High Hill Baptist Church in Darlington is proof – if proof were needed – that a church doesn’t have to be big to have a Vacation Bible School.
By utilizing Vacation Bible School, even a small church can have a big impact in reaching its community.The rural congregation, which averages about 35 mostly senior adults in Sunday worship, has held Vacation Bible School, or something similar, the last three summers.
“VBS is a huge tool and blessing to get out the gospel,” said Randy James, pastor of High Hill Church. “Doing it has allowed young and old to have a buy-in, to get excited about what the Lord is going to do. It has caused us to come together and work together closely. It builds anticipation and more awareness of ministry and mission opportunities.”
Three years ago, High Hill offered a traditional Vacation Bible School at the church, which “went over okay,” but two summers ago they decided to do something a little different.
Instead of drawing children to the church – with its 90-year-old facilities and a scarcity of workers – volunteers went offsite and adopted a team approach. A member of High Hill Church owns a mobile home park about two miles from the church. Believers’ Temple Holiness Church, a small African-American congregation, meets at the mobile home park.
High Hill partnered with pastor Sloane Brown Jr. and Believers’ Church to offer a backyard Bible school between Brown’s house and the park.
They put out flyers, went door to door, rented a big tent, and held a weeklong Bible school under the tent. Welsh Neck Association provided curriculum. About 25-30 children attended, as did about 25 adult workers.
“It was just a tremendous blessing,” said James. “We had five or six professions of faith, and a lot of people from outside of either church. We have two or three families coming to our church now as a result and one couple who has come to know the Lord.”
Last summer, High Hill Church took the partnership approach again. With the help of Florence Association, Antioch Baptist Church in Hartsville, Mechanicsville Baptist Church in Darlington and Hoffmeyer Road Baptist Church in Florence, they offered a block party at the mobile home park, with games, treats, face painting, story time and a presentation of the gospel from Puppet Love, a local professional Christian puppeteer group. Three children made professions of faith.
“God blessed even that half-day event,” James said.
Sue Harmon, associate director of the childhood ministry group for the state convention, said High Hill is a prime example of a small, rural, mostly senior-adult church making the most of VBS as a tool for evangelism and outreach.
“We try to emphasize that even if you are small and do not have a lot of children in your church, there are children in your neighborhood,” she said. “VBS attracts children so you can reach them and share the gospel with them. That is what the ‘VBS in Every Church’ emphasis is all about.”
One of the reasons VBS has so much potential as an evangelism tool is the same reason camps do, Harmon said. “It is different from the normal routine, which I think the Spirit uses to catch your attention. And so many people come and hear the gospel who are not hearing it all the time, so you get more response from that.”
That has been true for High Hill Baptist Church. Sunday school attendance has grown from five or six to nearly 20. One of the new couples who joined as a result of the outreach now leads a youth program, which averages 15-17 on Sunday and Wednesday evenings – a 100 percent increase.
As pastor Randy James puts it: “God’s in it, that’s for sure.” – SCBC