Posted on 07/02/2007 8:59:58 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
The importance of children in a marriage for making that relationship work is plummeting, and a children's organization says churches apparently are reflecting that change in priorities, with tens of thousands fewer congregations now offering vacation Bible school.
The concerns are being expressed by officials at National Children's Day, who promote the second Sunday in June as Children's Day each year.
Since its beginnings in the 1920s, when Standard Publishing of Cincinnati became the first publisher to create a full-scale vacation Bible school program, the institution has been part of many communities' summertime outreaches.
However, new studies show that the number of churches and ministries offering VBS has been dropping.
A report from The Barna Group of Ventura, Calif., noted that between 1997 and 2005, there was a 15 percent decline in the percentage of churches offering vacation Bible schools, those usually week-long summer intensives of Bible lessons – and cookies and fruit drink – for children.
The drop was from 81 percent of churches surveyed, to 69 percent.
"That represents about 38,000 fewer churches offering VBS than eight years [earlier]," the report said.
The assessment noted the most common reason for not offering VBS was a lack of teachers.
"Those most likely to offer VBS were Southern Baptist and mainline churches, congregations with 250 or more adult attenders, and black congregations," the evaluation continued.
John Ross, advocate for "Children's Day" and part of a growing movement spear-headed by the National Childrens Day outreach, lamented the loss.
"The church played a vital role in the beginning of 'Children's Day' and now again needs to reaffirm its commitment to children by initiating, continuing, and expanding VBS," he said. "Now more than ever, children need the church to step to the plate.
"Children are in direr need of spiritual and moral guidance. VBS reaches beyond denominational boundaries. It's a great tool for spiritual formation and community outreach. I hope all of America's churches can make that commitment," he said. "That's what 'Children's Day' is about... commitment."
Publishing industry officials estimate vacation Bible schools enroll about three million students annually.
Christianity Today lists a total of 15 publishers who have VBS programs available this year.
The Children's Day group notes that such observations originated in the 1880s and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1883 designated the "second Sabbath in June as Children's Day."
This year, Illinois became the first state to proclaim that day as "Children's Day," officials said, via a proclamation from Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
The organization noted that a Pew Research assessment this year saw that the children had dropped to eighth place – on a list of nine factors – that people say determines the success of their marriage.
In first was faithfulness, followed by a happy sexual relationship and sharing household chores. Fourth and fifth were adequate income and good housing, and in sixth was shared religious beliefs. Seventh was shared tastes and interests. Children were in eighth, followed only by agreement on politics.
In 1990, when the American public was given the same list, children ranked third.
"In the United States today, marriage exerts less influence over how adults organize their lives and how children are born and raised than at any time in the nation's history," the study said. "Only about half of all adults (ages 18 and older) in the U.S. are married; only about seven-in-10 children live with two parents; and nearly four-in-ten births are to unwed mothers," the study said.
As recently as one generation back, 60 percent of the adults were married, 85 percent of children lived with two parents and just 10 percent of the births were to unwed mothers.
The news is not all bad. We had 1200 kids at our VBS.
Nor is it bad here. We are bursting at the seams, and more want to come.
Wow! That sounds like a huge church!
With only 10% of churched youth still committed to Christ past Junior year in college, it is apparent that what we are doing is not working. I see VBS as not so much having a lasting effect on kids, 10-15 hours a year, as I do the ability to start a relationship with the heads of the families of these kids. Win the father, the rest of the family will follow. If the church would spend more time teaching parents, especially the fathers, how to raise kids, how to have a Biblical Worldview, how to home disciple, then we would be raising an army for the Lord.
Instead, we say to the families, “Since your not doing your God given responsibility concerning the family He has given you, give them to us and we will take over for you.”
Hmmm. Sounds like the liberal view of government.
Does the earth quake before your religious leader?
Joel 2
10 The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
11 And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
I always hated it, but ended up loving it...and always told my parents so.
Worth repeating!
Worth repeating!
The presence or absence of any particular program like VBS tells you little. What do the existing programs teach? That will tell you more.
A huge waiting list at ours, too.
And if you can't win the father??? Just dump the kids???
Hmmm. Sounds like the liberal view of government.
Sounds like Christian folks doing God's work, to me...
The big problem with VBS is the daycare dump. Day care kiddie keepers bus over their kids and dump them on VBS programs that don’t have sufficient volunteers to handle the influx. The daycare folks then end up with half days off.
Of course not. My point is our emphasis. We have program after program dedicated for the youth and it is not working. Considering that youth emphasized evangelization is more of a modern invention, and it isn't working, I suggest that we go back to the church supporting Ephesians 6:1-4. The charge is to the parents, fathers in particular. The church's role would be to help this happen.
Sounds like Christian folks doing God's work, to me...
I have to disagree.
I must say to all the hopeless sounding reports. If you plant the seed, God is faithful to nourish and grow it. It would be nice to snag the fathers in and have the rest follow, unfortunately this is not always possible. Just plant the tiny mustard seed and He will be ever faithful to grow it.
Absolutely. We have our VBS next week, always a good ministry. But we also have a professional quality paintball field that we operate periodically, and the number of fathers that show up with their kids is amazing. We're open all day on a Saturday, so we have plenty of time to get to know people. The relationships that we build are starting to produce results.
It also depends on the condition of the ground as indicated a little further up in the Mt 13 parables.
Also what I see so much of is that we present Christ to a child, they accept, truly, then we send them back to their God forsaken circumstances, alone, with little follow up or encouragement. Then we wonder why they aren't committed as much at the age of 20.
I have an ex-niece-in-law? Don't ask, to long to describe. At the age of 10 she accepted Christ. While she lived up here, my wife and I took her under our wing. For three years we discipled her. At 13, her mother left my brother-in-law, (he quit doing drugs and she left him), and then the mother moved about 4 hours away and shacked up with another guy. My niece was OK for about a year, even got Baptized in a church in town.
Shortly after that, her mom got pregnant. All of a sudden it wasn't so 'convenient' for her mom to let her go to that church anymore. Mom had a built in babysitter so she could go out partying. I saw my niece for her sixteenth birthday party. I could hardly recognize her with all that makeup on, and her clothes were of the Brittney Spears genre.
Sad. I still cry for her as I pray for her. The church down there did nothing to help bring the adults to Christ. Not one home visit. They dropped the whole family. It is as if we get them saved, then feed them to the wolves. Shame on us.
I never once doubt her salvation. I was there when it happened. I saw the Spirit work in her life for 3 solid years. She went from a snot nosed brat to the most loving, kind, joyful girl. I used to catch her singing hymns all by herself when she thought no one was around. I heard her most simplest but most heartfelt prayers to God.
This one's on us. And there are more out there.
I'm thinking of offering a class in Biblical Parenting next year for the parents and the kids.
Give this a listen: Youth Ministry
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