Peter Witkowski Vacation Bible School

The State of VBS 2016

State of VBS 2016The back drop is down. The plastic fish are deflated. And, the extra t-shirts have been boxed for return. VBS 2016 is officially over. And though it’s finished, the benefits of VBS have just begun to roll in. As we look to build on our VBS efforts, I want to take a few minutes and reflect on what happened at VBS this year. Let’s take a look:

Praises

Over all, I think this was the best Vacation Bible School that I have overseen during my time at First Baptist Church Eastman. Every class and activity ran seamlessly. Outside of having to send a few kids home for fighting (a normal occurrence) and having to overcome a few barely noticeable organizational glitches, almost everythingn went according to plan. We had a great team of over 110 teachers. They teachers decorated their rooms well, taught well, and invested in their kids. And the kids responded! Instead of losing kids after Wednesday night (a typical occurrence), our nightly totals remained consistent all week long. We actually set a new record high for attendance on Friday!  VBS Daily Attendance 2016And as the kids and their family came, they heard the gospel clearly proclaimed. A couple of kids expressed interest in following Christ as their savior! Others responded by giving $660.45 to our IMB Missionaries. As a result, yours truly got a pie in the face. Click here to see the video! God greatly blessed FBCE’s 2016 VBS! I am very thankful for all who helped and for all the kids who attended.

VBS BY The Numbers

Now some of you may have noticed that our VBS numbers were down. We averaged 166 per night this year. Last year, we averaged 201 kids per night, In 2014 we averaged 257 kids per night. Over the past two years, our VBS attendance has dropped by over 1/3. Initially, I found these numbers discouraging. My heart is to reach Eastman and Dodge County with the gospel. It appeared that our VBS was missing the mark. But upon further examination, I discovered three hopeful trends hiding within the larger numbers. Let’s take a look:
First, the largest demographic drop off came with kids that attend other churches. In 2014, 134 kids from other churches attended our VBS. This year only 17 kids from other churches came to FBCE’s VBS. That is a drop off of more than 88%.VBS yearly trends
Secondly, over the past 3 years, FBCE kids’ ministry has experienced a net loss of 38 students. Thirty-Eight more students have graduated out of our kids’ ministry than have been born into it. In short, our birth rate is not sustaining our kids’ ministry. Thankfully, our church is doing a good of reaching2016 VBS Birth Rate new families as the number of FBCE kids attending VBS has actually gone up the last two years. But with each passing year, it will become harder to sustain our church attendance numbers unless we start having more babies and start doing an even better job of reaching young families.

And now for the really good news. We are reaching a larger and larger number of unchurched kids and bus kids. In 2016, we reached 83 kids with no church home. In 2014, we only reached 52. In 2015, we reached 61 kids with the bus ministry. This year we reached 71! The right numbers are going up!VBS Kids By Church Home

Finaly Thoughts

In short, our overall numbers dropped because we are not reaching kids who already have church home. I’m ok with that result. Our heart at FBCE is not to steal sheep. Our heart is to reach the lost. I am happy to report that our VBS is doing just that. Now, we can and must continue to find ways to more effectively reach the dying and the lost with the gospel. If you have ideas or thoughts on we can better connect with families, please share them below in the comment section. And then join me in thanking our God for giving us a great VBS!

 

Peter Witkowski Children's Ministry, Evangelism

Will Their Faith Make It To The Fall?

fall blog

Summer is kids’ ministry’s peak season. You have special events, VBS’s, and summer camps. Kids all over the United States will hear the gospel in a variety of setting ranging from mosquito filled fire pits to dodge ball filled gyms. And hordes of these kids will walk the aisle, raise their hands, and sign a card saying that asked Jesus into their hearts. Millions will claim they are now saved.

But will these good times last? Will these kids truly bear fruit, become missional teenagers, and turn into bible believing adults?  Or will they fall away, grow up malcontents, and write introspective books explaining how church camp missed it?

Often kids fall away because they believed the wrong thing. They trusted in a shrunken gospel. Because they never met Jesus, many kids will fall away from their faith as the leaves start to change color. As teachers, we need to make sure offer the complete gospel this summer

So what does a truncated gospel look like?

The Easy Gospel

Often a water down gospel looks easy. We simply call kids to accept Jesus as the savior without explaining the cost. We reduce the gospel to a repeat-after-me prayer, or to a hand raised while everyone closes their eyes. As a result, we zap the power right out of the gospel. We turn salvation into a game of follow the leader.

If kids (or anyone else for that matter) truly understand their sin, and the glories of God, they do not have to be spoon feed salvation. They do not have to be coaxed into a divine agreement. Those who love God, will willingly repent. You can’t find one example of someone being forced by the disciples or Jesus into believing. Jesus never told people to close their eyes and then raise their hands if they said a secret prayer.

