VBS Week

Vacation Bible School begins at 6pm tonight, and let me tell you, the church is transformed. The sanctuary looks like an outdoor observatory. Classrooms are planetariums. Walls are covered in stars, and the fellowship hall looks like it's about to play host to two or three different things at once. MistyJo, Cammie, Pam, and a lot of the rest of you have been hard at work for a month to prepare for this week, and I thank you for everything you've done to make this a great week coming up.

I want to take time today, then, before we get started, to remind us why we do things like VBS. It's not because the deacons wanted craft time. The elders didn't put in a request for cardboard trees and lessons on creation. And your preacher didn't look at his calendar and decide he really needed something extra to fill up that relatively empty week in June. We're doing this because the children of Russell County need to know about Jesus Christ. They need to know God created them, God loves them, and God sent His only-begotten Son Jesus to die for them. They need to know we all sin and that Jesus paid the price for our sins. They need to know there's a heaven and a hell, that the cross is something more than jewelry, and that no matter what the world says, there's only one way to eternal life and forgiveness.

Do we hope those kids and their parents will become part of RSCC? Absolutely! We need more young people and more young families. But VBS isn't something to do in hopes you'll entice people into joining your church; if that's your main purpose, you need to quit before you get started. The main goal of everything we do as a church is to show God's love for people so that people may come to love God and accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. Vacation Bible School is an opportunity for that to happen.

So let's have fun this week loving kids and telling people about Jesus!