(note: this is the first in several posts about vacation bible school and its impact)
Hanging with my pals: WCRF's "Children's Radio Funhouse" all-stars: Alan Root , Chip Richter, Mark Zimmerman and me.
its been almost a decade since i’ve had a part in leading a summer vacation bible school experience. and i know how powerful they can be to build community and help strengthen the spiritual formation of our children and even that of the adults who serve. about 15 years ago i stumbled (providentially) upon Alan Root. He is a regular on the Children’s Radio Funhouse on the moody station, WCRF-103.3 FM/Cleveland – every saturday morning. He’s hosted in the spot by Mark Zimmerman who has shepherded this outreach to kids for more than a decade.
We had given some thought about doing our own, locally produced VBS experience. there’s a lot of good stuff out there to assist, but since we’re a relatively new outpost in the Kingdom, we decided to benchmark our first effort by investing in Alan’s ministry as a means to cast vision for what a VBS can look like. And we couldn’t be happier with the results. Alan presented through 3 2.5 hr sessions with our children.
We had a total of 92 children participate and another 72 adults and teens serve as volunteers. It was held on a Friday evening/Saturday morning and evening session. 33 children made a commitment to grow in their walk with Jesus…split between first time decisions and prayers of assurance. on sunday morning we combined our two worship services into one family oriented service. we had the kids lead worship with two songs to start. Here’s some video.