Regarding Vacation Bible Camp

  • Thread starter Thread starter DiZent
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DiZent

Guest
I have been the VBC director at my parish for 7 years. Before that, I had volunteered - taking a week off work so that my grandchildren could attend. Then there was a change of personnel/leadership in the office & we didn’t have it for 3 years - I volunteered at 2 other parishes & did a “home school” version for my grandchildren during those years, then stepped up & volunteered to be the director and bring it back to my parish. We used Growing With the Saints - have purchased all 6 programs & recycled Vatican Express in 2019. We kept the registration fees low, with incentives (free t-shirt for early registration) & extras were extra, but free for children/grandchildren of volunteers. It has been successful, with modest growth - we usually had between 30-40 children attend, with 15-20 youth volunteers & 15-20 adult volunteers. Fast forward to another change in personnel/leadership at the office. Youth Minister took over the youth volunteers - was great in some ways, but chaotic in others. Overall, the feedback was very positive. Now, the Youth Minister wants to make changes. Some of the things she wants are very good - she will take over the registrations, money & incentives - but some of the other things she has proposed are not negotiable for me. She wants to use a different program - a Protestant one - says GWTS is too hard for the younger ones & the Protestant programs are “more fun” (They are fun & the Bible is a Catholic book - but you really have to look at what it teaches - does it teach OSAS, sola scirptura, sold fide - and they are NOT “more fun” than GWTS). And I have consistently held it the last week of July - now she may want to change the week. So I am being pushed aside. Part of me says OK, I have had my time, did a good job & now it is time to move on. But I would like to keep the GWTS program for 2020 & work together with her, then exit gracefully, without hurt feelings.
 
I am sorry about the hurt feelings.

I am the assistant DRE at at large parish where I am responsible for children’s ministries. We have a number of summer activities, including Vacation Bible School. I have been responsible for it for about 10 years. We present the Catholic version of one of the fun VBSes - though one year a team and I did write and execute our own program. We have about 75 kids attend, 50 youth volunteers and 20 adults. A few weeks later we offer a much “meatier” camp where the kids who attend complete the requirements for the entire year of faith formation. We have about 180 kids in this program with another 20 adults. I also coordinate the Children’s Liturgy of the Word at our 10am Sunday Mass.

We used to have a volunteer run the VBS. She quit when we would not give her a key to the building for a couple of weeks. A volunteer used to coordinate the CLotW. Parishes have to be very careful with who is coordinating their programs - especially with regards to children. The Pastor is responsible for the preparation of the children. It is usually easier for him to assign it to a staff person.

It sounds like you care very deeply about this. You do not list your qualifications, other than being a parishioner and a grandmother. My guess is that the YM has a theology degree. Perhaps a degree in Religious Education. We hired two new YMs recently and I am more than happy to turn the reigns of our VBS over to them.

Keep your chin up and give the new generation of church leaders your full support.
 
I can’t speak to the parish leadership dynamics or what level of control is appropriate for you to retain, but my parish uses a Protestant program carefully adapted to our particular needs, and it works very well. I don’t know what level of adjustment that requires, because I’m not involved in that, but I know we did a Catholic program for one year and then switched back to Protestant ones because they really were much more engaging for the kids.
I don’t think VBS generally tends to focus a lot on details of doctrine. Keep in mind that the Protestant ones are generally nondenominational, and so they themselves have to be careful of what they’re including if they want anyone to use them. The programs tend to focus mainly on broader Bible stories and themes of “Jesus loves you” and so on.
Some Catholic details my parish have added include doing a balloon rosary on the last day (the kids love that), teaching about saints and the Eucharist, and having a closing Mass. Since you have so much experience with Catholic programs, I’m sure you have many more ideas that you could incorporate as well!
 
It sounds like you care very deeply about this. You do not list your qualifications, other than being a parishioner and a grandmother. My guess is that the YM has a theology degree. Perhaps a degree in Religious Education. We hired two new YMs recently and I am more than happy to turn the reigns of our VBS over to them.
Click to expand...
My degree is in psychology & I am a catechist. I do care deeply & I would like a smooth transition
 
So, question. With “Growing With The Saints”, is it something you get to re-use every time at no additional cost? Or is there extra expense involved? ie, is there some degree of money being spent every year, regardless, or did you spend your money once, and now you can use it an infinite number of times for free?

I wonder if the YM is trying to get the Protestant version to mix things up. ie, if I’ve gone to VBC for four years in a row, and the theme/program is the same every year for both the students and the volunteers, I could understand wanting to have a little variety.

So, if someone is looking at spending extra $$$ on that variety, surely there’s an approval process before those funds are spent? How about trying to find two or three Catholic alternatives to offer?
 
