VBS enrollment nearly twice that of Sunday School at Eclectic church

When the results of Vacation Bible School (VBS) 2003 were in for Mount Hebron East Baptist Church in Elmore Association, they showed there were almost twice as many children enrolled in VBS as in Sunday School.

With a mixed history of VBS, sometimes having more teachers than children and prior to 1999 not even having VBS for 14 years, the church found renewed excitement in VBS 2003.

“In 2002 we had 12 workers, but not enough kids to have it,” said Pastor Don Bennett. “In 2003 we expected only a handful of kids, but the number exceeded our average attendance in all of the Sunday School of the church and nearly equaled our average attendance in Sunday worship, which is about 40.” Sunday School attendance is 20–22, Bennett said.

“There was so much excitement that VBS brought to the church people and the youngsters,” said Jim Jackson, director of missions for Elmore Association. Jackson said Mount Hebron East is a rural church with a long history. The commitment of the church to missions goes beyond  the VBS missions offering,  with some former members  of the church now serving  as full-time missionaries.

Thanks mostly to VBS in  1999 and 2000, the church was in the top 50 percent of  Alabama Baptist churches  for baptisms in proportion  to members, Bennett said.

“We didn’t have VBS in 1998, but we did in ’99, and it was the first one for the church in 14 years,” Bennett said.

The church sits two miles north of Eclectic and about 1 1/2 miles from Kowaliga Point, the location of the bridge country singer Hank Williams wrote about in one of his songs.

Bennett became pastor of the church five years ago and has sought to help the church grow. “It used to be the center of the community, but times change,” he said.

Despite two nearby schools closing or relocating years  ago and the church not even  having furniture for preschoolers, the 107-year-old church launched efforts to rebuild  its congregation.

In January 2002 Mount  Hebron East began a young adult Sunday School class and added preschool and children’s departments the same year. They bought child-size chairs and tables, so these were on hand when the 36 VBS attenders showed up for three days in July.