteers arrive early to set up all of the games and food, as well as asking them to stay late to help clean up. We would have liked around 30 kids to minister to, but instead we were burdened with 70 screaming hooligans. I personally worked 12-hour days throughout the week to ensure that the lesson was ready and everything else was in order. Some foolish person decided that it would be great fun if the Pastor let all of the kids hit him in the face with a pie on Wednesday and with a water balloon on Friday (there are pictures of this debacle available for those that are interested). A lot of money was spent and so was a great amount of time…and for what?

The only benefit was that 70 impressionable children had the chance to learn about Jesus. But how could anyone look at all of the time, and money, and effort that was put into this and see it as being worthwhile? How could anyone be smashed in the face with pies over 50 times and still be expected to say he wants to do it again next year? How can I justify my church spending all of this money to teach what the parents should already be teaching?

Rise up with me, stand to your feet and shout with me “No more V.B.S.!”

I think the disciples had it right when they turned the little children away from Jesus. The bothersome little troublemakers can go learn about Him somewhere else. After all, what are the chances of one of them making a commitment to Christ because of our V.B.S.? How many commitments would it take to justify the need to offer a well-planned, well-executed outreach to the children of the community? If you want to spend your time reaching out to the lost children around you, with no guarantee that they’ll ever give anything back to your church, then be my guest. As for me and my church however, we won’t have any part in a troublesome Vacation Bible School…we will invest in another GREAT one when the opportunity arises again next year!

Contributed by Pastor Pete Sapp - Trinity Church, East Brady, Pa