Are You Too Christian For Non Christians:

Google the expression “know your number” and you’ll find screen after screen of reportedly essential life metrics ranging from prostate-specific antigens (PSA) and cholesterol to the amount of money you will need in savings to retire and your enneagram — which is a quantification of personality which, depending on whom you believe, was either the brainchild of a fourth-century Christian mystic or a twentieth-century Bolivian spiritualist, give or take 1,600 years, but who’s counting?

Well, it seems everyone is counting. With each passing day some new app, gadget of wearable technology, or fill-in-the-blank-o-meter emerges to help us capture, measure, and analyze the big data we generate while simply going about living our lives, all holding out the promise of living life better, longer, and more fruitfully — some of these meters serious and helpful, some of them silly and distractive.

It is written, “Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered” (Luke 12:7).

A Personal Great Commission Number

Jason Meyer preached recently from 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1, and as he compared and contrasted separation from and engagement with the world, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be great if we had an app that measured our engagement with unbelievers?” Something that kept a running total of:

Amount of Time x Depth of Relationship x Unbelievers

Sadly, for many, the product would be small, low, single digits. It is so easy to fill our time with the activity and fellowship of Christian life. Block out time for “Christian” activities — prayer, quiet time, worship, Sunday school, small group, committee meetings, accountability partners, Christian entertainment, political action, and socializing with your best friends with whom you just so happen to also attend church — and, well, there really isn’t much margin left for, let’s say, evangelism.

Separation from the world really isn’t so hard. One could suggest it is a preferred and more comfortable course than engagement with it, especially if your love of God is strong. It is easier in many ways to be not of the world than it is to be in it and not of it.

Seven Simple Steps to Boost Evangelism

Develop your “personal Great Commission number” as if it were something as routine to your daily life as church, work, fitness, and carting your kids around. How much time do you spend with unbelieving individuals, and what is the quality of your social relationships with them? You can boost your number substantially by exercising these seven disciplines.

1. Pray for the unbelievers in your life by name.

Margaret Thatcher once famously said, “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families.” Her point being that we must regard each other at human scale, not as mere components of larger social institutions. The same can be said of the way we use the term “the lost.”

Of course our hearts grieve for the millions who do not know Jesus, but we don’t know the millions personally. Most of us do know personally at least dozens, some of us hundreds, and rather than lump these precious individuals into one big prayer cohort, we could begin to take their given names before God in prayer. Start writing their names down and praying over them at least once a week.

2. Be intentional in pursuing relationships and scheduling time with unbelievers.

If you don’t make engagement with unbelieving people a priority, your life will gravitate automatically toward the pleasures and comforts of the church community cul-de-sac. Identify two people outside of your Christian circle with whom you think you would enjoy spending more time. Look for two more who appear to need someone to come alongside of them as they struggle with burdens in their lives. Target one other with whom you seem to have the least in common, but enough of a relationship that you could see it becoming, with a little work, a friendship. You needn’t feel that you must sacrifice any of your principles or values to love someone else. It’s what we’re commanded to do. Love God. Love our neighbors.

3. Lean in towards unbelieving family members.

Family members are people with whom, like it or not, you are already in relationship. You already love them, and they already love you, despite theological differences. Don’t make them a project; just love them as members of your family. Be sincerely interested in what they’re interested in, even if you find it hard to be interested. Know their struggles. Encourage them. Affirm them. Don’t be estranged. Lean in and never give up on any of them. Above all else, pray for them.

4. Love your neighbors.

Know your neighbors. Help your neighbors. Enjoy your neighbors. Be the epoxy that glues your neighbors into a neighborhood. Practice hospitality. Make your home a place that your neighbors associate with their love for each other.

5. Appreciate your workplace as the best place.

For most Christians, the workplace is the place where we will spend the most time with unbelieving people. Work requires us to collaborate with others to see it to completion. Relationships in the workplace are sometimes even easier to develop than with family members. You share more time and, in time, more in common. Don’t allow your Christianity to be a wedge that separates you from coworkers.

