Evangelistic outreach through a small church’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) exploded into an average VBS attendance of 240 percent more than the church membership.
Chris Burghoff, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Geneva, in Geneva Association, said the membership of the church has grown to 44 from 27 since VBS concluded in mid-July.
The church’s VBS had an average attendance of 92, with numbers soaring to more than 100 on two nights.
“We started with a Vacation Bible School and ended up with a revival,” Burghoff said. He said the most they usually have in VBS is 35.
“It’s happening more and more,” said James Blakeney, director of VBS at the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “It’s amazing how many churches are having more in VBS than in Sunday School enrollment. We are excited about it.”
Excitement heightened when an expected contingent of 17 youth and six adults from First Baptist Church, Fultondale, Birmingham Association, and about 27 volunteers from churches in Geneva Association converged on Geneva neighborhoods to bolster Calvary Baptist’s efforts.
The volunteers provided vans and buses to bring people to VBS, and they helped teach and lead in recreation at the VBS.
The transportation was pivotal for most of the residents who otherwise could not have come to the church, Burghoff said, noting the church does not have a van of its own.
“It took dedicated people to go and honk the horn and invite people — with vans, cars and buses, we brought them in,” Burghoff said.
He noted they distributed more than 200 fliers the day before VBS began and had a few advertisements on the radio and in the local newspaper a couple of weeks before.
This was the first time volunteers from outside the church were brought in to help with VBS, according to Deborah McLaney, a Calvary Baptist member who helped with VBS this year and attended all four nights. She said the turnout was phenomenal.
“It was just amazing,” she said. “Thursday night (closing night of VBS), we had nine people join the church and nine were baptized — that night,” she said.
“There were several decisions for Christ made through the week of VBS,” McLaney said, noting that several joined Calvary and several joined neighboring St. Elizabeth Baptist Church, also a member of Geneva Association.
Burghoff said 28 salvation decisions resulted from Calvary’s VBS.
Calvary and St. Elizabeth churches sit in Geneva, an economically depressed south Alabama town where many people are not motivated to go anywhere, including church, Burghoff said.
“It was an association-wide ministry with everyone pulling together for a great impact on the area,” said Dicky McAllister, Geneva Association director of missions. “This year we felt the need was the greatest at Calvary.”
Burghoff agreed saying, “This is the very best of what I have seen of Alabama Baptists working together in unity, as we strive for healthy churches and leaders.”
While in the Geneva area the Fultondale volunteers helped with a morning VBS at St. Elizabeth Baptist and the evening VBS at Calvary Baptist and conducted a block party in nearby Samson, according to Craig Newton, Fultondale’s minister of youth. They also visited residents at a retirement home in the Geneva area and provided lawn care services in the community.
“What remained in my mind the most was my kids (youth at the church) could not have been more cooperative,” Newton said.
“Oftentimes I’d see them with their arm around someone, praying with them. It was so gratifying to see the excitement of doing real ministry on their faces,” he said.
Share with others: