As you know (because you’ve been with us all week and read here and here), we at Grace Community Church are in the midst of our annual Vacation Bible School. We use the VBS/Backyard Bible Club curriculum from Children Desiring God, the children’s-ministry arm of Desiring God Ministries. This is our third VBS and our third year using this curriculum. I’ve received several e-mails asking about this curriculum, so I thought I would just post a few thoughts today.

There are currently three sets of curriculum (I’m not sure what we’ll so next year!): God Always Wins, Things Hidden and The Call of God. Each consists of five lessons. For those of you who are familiar with Desiring God, you know that the content is both accessible yet God-centered and theologically sound.

This year, we’re using the “Things Hidden” material which deals with five of Jesus’ Kingdom parables. The curriculum begins by reminding the children that just because we can’t always see some things, that doesn’t mean that they’re not real. We cannot see the fish under the water from above, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not swimming around. But if we get SCUBA gear, then we can see everything. The things of God often work in similar fashion and Jesus understood this, that’s why He told parables, because some people would understand what they were really about and others wouldn’t. Except, we don’t need SCUBA gear but faith, which God gives to His children.

Each lesson comes complete with illustration suggestions, discussion options, prop suggestions and application questionsf and a memory verse and reproducible work and take-home sheets. One thing less-motivated people might find frustrating is that there is only one master-curriculum which each age-level must make age-appropriate. In other words, the teacher must adapt the curriculum to the age being taught. Yet this is hardly a significant drawback.

Despite the “one-size, you fit all” approach, the material is easy enough to adapt to a variety of ages (it is geared for first through sixth grades), so it takes minimal effort to adapt. It presents clear, Biblical principles, drawing heavily on the sufficiency of Scripture, the centrality of Christ and the glory of God. These are concepts that, for whatever reason, we have convinced ourselves that we must “grow into,” yet the curriculum clearly demonstrates that these concepts are easily grasped by children of many ages.

One of the things I really like about the curriculum is that they discourage the traditional “altar call” approach to children’s evangelism. While this may seem odd to some, because after all, aren’t we after “decisions?” No, we’re after conversion and that is the work of God, not man. Children (and many adults) are easy enough to get to walk and aisle and even say a prayer if you so desire, but that hardly means that it’s genuine. Instead, we want to instill them with biblical truth and pray that God will work through that. We clearly present the Gospel from day one, adding more depth as the week progresses and we make every effort to ensure that there is adult follow-up, but our goal is lifelong disciples not a night of numbers.

I highly recommend this curriculum and the theology behind it. I’d love to hear thoughts from others who have used the same material or even the Sunday School material, which we also use.

• Visit our church website
• Visit the Children Desiring God ministries website