You needn’t compromise your values, nor engage in any unbiblical activities to secure a coworker’s esteem or affection, but you do need to take an active interest in your coworkers as fellow human beings, not just the other spokes in a wheel you happen to share. Appreciate that people in the workplace are not the means of getting your work done; they are the objects of your work as an ambassador for Christ.

6. Harvest relationships from your children’s activities.

Children are now involved in lots of activities year-round. If you have several children, the breadth of your relationship universe is substantial across the expanse of all the other coaches, parents, and teammates. So, go deep. Work these crowds. Befriend people in these communities. Do things with them. Bring them together in your home with family members, coworkers, and neighbors.

A word of warning: don’t permit all of your kids’ activities to take place in Christian-only programs.

7. Take up a new hobby, especially one shared in groups.

Diversions from responsibilities can be personally renewing, restorative, and great venues for evangelism. Find something fun or interesting to do or learn in which you are not fulfilling a specific responsibility or obligation to anyone — just taking your mind off of things for a while. But find something that requires you to do it with other people. Here you’ll likely meet people of all different walks, the bond being the shared interest in the hobby. It will help to find something in which someone else, perhaps an unbeliever, will have to be invested in you to help you along. This can be the leaven of really great relationships.

The truth is, the product of this hypothetical formula is not a score — it is joy. There are few greater joys in life than sharing the gospel with another person, even fewer greater joys than knowing you have been used as a means, immediately or eventually, in another’s conversion to Christ. Yes, we rejoice in corporate worship, in Christian fellowship, and in private devotion. But we must not neglect the essential work and untapped joy of sharing Christ with those who do not yet know him.

4 Things To Pray For Our Pastoral Search Committee:

We need to be in constant prayer for our pastoral search committee. We need to be praying for the committee because Satan Hates Search Committees:

Our adversary, the Devil, doesn’t want a search committee to succeed. Consider the goal of a committee: to find a godly pastor to preach God’s Word and strengthen his kingdom here on earth. A search committee, then, seeks someone to oppose the works of the Evil One, to speak truth against his lies, and to snatch slaves from his death-grip.

Here are four specific things to pray for.

1. Unity

Pray for the unity of your committee. There are many potential areas for disagreement, both small and big. Members will have to figure out which qualifications are negotiable and which aren’t, and what makes for a good sermon. Some will like things about a pastoral candidate that others don’t like at all. Some are willing to overlook things about a candidate that others aren’t. Unity is essential for the committee. If they aren’t united, they’ll struggle to settle on a pastor to call. And their disunity will spread to the rest of the church, likely creating wider discord.

2. Spiritual Strength

Spiritual attacks can easily overwhelm a pastoral search. Pray for your committee to stand strong. Pray for them to seek Christ in the midst of the many distractions, challenges, and hardships they may face in their personal lives. Pray also for their families—Satan will often attack them as well.

3. Wisdom

Pray for your committee to filter through the many resumes to find the pastor who best fits your church’s needs. Pray they’d set aside distractions and secondary issues and focus on what’s important. Pray they’d be able to quickly identify pastors who wouldn’t be a good fit for your church. Pray for the many decisions they must make.

4. Endurance

The search-committee process is a long process. It takes most churches at least a year to find a new pastor, some even longer. People will regularly ask, “Why haven’t you found someone yet?” The committee will ask themselves the same question. They’ll grow weary from the work and discouraged when the applicants don’t fit their standards. Pray for your committee members to have endurance to find the pastor you need.

It’s a great privilege to serve on a pastoral search committee. But it’s also hard work. It’s work that keeps committee members from their families. It’s work that often breeds disagreement and even discord among the members. But most of all, it’s work the Evil One wants to frustrate.

So pray for your church’s search committee, making supplication to the Father on their behalf. They need your prayers more than you know.

