Vbs Training Outline

Why was VBS Started?

Unofficially, it's possible to trace the roots of VBS as far back as the 1870s, when the Methodist Episcopal Church offered summer Sunday school institutes to the general public near Lake Chautauqua, New York. In 1873, Bishop John H. Vincent proposed the movement should include educational and cultural programs, and soon other Christian groups across the country followed suit with their own summer retreats, many of them offering services for children.

Vacation Bible school as we know it today got its start more than 20 years later on New York City's East Side. Mrs. Walker Aylette Hawes of the Epiphany Baptist Church noted a rapid increase in the number of immigrant children in the slums. In July 1898 she rented the only place available—a saloon—to run a Bible school for six weeks during the summer. Hawes structured her program around worship music, Bible stories and Scripture memorization, games, crafts, drawing, cooking, etc. The school caught on: Hawes was presiding over seven separate schools by the time she retired from her work in 1901.

Why do we do VBS?

2004 Barna study

I. A – Accept your responsibility to share Jesus with people during and after VBS

Matthew 4:19

Matthew 28:19-20

Acts 1:8

II. B – Believe that God the Holy Spirit goes before you and will save peoples souls

A) Let the Holy Spirit do all the convicting work

1) Omit symbolism – “ask Jesus into your heart”

Instead use – Accept Jesus as Savior and Lord

Confess Jesus as Savior and Lord

Accept & confess God’s forgiveness

III. C – Confess with the boldness that comes through the Holy Spirit Jesus Christ

A) Use scripture – faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

B) Use your story –

C) Use your favorite evangelistic tool