Every summer, the church that I used to attend, had a week long Vacation Bible School or VBS in the morning. And the program was well attended by the community at large.

Since this was an Evangelistic effort to reach out into the community, all children had to be registered with their full name, their address and telephone number. The idea, of course, was to call on the families afterwards and encourage them to attend the church.

What the church failed to realize was that they were really only providing 4 hours of free day care for the community. Most of the people who sent their children to VBS were already affiliated with another church in the community and were not really interested in attending the church.

And most did not want to be visited at home by a representative of the church. In fact, most of the parents registered their children with false last names, false addresses and false telephone numbers. This fact became evident when follow up cards were sent out and 70% of them came back undeliverable.

To make matters worse, one woman registered her children with the name and address of her ex husband. He called the church to complain and was rather irate. Apparently there was a bitter custody case and he lost. Receiving the mailing from the church with the children’s names on it only inflamed him once more. Oops!

And what do these mothers do with 4 hours of free time? Well, most used the time to get caught up on shopping, laundry, cleaning or just all around relaxing. And, with all of the churches in the area, a child could be enrolled in a VBS program for the duration of the summer.

On a sad note, we came to learn that one mom used the time to be with her boyfriend while her husband was at work. (Small towns have very few secrets). Unfortunately, these things do happen.

But, the bottom line is this. VBS is a failure as an Evangelistic tool in this community. It is, at best, nothing more than a free wholesome community day care. Any effort to treat it as an Evangelistic tool is a complete waste of time and money.