An Open Letter To A Senior Pastor:

Dear Pastor,

I am writing this letter to you about the kids in your congregation and the powerful role that you play – as their pastor – in their spiritual nurture.

I know that you’ve got teenagers sitting in your congregation every week. From your vantage point up front, you may spot them doodling, daydreaming, napping, zoning out, text-messaging, and updating their Instagram account. At times, it becomes painfully obvious that their eyes are lying. Even though those eyes may be focused on you, the young person behind the eyes is somewhere else. All this is evidence of a growing reality we face in our churches today: Many teenagers feel disconnected from the person up front – and as a result, the message as well. This troubling fact points to the need for pastors to intentionally listen to, understand, and reach out to students in a way that facilitates students’ connections and engagement with you – the messenger – and the life-changing message you’ve been called to preach.

What can you do to foster deep and significant connections with the emerging generations that extend from the pulpit to the pew, in order to point young people to the cross and new life in the Kingdom?

Our pastoral lives must be marked by several core characteristics that are part of who we are and how we minister in our students’ postmodern world. We should prayerfully and intentionally develop these characteristics as part of our ministry strategy. They each reflect the earthly ministry of Jesus and effective missionary efforts throughout the history of the church.

Approach teenagers as a cross-cultural mission field. To effectively engage the emerging generations you must remember that there is a cultural gap that you are responsible to span. Their world is not your world. Consequently, you are a cross-cultural missionary who must employ the incarnational approach God used when he sent his Son into the world. God came to us as one of us. He entered into human culture, living and using human language and customs. Knowing their language, culture, and lifestyles helps us contextualize the unchanging message in forms that are familiar to youth.

Be in but not of the world. We must avoid the extreme of pulling ourselves out of the culture, and the opposite extreme of becoming so closely aligned to the world that we uncritically assume values and behaviors that are contrary to God’s will. The church has been guilty of both for far too long. We must learn to walk the tightrope of living for God in the context of the postmodern culture. By maintaining the proper balance, we are maintaining a transforming and redemptive presence in their culture and modeling true, biblical discipleship for all those young people who come to faith.

Always evaluate – and where necessary, abandon – your ministry methods. While the content of the Word always remains unchanged, the way we do ministry should be constantly evaluated. There is no room for sacred cows. If the message isn’t getting through because of dated methods, new ones should be prayerfully sought and adopted in order to effectively communicate the Good News. However, we must adopt only those methods that are faithful to the unchanging Word. And we must never assume that methodologies can do what only relationships can.

Answer all the groans. All creation groans with longing for ultimate redemption. (Rom. 8:22) Jesus tells his disciples to “preach the Good News to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) Creation includes not only fallen humanity, but institutions and systems. Our ministries should address and speak God’s Word to the social systems that shape a teenager’s life, including families, schools, media, peers, vocations, relationships, etc. A biblically balanced ministry that goes beyond getting people “saved” will command the attention of the young, showing them the relevancy of the Gospel to all individuals and to all of life.

Use popular culture as a communication tool. Survey your congregation’s students to see what they listen to, read, and watch. Then read, watch, and listen for yourself. Popular culture is the life-shaping soup that they marinate in all day every day. That soup is filled with stories, video clips, books, films, magazines, lyrics, and so forth that can help us communicate the unchanging message in a relevant manner (visit our Web site for daily updates on today’s youth culture). Jesus consistently used word pictures, analogies, and illustrations from his culture as tools for communicating unchanging truth. The Apostle Paul opened his mouth only after looking and listening carefully, using Athenian idol inscriptions and poetry to build a case for the Gospel (Acts 17). By using something familiar from the pulpit and in our face-to-face conversations, we can get them to perk up and listen, allowing us to lead them into an understanding of something new.

Understand your own cultural biases. When our adult world collides with the reality of their emerging youth culture, it can get messy. Because what we encounter is different and may make us uncomfortable, our tendency is to spend a good amount of our “ministry time” convincing students that we are right and they are wrong. In other words, we must understand our own cultural biases and our inclination to see these biases as matters of right and wrong that we force on others as non-negotiables. The reality is that our way of doing things isn’t always the only way of doing things.

