Reusing VBS curriculum? Who DOES That??
This year, I am trying something different in our own church, and I thought I would pass the idea your way… When I choose a VBS program, I typically head right to the same publisher I have used for many years. After all, I like how the program is laid out and it requires very little “tweaking” to suit our environment. This year, however, was different. I couldn’t figure out why I was dragging my heals, taking months to make the curriculum decision, when it usually only takes one quick click of the mouse. To be honest, nothing new was jumping out at me! I found myself comparing all the new versions to a VBS we did several years ago.
After a discussion about this with a wise elder, (don’t tell my Dad I called him wise, okay?) he suggested the idea of going back to that “old and used” curriculum and running that VBS program again. WHAT??? I was shocked!! “NO ONE reuses curriculum”, I said. It simply isn’t done. Children’s Ministries is always about the latest, most current stuff, right? How could I be known as THAT CM Pastor who reused a VBS program?
Here’s where it gets worse – the more I thought about it, the more I got excited about the idea. Our age spread for our VBS programs is 4 years – grade 6, and since we did this program 5+ years ago, it would be new and fresh to most every child.
Lesson learned – when choosing curriculum or programming, don’t be afraid to dig out what has worked in the past. While I firmly believe that we in CM have a responsibility to stay current and offer our kids the most relevant teaching available, this doesn’t mean we should settle for what’s new and available today, all the while wishing it had the allure of yesterday’s material. Be willing to take what has worked and excited kids in the past, and incorporate it with today’s kids’ language. We don’t change WHAT we teach, but we MUST change HOW we teach it.
