Every year, consultants from the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM) spend the majority of their spring traveling around the state, hosting Vacation Bible School (VBS) training conferences for associational VBS teams.
“It brings Vacation Bible School to a local level,” said James Blakeney, an associate in the SBOM’s office of Sunday School.
This year, VBS training teams have been established in at least 63 associations.
And for the first time in many years, if not the first time ever, Pine Barren Baptist Association is one of them.
“People don’t get seriously involved if they have to travel or feel like they’re not a part of it,” said Denise Morgan, VBS director for Pine Barren Association and Gulletts Bluff Baptist Church, Camden.
That’s why she and John Marks, director of missions for Pine Barren Association and Bethlehem Baptist Association, knew hosting training for Pine Barren Association’s 13 churches was important, despite the sessions hosted each year for Bethlehem Association.
“I think with it being more local, it will get those people to seeing that they don’t have to go somewhere else to get the information or actually do the program. … I believe it will get some people excited about [VBS].”
And that’s part of the reason associational training conferences are important, Blakeney said. “It gives teachers an early head start on preparation for Vacation Bible School. … Most of the time when a person leaves an associational training clinic, they have at least one day’s VBS in mind as to how things will fit together.”
Meg Stringer can attest to that.
Stringer, Butler Baptist Association’s VBS director, said although she had helped with VBS for many years at Damascus Baptist Church, Greenville, she never understood the importance of early planning until she attended a training conference.
“I realized it takes more than a month or so of preparation — a lot more,” she said. “I just really, really find [training] important to get excited about [VBS] so you can go back to your church and get everyone else excited.”
Because if workers are excited about VBS, then they’ll be eager to share it with children they know, Stringer added.
“VBS is the best tool we have anywhere in our Southern Baptist arsenal” and the associational training conferences “make all the difference in the world,” she said, noting they not only train workers but also serve as a resource for workers and churches that have never done VBS before.
“I cannot imagine a year without early preparation for Vacation Bible School,” Blakeney said. “It’s crucial to get people excited about VBS” and provides great opportunities for talking with directors and pastors about things like preparation and budgeting, enlistment of workers, training and follow-up.
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Upcoming training conferences
Alabama Crenshaw — April 10
Autauga — April 13
Baldwin — May 3
Barbour — April 26
Bessemer — April 10
Bethlehem — April 8
Birmingham — April 27
Butler — April 18
Carey — April 18
Central — April 26
Cherokee — April 25
Cleburne — April 17
Columbia — April 29
Dale — April 24
East Liberty — April 29
Elmore — April 22
Etowah — April 22
East Liberty — April 29
Fayette — April 13
Franklin — April 15
Geneva — April 12
Judson — May 1
Limestone — April 22
Madison — April 19
Marshall — April 12
Mobile — April 19
Morgan — April 8
Mud Creek — April 10
Muscle Shoals — April 20
North Jefferson — April 20
Pickens — April 29
Pine Barren — April 18
Pleasant Grove — April 19
Russell — April 19
Sardis — April 25
Salem-Troy — April 27
Sipsey — April 24
St. Clair — April 12
Tallapoosa — April 22
Tennessee River — April 18
Walker — April 22
West Cullman — April 24
Winston — April 27
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