Be intent on building relationships. The postmodern generation longs not only for a connection with their Creator but also with their fellow humans. What sets them apart from prior generations is the deep level of brokenness they’ve experienced in their most basic relationship – the family. This leaves them intensely hungry for and open to relationships with others. Are you taking the time to get to know the students in your congregation? Relationships open the ears, eyes, and hearts of young people to the truths of God’s Word. Relationships are more often than not the doorway through which the emerging generations come to faith and learn what it means to live out a faith that’s integrated into every nook and cranny of life.

Love without condition or limits. One of the great cries in today’s youth culture is the need to be and feel loved. It is crucial that our contact with young people is filled with love. Yet they may be hesitant to return our embrace because we are from another generation and culture, or because of their trail of deep relational brokenness and fear of being hurt again. To help them overcome that fear, our love must be sincere and without condition or limit. Like Christ, we must simply love, and do so by serving them.

Be willing to suffer “with.” Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, was called to minister to the poor after praying a very dangerous prayer: “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.” It’s dangerous because its answer can shake up our comfortable and self-centered priorities. When God answered Pierce’s prayer, he felt a deep compassion for the hungry and poor that changed the course of his life and the world. In order to effectively connect with the emerging generations, we must pray that same prayer. When God answers this prayer, we will fully realize the significance of incarnational ministry to the young, and, like Jesus, our hearts will be broken by the depth of their spiritual and emotional pain. We will be driven to immerse ourselves in their world, their history and their humanity. In effect, we will have an infectious “heart of God” for them that will sweep through our congregations.

Provide a place and community. Today’s emerging generations long for a place to belong and call home. Their yearning is amplified by the fact that broken family situations and the lack of healthy peer relationships have left them with a huge relational void. They want connections, relationships, and community. Our churches should seriously consider stopping the destructive pattern of always separating the Body of Christ along generational lines. Teens should be included when the church assembles for worship, fellowship, mission, service, and discipleship. They need access to and relationships with those who are older, wiser, spiritually mature, and more life-experienced.

Be a learning listener. The emerging generations have a two-fold complaint about those of us who are older: We don’t listen, and we don’t understand. Understanding comes only through listening. By listening, we begin to learn about those we’ve been called to reach. When we listen, they feel understood and are more willing to listen to us when we speak to them. Our full attention and energy must be focused in on hearing and understanding what teenagers have to say.

Be a storyteller. The avenue to the heart of a young person is story. This is good news as our pastoral calling is a calling to telling the story of the great biblical drama of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. God’s story changes everything! We must not only tell them God’s story, but we must help them realize that God is still redemptively active in the affairs of humankind, by becoming vulnerable ourselves and telling them our stories – both the good and the bad – about how God has changed our lives.

We are called to be signposts, pointing to Jesus Christ and the redemption, new life, and purpose that are found in him. As signposts we will “stick out” by entering into the postmodern world of young people while wearing these important characteristics. Doing anything less jeopardizes our ability to effectively cross cultures into their lives, and will only serve to foster a bigger and bigger disconnect between the person up front and the kids in the seats.

Be encouraged! You play a more powerful role that you can imagine in the lives of your congregation’s students. And if there’s anything I can do to serve you as you serve your students, please let me know.

Blessings to you,

T Welch
Student Minister

10 Reasons Why Christians Should Witness:

1. We have been commanded to do so.

We have been commanded to preach the gospel to all creation. Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). We need no other reason.

2. Hell exists.

Jesus said, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” (Luke 12:5). If Hell didn’t exist, we would have a legitimate excuse for passivity. But we have God’s Word (and reason) to tell us what awaits guilty sinners. How coldhearted would we be to not warn of its reality!

