I remember when I was a child getting excited for Vacation Bible School. I always enjoyed being with friends from church and doing activities. We would attempt to make mud bricks as the Israelites did when enslaved in Egypt. We would make butterflies out of a banana and crackers, sing songs that were uplifting and church appropriate, that was in the early 2000s.
By mid 2000s VBS began to change a bit. I was about 9 years old when my parents stopped bringing me to VBS after we performed in front of the church and the music was more loose and less appropriate for the sanctuary and with all the hand gestures and body movements to the music made us look as if we were dancing. Looking back, I actually didn’t miss it as I thought I would have, I would still be with my friends on Sabbath and after Sabbath play at the gym.
Fast forward to around the 2020s. A couple of years back I remember seeing a YouTube video of VBS by a Sunday church (can’t remember from which denomination). I remember thinking and saying to myself that there is hardly no difference between how an evangelical church does their VBS presentation on Sunday service compared to SDA’s VBS presentation on Sabbath.
Today Sunday churches would do VBS with music fitting for a party, the children would dance and make various gestures. I began to look on YouTube and find a few SDA churches and see what they did for VBS Sabbath. I soon realized that Sunday churches and SDA churches often had the same VBS theme/curriculum! This year the Baptist church by my house had a SCUBA VBS theme and so did some SDA churches!
I looked at one SDA livestream recently and almost did not recognize the song service to be that of an Adventist Church. A few lights were dimmed, the music was many times a bit loud and boisterous almost for a party, the kids were making hand/body gestures, some were jumping, and I was amazed at what VBS has become in the Adventist Church in recent years. Since when did we allow music with loud drums and a bedlam of noise that’s similar to what you would hear at a party, bowling alley, or roller skating rink to be played in the church?
What happened to the reverence, holiness, and sacredness of the church service with calm and uplifting spiritual music? What I began to see in some SDA churches was almost no different than how Pentecostals and evangelicals worship.
I began to research where did the VBS theme/curriculum come from. My research led me to a company called “Group” which is not an Adventist organization though they don’t specify what denomination they are part. This company reinvigorated the Sunday school curriculum, they also produce and sell VBS program kits for churches to buy. Is it right for God’s remnant church to bring in a VBS program produced by some organization not of our faith and have children participate in a worship service that resembles more like a celebration church? Such a thing wouldn’t be allowed in a SDA church 40 years ago. Have we lowered the standards of worship? Do we want to be like the denominations around us just as Israel wanted to be like the nations around them?
In their website this company “Group” says the following:
We believe it’s worth the additional effort to craft experiences that engage the senses, trigger emotions, and create lightbulb moments. Our role is to create experiences that prepare people’s hearts for the Holy Spirit to do transformational work. https://www.group.com/about-us/why-we-do-what-we-do/
Hmm, trigger emotions, engage the senses to prepare our hearts for the Holy Spirit. This sounds a lot like a quote from EGW.
The things you have described as taking place in Indiana, the Lord has shown me would take place just before the close of probation…There will be shouting, with drums, music, and dancing. The senses of rational beings will become so confused that they cannot be trusted to make right decisions. And this is called the moving of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit never reveals itself in such methods, in such a bedlam of noise. This is an invention of Satan to cover up his ingenious methods for making of none effect the pure, sincere, elevating, ennobling, sanctifying truth for this time…The truth for this time needs nothing of this kind in its work of converting souls. A bedlam of noise shocks the senses and perverts that which if conducted aright might be a blessing. The powers of satanic agencies blend with the din and noise, to have a carnival, and this is termed the Holy Spirit’s working…No encouragement should be given to this kind of worship {2SM 36-37}.
While I have heard drums played in a reverent manner along with music that isn’t loud or boisterous, that isn’t what is happening in some of our churches. Not even when I was a child did we have VBS Sabbath presentations like today. VBS Sabbath is becoming more like worship of evangelicals. Even the SDA VBS theme “Thunder Island” isn’t much different than the evangelical “SCUBA” theme, only difference is the music is a little lower but not by much. Israel wanted to worship like the nations around them, do Adventist Churches want to worship like the denominations around us?
A new order of things has come into the ministry. There is a desire to pattern after other churches, and simplicity and humility are almost unknown. {2SM 18}
I believe that there is a standard in the church, if we lower the standard for worship and start playing music and theatrics that would not be accepted a generation or two ago in the sanctuary, that's how churches become almost no different than a social club, we would fall down a slope and it wouldn’t be a good example for others especially those not of our faith that we are trying to win to the truth.
Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard {LDE 52}.
It is true there are tares among the wheat; in the body of Sabbathkeepers evils are seen; but because of this shall we disparage the church? Shall not the managers of every institution, the leaders of every church, take up the work of purification in such a way that the transformation in the church shall make it a bright light in a dark place? – {6T 239}
As Adventists we should try to uphold the standard of reverence and holiness of the worship service, not do like what the other denominations do, for then we lose our peculiarity as commandment keeping Christians and our church will be no different than an evangelical church preaching sugar-coated messages with no sanctification power.
What should be the purpose of Vacation Bible School?
We need ministerial laborers in every school to educate the children and youth in Bible lines…Our schools must be more like the schools of the prophets {6MR 400}.
Though the context is more about an official school establishment, the focus of Christian education should be the same from the college level, to the local church level, to the home. What was taught in the schools of the prophets that EGW says should be taught to the children and youth?
By Samuel the schools of the prophets were established to serve as a barrier against the widespread corruption resulting from the iniquitous course of Eli’s sons, and to promote the moral and spiritual welfare of the people…it was regarded a crime to allow children to grow up in ignorance of useful labor. In obedience to the command of God, every child was taught some trade…The chief subjects of study were the law of God with the instructions given to Moses, sacred history, sacred music, and poetry…The art of sacred melody was diligently cultivated. No frivolous waltz was heard, nor flippant song that should extol man and divert the attention from God; but sacred, solemn psalms of praise to the Creator, exalting His name and recounting His wondrous works. Thus music was made to serve a holy purpose, to lift the thoughts to that which was pure and noble and elevating, and to awaken in the soul devotion and gratitude to God {FE 96-97}.
Even exercising in the outdoors what taught in the schools of the prophets! (8MR 26)
All these themes and subjects were taken from the scriptures and taught to the youth and children. The church should take these principles and apply them to Vacation Bible School where not only the children of the church would benefit, but the children of non-Adventist and non-Christian families will be able to learn about the wonderful truths in the Bible, the gospel of Christ and how it leads to salvation.
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My name is Nathanael Morel. I am 25 years old and was born and raised Adventist. My family is from the Dominican Republic and we’re very close. I love to study the Bible and preach when an opportunity comes. I attended Amazing Facts Center Of Evangelism (AFCOE) and hope to be an evangelist and continue to share the truths found in God’s word. I enjoy the outdoors and like to bike ride and be athletic.