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8,300 Students Attend VBS in Oklahoma
EDMOND, OK (August 26, 2004) - Life Church has emerged as the largest Covenant
congregation in North America and its children's program, LifeKIDS, has
had its own
growth spurt, thanks to a creative director and a congregation willing
to take extreme risks.
LifeKIDS hosted a recent vacation Bible school (VBS) experience that
took its children's ministry to a whole new level. From August 2-5, Life
Church ran a VBS program "Xtreme Days" on its Oklahoma City and Edmond
campuses. The program drew 8,300 students (ages 6 through fifth grade)
in all for eight sessions, said LifeKIDS pastor Scott Werner. About 600
volunteers helped make the event happen.
The LifeKIDS program recently celebrated the one-year anniversary since
introducing the community to a new multifaceted elementary school
children experience, Toon Town, and attendance has grown 83 percent
since its inception from over 1,000 kids per weekend to about 2,200 per
weekend.
Bible memory times, discipleship, and special events were part of each
day. "Xtreme Days" incorporated the concepts of extreme love, extreme
faith, and extreme life as part of the teaching time. The Oklahoma City
campus ran VBS programs in the mornings and the Edmond campus ran its
program at night.
Various special groups were also integrated into the program. Day one
had a car theme with awesome automobiles and daring drivers. Day two
involved bringing in exotic animals such as a 180-pound boa constrictor.
On day three, a BMX bicycle team did a
special show for the kids and the final day had a special motocross show
with nationally known Derek Cook giving a demonstration.
"I'm not an expert at children's ministry, but there's nothing in the
world I'd rather do than what I'm doing now," said Werner, who was in
real estate before serving in ministry. "What I've learned is that we've
got to look at ministry through the children's eyes. And we try very
hard to remember to look at children with the same importance as we do
with adults and the way God sees all of us. Many times in the past we
(churches in general) have made children's ministry subordinate to
teaching adults and we need to change
that."
Life Church was founded in 1997, merged with another congregation in
2001, and multiplied into two campuses shortly thereafter in Oklahoma
City and Edmond. The
church expanded its ministry to Tulsa (initial core development began
early in 2002) and Stillwater (September 2003) and the combined worship
attendance totals about 11,000 per weekend for 17 worship services.
Another Oklahoma City campus is expected to
begin worship in January.
For more information on Life Church's LifeKIDS programming and its
recent VBS event, call Werner at (405) 812-7924 or email him at:
pastorscott@lifechurch.tv.
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