3. We strive to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

A firefighter rescuing people from a burning building may be fearful and prefer to be home with his family, but he ignores his fears and denies himself. Like him, our thoughts are not on ourselves but on the fate of the perishing. “And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh” (Jude 22,23).

4. Obedience is evidence of salvation.

The Bible says that Jesus is the author of eternal salvation to those who obey Him (see Hebrews 5:9). We are not saved by our obedience; we are obedient because we are saved. Jesus said, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

5. To remain in silence is a sin.

As soon as the Holy Spirit was given, the apostles began to preach the gospel. God had granted everlasting life to dying humanity! They could not stay in the Upper Room because God’s love provoked them to reach out to the lost. “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4:17).

6. Evangelism deepens our walk with God.

Nothing teaches a fisherman like fishing. Interacting with the lost results in greater confidence and faith in God. “…hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus” (Philemon 5–6).

7. It causes us to search the Scriptures.

Wanting to know how to answer every man will send us to God’s Word. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

8. It deepens our gratitude for the cross.

As we continually preach the cross, it will deepen our understanding of what God did for us in Christ. We will find ourselves practicing what we preach, so we will be frequently thinking about the cross. “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

9. It deepens our prayer life.

We reveal our love for the lost by pondering their fate, and as a result we cannot help but cry out to God for them. “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved” (Romans 10:1).

Our fears and sense of inadequacy will also drive us to our knees—the safest place for a Christian. “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

10. We have been commanded to imitate Paul.

Paul showed his love for God and for sinners by his obedience to the Great Commission. “I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved. Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:33—11:1).

A Student's Perspective:

Article Written by: Sara Barratt a student attempting to educate churches on what teens need

We’ve heard the statistics, read the articles, even seen it in our own congregations.

Teens are evacuating. Statistics claim that 70 percent of teens will stop attending church after graduating from high school.

As a teenager who’s grown up in church, I’ve had a front-row seat to this mass exodus. I’m not an expert, researcher, or pastor, but I am in the teenage trenches. There are many reasons for teens to leave the church, from hypocrisy to legalism to peer pressure. Despite these external struggles, I know it doesn’t have to be this way.

Because I’m a teenager. And I’m still in the church.

I’ve wrestled with the same issues many teens claim for walking away. But I’ve had a firm foundation to fall back on: solid teaching and biblical truths that have helped me deal with questions and doubts and grow stronger through the struggle.

Sadly, not every teen has had my experience.

Instead of undiluted biblical truths and concrete theology, many are fed a watered-down message. They’re entertained at youth group and isolated from older, wiser Christ-followers. They’re drawn in with pizza parties, games, and programs, but leave with the burning issues of their hearts still unanswered. The games and good times were never what kept me in church or helped me as I battled the tumultuous struggles of my teenage years. Instead, it was the gospel-drenched truth that kept me coming back.

As I look back on my own life and my interactions with other teens, I’ve discovered four core topics we need to hear that will help us stay strong in God and rooted in the church.

1. We Need to Hear the Bible

Teenagers need the Bible. It contains the answers to our deepest questions, the wisdom for our hardest struggles. Please don’t give us an abridged version. Challenge us to read it for ourselves and model a lifestyle centered on God’s Word. Create an atmosphere of reliance on Scripture that whets our appetite and makes us hungry for more.

2. We Need to Hear About Sin

The church needs to clearly tell teenagers about sin. Not in a bombastic way, but in a loving, firm, biblical manner. Our eyes need to be opened to the fact that sin isn’t a Christianese catch phrase; it’s a reality that shows up in our daily lives.

When we understand the severity of our sin, our desperate need of grace, and that Jesus is the only hope we have, our youth groups will experience a transformation. Only when we’re staring the depth of our sin in the face can the full power of forgiveness and grace be unleashed.

3. We Need to Hear Biblical Truth on Cultural Topics

Teens are saturated in a culture with unbiblical views on topics like abortion, same-sex attraction, pornography, premarital sex, gender identity, suicide, and others. But the church sometimes fails to confront these topics head-on.

