Vacation Bible School:
Teaching Young People the Bible

Vacation Bible School: Teaching Young People the Bible

Over the summer, kids attend all types of camps. They get to spend time with friends and have some fun. One camp that is a must for kids is Vacation Bible School.

If your church doesn’t offer a Vacation Bible School program, visit a neighboring church. Churches go all out for this week long event. Churches all over the city teach the same lesson for kids from preschoolers to teenagers and even adults.

Vacation Bible School teaches the Bible in a non-threatening manner. Kids can invite their friends to go with them. The lessons are already broken down by day and by age group. The teachers for the groups just implement the lesson using age appropriate and fun scenarios.

Vacation Bible School is usually broken down into parts. First everyone meets in the sanctuary for a word of prayer and welcome. The groups break out and discuss the lesson for that day. After discussion come crafts and snacks. To finish up, everyone meets back in the sanctuary for dismissal. All of this takes roughly an hour to an hour and a half and is time well spent.

It is never too early to teach a child about biblical concepts. For younger kids, the lessons will center more on crafts and other visual aids. Kids are quite observant and absorb information like a sponge. Using crafts to teach the lesson helps them remember more of what they have learned.

For teens, the “meat” of the daily program will be the discussion phase. Teachers use the lesson material as a guide to get kids talking about how God affects their own lives. Maybe they have never thought about God or they feel He is old-fashioned. As a parent, now is the time to challenge your teen’s perception with God’s Word and some experiences of your own. Don’t let learning about God stay at church, discuss it at home as well.

Despite what teens say, they want the discipline that comes with love. They also want the understanding. At Vacation Bible School, they can find both with a lesson that is tweaked to meet a teenager’s needs.

The craft portion is more about socializing for the teens than it is about the craft. They get to discuss among themselves (without the teacher) what they have heard from you. In the process they get to make really cool shirt decals or jewelry portraying the scriptures to help them remember God’s word even after Vacation Bible School is over.

By the end of the week, hopefully young people of every age will develop a new respect for God’s word and its importance to their lives. Vacation Bible School is a fun place to start examining the Bible and the treasures inside.