I knew of one student who professed Christ at a revival. She prayed a repeat-after-me prayer. She walked the aisle while emotion music played. And, she filled out a card checking the “saved” box. She performed the salvation trifecta. She is now a number in someone’s newsletter. But, she did not get saved.

As I followed up with her, I saw that she never understood the gospel. She never grasped what it means to die to sin and to live for Christ. She never understood that to love God we must obey him (John 14:15). She simply followed the easy, socially acceptable path to salvation, seeking to please the adults in the room. She never repented and believed.

The gospel is not easy to believe or accept (Matt 7). The crowds that followed Jesus found the gospel offensive. The rich young ruler walked away from Jesus. The gospel is foolishness and a stumbling block (I Cor. 1:23). The solution is not to make the gospel easier to follow. Apart from the Holy Spirit no one can come to Christ. Our best efforts to save people can never replace the work of the Holy Spirit. The solution is to preach the full gospel and to trust God to do the impossible.

The Horror Film Gospel

We also short change the gospel by turning it into a horror Film. It’s easy to scare kids into professions. Spend a few minutes describing hell. Tell the kids the you are going to heaven. And then ask them who wants to escape damnation and join you in paradise. Most every kid will raise their hands. It’s the logical thing to do.

But in that moment, the kids have not embraced the gospel. They do not love Jesus. They simply want to get out of hell. And who can blame them. Hell is a real and very scary place. As a kid, I would pray for weeks at a time for God to save me from hell. But God never answered those prayers.

Salvation is more than just fire insurance. Salvation is trusting in Jesus. Salvation is loving and obeying the heavenly father. To be saved we have to want the gospel; we have to want Jesus. And once I confessed Christ as my Lord and God, he saved me. Salvation is about a relationship with the heavenly father. It is much more than a get out of jail free card!

We can scare a bunch of kids. But this will not get them to heaven. We need to offer them the full gospel!

The Full Gospel

The full gospel is the hard gospel. It is proclaiming that God is the creator,
that man sinned, that Jesus died to pay for our sins, that men and women must respond. The true gospel calls kids to repent while reminding them of the cost of dying to self. The gospel tells kids that they are ugly, horrible people in need of a savior. And it offers kids hope through the life and death of Christ.

We preach the gospel trusting God to work. And guess what? If the Holy Spirit awakens a little soul, we will not have to coax them into salvation. We will not have to pray the sinner’s prayer for them. Yes, we will need to teach them and disciple them. There is no salvation apart from the preached word of God. But once we preach; we are done. We don’t bring conviction and regeneration. The Holy Spirit does that work.

If you are looking for a great resource that explains the gospel, I encourage to grab a copy of Greg Gilbert’s What is the Gospel.

Final Thoughts

So will our kids’ faith make it till the fall? Did they embrace an easy or fearful gospel? Then probably not. But if they embraced the Jesus of the Bible, then yes! And big question we must all answer is this, “Are we going to offer the full Gospel to our kids this summer?”

Peter Witkowski Evangelism

God Never Dials The Wrong Number

Can anything feel more hopeless than being rejected by God. John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s ProGod-never-dials-the-wrong-numbergress, felt this way. He desperately wanted to come to Jesus, but he did not feel that God wanted him. He knew that he was a great sinner. He knew he deserved hell. And he knew the gospel. But he felt that God would not accept him. He felt that he had not been called. Oh the horror of wanting God and yet not being able to get to him. You could almost hear John saying, “Curse those stink’n Calvinist and their doctrines of God’s sovereignty.”

Perhaps some of you can relate. Perhaps some of you have kids in this spot. They claim that they want to repent but do not feel that they can. They feel hopeless. So what do we do? We remind them of God’s character.

It is true that only those called by God can and will repent. But it is also true that everyone who truly wants to repent is called. Notice what happens in Mark 3:13 “And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.” Everyone whom Jesus calls comes to him.

IPilgrimsProgress_038729f someone is under conviction, if they desperately want to repent, if they are eager to embrace and to follow God, all they have to do is come. The Holy Spirit never convicts someone only to leave them languishing in hopelessness. God never dials the wrong number. When He calls someone, he will save them. There is not one person in the Bible who desired to be right with God and was rejected. Everyone from Adam on who wanted to believe in God did. As Jesus said in John 6:40 “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

All who feel God’s call will be saved. If your kids truly feel God calling them to faith, simply tell them to repent. Encourage them to embrace the cross. Salvation can be attained because Christ has died for them. Regardless of how great their sins are, Christ has paid for them all.  As II Corinthians 5:21 boldly declares:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Ultimately the truth that God saves all whom he calls, comforted John Bunyan’s soul. He saw that Christ could and would accept him. Christ has already died to pay for Bunyan’s sin. And he has already died for our sins and the sins of our kids. If you or your kids feel God’s call, go to Jesus. What are you waiting for?