Through my work as an editor on a blog for Christian teens, I’ve received numerous emails about topics such as lesbianism and depression. In each email, these teens share their confusion and struggles. Their feelings of shame and cries for help are palpable. I’ve also read article pitches explaining why masturbation, homosexuality, and rebellion are all okay, because God will forgive us anyway. Are these teens confused? Absolutely. Do they need to hear biblical truth? Desperately.

Homosexuality, abortion, and suicide aren’t just shadowy ideas for teens today. They’re personified and real. These issues might show up in their friend across the street, or the new girl at school, or the video they stumble upon on YouTube. Christian teens must have real, honest, and biblical answers for tough questions.

Help them understand what Christians believe and what Scripture says on these hot-button topics. They need to know what they believe and why, because the world will scramble to undermine those beliefs. So please don’t sidestep the truth. Teens are longing for real answers.

4. We Need to Hear about Radical Transformation—and Obedience

When Jesus spoke of salvation, he painted a radical picture. He spoke of being born again—a process so drastic and mind-blowing it changes one’s life (John 3:1–21). He spoke of repentance—turning away from one way of life to embrace an entirely different way (Matt. 5–7.) He spoke of bearing a cross and following Christ to the point of death—giving up everything for the privilege of knowing and loving him (Matt. 16:24–26).

This is the gospel teens need to hear. Teenagers need a gospel and a theology that will outlast shifting sands and temporal feelings. We need to build our house on the rock of Jesus Christ—or we’ll never survive the storms life throws at us (Matt. 7:24–27).

Following Jesus isn’t easy. As we learn what Scripture says about issues we daily face, we have to make hard choices. Will we be obedient, or will we compromise? Will we stand firm and risk our reputation and our friends, or will we slowly slide?

That’s why the church needs to strengthen and resource teenagers, challenging them to go to Scripture, equipping them for ministry, and teaching them solid theology. These are the things we need in order to light a churchwide, teenage revival of passion for Christ.

Please, hear the heart of a teen. Don’t be afraid to tackle the topics we need to hear, even if they’re hard and unpopular, even if they go against the culture, and even if it seems like we don’t want to listen.

VBS is Mission-Critical:

The Church is in a time of crisis.

More specifically, the Church has an evangelism crisis. We live in a free country and are allowed to talk about Jesus openly in most contexts. Nothing is stopping us from inviting others to our churches. We don’t live in a place where we risk our livelihood to lives to share the gospel.

Yet, researchers tell us we aren’t doing it.

LifeWay Research found 80 percent of protestant churchgoers say they have a personal responsibility to share their faith. However, 61 percent say they haven’t shared how to become a Christian with anyone in the past six months. And 48 percent say they haven’t invited anyone to church in the past six months.

Does this surprise you? Perhaps it does, since many of us are in ministry and feel like we’re sharing the gospel regularly.

How are you doing outside the walls of your church? Are you sharing the gospel regularly with friends, neighbors and others in your life?

And do the statistics above describe the people in your church? These questions should make us uncomfortable. Sharing Jesus with those who don’t know Him is what we’re called to do as Christians.

At the same time, we have to consider the fact that tens of thousands of children have come to Christ through Vacation Bible School (VBS) each year for many decades.

But what’s concerning is that fewer churches are doing VBS each year. A study by Barna Research states 81 percent of U.S. churches offered VBS in 1997. However, by 2012 that number had dropped to 68 percent.

The Church has an evangelism crisis and one of the best methods of spreading the gospel—VBS—is diminishing. It’s time to face the problem head-on and realize we have to approach this crisis with urgency.

Here are four reasons VBS is critical to the mission of your church—making disciples and reaching your neighbors with the gospel.

1. VBS IS ABOUT JESUS

Among Americans who say they attended VBS as a child, 89 percent agree that positively influenced their spiritual growth.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Among Americans who say they have a child who has attended VBS, 95 percent agree that participating in VBS positively influenced their child’s spiritual growth.

