Peggy Brown has served in Vacation Bible School for 33 years and still feels the need to get all the training she can in order to better serve her church, Sweetwater Branch in Conway, and the Waccamaw Association VBS team, where she is associational VBS co-director.
State VBS training faculty, from left: Jody Ratcliffe, Jimmy Smyrl, Cindy Campbell, Merri Christy Tolar, Jeanne Spray, Kimberlee Duncan, Crystal Bouknight and Sue Harmon.“I just can’t get enough of learning new ways to approach Vacation Bible School,” Brown said. “I learn something new everywhere I go, whether it’s at Ridgecrest (for LifeWay training) or White Oak (for South Carolina Baptist Convention training).” She and Sue Harmon, associate director of the childhood ministry group for the SCBC, hope that pastors, VBS directors and workers will take advantage of associational training opportunities occurring now through May across South Carolina.
“At the state clinic, we help associational VBS teams be prepared to lead their clinics so that churches can be well-prepared,” Harmon said. “At the associational clinics, leaders learn about age-group training for preschoolers, children, adults and youth; how the Bible theme is carried through activities like recreation, crafts and music; and how to lead in those specific teaching areas.
“I believe pastors and church leaders benefit from learning how to maintain contact with VBS participants after the event is over. We know many unchurched families are willing to bring children to a VBS event even if they don’t attend church at any other time. There’s a lot of opportunity for churches to connect with people after VBS is concluded.”
Harmon said the average VBS reports four professions of faith, which translates to 6,000 new believers, as approximately 1,500 SCBC churches hold VBS each summer.
Brown said Waccamaw Association serves churches beyond the annual training by developing partnerships with churches to borrow theme decorations, helping churches discover ways to stretch budgets, thinking through promotion and coordinating shared workers between churches.
Leigh Lepard, a VBS leader at Big Stephens Creek Church, North Augusta, is helping organize Edgefield Association’s first clinic since 2006. “The average person just doesn’t realize how much goes into VBS,” she said, “and it can be overwhelming for new leaders trying to organize an event each summer.”
She said a goal of Edgefield’s new associational training will be to help leaders “understand a step-by-step process for effective Vacation Bible School. We’ll look at administration, how to teach children, and about crafts.”
Lepard said she’s already worked out a system for churches to share the teaching kits, believing it will help churches that can’t afford resources. Her church will share its decorations this year.
“The association effort is about networking our churches together so we can learn from one another, keep in contact, and work together,” she said.
Churches unable to attend their association’s training event may attend events in other associations.
For more information: www.scbaptist.org/vbs. – SCBC