This week, July 25-29, Hillcrest will be having our Vacation Bible School. VBS is one of the major outreaches of most churches towards trying to reach children and their families. Most churches at some point in the Summer will have VBS, even though it may not be reaching anyone or even effective. When I first came to Hillcrest, we had VBS. I watched the first Summer and saw a lot of energy, time and money spent on an outreach that wasn't much of an outreach. I'm not trying to find fault, but we were doing VBS because we always did VBS. Not a great reason to have VBS, but it was our motivating factor. We did one more year of VBS before our Ministry Council decided to put an end to the ministry. We asked the question, "Why are we having VBS?". We all agreed we were doing it because we always did it. However, we were spending all of this energy and only have 10-15 children attend - Not of whom were actual prospects for our church. It was a bold move because most churches are never able to let a ministry die. We start something and think we now must always do it. If we don't do that particular ministry, then we just aren't being faithful to God. We did get some criticism for that decision, but most of the VBS workers were relieved because of the stress it would cause.
In Acts 16:6-8, we see a precedence for this allowing a ministry to end. Paul and his companions are wanting to go to Bithynia to share the Gospel. Great idea because these folks had never heard the Gospel. It was logical and was simply a continuation of what they had already been doing. However, Paul and his companions were kept from going, but rather than getting frustrated they followed the Spirit to something new. I wonder how many ministries in the church are Spirit-led and how many are human-led. I wonder how many churches are having a VBS this Summer just because they have been having VBS for the past 10, 20, 50 years. I wonder how many leaders go to conferences, hear about a ministry and then think this would be perfect for their church. So they go back, pumped up and get their folks involved in this ministry. Are they being led of the Spirit or led by their own decisions and what worked in the 1960's or worked in another church. I wonder how many churches would have the courage to let a human-driven ministry die, taking heat because they weren't like the church down the street. It always takes courage to follow the Spirit. I wonder how many churches stay busy doing things they think they should do rather than joining God in the work He is already doing. I wonder how often this happens at Hillcrest.
Since you already know Hillcrest is having VBS, I should explain what happened. Four year ago after we had gone without VBS for four years, several leaders asked if we could have VBS. We shared the ineffectiveness of VBS and the reasons we decided to end it. We took the next month to pray and seek God's direction. From this time of prayer and sharing, God led us to make a few changes: (1) We started to have an outreach event BEFORE VBS to reach out and draw people in to the church. This has turned into the Hillcrest Community Fair, an outreach event that usually adds 2 to 4 families each year. (2) We changed the time to later in the Summer, moving from June to July. We needed more time to prepare rather than having it in June when we were rushed an unable to adequately prepare. (3) We changed the time to the evening so we could have enough workers and children. Most of the kids and adults are busy during the day.
The results have been tangible. We now average over 50 students at VBS and around 40 workers. It becomes a tremendous follow-up to the Fair and a transition to our Sunday evening TeamKid ministry. VBS had also become a great time to disciple our own students and get them sharing their testimonies. The adults also get to know each other much better since there are so many workers. We get to see them serving and utilizing their gifts to work in the Kingdom. All of this is possible because we were willing to let something die.
Is there something you are doing "for the Lord" that really is your own effort and now a Spirit-led endeavor? Do you have the courage to let it die and not allow Satan to send you on a guilt-trip? Maybe if we simplified our lives and waited on the Spirit to lead we would be more effective. May this Sip from the Well refresh you and allow you freedom to serve Jesus with joy.
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