Perhaps most amazingly, 71 percent agree that participating in VBS would have directly impacted their child’s spiritual growth in positive ways.

VBS provides the dual purpose of introducing participant to Jesus Christ and providing valuable spiritual growth of more kids than ever.

The driving message of VBS is the same whether you have five kids or 5,000, whether you’re in a megachurch or on a mission trip. Whether you have high-tech production resources or simply you bible and a teaching picture—it’s the message of Jesus Christ.

2. VBS ATTRACTS

VBS is synonymous with “summer” in many church settings. Why? Perhaps because it has been around in one form or another for more than a century. In kids’ ministry, which is sometimes marked by trendy, short-lived fads, VBS is one of the few ministries with real staying power.

VBS’s longevity proves it’s a dependable ministry and successful strategy. More than two-thirds (69 percent) of American parents say they would encourage their child to attend VBS at a church they don’t attend if their child was personally invited by a friend.

Let that sink in for a moment—that’s 69 percent of all American parents. Not just Christian or unchurched parents—that includes Muslim parents, Buddhist parents, agnostic parents, and parents from all socioeconomic statuses.

Why would we walk away from this kind of brand awareness?

VBS has been carefully stewarded for over a century as an effective tool for sharing the gospel. The reason VBS remains attractional and so important is because it gives churches the opportunity to impact lives for eternity as kids, teens, and adults come to know the saving power of Jesus Christ.

3. VBS ENERGIZES

We know VBS attracts people from the community, but what is it about VBS that gets an army of church members out of their seats and hot-gluing googly eyes or leading wacky games?

What is it that propels churches all over the country and across the globe to use VBS, bringing new life to their ministries?

VBS energizes the local church for gospel ministry. When that energy is contagious it begins to spill out of the church doors and into the community.

A church plant in a small Pennsylvania town was experiencing difficulty establishing a solid membership base. The church, started by six people, seemed to be in the brink of fizzling out.

One member decided she was going to help host a VBS for the neighborhood children. Soon families were bringing their kids and learning more about the church—which grew to serve 55 of those families.

VBS creates energy in the local church because at the center of all the fun and craziness is the truth of God’s Word.

4. VBS MOBILIZES

Not only does VBS energize a congregation, it mobilizes a local to reach it’s community with the gospel.

Teenagers, college students, single adults, newlyweds, married adults with or without kids, empty nesters, and senior adults all come together with one singular goal—to help create a life-transforming, gospel-centered VBS experience for every single boy and girl.

To see this diverse group of people roll up their sleeves and work together to share Christ with kids is to see the body of Christ in action—regardless of their particular giftings or weaknesses.

In order for VBS to be a true mobilizer, we must accept the responsibility that VBS is a total church endeavor.

VBS WORKS

As churches debate whether VBS is worth their time and investment, it’s time to ask, what else could replace this valuable vehicle for the gospel in children’s lives?

If churches stop doing VBS, how will millions hear the gospel and tens of thousands make new commitments to Jesus Christ?

These reasons are why VBS is critical to your church’s mission.

We Believe in the Holy Spirit:

We believe in the Holy Spirit. That reality is more than meets the eye. That God is alive and at work in our world, and in our lives. That an unseen Person prompts, protects, and provides for those who are Christ’s. That an almighty, invisible Spirit powerfully brings the eternal purposes of God and his Son to bear in our realm, one day soon for all to see.

We believe not only in Father and Son, but Father, Son, and Spirit. We baptize in the singular name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). One God in three persons. Three persons in one God — the Father who plans our eternal joy, the Son who purchased it, and the Spirit who preserves it.

