Huh? Well, present weather notwithstanding, it’s time for our churches to be planning and purchasing products for summertime vacation church school and/or mission programming, or whatever else we plan to do with the children and students in that warmer time of the year.
For many of us, the very thought of Vacation Church School (VCS) makes us shiver a cold winter’s chill. The prospect of making recruitment calls to adults who’d rather not be bothered, the difficulty of finding children to fill our usually empty classrooms, the knowledge that many self-absorbed parents will hand their kids to us for the free babysitting just as long as they’re not required to do anything, and the ultimate challenge of bringing order, discipline, and learning to the group of untamed urchins who will fill our classes – it can make you shiver.
But when I think back over the past week, when I saw my Texas grandchildren thrill over tubing down a mountain slide and over sledding down our frozen street (yes, it’s a cul-de-sac, and no, I never took my eyes off of them) … to hear them scream with delight during the tacky Christmas light tour and when throwing snowballs and building a snowman and digging an igloo … to watch them run from window to window to watch the falling snow and to mentally measure the growing icicles – and then to end our day talking about Jesus’ birth and praying together for children around the world to have a happy Christmas and “for all the people who are alone to know that You are with them,” as seven-year-old Nyah prayed out loud … well, their responsiveness to God’s love made my investment of energy and time and attentiveness pale in comparison to the return they delivered on that investment.
Christmas certainly provides an opportune time to invest ourselves in sharing the love of the Savior. Summertime does, too.
Which leads to a dilemma: whose children shall we serve this next summer? And what spiritual meals will we offer on the “menu”? Some of our churches have dispensed with children’s vacation church school. Time to reconsider. If you have facilities of any kind, and if any humans below the age of 18 live within 15 minutes’ drive of those facilities, the failure to offer some kind of summer programming is just that: a failure.
“Failure” need be uttered no more among us. Church educators have been busting beyond our old categories to reinvent vacation church school. Many are taking the time to compare multiple curriculum options – so they don’t get stuck rehashing stale formulas. Some are partnering with nearby nursing homes for the children to serve the elderly while the seniors tell Bible stories to the young. Some are partnering with other churches – preferably ones reflecting different cultures – to share resources and broaden the children’s fellowship. Some are mixing mission service into the learning. Some are utilizing energetic summer staff of nearby Presbyterian camps – like Camp Hanover in Mechanicsville, Va. – to develop a satellite day camp on church property. Still others are organizing and providing funding to send the children to camp.
Most are opening their doors not just to their own children but to the strangers, especially the unchurched children; many churches reward those who bring the most guests.
Like Christmas, summer can be a time to kick back, slow down, and self-indulge. Or it can be a time to invest ourselves in mission with and for children. What will the summer of 2011 be for you … and yours?
—JHH
