Pandamonium!

This week is Vacation Bible School for Grace Bible Church. Many consider it to be the best week of the year. Indeed, it is a great time of fun and learning for 150 children and all of the volunteers involved. Games involving water, the banana song, screaming at the top of your lungs, food in cool shapes, hanging with friends and hanging on leaders... is there a morning that could be more exciting for 5-12 years olds?

My involvement for the past few years has consisted of teaching the Wild Bible Adventures and leading the opening and closing. Every year seems to be more and more of a drag. The lessons provided by the publisher are Biblical, but inadequate. Although parents would prefer that moralistic and Christian values lessons be taught to their children, the children need something greater--they need Christ.

So how is a panda, like myself, supposed to convey the message of the Gospel through a curriculum that includes lessons such as, "God made you," "God listens to you," "God watches over you," "God loves you no matter what," and "God gives good gifts?" Of course, some altering of the curriculum is necessary. But even after that, do these children understand the glories of Christ's substitutionary atonement? Can these children truly know the majesty of the Gospel when they can barely tie their velcro shoes? What is the purpose of the Gospel message at VBS in the context of Reformed theology? Plenty of questions requires plenty of answers, which I shall attempt below.

While the Gospel is wider and deeper than we can ever imagine, Jesus Himself proclaims that His kingdom belongs to individuals such as children (Matthew 19:14). Indeed, it is upon the precious and simple minds of children that the Gospel should find its most glorious home. However, the dangerous path many VBS and Children's Ministry leaders take is to hide some of the unappealing aspects of the Gospel. I would then argue that we are no longer teaching the Gospel. If we are to present the beautiful Gospel to children, we must bravely present the ugliness of sin and the reality of God's wrath, as well as the atonement of Christ and the submission to His will of the regenerated heart.

But when it comes down to it, we can only present the Gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot make them believe it. The arrogance in me gets frustrated daily at this fact. However, it is a wonderful and freeing concept that God's sovereignty is in control throughout the process. As my lovely wife-to-be puts it, "Present the whole Gospel, and let God take it from there." So while I sweat in a panda suit this week, I pray that I can present the entirety of the Gospel to these children. I also pray that the Holy Spirit would blow through Grace Bible Church as the Father pleases, allowing the seeds of the Gospel to take root in the young lives in attendance this week. In that way, Christ receives all the glory. Amen.