For thousands of years, the people of God awaited the full revelation of his nature and work, and with it the full personhood of the Spirit. He is not part of God; he is God. With the coming and ascending of the Son, we now see how God’s eternal Spirit has been at work in our world from the very beginning, hovering over the face of the waters, ready to bring order out of the chaos (Genesis 1:1–2), acting for centuries on behalf of God’s chosen people, speaking to them through Moses and the law (Hebrews 9:8), David and the Psalms (Matthew 22:43; Mark 12:36; Acts 1:16; 4:25; Hebrews 3:7), Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets (Acts 28:25; Hebrews 10:15–16; 2 Peter 1:21), and continuing to do so today through holy Scripture.

By the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the God-man, was conceived in a virgin’s womb (Matthew 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35). By the Spirit, he lived and spoke and healed and endured (Luke 3:22; 4:1, 14, 17–21; 10:21; Acts 10:38). By the Spirit, he gave himself for us at the cross (Hebrews 9:14), was raised from the dead and vindicated (Romans 1:4; 1 Timothy 3:16), and having ascended to his Father’s right hand, he now has immersed his people in his Spirit (Acts 1:5; 11:16), pouring out the Spirit on the church (Acts 2:33; 10:45) — the elusive person of the Godhead whose mission is to glorify the Son (John 16:14). By this Spirit sent from heaven, spokesmen preach the good news (1 Peter 1:12), and he himself descends in power with the speaking of God’s word (Acts 10:44; 11:15; 1 Thessalonians 1:5).

And wonder of all wonders, the same Spirit who empowered Jesus’s earthly life and sacrificial death now has been given to us today. He not only works on us, and through us, but he dwells in us (Romans 8:9, 11; 2 Timothy 1:14). He has been given to us (Luke 11:13; John 7:38–39; Acts 5:32; 15:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:8). We have received him (John 20:22; Acts 2:38; 8:15, 17, 19; 10:47; 19:2; Romans 5:5; 8:15; 1 Corinthians 2:12; 2 Corinthians 5:5; 1 John 3:24). How remarkable that we may be said to even have the Spirit (Romans 8:9, 23; 1 Corinthians 6:19). The very power of God himself has come to make himself at home in some real degree, to increasing effect, in us. We are his temple, both individually and collectively (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19).

He is no mere force. He is not a thing but a Person. He can be lied to (Acts 5:3), resisted (Acts 7:51), grieved (Isaiah 63:10–11; Ephesians 4:30), blasphemed (Matthew 12:32; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10). He comforts us (Acts 9:31), guides and directs (Acts 13:2, 4; 15:28; 16:6; 20:23; 21:11), transforms us into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:17–18), and empowers the everyday Christian life (Romans 14:17; 15:13; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Jude 20). He appoints leaders in the church (Acts 20:28), confirms God’s word with miraculous gifts (Hebrews 2:4), sanctifies our imperfect efforts (Romans 15:16), knits us together as a fellowship (2 Corinthians 13:14; Hebrews 6:4), and fills us with praise (Acts 2:4) and with boldness for ministry (Acts 1:8; 4:8, 31; 6:5; 7:55; 9:17; 11:24; 13:9, 52). He communicates the Father’s love to us (Romans 5:5; Ephesians 3:14–19) and infuses the Christian life with joy (Acts 13:52; Romans 14:17; 15:13; 1 Thessalonians 1:6). In him we are sealed, kept, and secured by God till the end (Ephesians 1:13–14).

We believe that when we’re alone with God’s word, we’re not alone. That when we pray, someone intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26–27). That a divine Person in us empowers us for personal sacrifice for the needs of others. That when they drag us before rulers and authorities on account of Christ, he will give us, in that moment, something to say (Mark 13:11; Luke 12:12). That we can have courage in conflict and joy in affliction (1 Thessalonians 1:6; Titus 3:5). That if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father give us the greatest gift of all — himself in the person of his Spirit (Luke 11:13)?

We believe that the Christian life is not natural. That there is more to reality than meets the eye — oh, so much more. That what counts most, and is most ultimate, is unseen. That the Spirit is alive and well today, and that he makes all the difference.

We believe in the Holy Spirit.