Kitsa said:
I don’t think VBS generally tends to focus a lot on details of doctrine. Keep in mind that the Protestant ones are generally nondenominational, and so they themselves have to be careful of what they’re including if they want anyone to use them. The programs tend to focus mainly on broader Bible stories and themes of “Jesus loves you” and so on.
Click to expand...
We used the Catholic version of Group (through OSV) - for 2 years - they charged more for it & the Catholic stuff was “added on” - saint cards, & 5 Catholic songs on the CD - but none of that was actually in the program. The other 2 parishes used Gospel Light (through Liguouri) but they went out of business. That one was very adaptable to a Catholic setting. Now Ligouri uses Concordia - pretty much all of the Protestant programs are connected with Concordia in one way or another. I researched 3 Catholic programs - Cat Chat, K4J and Growing with the Saints. Cat Chat & K4J were OK, but GWTS was professionally done - 6 programs - All Aboard the Vatican Express, Assorted Saints & Virtues of Faith Hope & Love, Parade Around the Our Father, St. Patrick & the Holy Trinity, Parachute with the Angels, And Tracking Mary: Messages & Mysteries - my opinion was that GWTS was “a cut above” the average Protestant program - not as slickly packaged or marketed, but superior
 
We purchased all 6 GWTS programs & recycled Vatican Express (purchased in 2013). They were designed to be re-used, no extra items required to do the program - had templates & handouts included(Most programs have a starter kit but lots of additional items needed)- all items needed available at Oriental Trading, Hobby Lobby, etc- storybooks & Music CDs available every year for all 6 from their web store. And we have bins/boxes of supplies
 
The term ‘balloon rosary’ was new to me so I had to google it and was pretty shocked.

I can see that it would be exciting for the kids, but please, I beg you, do not let balloons loose! They can kill animals and disfigure the countryside. Is that really in accord with Laudato Si?
 
If you are talking about the Group VBS, they have a Catholic version of each year’s generic Protestant version.

We have done both Group Catholic VBS and GWTS.

When we did Group, we would have between 100 and 150 registrations. GWTS has 30-40. Group simply puts together a more attractive program. The Catholic version is excellent.
 
Not all of the Group/Concordia programs offer a Catholic version. I don’t know that we had 50+ registrations when we did Group, except for the year the church day care kids were invited to participate as part of their program for no extra charge. We did the Catholic version of Group VBS (2007-2008) - the Catholic parts were just “add-ons” - Saint cards & 5 Catholic songs on the CD - none of those songs were even used in the program. The snack was not staggered - everyone had snack at once - that was when you were supposed to do the “saint cards” - and it was chaotic - no one was listening. When we did Group we charged a lot more - like $50/child - though the T-shirt & CD were included. Group has a lot of extras you need to purchase - like Bible buddies, props, other special items. In 2009 , we did the generic Protestant version, no t-shirts & still charged $45/child. Also, while you can re-use Group VBS, the extras are only available for a year or 2 after the theme is launched. I agree that it is glossy & better marketed. Gospel Light much better than Group (too bad they are no longer offered) Did you use theme snacks? How did you incorporate the Catholic add-ons - that were not actually part of the program?
 
@DiZent
I am sorry you have this cross to bear. The new thinking is to attract more kids you can’t spend too much time at the deep end of the pool. I don’t agree. Do what you can but when it becomes clear you are not wanted, bow out the Lord will have something else for you to do.
 
Unless they have radically changed, the Catholicism was all through the program. One year I led the “Bible Lessons” area, there were Catechism quotations woven in to the lesson plan.

The Saint Cards were used when the session called for it.

Because of the enormous size of our program, everything was staggered including snacks and it worked like clockwork!

We were able to share big dollar set pieces from other churches in town (when we did not make them ourselves, my late husband was an amazing set designer/construction person). Oriental Trading Company always had great prices on companion pieces.

We also started far in advance allowing all of the parish to be part by donating craft items and food, even big items like a boat one year and tarps, parishioners were happy to help! We listed the items and people picked the tag they wanted to fill.
 
I called OSV & talked to their VBS representative. It has changed since the last time we used it. OSV rewrites the leader’s guides and the Catholicism is woven in as you mentioned. They no longer add extra Catholic songs - nothing wrong with the songs they used, but why add Catholic songs & then not even use them. I still have a problem with using the same theme as everyone else - when we charge a fee & the Protestant church down the road does theirs free. During the 7 years I did it, our program was fully self-supporting - the parish did not provide any funds & the donations of craft & snack supplies kept the registration fee low. So I am open to using OSV/Group- Catholic version
 
Yeah, I was going to mention OSV. Now that they have gotten into the game, that’s probably the one that’s most similar in terms of the glossy aesthetic of the major Protestsnt ones.

And I love Growing with the Saints, but it’s a much smaller scale production, so it can’t compete with the slick marketing of the larger operations.

Thankfully, my diocese has Totus Tuus, which is a lot less work for me. 🙂 My parish used to use the Group materials, but would modify it very heavily to make it thoroughly Catholic. It was huge and elaborate and required about 150 volunteers. I’m not super sad to see those days in the rearview mirror. 😜
 
GWTS does need to hire a graphic artist to bring their materials up to date.
 
The exact same VBS program was offered at my Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church down the street which was free. My parish charged me and I volunteered. They just said that is what they do.
 
So, I am looking at Rocky Railway (2020 theme from OSV/Group). The Station Rotation does show everyone at Chew Chew Snack at the same time (which is chaotic). Also, I did not see a craft station at all. Did you have crafts?
 
We have not done anything other than GWTS for 3 years, and I stopped volunteering when they switched to GWTS because I could not get excited about it.

No idea what Group has in the package, sorry.

ETA Back when we did Group, we had an art teacher and a crew of teens who ran the crafts station.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top