RSS Add-Me
Took Max to VBS tonight
It's the first day of five. On the whole, I think he liked it. He got to do a lot of age appropriate stuff - playing with a parachute and blowing bubbles, doing crafts, coloring, having snacks, hearing stories, etc., etc. I had to promise that I'd be there the whole time. He's never really been in this kind of setting before since our church doesn't have a nursery or Sunday school class for him and he's never been to daycare. But I made sure I was off to the side and that he had to interact with the kids and ask the teacher if he needed or wanted something: the point being that he had to get comfortable so that later in the week he didn't need me there.
He did well. He really did. And I have to give the VBS people credit. This is a lot of work, and they do it for love. The program we're attending is well organized, and the teachers they've got are friendly and good with kids.
I personally don't have amazing memories of Vacation Bible School. We went several times and to church camp and such like. VBS is essentially a mission to the youth, which is a fine enough goal, but which has the result of presenting only the bare bones of the Christian message - Jesus loves you, Give your heart to Jesus, Obey God. I had to sit through some excruciating praise choruses tonight, too, with lyrics like:
If the storms of life start to get you down,
And the waves of fear come crashin' round,
Don't give worry a place inside,
Just plunge right into Jesus Christ!
Jesus as water park, that's some metaphor. Personally, I hate the synthesis of pop culture and Christianity. Cheese it up, make it accessible, palatable so that more people will gravitate to it. Ack.
Religion is like anything else. If it requires nothing of you, it's valueless. It shouldn't be "popular" culture. It's not popular. It's the opposite of popular. You shouldn't fit in. True Christianity should inspire you to buck the tide, to be more loving, more compassionate, more honest and giving than what popular culture deems acceptable. The truly spiritual have no interest in commercialism and product or trend-setting. Christian-brand capitalism honestly makes my stomach turn. This should be philosophically oxymoronic, but it in America, somehow, it isn't. Double ack.
[Rant over]
So why am I taking Max? Well, because he just doesn't get any age appropriate worship at our church, and I can appreciate what these VBS people are doing even if the theme package they purchased is insipid. They are really trying (and mostly succeeding), which is more than I can say for our church. And, secondly, I'm using this as a trial run for pre-school in the fall. I'm hoping to ease him into the idea, since he usually takes his time getting acclimated to new stuff like this. If he likes this, I can say, "Well, this is what preschool is like. Won't it be fun to go in September?" For those two reasons, I think it's worth it to sit through some moronic praise choruses (with accompanying hand motions), no matter how goofy and fake they make me feel.